tonight on "nightline," foreplay or chore-play? meet the young couples taking an extreme marriage therapy challenge. find out what they learn about reigniting the romance with some tenderness, house work and well intentioned misfires. mark the shark. she's a self-made billionaire who roms without an entourage and thinks the 1% should pay more taxes. how this screaming fan became a rebel owner and built an nba champion. what it's like to hang with mark cuban. >> oh! and, purple haze. a top she all-star dishes about

hi lifz and love of cooking and shares his recipe for the best homemade violet ice cream you'll ever taes. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," may 4th, 2012. >> good evening, happy friday, i am bill weir. for couples that have lost that loving feeling, how is this for a rehab strategy? a prescription for seven straight days of getting busy. no malter how busy they get. it's meant to be a radical solution. can a healthy sex lichl really be the cure-all for an unhappy marriage, or, for these couples, is the missing piece of the puzzle something a lot less sexy? here's abc's juju chang. >> you're right. this time we are fighting. >> you can't be putting anything on this pot. look what happens. >> reporter: for these couples, marriage once always a battlefield.

>> just do it yourself, please. >> reporter: once upon a time, anna and anthony were madly in love. >> like everything new, it is always good. >> reporter: for chantal and derek, it's been ten years. >> it was love and first sight and the courtship was good. >> oh, we were on fire. >> first of all, made it work in the beginning, we had no children. >> reporter: and if it's not the kids, maybe it's money or a lack of libido that is on the lawn drip list of reasons why a marriage may begin to unravel. >> there's been times where we've had some heated arguments where she would bring up, like, you know -- >> i threaten the d-word a few times. republican as in divorce. one study says that 15% to 20% of couples describe their union as sexless, which a lot of therapists believe contributes to american divorce rates, hovering around 50%.

can sex save a marriage? >> one of the things research items us that particularly happy couples report they have more than usual amounts of sex. >> reporter: terry real has con selled couples for 30 years. if the sex goes bad, it's a warning sign? >> one of the things i say, people tend to do in the bedroom what they do in every room. >> if you are arguing -- >> you're not having it. >> reporter: this family has been in and out of couples therapy for years. >> i think i need a nap before. >> are you serious? >> no, but you would be like, no, we haven't had sex in awhile. i'm like -- >> longer than a month. >> had to be last week. >> yeah, well -- it's definitely longer than a month. >> reporter: so, with tensions boichling over, these clashing couple agree to try something new and radical. a kind of couples therapy challenge. agreeing to have sex every day for seven days in a row. to see if rekind ming the flame could be the key to saving their

marriage. if it sounds like a reality show, well, it is. >> once or twice a month, if we're lucky. >> sex. >> get it going. >> reporter: "seven days of sex" on lifetime follows couples that agree to put cameras in the bedroom. >> i don't keep track. >> it's not often enough. >> reporter: they learn all kinds of interesting things. wooing your wife is not as easy as wooing is new girlfriend. >> come on, sweetheart. what can i do for you? >> you can start by giving me a ten-minute break. >> get out right now. >> reporter: chantal complains of being exhausted, taking care of three kids full time. >> i know, life is hard. i don't think he understands how serious that is for me. no more for you. your time is up. >> reporter: so, derek volunteers to become mr. mom for a day, to really see what her life is like. >> i want mommy! >> i know you do, but we are going to have fun, okay? >> reporter: was it eye-opening for you? >> yeah, because everybody had

different needs. >> reporter: you learned to appreciate what you wife does? >> definitely. >> reporter: which brings us to although lesson. what do women really want? as aretha told us long ago, romance is not good without -- >> here's to us, sweetheart. i love you. >> love you more. >> i've been thinking that maybe, like, we should go out? >> reporter: why is it important that he became daddy for a day? >> so he could get a sense of what in the world this is all about, a role reversal. i think that's the most romantic thing that probably happened between the two of them. >> get busy, go ahead. >> reporter: and it's not jest seven days of sex. it's seven days of courtship. >> i mean, like, send flowers during the day or write a beautiful card. >> if you are around each other all the time it kind of, like, what do i say in this letter that -- >> how about just i love you? how about that? i love you. you know, that would work. >> reporter: something else the couples learned? while men may want foreplay, it

