RYLAN CLARK is about to embark on his biggest job yet as host of a huge dating series where contestants go starkers.
But he wasn’t about to turn all serious in the face of such a daunting task.
Instead, Rylan threw himself into fully nude reality show Dating Naked as only he could — by openly ogling all the contestants’ bits.
He said: “I just went, ‘I need them to feel comfortable with me, and I need to feel comfortable with them’. So I looked them in the eye and went, ‘I’m going to get this out of the way now’.
“I looked down and did the sweep, and they all started laughing.
“I started laughing, the crew started laughing and then that was it.
“From that moment on, they would run up to me and hug me.
“It was just normal.”
The show involves a group of brave singletons spending their time at a South American villa in the buff, with the aim of finding deep connections as they lay themselves bare.
I had to sit down with the presenter to hear exactly what went on behind the scenes in Colombia for today’s column takeover.
Rylan said: “The nakedness became secondary, if anything.
“For the first five or ten minutes, I was like, ‘Is this for real? But after 15 minutes, it was, ‘I can’t believe he’s talking to her. I can’t believe she’s saying that’.
“Your brain sort of clicks. It’s just so bizarre.
“The craziest thing is, all I wanted to do was be naked throughout it.
“I felt left out.
“I was obviously proper dolled up to the nines.
“One night I wore a velvet suit and genuinely thought I was gonna collapse.
“It was so hot, it’s even 30 degrees at night and they were all right because they’re naked.
“But I could have done without wearing clothes, to be honest.”
All this nudity presumably presented an issue when the lads, ahem, were enjoying their time?
Rylan said with a laugh: “There’s no blurring, there’s no strategic camera angles.
“You see everything in its full glory.”
Viewers will see the lads jumping in the pool or reaching for a cushion during intimate moments.
The format means daters forge strong connections quickly and skip the superficial chat to concentrate on more important topics. And there is plenty of action.
Rylan said: “They were at it like rabbits! There was a lot of sex. But again, why not? That’s what people do.
“Breaking news . . . people have sex and on this show you see it.”
The show will be screened around the world on Paramount+ from Friday, taking Rylan global for the first time.
The former X Factor hopeful added: “I was born out of reality TV and it’s a genre I know very well.
“Yes, I’m the host and I’ve done well, but at heart I’ll always be a contestant.”
But did the contestants inspire him to make any changes to his own dating adventues?
Rylan said with a laugh: “I’ve tried to, but I’m s**t.
“I’m so bad at flirting, it’s terrible.
“I just gotta find myself a fella now.”
THE host is so convinced Dating Naked will be a success that he is already thinking about recruitment for a follow-up series.
And if casting executives need a hand finding willing participants, he has some famous people ready to go.
He said: “It definitely lends itself to a celebrity version.
“When we were in Colombia, someone texted me asking how it was going and she went, ‘Do you think they’ll ever do a celeb version?’.
“I was with the bosses of Paramount+ so I said, ‘Would we?’. And they went, ‘If this is a success, of course we would’. My mate was like, ‘I’d do it’.
“So I’ve already started the list and planting seeds.
“Trust me, I could assemble a crack team of daters.”
Regardless of celebrities, Rylan reckons the show deserves a second run because it is such good telly.
He added: “There are not many reality shows out there that I think, ‘I’ve got to get home to watch’ – you know, appointment to view.
“With this, if I saw that very first episode, I’d be like, ‘I need to know what happens next’.”
Rylan was reunited with a face from the past while making his new show.
One of the Dating Naked cast members was Romeo, who reached the bootcamp stage of The X Factor in the same year Rylan came fifth.
Romeo said: “I was on X Factor in 2012, so when Rylan saw me he was like, ‘What’s going on Romeo?’ He remembered me.
“That was years ago.
“It’s a bit mad – we were singing, and now we’re on an island in Colombia and I’m naked.”
Rylan added: “We didn’t really know each other that well, just, ‘Oh, hi, you all right?’.
“And obviously, I then carried on with X Factor, Romeo didn’t.
“So I was like, ‘This ain’t weird at all’.”
YOU will not find outspoken love hunter Emily searching for romance on a dating app – as she is barred.
She said: “I only downloaded Tinder out of boredom, to be honest, and four days later I got banned.
“I wrote in my bio, ‘Looking for a one-night stand or a sugar daddy’.
“I thought it was funny, but clearly they took it seriously.
“If I’m going to have a one-night stand or if I’m going to get a sugar daddy, then it’s a win-win.”
Emily is one of Rylan’s favourite contestants.
He said: “I call her Emily Blunt because she has no problem telling people when she’s f***ed off or when she doesn’t agree with something.
“She is so great for this show because the drama she brings is incredible.”
CANADIAN beauty Dominik is used to dating in the spotlight.
The contestant got close to rapper Tyga, Kylie Jenner‘s ex-boyfriend, after sending him a cheeky DM.
Dominik said: “I made the move and we just went from there.
“I went over to LA a few times and literally just chilled and watched movies.
“We watched Dumb And Dumber 1 and 2.
“Did we hook up? Maybe.”
Tyga and Kylie dated on and off for two years from 2015.
Dominik says of her time with the rapper: “This was Kylie years ago.
“She was maybe in the same spot in the same bed.
“It is a bit weird to think about that.
“It wasn’t anything serious.
“It fizzled out.”
RYLAN stressed that bosses did not want to manipulate the action for the sake of ratings.
He said: “We want you to watch the next episode but there was no meddling in their relationships and that was really important to me, from someone coming from the pure era of Big Brother.”
