Bravo for Bravo.
I admit it, I’m a 50-year-old heterosexual male and I love watching the Bravo network.
I know I’m not in the cable channel’s demographic. But Bravo, more popular with alternative-lifestyle television viewers than even the so-called “gay” cable channels, has a certain je ne sais quoi for the meat-and-potato crowd.
My foray into Bravo began with a few harmless “Inside the Actors Studio” episodes. Along came “Queer Eye,” and I told myself, I’ll only watch a couple … but I’m sorry if I find Carson Kressley funny. I even got a nice shaving tip from grooming expert Kyan Douglas.
Suddenly, I was watching “Project Runway,” “Top Chef,” “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List,” “The Real Housewives of Orange County” and “Work Out.”
The shows on Bravo tend to foster an appreciation of people’s differences and, more important, help people accept others for who they are. Bravo can venture into this territory because reality shows are relatively cheap to produce. Plus, Bravo can survive with an audience far smaller than the major networks.
The result has been a more complex – though occasionally over-the-top – portrayal of gays and lesbians on TV.
I’ll be plopped in front of the big-screen TV at 8 Wednesday night, rooting for Michael or Laura in the third-season finale of “Project Runway.” (The second-season premiere of “Top Chef” follows at 9.) I love Uli, but how many hippie dresses can you see on one show? Plus, she “stole” Michael’s model on the last competition show. And Jeffrey? Send that tattoo-necked bad boy home!
“Runway” is my favorite. But “Work Out,” the six-episode reality series about lesbian Los Angeles health club owner Jackie Warner, her employees (several of whom are gay) and her wacko girlfriend Mimi, altered my thinking. Like “Real Housewives,” I watched the premiere episode and said to myself, “This is not going to work.” Five episodes later, I was hooked.
I’m not alone. The season finale of “Work Out” on Aug. 22 drew a 178 percent improvement in viewership over its July 25 premiere, according to Bravo.
University of Denver professor Rod Buxton said cable networks like Bravo have an economic advantage over the national networks because of niche programming.
“Most of the (reality) series are much cheaper to produce than something like ‘CSI,”‘ said Buxton, an associate professor in the department of Mass Communications and Journalism Studies at DU, in an e-mail. “When something costs more to produce, the networks take fewer chances at alienating any potential viewers with something such as homosexuality, especially positive representations and acceptance. When the production costs are relatively inexpensive, the network can take that chance and potentially offend some segments of the viewing audience.”
Bravo rolled the dice with Warner, an openly gay owner of a Los Angeles health club. Two of her male trainers also are gay.
“For me, being open and honest is how I live my life anyway, and I am an open book,” Warner told afterellen.com, a website started in 2002 about lesbians in the entertainment business. “I’m a very honest person, and I’ll talk to anybody about family things and coming-out and gay issues.”
And, she added, the show “does influence people. I never realized how much until I received all these responses and people who are just desperate in the gay and lesbian community to have someone who makes things easier for them.”
The shows have contributed to a shift of public attitudes, in the view of pop culture expert and author David Lavery. “We see a gay man as someone who has his act together. There’s a cultural shift, from limp wrist to impeccably neat,” he said in a 2003 story in Florida Today. “We have this wildly disordered culture psychologically and materialistically in many ways, but gays have come to represent people who know what they’re doing.”
Bravo is cashing in. Literally.
The network’s net ad revenue is projected to increase 24 percent next year, to $213.1 million, and cash flow is estimated to rise 28.4 percent, according to Kagan Research figures published Oct. 2 by Broadcasting & Cable magazine.
Hey, it’s a business. NBC Universal didn’t take over networks like Bravo, USA and Sci-Fi to lose money.
“We define ourselves by the audience who likes to watch us,” Lauren Zalaznick, who became the Bravo president in May 2004, told Broadcasting & Cable. “They like to do things advertisers need them to do. They like to travel. They like to buy things. They like new cars. They drink expensive beverages.”
Staff writer Greg Henry can be reached at 303-954-1210 or at ghenry@denverpost.com.
PRIMER: Here are some of the gay-themed reality series on Bravo
“Project Runway”: Fifteen would-be fashion designers try to fulfill a lifelong dream. Supermodel Heidi Klum is the host just to throw us off track a little.
“Blow Out”: Jonathan Antin is not gay, but he’s fulfilled a lifelong dream of owning a Beverly Hills hair salon. As Antin would say, “Bro, that product is giving you rock-star hair.”
“Work Out”: Lesbian fulfills her lifelong dream of owning a Los Angeles fitness club. Lots of minor celebs and gay relationship drama.
“Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List”: A D-List star and her gay fans and friends. “Where are my gays, people?”
“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”: The show that started it all. Five fabulously gay guys straighten out straight guys.
– Greg Henry
