Break out the fiddles. I Am Cait, the E! reality series that followed Caitlyn Jenner on her journey of self-discovery, has officially been canned due to shockingly low ratings.
Related: Caitlyn Jenner Making Small Talk With Hillary Clinton Is As Uncomfortable As It Sounds
The show’s first season, which premiered last summer, started out strong. Reviews and ratings were favorable, and the show even picked up the Outstanding Reality Program award at the 27th GLAAD Media Awards. But as time progressed, and as Jenner regularly started making gaffes about how Hillary Clinton “couldn’t care less about women” and Donald Trump “would be very good for women’s issues,” she quickly fell out of people’s good graces.
Related: Bette Midler’s Twitter Shade Campaign Continues With Caitlyn Jenner Dig
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Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“It’s time for the next adventure,” the 66-year-old said this week, before thanking “the best girlfriends I could ask for!” Given Jenner’s vocal support of Trump and his anti-LGTBQ Republican friends, however, we can’t help but wonder if her girlfriends feel the same way.
Scroll down for eight more queer reality TV shows that everyone hated…
Boy Meets Boy
This 2003 reality series by Bravo centered around James, a gay man who got to go on dates with and choose from 15 potential male suitors. But, as is often the case in these sorts of things, there was a twist. The suitors were mix gay guys and straight guys, and James didn’t know which was which! The show lasted a whopping six episodes before being canceled.
Carson Nation
This 2011 docu-series produced by OWN followed Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame as he traveled to various sad small towns across the America selecting “deserving individuals,” including a soldier’s daughter, a 45-year-old male virgin, and a woman dying of cancer, who he felt needed makeovers. It should come as no surprise the series only survived six episodes.
Playing It Straight
This 2004 FOX reality series, which ran for a total of eight excruciating episodes, involved a heterosexual woman and a bunch of dudes all forced to live together on ranch. Her challenge? Guess which of the guys were gay and which were straight. The woman would watch them participate in group activities, observing their vocal inflections and mannerisms, then vote off the ones she believed were homosexuals. Nothing homophobic about that, right?
The Glee Project
We usually love everything Ryan Murphy does, but his 2011 foray into reality TV proved that sometimes even he makes mistakes. The talent show served as a sort of competition/audition for teeny boppers hoping to land a spot on Glee. Ryan and Glee‘s casting director, Robert Ulrich, would judge the contestants on their singing and dancing abilities. The show limped along for two seasons before being quietly yanked off the air.
Gay, Straight Or Taken?
This short-lived 2007 reality series by Lifetime involved a female contestant going on a poolside group date with three men. There was a catch, of course. One of the men was straight but in a relationship, another was gay and in a relationship, and the third was straight, single and ready to mingle. The woman had to guess which was which. If she picked correctly, she won a trip.
Tacky House
This 2009 reality series by the Style network starred former Queer Eye design guru Thom Filicia, who would go around and redo the homes of people who had gone overboard on a theme. He was supposed to turn their houses “from gaudy to glorious,” but he usually just succeeded in turning them from gaudy to slightly less gaudy. The show met its untimely death after just one season.
Queer Eye For The Straight Girl
In 2005, Bravo hoped to recapture the success of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy by switching up the formula. The makeover show involved three flamboyant gay guys and a bossy lesbian who called themselves the “Gal Pals” and would help clueless straight women improve their looks in hopes of finding their Prince Charming. Needless to say, the show bombed and was canceled after 13 unlucky episodes.
Jacob and Joshua: Nemesis Rising
Who wouldn’t want to watch two douchey identical gay twins from Montana form a crappy pop duo called Nemesis then embark on a journey seeking fame and fortune? Turns out, a lot of people. The 2006 reality series by Logo bombed so bad that the network didn’t even air the final episode on TV. Instead it was made available online only… where still nobody watched it.
Guy068
I think I Am Cait divebombed so quick because we all thought we didn’t know the real Caitlin from when she was still living as Bruce. Once we found out she was still the same selfish, shallow person no matter what gender she represented the bloom was off the rose…
Ridpathos
All these shows sound terrible.
