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VH1's 'Real Friends of WeHo' Bombs

The Real Friends of WeHo has turned out to be a real bomb. This week’s Nielsen report shows that, despite MTV’s best efforts to make Real Friends a “destination night” for gay viewers by sandwiching it in between two shows with a loyal fanbase, gay viewers tuning in to watch Drag Race and the Drag Race aftershow Untucked mostly just want to watch … Drag Race and Untucked. After record-high ratings for its 15th-season premiere two weeks ago, Drag Race continued its streak of success this week, accumulating 578,000 viewers, making it the sixth most popular show on cable for the night and giving it a 0.14 share of the night. The Real Friends premiere, meanwhile managed to hold onto just 29 percent of Drag Race’s viewership with 186,000 viewers and a 0.03 share of the night.

Perhaps most damning of all, however, is that more viewers opted to tune back into Untucked than still through the premiere of Real Friends. Untucked managed to accrue 214,000 viewers and a 0.04 share of the night, making it the 60th most-watched cable show of the night, in comparison to Real Friends’s appropriate 69th. When asked for comment, MTV stated that, “MTV was the No. 1 entertainment cable network in prime on Friday, 1/20/23 among young adults.”

Real Friends’ failure to hold onto viewers presumably primed to watch, and possibly even enjoy, the show disproves the old Hollywood saying, “All press is good press.” Not true, it turns out! The show has been, at the very least, loudly controversial among the audience it is intended to reach. In an act of support for Real Friends, MTV made the choice to cut Drag Race down from a 90-minute episode each week (which the show had aired since season ten) to 60 minutes. That has meant seeing less of Ru’s interactions with the queens, a shortened runway, and seeing no judges’ deliberations for the first time in the show’s history — including when the episodes were only 60 minutes for seasons one through nine. In the lead up to Real Friends’ release, disgruntled Drag Race fans who were unhappy with Drag Race’s shortened runtime affecting the pace of the show, bombarded the official Twitter account with since-deleted scat-play videos to show their discontent.

There was also the issue of the Real Friends’ cast, which included Todrick Hall, a content creator and Drag Race judging vet who has been controversial for reportedly not paying workers including dancers and Drag Race legend Manila Luzon.

The night of the premiere, fans were thoroughly united against the show. Across social media, multiple videos of Drag Race viewing-party participants circulated showing hordes of Drag Race fans cheering for the TV to be turned off when Real Friends came on. In response, Hall put out a social-media screed. “Fun Fact: The average annual earning for gay men in the U.S. is $59,618 compared to $57,032 for straight men,” Hall argued. “We are successful, we work hard, and we deserve to see ourselves thriving on TV.” The other gays of Real Friends have yet to publicly respond.

To some, Hall’s scolding recalled the press tour associated with the first studio gay rom-com Bros from earlier in the year, which included writer/star Billy Eichner saying at the MTV VMAs, “I need you all there in theaters on September 30, ’cause we need to show all the homophobes like Clarence Thomas and all the homophobes on the Supreme Court that we want gay love stories and we support LGBTQ people and we are not letting them drag us back into the last century because they are past, and Bros is the future.” When Bros went on to be a box-office bomb, the response was summed up by one Los Angeles Times headline: “The real lesson of Bros: It’s OK to let gay art bomb.” In a market with growing amounts of gay content, the repeated strategy of arguing that watching gay programming is an act of resistance or work toward social justice doesn’t seem to be working. Oh at all.

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by Anonymousreply 30February 5, 2023 8:38 PM

bombarded the official Twitter account with since-deleted scat-play videos to show their discontent.

Where are the videos ?

by Anonymousreply 1January 26, 2023 4:36 PM

R1

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by Anonymousreply 2January 26, 2023 5:20 PM

Good. Now can everyone just agree that Todrick Hall needs to just go away for a very long time?

by Anonymousreply 3January 26, 2023 5:28 PM

Nobody liked the cast. Nobody wanted to see WEHO through their eyes. It was a waste of a good subject. WEHO is interesting.

by Anonymousreply 4January 26, 2023 5:32 PM

BUMP

by Anonymousreply 5February 2, 2023 8:50 PM

People are getting sick of femmy Yassss Kweens. They’re annoying.

by Anonymousreply 6February 2, 2023 9:07 PM

I watched fifteen minutes of the first episode and quickly deleted it from my DVR. Worst cast of a reality show in recent memory !

by Anonymousreply 7February 2, 2023 9:10 PM

Why does the gay community always play to the worst and most extreme stereotypes in our community?