turns out women fan that size about chore play. >> reporter: it it's amazing how many people's sex lives are ruined by dirty socks. >> it's a trigger. i'm not the maid. don't treatment me like the maid. >> reporter: and if the women want them to pick it up, the men want their wiveses to spice it up. so, chantal hires a lap dancing coach. these people are really trying. >> hey, i can do this, i can do that. >> there is something about reawakening their lover-hood, their sense of being lovers together, which reminds people what they're doing there. >> reporter: the couples' feature is still unclear. but love, it seems, may have been there all along. it's just a matter of finding it again. for "nightline," i'm juju chang in burbank, california. >> and "seven days of sex" airs thursdays on lifetime. thanks to juju. and just ahead, the hoops fan who got fabulously rich, bought the losing team and built them into nba champs.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> until dirk nowitzki does a turn on "dancing with the stars," the dallas mavericks may remain the only professional sports franchise with an owner more famous than any of its players. one reason is that mark cuban has his tentacles into almost every form of american media. in front of the camera and behind. but what resonateses further is that he started as a beer chugging ref heckling fan, made a boat load of money and then bought his favorite team. but what's he really like, you wonder? well, i went to big "d" to find out in our series, "on the town."

wow. billionaires. they're just like us. they play pickup basketball. work out on stair steppers. answer their own e-mails. they drive themselves to hamburger joints. oh, yeah. always order the same lunch. >>. i get buffalo burger in a bowl. >> reporter: they talk with their mouments full and latch generously at stupid jokes. oh. and they love writing checks to the government. >> am i happy to pay taxes, yes. >> reporter: scratch that. that's stupid. billionaires aren't really like us. what i should have said is, mark cuban is nothing like most billionaires. which may be why he's no longer considered just a lucky loud mouth who bought the lowly dallas mavericks. >> mark cuban! >> reporter: a dozen years after that purchase, his team is the defending nba champion. he did shots on "dancing with the stars," "entourage." >> i saw what you posted on vince's twitter account, dude. >> reporter: all while running a

media and tech empire. some people need attention. others need money. cuban says the only thing he's ever needed is the thrill of the deal. what kind of kid were you? >> i was the fat kid, always into sports. you know, pretty smart. >> reporter: schemer? were you looking to turn a buck? >> oh, yeah. from selling garbage bags to packaging baseball cards and reselling them down in the park. when i was 11, i told my dad, i could go off and live on my own right now. >> reporter: he dropped out of high school to take college courses and later snuck into graduate-level business courses as a freshman. he started a computer integration company and bluffed his way to success. >> the funny part is, i didn't really have a technology background. i had to teach myself. >> reporter: you sold that company for, what? 6 million bucks? how old were you? >> i was 29. it was great. i was a kid. i bought a lifetime pass on american airlines, could party

like a mad man. i told people i was unemployed, i went around, i was a freak, you know? that's the only way to put it. >> reporter: but the real money came when he decided college basketball fans might like to listen to games over the internet. in 1999, he sold broadcast.com to yahoo for nearly $6 billion. >> by far, the day's biggest winner was broadcast.com. >> reporter: did it feel any different? did it feel that much greater? >> what do you think? hell yes, it did. >> reporter: at what point did it occur to you, i want to own a franchise? >> i'd always been a season ticket holder from the mavs, right when weapon draft jade son kidd. i'm looking around, i'm like, there's nobody here. i thought, i can do better than this. i'm like, ding, ding, ding, i can put my money where my mouth is. >> reporter: and in the beginning, his mouth got more headlines than his players. how much have you been fined? >> i don't know. >> reporter: over a million?

