Naked News
Encyclopedia
Naked News, billing itself as "the program with nothing to hide", is a subscription website
featuring a real television
newscast. The show is prepared in Toronto
and runs daily, with 25-minute episodes 6 days per week. The female anchors read the news fully nude or strip
as they present their news segments. Naked News TV is its offshoot pay-per-view
or subscription service. The male version ceased production on 31 October 2007.
Naked News also aired briefly as a late night television series on Citytv Toronto
.
briefly showed episodes of Naked News, while Playboy One
, a free-to-view channel in the UK, currently broadcasts the show at 9:30pm Mondays-Fridays.
A male version of the show was created in 2001 to parallel the female version, but has ceased production as it did not enjoy the female version's popularity and fame. Although it was originally targeted towards female viewers (at one point said to be 30% of the website's audience), the male show later promoted itself as news from a gay perspective.
's Topfree equality laws. Since the show's inception in 2000, there has been much turnover among the newscasters, and many guest anchors. The female announcers have been featured in almost every medium including television (CBS Sunday Morning, The Today Show, The View, Sally Jessy Raphaël
, and numerous appearances on Entertainment Tonight
and ET Insider
) newspapers and magazines, (TV Guide
, Playboy
) and as guests on multiple radio
shows including Howard Stern
.
, in which Terry Jones
began performing a striptease while giving a fast-paced rundown of economic news.
In the late 1990s, British cable television channel L!VE TV
broadcast Tiffany's Big City Tips, in which model Tiffany Banister gave the financial news while stripping to her underwear.
Among the imitators on the internet:
A very similar phenomenon by the name "Noodie News" appears in Canadian Margaret Atwood
's 2003 novel Oryx and Crake
.
Počasíčko (diminutive of "weather") was Czech
TV Nova's past-10PM featurette launched in January 1998 where a nude woman (or occasionally, a man) got dressed in clothing appropriate for the next day's weather forecast. This was discontinued after several years and returned as web-only in February 2007. When Nova launched a new online portal in May 2008, it included a "Red News" section causing controversy; asked about the Naked News, they denied securing license and stressed Počasíčko's primacy.
In June 2009 Naked News Korea was launched. It featured a similar format to the Canadian version but with less nudity.
In March 2010, students at Cambridge University presented a news segment on Cambridge University Television in the nude.
French spoof news site Les graves infos (Serious News) was launched in mid-2009 with a stripping weather girl. The site closed in February 2010.
depicted newsreaders fornicating in a parody of Naked News called "Fuck News".
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
featuring a real television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
newscast. The show is prepared in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and runs daily, with 25-minute episodes 6 days per week. The female anchors read the news fully nude or strip
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
as they present their news segments. Naked News TV is its offshoot pay-per-view
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
or subscription service. The male version ceased production on 31 October 2007.
Naked News also aired briefly as a late night television series on Citytv Toronto
CITY-TV
CITY-DT, Channel 57 , is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Rogers Media...
.
History
Naked News was conceived by Fernando Pereira and Kirby Stasyna and debuted in June 2000 as a web-based news service featuring an all-female cast. It began with only one anchor, Victoria Sinclair (who is still with the program), and has currently grown to eight female anchors, plus guest anchors. The website was popularized entirely by word of mouth, and quickly became a popular web destination. During the height of its popularity, the website was receiving over 6 million hits per month. Part of the large amounts of web traffic in the site's early days was because the entire newscast could be viewed for free and supported by advertising. By 2002, after the crash of Internet advertising, only one news segment could be viewed freely, and by 2004, no free content remained on the website. Beginning in 2005, a nudity-free version of Naked News was available to non-subscribers. Beginning in June 2008, two news segments could be viewed freely. However, this ended in December 2009. The UK channel Sumo TVSumo TV
Sumo TV Is a free-to-air television channel owned by Cellcast Group. On 1 July 2006, You TV was relabelled as Sumo TV. Sumo TV was officially launched on 28 November 2006 claiming to be the world's first user-content TV channel...
briefly showed episodes of Naked News, while Playboy One
Playboy One
Playboy One was a free-to-air satellite television channel in the United Kingdom, the only permanently free-to-air television station operated by Playboy Enterprises....
, a free-to-view channel in the UK, currently broadcasts the show at 9:30pm Mondays-Fridays.
A male version of the show was created in 2001 to parallel the female version, but has ceased production as it did not enjoy the female version's popularity and fame. Although it was originally targeted towards female viewers (at one point said to be 30% of the website's audience), the male show later promoted itself as news from a gay perspective.
Cast
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. The show features occasional on-the-street interviews by topless newscasters, which are made possible by OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
's Topfree equality laws. Since the show's inception in 2000, there has been much turnover among the newscasters, and many guest anchors. The female announcers have been featured in almost every medium including television (CBS Sunday Morning, The Today Show, The View, Sally Jessy Raphaël
Sally Jessy Raphaël
Sally Lowenthal , better known as Sally Jessy Raphael, is an American talk show host, known for the eponymous Sally talk show she hosted for two decades.-Early years:...
, and numerous appearances on Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...
and ET Insider
The Insider (TV series)
The Insider is an American tabloid television news program covering events and celebrities. It debuted on September 13, 2004 as a spinoff of Entertainment Tonight and started as a popular segment that took viewers "behind closed doors" and gave them "inside" information...
) newspapers and magazines, (TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
) and as guests on multiple radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
shows including Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
.
Similar shows
A comedic "precursor" to this concept occurred in an episode of Monty Python's Flying CircusMonty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
, in which Terry Jones
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
began performing a striptease while giving a fast-paced rundown of economic news.
In the late 1990s, British cable television channel L!VE TV
L!VE TV
L!VE TV was a British television station that was operated by MGN on cable television from 15 August 1995 - 31 October 1999. It was later revived for Sky Digital from 2003...
broadcast Tiffany's Big City Tips, in which model Tiffany Banister gave the financial news while stripping to her underwear.
Among the imitators on the internet:
- Comédie! – In 2001, this French cable TV network ran a series promos featuring males and females casually undressing as they read jokes. In 2006 they copied the NN format in its entirety in a striptease newscast called Les Nuz, except the anchors keep their bottom underwear on.
- Radio Tango – Oslo, Norway radio station once featured stripping female weather readers on their website.
A very similar phenomenon by the name "Noodie News" appears in Canadian Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
's 2003 novel Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake is a novel by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Atwood has at times disputed the novel being science fiction, preferring to label it speculative fiction and "adventure romance" because it does not deal with 'things that have not been invented yet' and goes beyond the realism she...
.
Počasíčko (diminutive of "weather") was Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
TV Nova's past-10PM featurette launched in January 1998 where a nude woman (or occasionally, a man) got dressed in clothing appropriate for the next day's weather forecast. This was discontinued after several years and returned as web-only in February 2007. When Nova launched a new online portal in May 2008, it included a "Red News" section causing controversy; asked about the Naked News, they denied securing license and stressed Počasíčko's primacy.
In June 2009 Naked News Korea was launched. It featured a similar format to the Canadian version but with less nudity.
In March 2010, students at Cambridge University presented a news segment on Cambridge University Television in the nude.
French spoof news site Les graves infos (Serious News) was launched in mid-2009 with a stripping weather girl. The site closed in February 2010.
Parodies
A 2005 episode of the satirical New Zealand news show Eating Media LunchEating Media Lunch
Eating Media Lunch was a satirical New Zealand news show hosted by Jeremy Wells. It aired on TV 2 and online on from 2003 to 2008. The show was frequently controversial during its run.- Notable episodes :...
depicted newsreaders fornicating in a parody of Naked News called "Fuck News".