The Catch On channel said Tuesday it will screen a show titled “Challenge: You Are a Nude Model Too!”. The show, in the style of real-life drama “Survivor,” will pick five finalists from among 20 ordinary women over the age of 20, who are rewarded with a book of their nude pictures taken by a famous photographer. The audition, camp training, and photo sessions will be edited into a fly-on-the-wall documentary, to be broadcast from March 19 via Catch On Plus, Catch On’s adults-only channel.

The program aims to show that an ordinary woman can be transformed into a glamour model. The first round of screening will take place on Feb. 24-25, and participants will be eliminated in a swimsuit contest on February 26. The five finalists will be chosen at the end of the second round. During three days of camp training, the finalists will have their pictures taken in their birthday suits. A grand prize of W5 million and a chance to work as “sexy VJ” on Catch On Plus awaits the winner. The cable channel is advertising the event on its website and on air late at night.

Such commodification of beauty has raised eyebrows before. Women’s channel Dongah TV was earlier reprimanded for airing “Challenge to Become Cinderella,” a program offering ordinary women a chance of free plastic surgery in December 2003. The program was later revamped into providing reconstructive surgery for those scarred by illness or accident.

Women’s rights groups have slammed the recruitment of glamour models among ordinary people. The head of the Korea Women's Associations United (KWAU), NamYoon In-soon, said that even an adult pay-per-view channel for adults must face censure if it promotes the commercialization of sex.

(englishnews@chosun.com )