What do women watch on TV when they are alone?

Men sometimes wonder what TV shows women like to watch when their time is their own and there’s no one around trying to take away the remote. 

It all seems very mysterious to them. The fact is, we’d need pages to answer the question, because there is so much programming available today that specifically targets women and it is as diverse as the women who are watching.

Among the leading ­networks women love are Oxygen, Lifetime, Lifetime Movies and Real Women.  Others, like TruTV, appeal to a wider audience, but have a predominantly ­female audience. 

In the meantime, here are just a few selections of what’s hot on Oxygen right now: Bad Girls’ Club — Tuesdays at 10pm on ­Oxygen. This wildly popular reality series just launched its fifth season on August 3.

Filming in Miami, Florida this year, the series ­follows a group of seven women living together for four months, each with ­various behavioural and/or psychological issues (hence the “bad girl’ designation).  The cameras are rolling in their posh Miami digs as they live out their relationships and try to achieve key personal goals. Since each is a diva in her own way, things get quite heated at times. Right now, six of them are trying to kick the seventh one out and she’s not going without a fight.

Dance Your A** Off — Mondays at 11pm. In this series, the contestants have all set weight-loss goals for themselves and are dancing their way to an ideal size by participating in this fast-paced competition. 

At this writing, the show is down to the final four dancers, now being treated like Hollywood stars, while the group’s collective weight loss has topped 430 lbs. They may be big, but they can really get down.  The series has its own web site, of course: http://dyao.oxygen.com.

Then there’s the brand new Hair Battle Spectacular, Tuesdays at 11pm on Oxygen. The series just premiered on August 10. I don’t know if everyone laughed as hard as I did when they saw this trailer on the Oxygen web site last week:  “The contestants are put to the test when they have to create outrageous hair styles that must hold ­liquid.” Fantasy hair ­competition — which has actually been around for decades — is all about pushing the limits of traditional hairstyling.  It can include all kinds of props, clothing, ornaments, and who-knows-what-else.

Each week this series will pit contestants against each other to create a total look in a very short amount of time. Perhaps Lady Gaga will be inspired by some of the creations.

Not surprisingly, Oxygen also found that 18-34-year-old female viewers love to multi-task while watching television. So the network has created an online destination called Oxygen Live (at www.Oxygen.com), where they can chat, post comments, Tweet and interact live with Oxygen stars and other fans. 

The site also has crazy stuff like the free ­Hormone-O-Scope, a mood predictor application you can download for your desktop, FaceBook or iPhone.

So ladies, next time you’re ready to kick back and enjoy some quality time with that bag of cookies, try Oxygen… and don’t feel guilty about a thing.