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RuPaul And Jerry O'Connell Get Talk Shows. Guess Which One Will Be A Sh*t Show.

By Kristy Puchko | TV | July 11, 2018 |

By Kristy Puchko | TV | July 11, 2018 |


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You know what we need more of? Talk shows hosted by men. At present, there’s only The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show With James Corden, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan, Last Call With Carson Daly, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Dr. Phil, The Doctor Oz Show, Maury, and Steve. That’s all! But worry not, because two new talk shows are coming to help advance male opinions on television.

The Guardian reports Bravo is making a Jerry O’Connell-fronted late-night talk show called Real Men Watch Bravo. It’ll set itself apart by not only being hosted by a man but also by featuring ONLY male guests and male panelists. Let’s assume its tagline will be “NO GIRLS ALLOWED BECAUSE WE DON’T WANT THEIR COOTIES, TAMPONS, OR LADY OPINIONS.”

The best part about this bold move from a network whose audience is 2/3 female, is The Guardian’s superb summary of O’Connell’s career:

The show will be hosted by Jerry O’Connell, an actor whose career highlights include featuring prominently in the music video for Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker and starring opposite Anthony Anderson and a CGI marsupial in the film Kangaroo Jack, for which he was awarded a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice award for “favorite fart”.

(Drew Millard, I’m tempted to make you an honorary Overlord for this scorching shade.)

In less-depressing news, RuPaul is reportedly testing the waters on a daytime talk show. Variety reports that RuPaul’s Drag Race’s eponymous host is shooting a pilot for the proposed series, which will feature celebrity interviews, beauty and glamour tips, games, and spilling the tea on pop culture. While this will mean yet another platform for male opinion on television, Ru’s is that of a gay man of color who has spent decades battling against America’s suffocating gender norms. So, he should bring something unique to daytime. Plus, his longtime squirrel-friend and podcast co-host Michelle Visage is expected to play a major role on the show.

There’s no mention whether Ru will do the show in drag—as he did in his ’90s VH1 talk show The RuPaul Show—or if he’ll appear instead in impeccable men’s suits as he does in the workroom of Drag Race and as a judge on Skin Wars. Also unspoken is how a potential talk show might impact the future of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Online, fans have been wondering if Ru’s prepping to hand the show off to one of her beloved queens. And should the daytime show take off, might we see Chad Michaels, Alaska, or even the wildly popular Shangela get their shot at hosting the hit reality-TV competition? Perhaps Mother Ru would only appear for judging (and the title)?

For now, this is just speculation. Often, pilots go nowhere. But considering the fervor for Drag Race, the iron is hot for Ru to pitch his own kind of Ellen show. Variety notes Ru’s pilot is being produced by Telepictures, which also makes Ellen Degeneres’s talk show. And like Ellen, the untitled Ru talk show promises to be a “positive and aspirational point of view to the format.” While some tire of Ru’s love of pop psychology and controversial advice, others might well welcome a Drag Mother into their mornings.

So. Which of these new talk shows are you Ru-ting for?