TVSquad

Before Lifetime snagged Bravo's Project Runway, it got its hands on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Carson Kressley. Lifetime tapped Kressley to host the feel-good show How to Look Good Naked, and now it looks like the cable net wants to keep the Kressley train moving by giving him his own talk show.

The standard Monday-Friday talk show format is rare on cable nets, but is in line with Lifetime's plan to change its image from the "woman being beaten, kidnapped, set on fire, but ultimately triumphing in the end" movies/Golden Girls network to something younger and hipper -- basically Bravo with a female slant. Kressley's chat fest is supposed to focus on his talent for fashion and will feature a mix of studio and field segments that feature him offering insight and advice to "everyday" people.

I write the introductions to my articles after I write the articles themselves. This is because I find the introductions the hardest part and, remembering the advice I got from the introduction to the S.A.T.s, when I run into a problem I can't easily solve, it's a good idea for me to go to the next question and return later.

This introduction, however, was easy to write. That's because my wife wrote it for me. She read the column and then turned to me and said, "Wow, you're gonna get crucified for this." I asked her, "Worse than my Simpsons essay?" She said, "The reaction to this will make the Simpsons essay look like a fawning Office review. I agree with it, and I'm sure a lot of other people will as well, but the ones that don't... Wow, they are just gonna hate you!" So, uh, thanks honey. Now, on to the crucifying...

As I was surfing the web this morning, I came upon a casting call for The CW's Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants. Even if this reality competition is not the best reality TV show on the block, it seems that The CW thinks it did good enough to potentially grant Crowned a second season. Then again, maybe the pageant show will get a second chance only because The CW is running out of new episodes for its scripted shows.

In the latest twist on reality competitions, The CW presents Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants, in which mothers and daughters compete as pairs for a top prize of $100,000. The show premieres Wednesday, December 12, 9/8c. Let me preface by saying that I have enjoyed such twisted programming as Joe Millionaire and The Swan, so was hopeful that I could find something to appreciate here. While it has potential, and I do have favorite contestants already, this first episode has some serious problems.

I can only hope that more editing will be done before the final cut makes it to air as there was a likely unintentional but glaringly racial imbalance in the introduction of the teams. Not to mention painfully obvious attempts to fake tension and drama where there really isn't any. Things might grow more intense as egos clash, but for now things are fairly bland. Even the first challenge was boring. They really needed to step it up to try and encourage viewers to stick around for the entire eight week run, and I don't think they did. More and minor spoilers after the jump.

I'm not sure how many people out there think that Nancy Grace is really a nice person away from her TV show, where she is usually sneering, snarling, and yelling at both defendants and victims, but the video after the jump should put to rest any of those thoughts. It's Grace's appearance on Celebrity Jeopardy, along with Regis Philbin and Queer Eye's Carson Kressley.

I don't think you have to have a degree in psychology to see what she's really like. When she says an answer wrong, she tries to tell Alex Trebek and the judges that she actually said the right answer. She also gives a rather inane answer to "Final Jeopardy" that I still can't figure out.

I know, I know, you're thinking, "Whaaaaaa?"

Bravo's Queer Eye For The Straight Guy was cancelled a while ago, but there have been ten episodes of the show finished for quite some time now, and Whitney over at USA Today has found out that the last season of the show will start airing this fall.

Interesting how this show just completely fell off the radar, eh? People talk about this show the way they talk about "The Macarena." But it was a fun show there for a while. Oddly, the Bravo web site doesn't even have a page for it anymore, though they do have one for Queer Eye For The Straight Girl.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is going to tell us How to Look Good Naked and then let the world see us in our underwear.
  
• Bret Michaels, former singer in the 80's band Poison, will search for true love on a VH1 reality show airing this summer.
  
• Watching this week's episode of Lost , "Flashes Before Your Eyes", was like finding an enormous Easter egg... full of Easter eggs.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can download the file directly (Quicktime required). You can also subscribe to this vodcast via our feed. (Now works in iTunes!)

Now that Queer Eye has been cancelled, it's safe to assume that the members of the Fab Five are going to spread themselves all over the cable self-help landscape. And it's also no surprise to see Carson Kressley be the first to hook on with a new show. This time, instead of trying to make straight male slobs like myself look presentable, he's going to try to help women feel comfortable in their own skins.

An American version of How to Look Good Naked has been picked up by Lifetime, according to Variety, and Kressley has signed on to be the show's host. In the show, based on a British series (aren't they all these days), a woman who is unhappy with her body agrees to have a picture of herself in her underwear projected on the side of a building. Via that public display and other emotional assistance, the subject will be taught to like herself the way she is. Nice. But, of course, this is Lifetime; do they do any show that isn't nice?

Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, the once hugely popular makeover show on Bravo, has been canceled by the network. The series will have one last season coming up (titled Queer Eye: The Final Season). Design guru Thom Felicia gets his own show on the Style Network later this year.

This isn't a big surprise. Not only had ratings been dropping the last couple of years but the "buzz" that this show once had vanished completely. Personally, I got sick of all the "theme" blocks of episodes they did, like when the went to other areas of the country or did weddings. Nothing bores me more than planning a wedding, which I'm sure will thrill my fiancee in the future.

Drew Lachey's win last month on Dancing with the Stars has landed him a spot as co-host of the Miss USA pageant. He'll join Access Hollywood host (and winner of my personal award for 'Most Annoying Speech Pattern') Nancy O'Dell on the stage. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy host Carson Kressley will be a pageant commentator.

The pageant airs April 21 on NBC.

While the rest of us are taping things like Lost, The Daily Show, and those late night infomercials with Ron Popeil, what are celebrities recording? John O'Hurley, who played J. Peterman on Seinfeld, is recording...Seinfeld reruns! Why? He's never seen them before.

Other recording habits of the stars:

• Neil Patrick Harris: The Office, Two and a Half Men, and The Office.
• Carson Kressley: James Bond movies.
• Eva Longoria: Oprah
• Jennifer Love Hewitt: Dog The Bounty Hunter

Personally, I'd love to know what people like Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo TiVo. Actually, it's probably their own shows.