Bravo

Bravo giveth, and Bravo taketh away:

Bravo's pulling the plug on Queer Eye after five seasons and four years on TV. The show's ten-episode fifth season, which debuts this summer, will be its last, the network was expected to tell television critics today at a presentation in Pasadena.

Separately, the network signed Project Runway den daddy Tim Gunn and pop star-turned American Idol judge Paul Abdul to series of their own. Tim Gunn's Guide to Style will profile Gunn as he solves people's fashion dilemmas by helping them get makeovers. While it's still unresolved whether Gunn will return to Runway for its fourth season, his own show debuts as he is set to publish a book on style and taste in May, 2007.

Bravo Cancels Queer Eye [B&C;]

A special treat for you this morning, just because you deserve it: not one, but two standout Hud Morgan moments from last night's episode of Tabloid Wars. First, Lloyd Grove's former gossip slave goes to lunch with Lizzie Grubman and -- oh yes! -- Jonathan fucking Cheban. So good to see his face again! As this was filmed last summer, we're watching footage of Cheban during those happy times before the fall from greatness, before Lizzie Grubman sent him packing for douchey. Now, the poor thing doesn't even get his last name on air. But dry your eyes and enjoy the irony as Hud complains about a venue being "saturated with, like, a cheesy banker crowd" and "fratastic douchebags."

And the extra dosage: Feel Hud's pain as he is ruthlessly mocked by Grove and EIC Michael Cooke for wearing flip-flops. Bonus mockery when Grove brings up Cooke's rumored foot fetish.

Earlier: Gawker's Happily Insipid Coverage of 'Tabloid Wars'

We've said it before, but we are simply ill-equipped to run with the stallions competing for coverage of Bravo's Daily News docu-series Tabloid Wars. Paralyzed by our love for deputy metro meatbaton Greg Gittrich and slow at the keyboard thanks to various, unrelated medications, there's just no way our treatment of this "story" would ever satisfy the show's 2,000 die-hard fans. So instead, we rededicate our energy not to liveblogging the show, but liveblogging FishbowlNY editor Dylan Stableford's conscientious liveblog coverage of the show. After the jump, we watch Dylan watch. more »

We know our limitations, and on a sweaty Monday night viewing of Tabloid Wars, we're going to be rendered useless (more so than usual) by our love for Daily News deputy metro meatstud Greg Gittrich (more on him later). We're not capable of much, then, other than drooling at the screen and fantasizing about life as Gittrich's "hard" news fluffer. In general, our lustful paralysis means that we simply cannot keep up with FishbowlNY's vigilant live-blogging of the show as it unfolds. So instead we present you with our liveblog of Fishbowl editor Dylan Stableford's Tabloid Wars liveblog. After the jump, soak up the meta. more »

Not being particularly fluent in ratings gibberish, we can at least tell you that P+2 is the important part in the above television ratings chart: it represents persons 2-years-old and up (all viewers, basically). Thus for the Monday night debut of Bravo's Daily News docu-whatever Tabloid Wars, only 240,000 people tuned in -- and that's an absolute tragedy. We expected better, really. Does this mean that no one outside of New York cares about the inner workings of our local media? What, like we're living in some kind of bubble? No way. The adorable allure of deputy metro lovemonkey Greg Gittrich is universal.

Let's hope for better results next week, when they air an episode heavy on the ruminations of former gossip whore Hud Morgan.

Earlier: Gawker's Coverage of 'Tabloid Wars'

If there's one thing the past few days have shown us, it's that the best way to revive the increasingly troglodytic newspaper industry is by putting newspapers on television. And now that the hardcore reporters at the Daily News are on the small screen with Bravo's docu-series Tabloid Wars, all the lazy small screen reporters suddenly give a shit about newsprint. Thus the Today show has been scuttling around the News offices for the past couple of hours, with entertainment correspondent Jill Rappaport shoving her formidable chin into everybody's business. A flakey news show covering a reality show about a legitimate news operation? Our blood sugar is too low to handle this sort of meta.

Meanwhile, a sad, late afternoon update on the News' deputy metro mancake Greg Gittrich: he's married. And allegedly his mom's a nun. But that's never stopped us before! (The nun, we mean.)

Earlier: Gawker's Coverage of 'Tabloid Wars'

In our quest to learn everything we can about the shining star of Tabloid Wars, the Daily News's deputy metro muffin Greg Gittrich, we've assembled the following unverified information (and are still looking for more details if you've got 'em):

• He's roughly 30 or 31
• Class of '93 at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, NJ
• NYU/Columbia path to NYDN?
• Father may have had a senior position at the Star-Ledger
• Is "very straight"
• "Laid back," great guy
• Secret nickname is "Buster McThunderstick"

Earlier: Gawker's Coverage of 'Tabloid Wars' and Greg Gittrich

Having already seen the first episode and read countless reviews of Bravo's Tabloid Wars, the docu-series focusing on the journalistic drama hive that is the Daily News, we were all excited to write some sort of live-blog or insightful review of last night's premiere. But alas, there's only so much one can say when every. freaking. media. outlet. has hyped the show beyond proportion (ourselves included), leaving room for no new conclusions or original insights -- other than that the handsome visage of Deputy Metro editor Greg Gittrich shall forevermore grace our bedroom walls. Forget the show's other standout individuals, and let it now be declared: Gittrich is this town's official Working Class Hottie. more »

Considering that the Daily News' Bravo docu-series Tabloid Wars isn't exactly a serial effort (each episode being relatively self-contained and independent of those prior), we're not really sure running an episode guide counts as a "spoiler," but if you're one of those types who gets panties a-bunched over such things, you're thus warned. Bravo has released a guide to the six-episode series: it would seem that the plaintive cries and philosophical musings of gossip sloth Lloyd Grove's then-stringer Hud Morgan are mostly in the second episode (July 31), when he's "charged with hunting down the hottest stars at New York's nighttime hotspots." How glamorous!

Full guide to the series -- complete with dramatic foreshadowing of "the dark side of the news" (which strangely has nothing to do with Hud) -- after the jump. more »

You have just over one month to prepare for the most life-changing television experience ever: Bravo's Tabloid Wars premieres on July 24, and we suggest you start building up your tolerance now, because this show promises to be the most worthy drinking game opportunity since the State of the Union. Taped last summer and billed as a "docu-series," the show follows reporters from the Daily News as they go about the business of reporting news and breaking stories -- plus, we know the cameras caught Lloyd Grove's then-assistant Hud Morgan on the phone, campaigning for Gawker Hottie nominations. Surely that sort of journalistic intensity wouldn't end up on the cutting room floor.

After the jump, the full release from Bravo, the one network brave enough to put these ink-stained wretches on camera. more »

You know, as opposed to regular Bravo.

Bravo Launches Online Gay TV Channel [HuffPost]