Dating Naked UK’s Rylan on why he doesn’t want an LGBTQ+-only season of his new show
Exclusive: "We can have a cast that maybe are very fluid and see what happens," Rylan has suggested of future seasons
Rylan has told Attitude why he doesn’t want an LGBTQ+-only season of his new reality show, Dating Naked UK. And it’s a progressive one!
The show sees ten singletons gather at a villa in South America completely naked and try and find true love unfiltered and unblurred. Everything is on show! Along the way, there is sure to be plenty of drama, romance, and tears as naked newbies arrive and people exit the show via The Dumping Ground. Up for grabs is a £50,000 cash prize.
In an exclusive interview ahead of the show’s premiere on Paramount+ on Friday 23 August, the host of the show sat down to talk about dating naked, personal grooming, intimacy training, and what he’d want to see from hypothetical future seasons.
How would you describe the show in a quick sentence?
All the things you love about Love Island and shows like that, but with no bikinis and me.
How do you think the naked element impacts the dating aspect?
Majorly. The fact that they’re naked, the way they dated was so different. There was this vulnerability. And everyone’s not a clone of each other. There’s different body shapes and sizes as well. And because they were naked it eliminated that “I can’t wait to get your clothes off and see what’s underneath.” Everything’s out in the open so people had no choice other than to get to know the person.
Compared to other dating shows, what other differences did you notice in the contestants in terms of how they approached getting to know one another?
It was a lot more honest. There wasn’t any bigging themselves up. Within five minutes they were all so comfortable with each other. And everything happens throughout this series, you see tears, tantrums, sex, love, breakups, makeups, everything. If they weren’t naked, 90% of the things that ended up happening, I don’t think would have happened.
Was there anything that you had to do as a show to help the contestants ease into the process?
We had so much training beforehand. The main thing was intimacy training. That was really important and eye-opening for me on what we can and can’t do. Things like it’s not a willy, it’s a penis and it’s not boobs, it’s breasts. That was to protect the daters. I’ve hosted shows where people get eliminated and my instant reaction is ‘Come here and cuddle’. Well, I’m clothed, they’re not. So, what do I do in that situation? They were like, ‘Don’t ever be the one that initiates a cuddle. They’re the ones that are more vulnerable because they’re naked, and if they cuddle you and you’re fine with that, then that’s alright.’
Well, within the first five minutes of episode one, when I met them for the first time, they were all lined up in front of me, it’s not in the show, but it was a moment where they were moving a camera and everyone was quiet and I said I’m gonna get this out the way now and I looked down and swept across the line and all of them started laughing. That’s when the ice broke. They felt comfortable with me, I felt comfortable with them. From then on whenever anyone was upset, they’d cuddle me, and it was normal. That naked element of it being anything sexual was gone. It became this experiment that really works. We’ve still got people together now and we filmed this back in February. The show hasn’t been on air so we know they’re together for real and it’s not for money. So, it works.
Was there any nervousness from the contestants about grooming at all?
As in personal?
Yeah.
No, they were all quite open about those things. They didn’t all look like Barbie dolls and Kens. There were different levels of personal grooming with the contestants, whether it was downstairs or upstairs. What was really interesting was hearing the girls speak about how they thought the boys would look at them and how the boys in turn thought the girls would look at them. But not only that, how the boys would look at the boys and the girls would look at the girls. All breasts and all penises are different. You see different types of breasts, penises, faces, stomachs, bums, everything. Yet they all felt like one collective.
What’s been your biggest personal takeaway from the show when it comes to dating?
Being confident in yourself. At work I’m confident. In my personal life, I wouldn’t say I’m the most body confident. Actually, just not to give a shit. “I don’t really like my legs or I don’t really like my stomach.” What does it matter? Once the gloves are off and you’re naked what I’ve seen on this show is it’s not about how someone physically looks on the outside, it’s about the connections they make on the inside.
Do we see any LGBTQ+ romances?
Not in this series. But that’s not to say that (fingers crossed) if we have any future series that wouldn’t happen. The only relationships that we saw during the series were heterosexual relationships, but there’s conversations about sexuality and how they look at it. It was quite interesting as well to hear the heterosexual guys talking about “Should I look at the other guys?” It all became so normal and the fact that they’d reference each other’s bodies, and the girls would reference each other’s bodies as well. That was really interesting to watch. The conversations all happened very naturally and that was quite nice to see that everyone felt so comfortable with each other that they can have conversations.
Would you hope for an LGBTQ+ season in the future?
No, I wouldn’t hope for an LGBTQ+ season. I’d hope for a season where there was all different types of relationships going on. I know there are shows out there that are just heterosexual or LGBTQ+, but I’d love Dating Naked to become that show where anyone could end up with anyone they want if they really want to. That’s what I’d like to see.
Do you think the show would be any different if there were LGBTQ+ people involved, whether it was LGBTQ+ exclusive or mixed?
I think it would be different, but actually the idea of having a diverse cast of not only looks and race but sexuality and gender I think would be incredible. I think for this being the first time we’ve done a show like this they chose the perfect first set of contestants in my eyes because of what happened across the season. Going forward, I think if contestants came along that were gay, lesbian, bi, anything, that wouldn’t be a problem. One thing we don’t want to do is force relationships. What I wouldn’t want to see is one bi guy, one gay guy. That’s forced to me. We can have a cast that maybe are very fluid and see what happens.
Do you hope that the show starts conversations about things like sexuality and body image?
100%. I’m a gay man. I don’t sleep with women. I’ve seen naked women, but I’ve never really stood in front of naked women this close for a long period of time. And for me it was almost an education like of women’s bodies and how things are different. You learn a lot as well. I’m not saying it’s an educational show but there are all body shapes and sizes on this show.
You mentioned grooming especially, and I remember later on in the series we maybe introduce some new daters and one of the girls came in and she had groomed differently to some of the other girls. It wasn’t what I was used to seeing. And then a conversation was had about that, personal preference, and that was what was really nice about the show is that the conversations not only about the dating and about the drama that ensued, and may I just say off the scale [drama] that even shocked me, my jaw was on the floor quite a lot of times, but the actual conversations that they end up having, the guys with the girls, the girls with the girls, and the guys with the guys was really nice to see.