How Much Does An Episode Of Queer Eye Cost?
"Queer Eye" knows how to make their heroes look good — but how much money does it cost to give them a second chance at a social life? The answer has never been entirely unveiled; only glimpses of the show's budget have been revealed by the Fab Five. Decorator Jeremiah Brent said that he's given $40,000 to spruce up a client's home for the show over a span of three days, for instance. That's an increase over what Bobby Berk reported he had to work with before he departed the program during Season 8. His remodel budget was a mere $20,000 per client.
The Fab Five work hard at keeping costs down. "I base it on what's there and appropriate for the hero. I'm never like 'I want them to look like a supermodel so I'll take them to Gucci.' That's not sustainable and a lifestyle they can maintain," Tan France explained to Business of Fashion. France and Karamo Brown have noted that their heroes — the term "Queer Eye" uses for its guests — don't pay a cent for their makeovers, so the difference in cost has to be made up in other ways. If there's any tension in the team when pulling it off, it never comes through on the screen: Karamo is happy to explain how Tan keeps the team together through the toughest moments.
What helps to pay for the show's extravagances? Endorsements, product placements, and brand tie-ins. For Tan, he gathers information about the hero's favorite stores well before filming, constructing affordable outfits around that intel. The producers then get to work, getting clothing lines and shops involved. Some portion of the show's budget, meanwhile, pays off any products that aren't given away. Plus, one has to tack on the cost of traveling, and salaries for each "Queer Eye" member. That has gone up from the $7,500 they each made per episode during Seasons 1 and 2. Add it all together and you have a hefty budget, even without exact totals.
Bravo may have turned down the Queer Eye reboot because it was too expensive to produce
While the overall budget for the Netflix version of "Queer Eye" might be unknown, it was too rich for Bravo when the series reboot was pitched to them in 2018. "It was gonna be super expensive, 'Queer Eye' was a very expensive show to make. I think Bravo probably made the right move not doing that show," Andy Cohen explained on SiriusXM's Jeff Lewis Live (via E! News). Since Bravo was the original home of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" when it launched in 2003, that decision says something fascinating about the economics of making a reality show in the 2020s.
As high as the budget may have been back then, one of the ways the Bravo version of the series defrayed costs was also by using product placement — but they were more in-your-face about it than the Netflix version of the show. In fact, the reboot's team of producers vowed to be less aggressive in their onscreen marketing in light of the way the first version of the show handled the practice. Joel Chiodi, a senior strategic development executive from Scout Productions (which helps bring "Queer Eye" to life), told Business of Fashion, "We all joke the original series maybe had a little too much placement."
Chiodi noted that their show's team has actually turned down brands before, and have also dealt with archaic rules put in place by certain companies so that the show can use them. The Fab 5 urges their heroes to reach for the sky, even as they — like team member Karamo Brown once did for MTV — try to live in the real world.