78: Dating Naked & the Abduction of Amber Hagerman

When Jessie Nizewitz agreed to be on VH1’s reality dating show “Dating Naked,” she knew one thing for certain — she’d be filmed naked. When Jessie arrived on set, she says producers encouraged her to wrestle naked with her date. They urged her to playfully slam him into the sand. Jessie was hesitant, until they reassured her that all of her private parts would be blurred when the episode aired. A few weeks later, Jessie was back at home, watching her episode. Just as promised, her naked body was blurred. But then, for a split second, it wasn’t. That image was captured and spread all over the internet. Jessie was humiliated. She felt lied to. So she decided to sue. 

Then Brandi tells us about the abduction of Amber Hagerman. Her name might not initially sound familiar, but you probably know her legacy. Amber was just nine years old, riding her bike a few blocks from her grandparents’ home when a man abducted her. A neighbor witnessed the abduction. He called police to report what he’d seen. Soon, the FBI stepped in. But did they have enough information to find Amber?

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“This is why Dating Naked was Canceled,” by Nicki Swift for YouTube
“‘Dating Naked’ cast member sues after crotch-blur fail,” by Jamie Schram and Amber Sutherland for the New York Post
“‘Dating Naked’ cast member sues after VH1 showed her naked,” James Hibberd for Entertainment Weekly
Court documents
“‘Dating Naked’ lawsuit seeks to strip Viacom of $10M for showing too much,” by Dominic Patten for Deadline
“‘Dating Naked’ $10M lawsuit stripped by judge,” by Dominic Patten for Deadline
“‘Dating Naked” $10M “inadvertent” nudity suit should be tossed, says Viacom,” by Dominic Patten for Deadline
“$10M ‘Dating Naked’ lawsuit dismissed,” HNGN.com

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Amber Hagerman” by David Krajicek, The Crime Library
“Amber Hagerman: 20 Years Later” CBS DFW
“Amber Alert” wikipedia.org.
 “Ariel Castro Kidnappings” wikipedia.org