Love Laid Bare: The Rise in Naked Dating Shows

In my first year of university, we decided to initiate our two Australian flatmates by introducing them to the pinnacle of British television: Naked Attraction. Needless to say, they were in both parts horrified and intrigued, and asked how it had even got the green light to be aired. We binged several episodes and stayed up until 2am watching it.

But how have naked dating shows become so popular? Traditionally, it’s not what you would expect to emerge from British telly. We’re well known for being extremely awkward and euphemistic when it comes to nakedness and sex on screen, especially compared to our American counterparts. And yet Channel 4's Naked Attraction has almost doubled slot average as it grew its audience with 1.7m viewers. Parrot Analytics found that the audience demand for Dating Naked (UK) was 5.1 times the demand of the average TV series in the United Kingdom. Whatever is drawing viewers to this new genre of British television, it’s clearly working.

A large part of it is the thrill of the taboo, of course. There’s something absurdly interesting about watching contestants strip or compete whilst naked, even if it equally disgusts us to watch. It’s like watching 50 Shades of Gray or 365 Days; there’s awful innuendos and awkward scripting, but the embarrassment and ridiculosity is enough for us to keep watching. The novelty of watching something that you shouldn’t be is thrilling and can become a guilty pleasure. Knowing that some people’s love lives are going so badly that they sign up to these shows doesn’t hurt either. 

But perhaps there’s also something empowering about watching normal people bare their bodies on screen. Watching people with different body types, genders, skin colours and sexualities can feel validating, especially as naked dating shows address many topics that would feel embarrassing to discuss in public. Instead of the perfect, airbrushed actors we see in mainstream media, these shows show us the imperfect, flawed, normal bodies that we are used to seeing in the mirror. Although the shows are primarily screened for amusement and intrigue, there’s something reassuring about seeing normalcy on screen for once. 

So is it daring or degrading for naked dating shows to rise in popularity? That’s up for debate, but as long as viewers keep tuning in, it doesn’t seem like there’ll be any stopping this series of new sexually-explicit shows. Just maybe wait until your parents have gone to bed before watching it.