signing off

The Death + Reincarnation of Gay TV: The Week Tyra Banks and Nate Berkus Say Goodbye

This week television lost two major gay influencers: Nate Berkus on Oprah, and Tyra Banks on her own show. Got the sads?

Berkus, the interior designer, is done appearing on Oprah’s Chicago-based talk show, as anyone watching his send-off episode knows. But that’s only because he’s decamping for New York, where he’ll film his eponymous talk show for Oprah’s new television network OWN. So he’s not really going away, just taking a break to build his own brand.

But Tyra — who’s dealt with tranny porn stars, gay demon exorcisms, homophobia, gender reassignments, and gay-for-pay porn stars — the the one we’re truly going to miss. Today is the last day of The Tyra Banks Show.

It’s the day we’ve been dreading-slash-waiting for since December, when Banks confirmed rumors she was leaving the air. Which itself is a bit of a misnomer, since she’s not leaving television entirely, just the Tyra show. She’ll still have America’s Next Top Model, which is on track for Cycle 90,374.

Which leaves us with the vanilla goings-on at Ellen, the disconnect banter at Wendy, and the entirely pointless but mustn’t-miss travails of The View. So while Berkus gave us a handsome A-gay to drool over on television, it’s Tyra’s heavily gay programming that will be missed the most.

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