Becoming an anchor for Naked News — the Toronto-based online news and entertainment program that has featured news anchors in the buff since 1999 — isn’t as easy as you’d think. Just being hot alone won’t cut it. You also have to be able to read.

“You’d think it would be an easy skill, but not a lot of girls know how to read nowadays, unfortunately,” says Eila Adams, the foremost anchor of Naked News. “You may be really attractive and have a great personality, but if you can’t read, then it’s not the job for you. We’ve lost a few girls who are great, but they just couldn’t hack the teleprompter.”

Adams has always been an avid reader and proud exhibitionist, so when she auditioned for the position in 2009 right out of college, she passed the teleprompter test with flying colors. More than 15 years later, Adams, who’s also an adult content creator and “public flasher,” sits at the top of the anchors’ seniority ladder. In addition to presenting the news disrobed (the word “strip” is banned at the Naked News office), she writes her own fitness segment, “Flex Appeal,” about working out — naked, of course.

Over the years, Naked News has shown everything but signs of wavering — even as digital media and local news outlets have suffered a tremendous decline. The Toronto office now hosts 10 on-site anchors and the program has grown to include naked correspondents from around the world, including those in Europe, China and Los Angeles. Currently, Adams says, there are 15 active anchors globally, and the site is always looking for new talent.

Adams thinks the show’s success has largely to do with the unsexualized and fun nudity it promotes (the price for Naked News — $20 a month, or $8 if billed annually — is comparable to that of an average streaming service subscription). “If you take one activity and then you add nudity to it, it just makes it that much more silly,” she tells me. “We even have a naked cooking segment — just silly, fun things that aren’t sexualized.”

That said, the production team has had to change its rules to adapt to more progressive times. For example, buttholes weren’t allowed on camera before, while now they’re “on the table.” Because many fans of the show are nudists themselves, it felt in keeping with their ethos to free the butthole. “I’m glad that we’ve added butthole to the show,” she says. “It’s only if you make nudity something taboo that it becomes sexualized.”

On the flip side, to comply with Instagram’s nudity ban, Naked News recently started an Instagram-friendly version of its news segment dubbed “The Bikini Report,” in which the anchors present the news in skimpy swimsuits, rather than fully nude.

Naked News has also adapted to changing audience news consumption habits. Back in the day, Adams says they would cover hard-hitting news — including the Iraq War — but that shifted when the team realized the Naked News audience craved more lighthearted stories.

Obviously, being naked at work isn’t always glamorous, and sometimes the price to pay for job security takes the form of a rather embarrassing moment. “During that time of the month, there can be issues,” says Adams, noting that subbing each other out isn’t really an option when one of them is on their period. “We’ve had numerous reshoots with strings showing or leakage,” she laughs. “It happens — being a woman sucks!”

Plus, every time an anchor sits somewhere, whether it’s a couch or a chair, they have to preemptively place a little paper towel between their genitals and the seat. Yes, for hygienic reasons — but also so that no “snail trail,” as Adams calls it, is left behind.

But as long as Naked News continues to find its audience and adapts with the times, Adams says she’ll be there doing the same. “The plan is to just ride it out for as long as possible — as long as they still want me on camera, why not?” she says. “I’ll be doing the news when I’m 80 — naked!”