by Anonymousreply 8February 2, 2023 9:16 PM

The show is quite bad. I happened to watch about 15 minutes of the most recent episode and it seemed to consist of boring setups where one person asks the other "how are you?" as the catalyst for mind-numbing babble and fake drama.

by Anonymousreply 9February 2, 2023 9:42 PM

None of these guys actually live in weho r4

by Anonymousreply 10February 2, 2023 9:50 PM

R10 *fags

by Anonymousreply 11February 2, 2023 9:55 PM

Poor Brad thought his little viral Housewives imitations meant he was a star.

by Anonymousreply 12February 2, 2023 9:56 PM

Yes everybody agrees on that point R3.

by Anonymousreply 13February 2, 2023 9:57 PM

Like I asked when DL first posted about this, what the fuck does “real friends if weho” even mean? It sounds like baby talk.

I know it’s a takeoff on “real housewives,” itself a stupid name for a show, but it least it has some discernible meaning. Real … friends? Go fuck yourself.

by Anonymousreply 14February 2, 2023 10:07 PM

^^^ of weho

by Anonymousreply 15February 2, 2023 10:07 PM

The original, more accurate title ‘High-Maintenance Fags of Greater LA’ didn’t roll off the tongue, R14

by Anonymousreply 16February 2, 2023 10:10 PM

You guys want to have it both ways. You yell at people for "scolding" you for not watching gay-themed shows or movies...but then complain that there aren't enough gay-themed shows and movies.

Newsflash.....if you don't go see gay-themed shows or movies, Hollywood won't make them.

by Anonymousreply 17February 2, 2023 10:12 PM

[quote]WEHO is interesting.

Not since the 90s.

by Anonymousreply 18February 2, 2023 10:14 PM

R17 - this isn't the kind of gay-themed show any of us want to see even being made in the first place because it's just the pits and sets us all back. See the difference?

by Anonymousreply 19February 2, 2023 10:15 PM

[quote]but then complain that there aren't enough gay-themed shows and movies.

Complain that there aren't enough GOOD gay-themed shows and movies.

(Fixed it for you.)

by Anonymousreply 20February 2, 2023 10:16 PM

R17 let’s see some gay entertainment about everyday gays who are lawyers or doctors or other professionals and not egomaniac cartoon kweens. We’re sick of it. Not all of us want to clack a circuit fan to Lemonade at the club.

by Anonymousreply 21February 2, 2023 10:17 PM

Quit acting like this really bad and ill conceived reality show is gay content anyone wanted r17 or in any way important representation.

I watched every episode of Looking. I watched Fire Island and Bros as soon as they came out.

I had zero desire to see this shit

by Anonymousreply 22February 2, 2023 10:31 PM

R21, a person with a respectable career isn’t going to join a trashy reality tv show when these shows are known for ridiculing its subjects. Only truly shallow gay men would agree to that.

by Anonymousreply 23February 2, 2023 10:43 PM

[quote]Hall argued. “We are successful, we work hard, and we deserve to see ourselves thriving on TV.”

Nobody wants to see that Todrik creature on their TV.

by Anonymousreply 24February 2, 2023 11:18 PM

Brad is still promoting this on his IG. I'm second-hand embarrassed for him. Apparently last night's ep was them going to PS for Pride.

by Anonymousreply 25February 4, 2023 5:31 PM

Chris Salvatore must be having a good laugh.

by Anonymousreply 26February 4, 2023 6:27 PM

Todrick Hall sounds like a community building somewhere in rural Britain. Is it his real name?

by Anonymousreply 27February 4, 2023 10:16 PM

We have at least three active threads on this show, that everyone says no one is watching. I'll link the original thread.

r19 & r21 Most of the complaints on the main thread aren't that this show is even trashy or a vehicle for horrible stereotypes; it's just very bland, directionless, and probably 10 years too late.

A cast member has already revealed that the show was originally "A-List Los Angeles", it went through a ton of reworking and bad rebranding before it ended up on MTV. So its very likely that there will only be 1 season.

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by Anonymousreply 28February 5, 2023 4:42 PM

[quote]A cast member has already revealed that the show was originally "A-List Los Angeles",

Once Todrick Hall was attached, it had to be reworked as “Z-List Los Angeles.”

by Anonymousreply 29February 5, 2023 8:36 PM

[quote]So its very likely that there will only be 1 season.

An ENTIRE season?

by Anonymousreply 30February 5, 2023 8:38 PM
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