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Terrifying new dating show wants Australians

Contestants get to decide if they want to bail on the date. Photo: SBS

Contestants get to decide if they want to bail on the date. Photo: SBS

There’s a new entrant to the dating show genre and it sounds intimidating to say the least.

SBS has put a call out for Australian applicants to apply for its new series Undressed.

The local adaptation of a hit Italian show of the same name, Undressed sees contestants partner up with strangers and answer a number of psychological questions.

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The twist? They have to undress each other down to their underwear and jump into bed before they begin answering the questions.

The idea is to accelerate intimacy by getting the most daunting part of a date out of the way first.

The questions are presented on a big screen and grow increasingly intimate in nature.

Contestants get to know each other in bed straight off the bat. Photo: SBS

Contestants get to know each other in bed straight off the bat. Photo: SBS

After 30 minutes or so of chatting, the participants on Undressed will be given the pivotal choice of ending or continuing the date.

This approach is similar to another matchmaking method first introduced by The New York Times in a 2015 article titled ‘The 36 questions that lead to love‘. The New Daily trialled that method in late January 2015 with interesting results here.

SBS has pitched the show as a “unique matchmaking social experiment” that promises to “challenge both viewer and contributor prejudices about attraction”.

The nude dating format is by no means new to television, but this is the first time a veneer of psychology will be applied.

Contestants get to decide if they want to bail on the date. Photo: SBS

Contestants get to decide if they want to bail on the date. Photo: SBS

Previous efforts have all revolved around one thing: the extreme awkwardness that arises from meeting someone new in your birthday suit.

For example, American show Dating Naked sent contestants off on elaborate dates with a series of strangers, forcing them to do activities like archery and jet skiing while completely nude.

While the show blurred the contestants’ genitals for public consumption, one contestant sued the show’s production company in 2014 for accidentally broadcasting an uncensored shot of her crotch.

Danish dating show Adam Looking for Eve (or Adam Zkt. Eva in Danish) took the premise a step further by refusing to blur out contestants’ private parts.

The show aired in Australia as Adam Looking For Eve with English subtitles, with SBS screening it in the MA timeslot to get around the obvious broadcasting limitations.

Based on its pitch, Undressed promises to be slightly less superficial than its counterparts, relying less on the “no clothes” gimmick and more on the idea of fast-tracking intimacy.

Still, The Bachelor it is not.

Undressed will air on SBS 2 later this year. You can apply for the show by clicking here.

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