Gore Vidal — you do remember him, surely — once said that one should never miss an opportunity to have sex or appear on television. Combine the two, though, and problems may arise: Just ask two former “Good Morning America” hosts, T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach, who, according to multiple reports, have been assiduously pitching a new show to networks and media companies but as yet to no avail.

Earlier this year, ABC News gave Mr. Holmes and Ms. Robach severance packages after a high-profile affair torpedoed their tenure at the network. Mr. Holmes had been working there since 2014 and Ms. Robach since two years prior, which adds up to a lot of air time in an industry infamous for its churn. 

Given what the New York Post called the pair’s “high-flying lifestyles and messy, public divorces,” the push to get back into a studio — maybe any studio — barely two months after their ignominious ouster is hardly a surprise. 

Yet to judge from various reports, they are not having much success. One source told the Post that the couple “think they are Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,” but opined that “nobody is going to watch them” because “America does not like adulterers.”

Things are a little different over in France, where “The Scarlet Letter” might be interpreted by many as less stigma than fashion statement. Consider that in the country of l’amour, French presidents are expected to have mistresses; it is seen as odd if they don’t (see Macron, Emmanuel). As the New York Times’s Elaine Sciolino once asked, “Did President Jacques Chirac have a child with a Japanese mistress? Did President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing really have as many mistresses as the salons of Paris claimed?”

The answer is more often than not an unrepentant oui: just add a Gallic shrug, a piping hot croque monsieur at the Café de Flore, and be on your way. One outwardly prim president, François Mitterrand, took things to another level, remaining loyal to his wife Danielle while fathering a daughter out of wedlock.  

As for French newsrooms, take it from someone who has worked in a few: Amorous dramas away from the bright lights’ glare are quotidian events there. Moreover, the higher the profile of the lovebirds concerned, the fewer the feathers that are generally ruffled. At one French-run network in a distant land, American staffers were baffled when one day an actual red carpet was rolled out for the visiting girlfriend of a former president, François Hollande. Unperturbed, the French staffers mainly drank coffee and smoked cigarettes.

All that may seem contradictory for heirs of a Puritan culture like ours, but it is second nature for the French, who would rather vent their frustrations on more serious things than sex — like having to work for two more years before retirement because their elected but headstrong leader is acting more like a king than is palatable for many. 

Extramarital affairs in France are nothing to apologize for, nor have Ms. Robach and  Mr. Holmes apologized for theirs, which is why if they speak a passing French and can secure the necessary work permits, they may want to skip their domestic pitch blitz and catch the next flight to Paris, assuming the airport workers haven’t gone on strike again.

On these shores expect the cold shoulder to continue, which is less paradoxical than hypocritical. ABC is the network where, after all, a reporter can have a cocaine-induced on-air panic attack and retain his employment. But an off-screen romance between two consenting adults? Cue the clutched pearls and head for the hills. 

Yet there had to be more to the “GMA” co-hosts’ swift dismissal and present professional dire straits than reflexive and rather reductive puritanical indignation, right? An affair is one thing, but in this case Mr. Holmes also faced allegations of at least one prior affair with a junior ABC staffer. That raises the specter of sexual misconduct, which in the age of #MeToo is third-rail territory for any company.

Yet America loves tales of redemption, and this saga has the ingredients for one, so it is curious that Mr. Holmes and Ms. Robach have not seized upon that particular opportunity. 

Beyond that, though, does America really need another talk show? Do people in key demographic groups still actually watch television? The pair have reportedly been trying to capitalize on their on-air chemistry, but there is likely no putting the genie back into that particular bottle, either. Just ask Megyn Kelly.