>> yeah. i don't think $2 million yet. give me a year or two. >> reporter: what's your pregame? >> i can't tell you. >> reporter: cuban has mellowed noticeably over the years. but to watch a game with him is to see fan zeile pegged at 11. my wife is over there. she won't sit next to me. >> reporter: why not? >> because i'm too loud. too crazy. >> reporter: he is laser focused on every dribble. and during time-outs, he often commands what gets played on the scoreboard. that passion has wrangled both rival and fellow owners, including ross perot jr., the man who sold him the team. why did your co-owner sue you? >> in my opinion? the guy's just a jerk. jerks do things that jerks do. that's the only way to explain it. >> reporter: he claimed that you were running the team into the ground, that you were insolvent. you sent the judge a picture of dirk holding the trophy for the

championship and dismissed the case. >> right. >> reporter: was there any truth? >> we were losing money but it wasn't like i had ever hid the fact that we were going to try to win first, make money second. >> reporter: when do you turn a pro fit now that you've won? >> hopefully this year, next year. i don't know. >> reporter: if his role on "shark tank" is any indication, winning and profits are a shifting priority. are you really putting your own money out there? >> oh, yeah. people want to get on the show, be on tv for the promotional value, they push down evaluations of their companies considerably. they are great deals. how many much do you have in this? >> $250,000. >> reporter: what's the biggest mistake they make? >> preparation. this is going to be your life. this is going to be your passion. you better know it better than anybody. if you are willing to take that chance, knowing if you fail, every no gets you closer to a yes. you can fail 1,000 times, all you have to do is be right once. >> reporter: free advice from a

guy with 2.3 billion reasons to believe him. and a pretty good jumper for an owner. oh! >> reporte one more, you are going to have to ask yourself for a raise. >> and you know the smartest thing i could do? quit while i'm ahead. >> reporter: i'll let you. he actually requested a copy of that video. and he also thinks his fellow billionaires could pay a lot more in taxes these days. you can hear him explain why on abcnews.com. the mavs need a miracle if they are going to repeat. coming up next, the top chef master who is turning everyone's favorite frozen dessert purple. right now, there are more than twenty brands of cars being sold in america. so let's say you were starting with all new cars. what would you have to do to stand out? you would have to go further. with plug-ins that are projected to take you over 100 mpge.

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so, how does a kid who grew up pulling the foil back on tv dinners, a kid who got his first job at mcdonald's grow into a culinary superstar?

well, if you are richard blais, you study under the best, keep your sense of humor and come up with stuff like nitrogen violent ice cre violet ice cream, for our series, "plate list." >> i kind of grew up in that, you know, the beginning of, like, convenience food. microwave. it was frozen food and canned food. so, the dish we're going to do is a salisbury steak. something that i grew up on. very iconic american tv dinner. we are using an ingredient that is an enzyme and we glued a rack of lamb bones to, basically, our ground beef. this is franken-food. on the stove i have a little bit of cauliflower. we have beautiful pickled ramps.

and some mushroom pure rae. my first job was at a mcdonald's. i was the fish cook. and the first batch of fillet of fish i sent out, i forgot to put the top on. this has been already cooked for about an hour. it's cooked already. we can rest that just a little bit. we have our mushroom puree. ramps nice and brown. this is like home cooking. minus the frannkfranken-food an it. this is my version of a tv dinner. i think great food is about great ingredients, cooking them well, technique and making delicious food. at home, that comes out all the time. i just cook very simply. there aren't too many liquid nitrogen ice cream bars at my

house. every once in awhile. for guests. i really prefer new york city nitrogen, actually. all right, so, we're back from outside harvesting our liquid ni nitrogen. this is violet petals, sugar and milk. don't quote me on the temperature. i think minus 367 defree grees fahrenheit. because it is so cold, you don't want to touch it with your hand. i'm a trained professional. don't do this at home. it is also really not good to use for hair product. so many great parts about being a chef. to me, it's one the constant education. like, i'm learning something every day. because i love it. i don't really feel like i have a job. i just wake up and it's like the ultimate lifestyle job. equal parts ice cream base to

nitrogen. when it's done, you can feel it. i kind of feel the tension of the ice cream on my whisk right now. top it with what you want and it's an ice cream sundae. my ultimate dinner party would be darth vader, jackson pollack and willy konica. i'd cook, they can just hang out. you have to be careful serving vader. could be all over just like that if it's not good. the ultimate critic. >> thank you to richard blais. jimmy kimmel is m coing up. "gma" in the morning. but before we go, those of us in the early mtv generation want to end with a sad tribute tonight. i tell remember not understanding why mom was crying the day elvis died. today, i understand because adam yauch, founding member and the zen center of the beastie boys were taken today at the age of 47 from cancer. the try owe matured into mindful activists and brilliant