Kicking off her bikini bottoms, Brooklyn-born singleton Christina Porcelli steps out from behind a palm tree to greet her blind date, who is letting it all hang out as the cameras zoom in for a close-up. “Remember to look him in the eye,” Porcelli tells herself, trying hard not to cross her arms over her bare chest. “Don’t look down.”
Inevitably, she sneaks a peek. Huzzah! The highly amusing reaction shot — the “raised eyebrow” moment that has become so ubiquitous on reality TV — is in the bag.
It’s no surprise that “Dating Naked,” VH1’s latest foray into the so-called “unscripted” category, is slated as the next small-screen hit of the summer. Porcelli is among dozens of contestants who agreed to strip naked in the pursuit of love and reality-TV fame — and the series, filmed at a luxury resort in Panama, is expected to top the network’s charts when it airs next month.
Borrowing heavily from ABC’s “The Bachelor” — with shades of Discovery Channel’s ratings-winning survival contest “Naked and Afraid” thrown in — “Dating Naked” is one of a rash of upcoming reality-TV shows in which ordinary people shed their inhibitions and their clothes.
They include TLC’s “Buying Naked,” premiering Saturday, about a firm of real estate brokers serving a nudist community in Tampa, Florida, and Lifetime’s “Born in the Wild,” a fly-on-the-bush documentary focusing on pregnant women giving birth outdoors, currently in preproduction.
Meanwhile, WE tv is pushing the envelope further with its pilot for “Sex Box,” an “educational” program in which real-life couples disappear into a soundproof box to do the dirty deed — then discuss their sexual hang-ups with a team of therapists.
“Yes, you can call it a trend,” quips Troy DeVolld, a seasoned reality series producer in LA who wrote the book “Reality TV.”
“The naked thing is the latest in a string of concepts being explored to keep the genre fresh.
“If something catches on, you always see people spinning the idea.
“All these TV executives are saying: ‘”Naked and Afraid” is so successful, why don’t we do “Naked This” or “Naked That”?’ The format has been proven to work.”
But some critics remain unimpressed. “There’s a dearth of ideas in reality TV,” says Jennifer Pozner, a New York-based media commentator and author of the book “Reality Bites Back.”
“We’ve had a decade and a half of these shows and they are over-saturating the market with bottom-feeder premises that are incredibly cheap to produce.
“They’re the lowest of the low. The producers can’t shock people any more by flipping tables a la ‘Real Housewives’ and they’ve done all those ‘women-can’t-be-successful-without-a-husband,’ ‘surviving in the wild’ and ‘song and dance competition’ shows.
“So the TV executives are saying: ‘What can we do that we haven’t done before? Oh, I know, let’s do the same thing, but let’s take everybody’s clothes off!’ ”
Ask Porcelli why she appeared on “Dating Naked” and she maintains there is more to the show than just voyeurism. “It’s actually heartfelt and much deeper than people imagine,” says the Canarsie-raised writer and comedian, who now lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I love the concept because you are literally stripping down to nothing — your personality, pretty much. You really get to know the person you’re with.”
The 36-year-old looks back fondly on wacky on-camera activities, which include au naturel bird-watching and body painting on a canvas with her date. “I kept falling over and things kept hanging loose,” she laughs. “But, after a while, I stopped caring.”
Adds show host Amy Paffrath, who was the only one not required to go naked: “People caught off-guard by the title may think it’s going to be one big orgy.
“But nudity doesn’t have to be tied to sexuality. We’re breaking down the barriers and changing the dialogue.”
Her philosophy is shared by the team behind “Buying Naked,” which follows realtor Jackie Youngblood as she persuades potential buyers to invest in a residential complex in Tampa where clothes are most definitely optional.
“Through this show, we’re trying to teach people that nudity is natural, beautiful and about the inner person,” Youngblood tells The Post.
Says TLC executive producer Mike Kane: “There will be viewers who come in for the curiosity value, but hopefully they’ll stick around for the stories and see what unfolds.
“It’s not a sexual show by any means. People are taking out the garbage in socks and sandals and nothing else!”
In line with cable network policy, the copious number of private body parts featured in “Dating Naked” and “Buying Naked” have been covered with a giant digitized fig leaf.
“We didn’t want to blur everything, so we’ve also used clever blocking techniques like kitchen countertops, flowers and food,” continues Kane. “But, no matter how hard you try, things slip through. We’ve watched and rewatched the cuts with a hawk’s eye, but we’ve seen little things that have gotten loose here or slipped in there. We’ve had to go back to edit to fix it up.”
Meanwhile, sociologist Tamara Mose Brown of Brooklyn College says the pixelation technique only serves to pique people’s interest. “When you bleep out a word, everybody wants to know what the word is underneath that bleep,” she points out. “The same thing is happening with these blurred body parts.
“It’s basic titillation. These shows might be sold as exposing the audience to the idea that when we’re naked and raw, a different discussion occurs.
“But the nakedness is adding a sexual undertone to the larger premise. Let’s face it — it’s all about ratings and profit.”