Hot Picks: Strip

Broadcast 

The inner workings of a Las Vegas strip club are laid bare in constructed reality series Strip, made by Firecracker Films for Paramount+ UK.

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“We set out to make a compelling, glossy reality series about a group of aspirational, self-made women who are making big money at the top end of their profession,” explains Firecracker chief creative officer Jes Wilkins. “That profession is stripping and with 20,000 girls dancing there, Las Vegas is its mecca.

“We wanted to gain access to one of the top strip clubs in the world, where dancers can earn tens of thousands of dollars in one night, and we were delighted that Crazy Horse III was willing to open its doors to our cameras and give us such fantastic access.”

It’s an environment rarely seen on screen, but the film was made with the full participation of both the dancers and their customers. The 6 x 60-minute series also shows a side to strippers that has never been captured before in unscripted TV.

“This has all the best and most recognisable tropes of hit reality shows,” says Nick Tanner, director of sales and co-productions at Passion Distribution, Firecracker’s Tinopolis Group stablemate. “It’s set in an often frowned-upon, male-dominated world where women are objectified, but Strip is a celebration of powerful women taking life into their own hands, making it work for them and having fun at the same time.”

Malibu, Sufi, Natalie, Christina, Londyn, Amber and their colleagues are a cast of characters that Wilkins describes as “diverse, gorgeous, sassy, funny and never afraid to say what they think”.

While we see the punters interacting with the women, the focus of Strip is “on a group of women making a positive choice to do what they do”, says Tanner. “Each of them has a fascinating backstory.”

In episode one, we meet a newcomer embarking on her first stripping job. “She is walking into a hornet’s nest of these very experienced women,” Tanner says. “There’s a really interesting dynamic between the cut and thrust of how to make it in a super-competitive world and the camaraderie of their sisterhood.”

In another episode, we see how the family of an American-born Iranian react to learning about her job. A Cuban immigrant who travelled overland through nine central American countries to get to the US is the focus of another story.

“She commutes to Vegas from her home in Miami, so the story is very relatable in the sense of having to balance family with work life,” says Tanner. “It just happens to be in a provocative profession.”

The series premiered in the UK on 1 October on Paramount+, and Tanner says “it seems natural that we’d try to extend that partnership in various territories”.

“It is a bit edgy. It’s definitely spicy. So its best home is on streaming or on platforms associated with broadcasters,” he adds.

“We are all confident this is a highly returnable show since audiences will fall in love with the characters and want to see them again next year.”