Sharon Reed

A Cleveland new anchor, Sharon Reed, was caught on camera taking her clothes off and joining a group of other nudes.  The cameras that caught her taking her bra off for a nude photograph installation were the cameras of her employer – WOIO-TV, a CBS affiliate.  The station broadcasted her first-person account of the photo shoot of public nudity to fantastic ratings. 

Interestingly, nudity has become quite popular on television – the same night, ABC’s Monday Night Football broadcasted Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan, in a so-called nude publicity stint. 

The WOIO station will most likely not get an FCC penalty because the station broadcast ran and adhered to commission rules that prohibit broadcast of indecent materials from 6 a.m. till 10 p.m.

The Cleveland audience had a positive reaction to the broadcast, however a number of complainers who have not seen the broadcast called in and voiced their disappointment.  WOIO-TV station manager, Bill Appelgate said that his newscast is more aggressive and unconventional and that they’re approach is more of a popular-press approach than otherwise. 

Sharon Reed’s “antics” have been defended by Appelgate, saying this was a legitimate approach.  Sharon Reed herself didn’t apologize for her nude appearance and shrugged off the suggestion that she did it to win the ratings.  She suggested that there was nothing wrong with that.  WOIO-TV got a record 700,000 viewers with its promise of showing an anchor naked.  The station also had a million hits on their Website. 

Spencer Tunick, the photographer who has been commissioned and sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland is not too happy with how things turned out.  He said his approach of photographing hundreds of nude people in public places, does not have a sexual approach and it does not do anything important – or good – for the sake of his art.