Naked Attraction
ネイキッド・アトラクション
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Contestants choose a date by looking at naked bodies revealed from the feet up; unbroadcastable in Japan, and a useful test of what 'explicit' means.
Naked Attraction is a dating show made by Studio Lambert for Channel 4 and presented by Anna Richardson. It ran for seven series, from July 2016 to March 2024, filmed first at The London Studios and then at dock10 in Salford. Each episode has two 'pickers'. Each, fully clothed, faces six naked people hidden in brightly coloured booths. The booths open from the bottom up, round by round: first the lower half, genitals included, then the torso, then the face, and finally the voice. After each round the picker eliminates one person, and Richardson steers comments that turn unkind towards something more supportive. When two are left, the picker undresses too, stands with them and makes a final choice. The chosen pair, occasionally a three, then go on a date, fully clothed.
The first episode, in 2016, contained 378 shots of genitals in 48 minutes, and almost a hundred viewers complained to Ofcom, which declined to investigate because there was no sexual activity and the show aired late at night. Over the years the format widened: pickers of different sexual orientations, a couple looking for a third, compilation series and, in 2022, a special called All Out & Proud. Contestants are not paid. Each talks to a psychologist and is background-checked before filming, and producers warn that episodes will live online for years. Some later told the Guardian the experience was liberating or empowering; others described a harder time with employers or partners.
In September 2023 its episodes reached Max in the United States, where it topped the service's most-watched list for two weeks and the Parents Television and Media Council called it pornographic and demanded its removal. In March 2025 Richardson said there were no plans for further series.
Starring
Anna RichardsonHost
The presenter throughout its run, who walks each picker through the rounds and has unkind comments reframed as supportive ones.
Steven BarrettParticipant
A man from Essex who applied after a hard break-up in his forties, appeared twice, and was voted off once his face was revealed.
Hayley CosgroveParticipant
A Plymouth woman who posts about lingerie, sex confidence and cerebral palsy, was approached by casting, and found the show empowering.
Jamie LeishmanParticipant
A fire suppression engineer from Accrington who applied in 2020 for a laugh and found it complicated his dating life.
Why it matters
Naked Attraction takes the question every dating app hides behind a profile picture, whether attraction is about bodies, and answers it by removing everything else. Its defenders say it shows ordinary bodies, with their hair, scars and asymmetries, more plainly than almost anything else on television, and that seeing so many of them loosens shame. Its critics say that a format in which one person inspects and ranks naked strangers is objectification however kindly it is framed. Both describe the same footage. The show also raises consent in a distinctly modern form: participants agree once to a broadcast that will circulate online for years, and some later described costs at work and in relationships that no release form could weigh in advance. That British television aired it for eight years while an American campaign group called it pornographic says something about both countries' ideas of what nudity means.