Bravo's 2012 Lineup - Part 3: The New and Exciting and An Old Favorite With A New Twist

   So if you've been following along, part one talks mainly about Jeff Lewis' new series because I am very intrigued by the fact that in addition to his typical antics on Flipping Out, he will now be acting as personal therapist to his interior design clients as well. Part two talks mainly about three shows that Bravo is calling new. In fairness, they are 'never before seen shows' but in spite of that, I still feel like I have seen them before because of their similar content or concept. Here in part three, I intend to come full circle with my initial assessment of Bravo's 2012 television lineup and talk about the shows that seem to be the most interesting to me. Two of them are truly brand new, nothing like it has aired on television before and each of them seem exciting or at least interesting enough to tune in for. Then there is a third show that I believe will be very good, but oddly enough, Bravo has it listed as a returning series even though it seems newer in concept than some of the previously mentioned shows that are being billed as new series' but seem like they've been done before.

   To be fair, this show does sort of fall under the House Hunters / House Hunters International thing. Or even similar to how Selling Los Angeles and Selling New York compare to one another. Essentially they are the same show filmed in a different location. It just so happens that location has almost everything to do with those shows, so while it does make sense that they are promoted as new or different from each other, the concept is exactly the same. 

   Tabitha Takes Over is one of Bravo's 'new' shows, and I go out of the way to call this new even though Bravo calls it 'returning' because in my opinion, it varies from her original Bravo series, Tabatha's Salon Takeover more than Love Broker varies from Millionaire Matchmaker even though Tabatha and a 'takeover' are common to both shows. Maybe I am just biased since I think Tabatha's Salon Takeover is interesting and enjoyable and I assume that this new installment will be more of the same. That being said, taking over and rejuvenating a restaurant or night club is quite different than taking over a new salon each week. In fact, this new concept reaches out to a broader audience because not every male is going to find it interesting to watch a salon get made over, but seeing the transformation of a restaurant's staff and space might tickle their fancy a bit more. I actually think that Tabatha and her advice to struggling business owners and their eventual turn in the right direction is appealing enough to watch regardless of the establishment. Therefore watching her try her hand (and likely succeed) at turning around businesses or stores that are outside of her hair salon expertise will be just as attractive as her original series. 

   Unlike anything we have seen from Bravo before, Ryan Seacrest's Shahs of Sunset should be intriguing and hopefully somewhat informative on the topic of how Persian-Americans balance their traditions and culture with the busy, demanding and sometimes chaotic lifestyles that are typical for working American families in Los Angeles. At the heart of it, this 'docu-series' will probably pan out as a typical reality show does, but it should be interesting and much more educational to the average American reality television show viewer because a majority
of them probably have very little awareness of how difficult it can be to maintain one's cultural traditions in a society that operates much differently than the one they grew up in.

   Finally, Around The World in 80 Plates is Bravo's new reality competition series and anyone that knows me knows that I love food-related shows, especially if they are based on competition. I also enjoy the work and personality of both hosts, Curtis Stone and Iron Chef Cat Cora. When first seeing the title of this series, it seemed to me that this show was going to involve the hosts eating and describing traditional, ethnic cuisine from various countries around the world. From seeing lots of shows similar to what I just described, I assumed there would be an interesting story to go along with each meal in each country and although I would give it a chance, it probably would have appeared in my prior post where I talked about all of Bravo's 'new' shows that look like shows that have already been done in some way. However, I was pleased to find out that this was not the case for Around The World in 80 Plates. Instead, from what I gather this show is more of an Amazing Race type series that involves cooking or eating along the journey. With that being the case, I expect to see plenty of promotional products being distributed in one form or another, so you imprinted giveaway enthusiasts will definitely want to be on the lookout for that. Bravo calls it one of the network's 'most ambitious productions to date' as it will 'follow 12 chefs as they compete in a culinary race across 10 countries in 44 days.' Sounds awesome to me! So unlike many of the other Bravo shows I've commented on, I will be setting my DVR for this one and look forward to seeing how this show puts a new twist on the cooking competition reality show.