60 Fun Facts About Bravo TV

In what year did Bravo launch?

It went on air on 8 December as a commercial-free premium channel for film and the performing arts.

Which company owned Bravo as of 2025?

NBC bought it in 2002 and later merged with Vivendi Universal Entertainment.

What did Bravo originally focus on?

It claimed to be the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts.

In its early years, Bravo shared its channel space with which adult pay channel?

Bravo itself broadcast only on Sunday and Monday nights at first.

Which oil company signed an underwriting deal with Bravo in 1992?

The first Texaco Showcase production was a stage adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

How much did NBC pay for Bravo in 2002?

MGM had briefly held a 20% stake from 1999 to 2001.

Which drama did Bravo begin re-running in 2003, with holiday marathons?

That was the same year the makeover show changed the network's direction.

Which 2003 makeover series drew 3.5 million viewers and pushed Bravo toward reality TV?

It won the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program in 2004 and spawned a spin-off for women.

What was the collective name for Queer Eye's team of experts?

Carson Kressley, Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia and Jai Rodriguez made up the original line-up.

Which streaming service revived Queer Eye in 2018 with a new Fab Five?

The original series had been based in New York City.

Which three Bravo hits all premiered in 2006?

All three spawned spin-offs and international franchises.

Inside the Actors Studio premiered on Bravo in which year?

James Lipton hosted for 22 seasons before it moved to Ovation for a final season in 2019.

Who was the first guest broadcast on Inside the Actors Studio?

Alec Baldwin was actually interviewed first, but his episode aired later.

James Lipton's closing questionnaire was borrowed from which French TV host?

Pivot's questions on Apostrophes were themselves adapted from the Proust Questionnaire.

Where was Inside the Actors Studio taped from 2005?

The Michael Schimmel Center replaced the New School's Tishman Auditorium.

Project Runway premiered on Bravo in December 2004 with which host?

She stayed until 2017; Bravo made the first five seasons before Lifetime took over.

Project Runway returned to Bravo in 2018 after which studio went bankrupt?

Klum and Tim Gunn left the same year to make Making the Cut for Amazon.

Who replaced Tim Gunn as Project Runway's mentor when it returned to Bravo?

He had won season four; Karlie Kloss took over hosting from Klum.

Tim Gunn chaired the fashion department at which New York institution before Project Runway?

He then joined Liz Claiborne as chief creative officer.

Which company produces Top Chef, having also created Project Runway?

Top Chef premiered on Bravo in March 2006.

Who hosted the first season of Top Chef before Padma Lakshmi?

Lakshmi hosted seasons 2 to 20; season 10 winner Kristen Kish took over from season 21.

Which two judges have been mainstays of Top Chef throughout?

Colicchio co-founded Gramercy Tavern and has five James Beard awards.

What is the name of Top Chef's short opening test each episode?

Its winner traditionally gets immunity from elimination.

The Top Chef season winner gets a feature in which magazine?

Plus a cash prize and an appearance at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

The Real Housewives franchise began in March 2006 in which location?

It was inspired by scripted soaps like Desperate Housewives and Peyton Place.

How many international adaptations of the Real Housewives exist?

The first was Athens in 2011; the longest-running is Cheshire.

How many spin-off series has the American Real Housewives franchise produced?

The most successful is Vanderpump Rules, which has spin-offs of its own.

Vanderpump Rules is set at restaurants in which Los Angeles neighbourhood?

SUR, Pump and Tom Tom are all Lisa Vanderpump's.

What does SUR, the Lisa Vanderpump venue at the heart of her spin-off show, stand for?

Lisa Vanderpump was born in Dulwich, London.

Below Deck's first season yacht was renamed what for filming?

The 164-foot Cuor di Leone was captained by Lee Rosbach on a Caribbean charter.

Which of these is NOT a real spin-off in the yachting franchise?

Below Deck Adventure rounds out the real spin-offs.

Watch What Happens Live premiered in which year?

It is produced live from New York City so viewers can call in.

