Oh, brother: Oprah Winfrey teams with Carson Kressley to create a “no-nonsense” travelling makeover show
Last we saw, Carson Kressley was dressing dumpy men—who, frankly, looked better when they weren’t wearing the Kressley-prescribed crocodile-skin pointed shoes and distressed 7 for All Mankind jeans—on TV’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Now Kressley has a new lease on his TV life: Oprah Winfrey has given him his own show, Carson Nation, a travelling makeover show akin to Queer Eye that premieres tonight on OWN Canada. The once-novel concept of taking America’s worst-dressed ducklings and turning them into swans has reached its peak, thanks to TLC’s What Not to Wear, but it seems Oprah Winfrey will try anything to give her baby of a network a kick in the pants (following early reports of very poor ratings), including reformatting hackneyed concepts. Maybe Oprah knows something we don’t or, given her power, perhaps she’s thinking of a metrosexual throwback. This, however, will be a revamped throwback, considering Kressley refers to his show as a “make-better” show, as opposed to a makeover show (seriously). Carson Nation will include the heart-wrenching and now formulaic real-world reality TV examples of a) wife whose husband has left for Afghanistan, and b) single mother with a child who has overcome cancer (both situations that immediately scream, ”Girl, you need a new summer ‘do!”).
Carson Nation premieres on OWN Canada tonight at 7 p.m.
• Carson Kressley brings queer eye to small-town America [CTV]
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Last we saw, Carson Kressley was dressing dumpy men—who, frankly, looked better when they weren’t wearing the Kressley-prescribed crocodile-skin pointed shoes and distressed 7 for All Mankind jeans—on TV’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Now Kressley has a new lease on his TV life: Oprah Winfrey has given him his own show, Carson Nation, a travelling makeover show akin to Queer Eye that premieres tonight on OWN Canada. The once-novel concept of taking America’s worst-dressed ducklings and turning them into swans has reached its peak, thanks to TLC’s What Not to Wear, but it seems Oprah Winfrey will try anything to give her baby of a network a kick in the pants (following early reports of very poor ratings), including reformatting hackneyed concepts. Maybe Oprah knows something we don’t or, given her power, perhaps she’s thinking of a metrosexual throwback. This, however, will be a revamped throwback, considering Kressley refers to his show as a “make-better” show, as opposed to a makeover show (seriously). Carson Nation will include the heart-wrenching and now formulaic real-world reality TV examples of a) wife whose husband has left for Afghanistan, and b) single mother with a child who has overcome cancer (both situations that immediately scream, ”Girl, you need a new summer 'do!”).
Carson Nation premieres on OWN Canada tonight at 7 p.m.
• Carson Kressley brings queer eye to small-town America [CTV]
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typical: Oprah monopolizing on real life struggles. All I see is Oprah furthering materialism. I used to appreciate how she brought real life stories to television in an effort to discuss real issues and connected them to help. Materialism and outward beauty is what we should be striving for?