“Boy Meets Boy,” Bravo’s new dating-themed reality series -- and television's first gay-dating series -- will premiere on Tuesday, July 29 (9-10 PM ET), it was announced today by Jeff Gaspin, President, Bravo and Executive Vice President, Alternative Series, Specials, Longform and Program Strategy, NBC Entertainment.
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During the show, both James and his fifteen potential mates will live in luxurious but separate accommodations. The suitors vie for his affections by participating in group activities and attending one-on-one dates while the leading man -- with the advice of Andra, his best female friend -- will whittle down the dating pool as he eliminates men at the end of each episode. Adding to the suspense is an element of surprise - What the leading man and Andra don’t know is that some of the “mates” are actually straight men posing as gay men -- a twist that allows for numerous avenues of social exploration that challenge preconceived notions of what is considered gay and straight behavior.
The audience at home will be involved in a guessing game, always wondering who among the suitors is gay or straight. The series culminates with James making his final choice. If James selects a gay man the couple win an all-expensive paid dream vacation, and James receives a $25,000 cash prize. If James selects a straight “mate” the straight man receives a $25,000 cash prize and James gets an all expenses-paid dream vacation for himself and his own chosen friend.
One of the gay mates said that the series’ experience made him realize that he has many gay and straight female friends but he didn’t have any straight male friends. After the conclusion of production, he maintained that he felt positive about reaching out and making more.
On the other hand, one of the straight mates said “It was interesting, because throughout my life I was just who I was, I never had to pretend until this show to be someone of a different sexual orientation… "
"All these gay guys that I’m hanging out with had spent years going through what I had spent a few days doing, having to pretend that they had a different sexual orientation… It’s not easy trying to fit in sometimes when you feel like you have to pretend to be something you’re not…It got so emotional, and so intense for me, I threw my arms up and said I can’t do this anymore, I need everyone to know who I am… I think that parallels a transition that a lot of these guys had to go through during their lifetime when they threw their arms up and said, you know what? I can’t do this anymore. I hope that this whole experience and this interaction will open people’s eyes up a little bit, and allow them to see that there’s a lot of cool guys out there to hang out with, and sexual orientation has nothing to do with it.”
“We hope to open up the hearts and minds of gay and straight viewers as they experience both the romantic journey of our leading man -- and the adventure of the straight mates having to walk a mile in a gay man's shoes," said co-creator and executive producer Douglas Ross of Evolution Film & Tape, Inc.
"Boy Meets Boy" is produced by Evolution Film & Tape, Inc. in association with Bravo. Douglas Ross is co-creator and executive producer and Tom Campbell is co-creator and co-executive producer for Evolution with Kirk Marcolina as co-executive producer. Ross and Evolution produced the series "Gay Weddings" for Bravo last year.
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