What was Andy Cohen's job at Bravo before he became a host?

He came over from Trio when Bravo bought that channel in 2004.

Where was Andy Cohen born?

He studied broadcast journalism at Boston University and interned at CBS News with Julie Chen.

What is the name of the SiriusXM channel Cohen curates?

It launched in September 2015 and produced a Housewives parody, Radio Andy Theater.

What is the title of Andy Cohen's 2012 memoir?

It made the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover and paperback.

The first BravoCon was held in November 2019 in which city?

Venues included the Hammerstein Ballroom; tickets ran from $125 to $1,500.

What award ceremony was introduced at BravoCon 2023?

It honours the network's personalities and memorable moments.

Kathy Griffin's Bravo reality series was called My Life on the what?

It won two Emmys and was nominated in every one of its six seasons.

Flipping Out followed which Los Angeles designer?

His assistant Jenni Pulos and housekeeper Zoila Chavez became fan favourites.

Shahs of Sunset followed Iranian Americans living in which area?

It ran from 2012 to 2021 and was produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions.

Southern Charm is set in which city?

It premiered in March 2014 with Shep Rose, Craig Conover and Thomas Ravenel among the cast.

What was Bravo's first scripted series, which premiered in 2014?

It ran until 2018; Imposters followed in 2017.

Why was Bravo excluded from Comcast's 2024 cable spin-off, Versant?

Most other NBCUniversal cable channels went into the new company.

Which tennis event did Bravo carry almost exclusively during the 2012 Olympics?

It showed up to 56 hours, with only the singles finals on NBC.

Bethenny Frankel, the Real Housewives of New York star, founded which lifestyle brand?

She had been runner-up on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart in 2005.

On which two nights of the week did Bravo originally broadcast?

It launched as a commercial-free premium service claiming to be the first dedicated to film and the performing arts.

Which cable operator's Rainbow Media division co-owned Bravo at its 1980 launch?

Its partner was Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which also had a hand in Nickelodeon.

The adult pay channel that once shared Bravo's channel space was later renamed what?

Oddly, that channel had itself launched under the Bravo name in July 1979.

By what year had Bravo begun accepting traditional commercial advertising?

It had converted from premium to basic cable in the mid-1980s but stayed commercial-free, using PBS-style underwriting.

Which film studio bought a 20% stake in Bravo in 1999, selling it back two years later?

The stake went back to Rainbow Media in 2001, a year before NBC bought the whole network.

Which filmmaker's documentary series The Awful Truth ran on Bravo from 1999?

The Encyclopedia of Television listed it among Bravo shows 'too risky or eclectic for mainstream channels'.

Which British playwright's final serials, Karaoke and Cold Lazarus, aired on Bravo in 1997?

Potter wrote both serials knowing he was dying of cancer; they were shown in the UK by the BBC and Channel 4 jointly.

Bravo's 2017 logo refresh rendered its speech-bubble wordmark in what style?

The redesign and a neutralised look were meant to attract more male viewers, and the '...by Bravo' tag was phased out.

At its 2013 peak, roughly how many US pay-TV households could receive Bravo?

By November 2023 that reach had shrunk to about 70 million households.

In what year were Bravo's A-List Awards created to honour pop-culture figures?

The awards recognised 'unforgettable' contributions in fields such as beauty, design, fashion and cooking.

Canada's original Bravo was rebranded in 2019 under what name?

Rogers later acquired the Canadian rights to the brand and relaunched Bravo in September 2024 in place of OLN.

Which Australian broadcaster launched the local channel 7Bravo in January 2023?

An earlier Australian channel, Arena, had borrowed Bravo's 'Watch What Happens' slogan from 2008.

During the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bravo was the exclusive US home of which sport?

Bravo had first supplemented NBC's Olympic coverage with overnight events in 2004.

Which New Zealand youth channel closed in July 2016 to be replaced by Bravo?

The New Zealand Bravo is now co-owned by Sky Network Television through Sky Free.