He BGB
I watched I am Cait on hulu and was flabbergasted by how self centered she is. It’s all good as long as she is being pampered and everyone agrees with her. When ex wife makes an appearance (kris) it was so uncomfortable like Cait wasn’t even listening to Kris but posing and lecturing. Sometimes I think she’s more of a fetishist than a true transgender woman. Glamour, having breadts, soft skun, etc. That does not a woman make
Ari Gold
Why do the dating shows all involve “guess the gay”?
Bob LaBlah
They canned I Am Cait? Free champaign for everyone.
Mack
I am Cait is nothing more than a Kartrashian series of a person whose only thoughts are of themselves. I almost vomit every time one of them appears on tv or in the news. Some “news” source dedicate something to the Kartrashian Group everyday. And it’s downright sickening. I celebrated when the show was cancelled.
The others, in all honesty, I had heard nothing about. Some put the LGBT in bad light and they should be ashamed in participating. The LGBT still has an uphill battle to show the public that we’re something other than a group of flamboyant queens. Personally I’m tired of shows like Big Brother who finds the biggest queens and put them on instead of someone who is masculine and can hold their own.
Brian
The problem with “gay shows” is that the producers feel compelled to play up the most extreme stereotypes. They think it’s the only way they’re going to achieve ratings. The actual ratings figures prove otherwise. We would much rather NOT watch TV shows that play up gay stereotypes.
BillSam
Now this article I liked! Good show, Queerty. Glad that I missed — and in some cases never even heard of — most of these awful programs.
Bob LaBlah
The Big Bang and Will and Grace to date are the best gay (oriented) shows ever on television. Between the two I say The Big Bang is the funniest (and yes, I know Will and Grace was cancelled years ago).
Brian
Bob LaBlah,
How is The Big Bang “gay-oriented”. Please cite any example – that’s if you can find it.
Kangol
No “The A-List New York”? Or the Texas version? And what about the one set in Nashville (or somewhere nearby) that featured the gay white guy and his straight black gal pal who was totally in love with him? That one was a bit crazy too.
Blackceo
Yeah…all of those shows were horrible but I’m sorry I loved Queer Eye for the Straight Girl because I had such a hard on for Honey Labrador and Danny Teeson. So I showed up for that short lived show for every one of its episodes.
AJAnders
When it wasn’t about turning the romance into guess the gay/straight guy, it was a bunch of makeover shows. How progressive.
Then there was the A-list New York, which only played a role in making gay people hate gay people.
rcktetr
I think Caitlin or whatever can have her own beliefs. If she supports trump and doesn’t have a favorable opinion of Hilary so what? Let her. That’s not why the show ended, because someone thought for themselves. Not what they felt pressured to feel. I’m gay and am on the fence about trump myself. Something about him seem really good.
Dave Downunder
Laughing at that pic of Jenner. They’ve photoshopped about 30 years off her.
ErikO
Don’t forget the TV show looking. It was horrible and they even made a movie about it.
Heywood Jablowme
“The suitors were mix [sic] gay guys and straight guys, and James didn’t know which was which!”
No gaydar, huh? How could he not know within, like, 5 minutes?
Of course, if James worked for Queerty he’d figure out which were the STRAIGHT guys and chase after them!
Bob LaBlah
@Brian. Are you honestly telling me you have not picked up on the show’s star, Jim Parsons character?
Brian
It’s nonsensical to suggest Big Bang Theory is gay-friendly. It isn’t.
Stilinski26
Lol I remember how Caitlyn Jenner was called a “hero” a year ago that escalated quickly
Bob LaBlah
@Stilinski26: It sure does seem like only yesterday when gianmesshead was reporting anything he took as an insult to that old phony.
mdbuck67
Sorry, but the bottom of the barrel is the “Real Housewives” franchise. They’re going to have to store the master tapes for this sludge in toxic waste containers. If Andy Cohen lived in any other country, he’d be broke & living under a bridge.
arig82
The early 2000s was a dark time for us all….