The Sydney Morning Herald (19 Feb) reports "Aussie Queer Eye a big turn-off for advertisers." Ratings are half what was expected and Channel Ten stands to loose millions. Ratings dropped heavily between the first episode and the second. I watched the first half of the first Australian episode, then turned it off. It was an exact-as-possible clone of the American version (even down to the imported gas-guzzler 4WD). No innovation, nothing Australian except brand names (not sure if half of them weren’t imported). Result? Dull, dull, dull. The original version works (maybe) in an American setting, especially New York, is at least a tiny bit exotic to a non-US audience, and is sometimes witty. Australians don’t mind American shows that are American. But Australian shows need to be vaguely Australian or at least cosmopolitan. The Australian show could have been set anywhere. There was no attempt to showcase its Aussie setting (was it made in Sydney?). The commercialism was much more obvious when one recognised the brands. The dialogue was low on wit. Boring, boring, boring.
The ‘Sydney Confidential’ column in the Daily Telegraph (owned by a rival media organisation) ran this bitchy comment on 11 Feb:

Queer Eye flops
Oh dear — Queer Eye boys fail to capture the imagination.
Channel Ten’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is gay—that’s gay as in daggy, crap, wrong, a dud. At least so say ‘Confidential’s’ local gay lads. "I can honestly say God was shining on me the day they said I was not right for the show,” said one potential Queer Eye. “How absolutely embarrassing. It was like watching a car crash," he said.
So what exactly was it that has the city’s queer kids so upset? The fashion tips? The stilted conversations? A touch of jealousy perhaps? "All of it," said ‘Confidential’ reader Brendan.
"Ah, they had red gerberas on the kitchen bench—I don’t think so," said Matt. "Ty Hencshke is like some sort of children’s TV show presenter, Will Fennell I must admit I quite loved, but they just so didn’t work together," he said.
It appears Sydney’s gay community were laying bets as to how long the series, which rated third in its timeslot in Sydney with 290,000 viewers, will last.

Postscript:: Melbourne’s Herald Sun (25 Feb.)(reports that the show has been scrapped.

Wednesday’s episode, featuring the make-over of a man dubbed “Haircules” because of thick body air, was a ratings flop. It reached just 229,000 viewers in Melbourne [population 4 million plaus] and was thumped in its timeslot by local drama McLeod’s Daughters (427,000). … Channel 10 insists remaining episodes will be shown. "We believe Queer Eye did not get the figures it deserved so we will be running the remaining episodes as a series of specials when the American Queer Eye returns," a Ten spokesman said.

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