Was Channel 4's Naked Attraction a new low for TV?

Under any normal circumstances, I would be sacked for viewing stuff like this in the office, writes Pete Cashmore.

Even as I type, the camera has just zoomed in on the gentleman's... 'credentials' for an unforgiving, screen-filling close-up.

Welcome to what passes for acceptable television in 2016. The show is Naked Attraction, the latest offering from that estimable offerer of public service TV, Channel 4.

Naked Attraction purports to be a dating show, but I would argue that what it actually is, is a vehicle through which the lonely and the lustful can gawp at naked bodies and imagine that they're doing so for the purposes of entertainment.

Naked Attraction's USP is that everybody, apart from ringmistress of the tawdriness Anna Richardson, is naked at some point.

There's one person selecting a date, and six potential dates – the latter get naked first, and are scrutinised body part by body part (and we're not talking elbows here) and then, in the interests of fairness, the selector gets naked as well.

And then the 'winner' (inasmuch as anyone involved in this programme can be described as one) and their selector go on a date.

Nudity first, then a date. Very much a backwards way of doing things.

The show airs on a Monday and, two episodes into its first series, has already whipped up a firestorm of controversy among people who haven't actually seen it. I have now seen it and can honestly say it's every bit as bad as it sounds and you're not missing much. Especially if you're a fan of clothes.

The second episode actually featured one of our own, a perfectly personable young man called DJ Darryl from Wolverhampton who surely doesn't struggle so much to get a date that the only way he can actually secure one is by unveiling his wedding tackle on television. Interestingly, in addition to revealing, well, everything he physically could, he revealed on Monday's show that he hates the Black Country accent, so all in all, I imagine he's probably getting it in the neck from all angles right now.

I would imagine that he, and the choice of dates he was given, are all having a pretty wretched week, asking themselves why they ever agreed to do the show as the umpteenth chortling stranger says to them, "Oh, I didn't recognise you with your clothes on."

Because make no mistake, Naked Attraction really is wretched, a horrible idea executed with a leer and a smutty Sid James-esque laugh. Its sole raison d'etre is to get to the next invasive close-up of the participants' intimate places.

As is usually the case with shows that are essentially base exploitation, there's a bit of sociological guff thrown in to justify the cavalcade of titillation as it unfolds – frankly, I think I'd have more respect for the programme makers (it would be difficult for me to have much less) if they'd just said they wanted to remake Blind Date as soft porn. At least that would be honest.

Apparently Darryl saw his date a couple of times and then it sort of fizzled out. Funny that. If you can't find romance by stripping starkers for a rubbish TV show on a national public service broadcaster, where can you find it?