A nude should be the most natural thing in the world. After all, we all come into the world naked. But no, it’s not. Let’s put ourselves in a situation: someone comes to your work one day and tells you ‘get naked, look me in the eyes and tell me something about yourself’. Not even the least modest would be able to say yes without at least thinking about it for a moment. Well, this is what Desnudos por la vida consists of, the new docureality that Telecinco premieres tonight in prime time as one of its big bets of the year.
Twelve celebrities -Marisa Jara, Laura Matamoros, Jenny Llada, Samanta Villar, Anabel Pantoja, Soraya Arnelas, Cristóbal Soria, Bosco Martínez-Bordiú, Pablo Carbonell, Nicolás Coronado, Damián Quintero and Ramón Freixa- who with the aim of raising awareness among viewers about the importance of cancer prevention will literally make you naked, not only in body but also in soul.
“This program is unlike anything I have done in my 33 years of profession,” says Jesús Vázquez, the host, presenter and, also, an involved part of “this fantasy” that is nothing more and nothing less. , that “a countdown to reach the final show”: the striptease.
Jesús Vázquez says, and that is why this article starts like this, that the first time he met with them – the teams are divided into boys and girls – seeing the fear and shame they had, he decided that everyone would take off all their clothes, put on in front of everyone else and tell something about themselves. There was no doubt: the first to do it, Jesús Vázquez. “I’ve gotten so involved that I’ve also gotten naked for… life,” he reveals forcefully and convinced that staying on the ball is secondary, that the magic of this docureality, adapted from the successful British format Who Bars Win , is “the importance of preventing breast cancer in the female version and prostate and testicular cancer in the male version.” In fact, all the celebrities underwent the corresponding tests during the recordings to prevent this type of cancer. “It was the first time he had done it,” confess Vázquez himself and several of the participants.
Produced by Secuoya Studios, the same production company that, together with The Pool, was in charge of the series about Pedro Sánchez – not yet broadcast -, the dynamics of the four programs that this first season has is very simple. Two of them are dedicated to boys and the other two to girls. The 12 have to get to the same place: to get naked in a fun show in true Full Monty style. Will they succeed? Will everyone do it? Is there anyone who has more modesty than courage?
“We all arrived with modesty, shame and reluctance,” says Nicolás Coronado, “but in the process they conveyed that this program can really save lives and I hope we leave that mark.”
For the model Marisa Jara, that mark that Coronado refers to was the key to agreeing to participate. She acknowledges that although she has had to undress many times for her job, she has never done so in “such a brutal way”, especially for her and her scar: “I have gone through this illness twice and it has been the most hard part of my life. For me it has been a challenge to show my scar because I have never shown it before, either in public or private, but I thought ‘why not show it if my life has come from that scar?'”
Awarded the International Emmy in 2019 for Best Unscripted Entertainment Program, Who Bars Wins, premiered on June 15, 2017 on the British network ITV1 and based on the Oscar-winning film starring Robert Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson and Mark Addy, features the unanimous support of international critics, who recognized it with a Royal Television Society Award in 2019 and a BAFTA nomination in 2018. With this resume, Telecinco, eager to find a successful format, did not hesitate for a second to say yes .
Mediaset has been looking for something different for months, a format that will give them the push to help them get out of the audience crisis that the audiovisual group has been experiencing for several months. And in “this search to find great formats that give us great joy,” according to Jaime Guerra, director of Content Production at Mediaset España, Desnudos por la vida arrived and “we had a clear commitment”: “We want the viewer to enjoy it.” see and be left with a happy face because they not only get naked physically but, above all, emotionally.
In reality, Nudes for Life is a journey, that of 12 people, each one more different than the other who have to perform a striptease in front of a completely full theater. They have only six days to prepare and those six days are what we will see in the docureality. Coordination, sensuality, rhythm or security are some of the aspects that choreographer Sonia Dorado will work with the participants during rehearsals with the aim of turning the final show into a successful performance.
Throughout the process, he brings out the best in each of them, but also the worst. Exposing yourself is always complicated and doing it to end up naked is even more difficult. “In my life I have done many things, but nothing like this,” says Jenny Jada, who confesses that Nudes for Life has helped her open up: “I have said things that I had never said, not only on television but also in my life.” “.
Everyone recognizes not only the shame or modesty of seeing themselves naked but also showing yourself as you are regardless of your physique. “You come out of this program different from how you arrived because there is a message of self-love, of adaptation,” says Coronado, and adds a phrase that sounds very hackneyed, but that he has been able to see firsthand how important it is: “If you If you don’t love yourself, it’s difficult for someone to love you.”
“There is an aesthetic pressure,” adds Samanta Villar, who after 13 years reporting for Mediaset has decided to take a risk with a docureality, “which is the concept that we have so far from how others actually see us.” Naked by life, it will show them as they are, because no one is perfect, but, above all, because beauty is in imperfection and they have discovered it now.