Sounds like there may be a trend now for talk shows to talk badly about open relationships and bring in experts with dubious experience. Recently, Oprah did a similar show on polyamory (refusing to call it such!) and bringing in an expert who was apparently incompetent.
This is the account of one person who appeared on that show:
The whole experience was crazy and hard and there was a lot they apparently didn't show (according to friends' reports). I haven't watched it yet, mostly because it's too painful; my boyfriend of over a year suddenly broke up with me a week ago (issues totally unrelated to Oprah), and I've spent the last week seeing (and am continuing to see) the world through very tired, wet and blurry eyes. Timing? RATHER LESS THAN SPIFFY.
Between the completely crumbled-up heart I'm still picking up pieces of, coming out to friends and family (reactions varied from "whatever" to "your life is appalling"), coming out to our very small town, my co-workers (I'm about to start working in a very small massage clinic), and it being my last week of school and dealing with finals, etc; I didn't want to talk about it before it aired. But, tomorrow is my last day of school, and I've got a little more time, and I'm happy to field questions if anyone has them.
Like other people, I found the "expert" horrifying. We hadn't met her before the show and had no idea what questions or commentary she would be providing, and I was so shocked by how stupid her comments were, just so totally misinformed and obviously based on zero experience, that I just couldn't think how to respond. What "research" was she going on? She clearly knew nothing, yet she just kept talking. I was flabbergasted.
To answer the most obvious; why didn't they call us poly? Well, they didn't want to. They felt that "poly" was a whole can of worms they could devote an entire show to (I guess they might at some point, I'm not sure), and they didn't want to get into it on the show.