Californication, Big Brother, the Search for the Next Pussycat Doll, the dysfunctional Simpsons – is Channel Ten trying to carve out a reputation as the trash television of the modern era.

Its latest offering, Californication, is being promoted for its shock value, with serious helpings of sex, nudity, drug taking and vomiting thrown in for good measure.

Already, church leaders have called for a boycott of advertisers helping prop up the series – publicity which is guaranteed to help the show's ratings.

Holden and Holeproof confirmed they pulled advertisements from the show after Channel 10 aired the first episode, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported this week.

Representatives for both advertisers said they made the decision after receiving customer complaints.

Californication’s star, David Duchovny, says he is tired of the sex talk, and is concerned the show is being promoted as some sort of racy series.

Perhaps he should talk to the marketing people from Ten about that.

Well before it was launched, they were hell-bent on promoting the sleaze factor, ensuring the show was likely to receive about as much publicity as Big Brother's famous turkey-slap incident last year.

While the Simpsons is certainly not in the same league as Big Brother and this latest US cable offering, on the moral front, it's message is usually about as uplifting.

Homer as a dad is a fool, his kids have no respect for him and you get the clear impression even from a casual viewing that beer-swilling blokes who are morons are the norm.

Californication takes us to new lows, promoting the idea of a guy in mid-life crisis who can bed as many women as he likes, including girls young enough to be his daughters.

In an interview in the US, Duchovny says: "I hope people and the press don't judge the show superficially and morally – that it's a show about a sex addict, all these tags you try to put on it because it might outrage somebody.

"It's a comedy. It's an adult comedy,'' he says.

It may be an adult comedy, but there are few people in church circles laughing, especially after it opened with a “dream” scene where a nun performed oral sex on the star. "Sweet baby Jesus, Hank is going to hell,'' the star says. He's right there.

Catholic priest Father John Fongemie led a candlelight vigil with 40 parishioners outside Ten's Sydney studio during Monday's episode.

No doubt there will be plenty of Coast Christians wanting to punish Ten in a similar way. Perhaps we should give Ten the flick for a few weeks until it lifts its standards.

Or doesn't anyone care about what is being dished up on television these days. I'm sure will get the same old arguments – it's free choice; you don't have to watch it.

What annoys me, however, is that the more trash television is served up, the fewer choices the rest of us have for something half decent – whether it be good, clean comedy, exciting drama, or just something that might actually improve our intelligence a little.

I suppose we'll have to rely on the ABC for that.

— MARK FURLER

Sexy or sinful? What's your view of Californication and the other shows being served up by Channel 10?