Canadian sex educator Johanson ending TV call-in show

Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson is ending her six-season run on Sunday night's Talk Sex.

The final episode of weekly straight talk from Johanson will air Sunday at midnight on Oxygen TV.

Johanson, 77, said she has come to recognize that 1 a.m. (the time the show ended) is not her finest hour.

"I have been on television for 32 years," she said. "I think it's time. I figured if we haven't got it by now, we're not going to get it. We've got to make room for somebody else."

The call-in show grew out of a radio program on Toronto's youth-oriented Q107 that began in 1984.

Johanson, who trained as a nurse in Winnipeg, opened a ground-breaking birth control clinic in a Toronto high school in 1972 and was a popular public speaker before becoming a media personality.

Her first TV show was on Rogers Cable in 1985, and in 1996 it became a national show on Women's Television Network. Oxygen re-ran those recorded shows in the U.S. in 2002, when it signed Johanson to the Sunday evening call-in.

Many callers found they were comfortable speaking to the Toronto-based nurse, who dispensed both practical and playful advice.

Oxygen said Talk Sex was its most popular late-night show and it had a large following among young viewers.

Johanson said she was not pushed out by the network and praised Oxygen for giving her free rein to speak frankly about everything from sexually transmitted diseases to sex toys.

"I'm going to miss it terribly," Johanson said. "It's been part of my life and I just love it. I'm going to miss writing scripts. I'm going to miss having to read books. I'm going to miss playing with sex toys."

She said she will not retire fully and will continue with her public appearances.

Her final show will count down the year's top 10 sex toys.