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Naked News, billing itself as "the program with nothing to hide", is a subscription website featuring a real television newscast prepared in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The male and female anchors read the news fully nude or strip as they present their news segments.
Naked News originally took its idea from a concept developed in Russia, as a means of increasing viewership to their thought-by-many-to-be-highly-edited news. It has since increased in popularity and appears in parts of Australia, among other places. In the interest of fairness a male member was added to the original female cast, though there are currently more female than male anchors. The female announcers have been featured in Playboy magazine and as guests on the Howard Stern radio show.
Most of the show's announcers have been recruited through classified ads in alternative newspapers in Toronto. As such, most of the show's crew comes from the Toronto area. In addition to frequent guest announcers, there have been numerous changes in the show's cast.
Regardless of the gender of the anchor, the male demographic is particularly high for the show. One of the male co-anchors, Joshua, recently announced he was gay in the pages of The Advocate magazine. The male show now openly promotes itself as news from a gay perspective.
Naked News has also aired as a late-night television series on the Toronto television station Citytv, and on British satellite channel Get Lucky TV.
Opinions of Naked News
Naked News has earned some praise from established journalists for its coverage of international news items not often covered in mainstream news media. Victoria Sinclair, the first NN announcer and the only one with journalism experience, has also received some praise for her newsreading ability.
Most opinions on Naked News from mainstream media have been overwhelmingly negative. Critics charge that the nudity is little more than a gimmick that trivializes important news events. Sinclair herself has questioned the appropriateness of stripping while reading of tragic events. She did not undress when she read the news of the death of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and no broadcast was prepared for September 11, 2001. Later that month, Sinclair resigned. She returned to the show in November 2002.
Cast
Since the show's inception in 1999, there has been much turnover among the newscasters, most if not all of whom use a pseudonym.
Among the longest running anchors are:
- Victoria Sinclair (the first NN reporter, she originally performed solo before additional news anchors were added)
- Diane Foster
- Holly Weston (who was pregnant while on the show)
- Carmen Russo (at age 42, the oldest cast member)
- Devon Calwell (at age 19, the youngest cast member)
- Ashley Jenning (from Australia)
- Erin Sherbrooke (sports reporter)
- Athena King - a.k.a. "Athena the Greek"
- Roxanne West
- Allyson Jones
- Sandrine Renard
- Lily Kwan (originally from Hong Kong)
- Michelle Pantoliano (from New York City)
- Lucas Tyler (the first male anchor of the show)
- Raoul Santos
- Derek Shaw
Imitators
The initial success of the show's concept spawned several imitators, mostly on the websites, but also including "The Daily Flash", a news program on Playboy TV.
Among the imitators on the internet:
- www.strip-news.de, a now-defunct German language webcast with both male and female announcers.
- Radio Tango (http://www.radiotango.no/) - Oslo, Norway radio streaders on their website.
- "Comedie" (http://www.comedie.com/deconne/stripdeconne.htm) - This French cable TV network ran a series promos featuring males and females casually undressing as they read jokes. CAUTION: Adult Content
External link
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