Fashion Television is out, Style Bio is in?

Last week the Internet was shaken by the news that Fashion Television had ceased production after 27 years, and now Bell Media has announced that it will be picking up 60 episodes of a show called Style Bio that will air on its E! network. Seems a touch sudden, but Scott Henderson, vice-president of communications for Bell, says the show has “been in development for E! for some time, and is not directly related to the suspension of production of Fashion Television.” The show, a documentary series about how stars (like Beyonce, Kim Cattrall and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen) have gone, in Ricki Lake terms, from drab to fab,  seems to bear no close resemblance to Jeanne Beker’s FT, but we figure Bell’s move to invest in a program with a panel of experts over Beker’s one-on-one interviews has got to sting a little.