Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Naked News Korea Loses More Than Just Clothes

Subscribers to the Korean version of the Naked News Franchise were shocked to find themselves cut off from the service recently. They soon discovered that the service was shut down after the company CEO disappeared, leaving behind a trail of non-payments and several unhappy staff members.



Naked News Korea was launched with a bang on June 23 and promised skin-peek news readers in the style of the Naked News franchise. Thus, as viewers were hit with the best and worst of breaking news, the gradually disrobing announcers were meant to fill in the entertainment value.

When it started out, nine eager announcers were nabbed for the show and the subscription base supposedly jumped to an impressive 260 000 in a month. This type of acceptance is hardly surprising given that this also the home of the “Love Land“.
However, braless news-reading reached a snag and ended up grinding to a halt on July 30th.

In the ruckus that followed, viewers learned the ugly truth behind a show which, in hindsight, had the unfortunate slogan, “There is nothing to hide”. Firstly, it turned out that the enterprising CEO, John Chau, had neglected to pay the staff members for that period.

His exact intentions or reasons are unknown. In fact, many of his former workers are pointing out that his exact whereabouts are a mystery as well.



Other ugly warts and blisters that popped up during this expose included the exact nature of the Korean brand of Naked News. For one thing, staff were shocked to discover that the parent company didn’t have a hand or say in this version.
Rather, Mr Chau had simply nabbed the right to use the brand name.

Secondly, despite claims of offering news sans clothes, it appeared that the announcers had signed on for the semi-nude version or, as known in some breakfasting circles, the “reading the paper in your undies” event.

The staff pointed out that management did attempt to reel increase the sex appeal of the show by requesting a full strip tease. Subsequently, more than half of the original announcers left in a huff while four of the original team remained.

Finally, matters came to a head when the CEO disappeared without paying his staff or naked news readers.

The unpaid staff are currently seeking justice and authorities are hoping to cover this matter swiftly.

0 comments: