A version of this story about “Queer Eye” creator David Collins first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Since debuting on Netflix in 2018, “Queer Eye” has won the Emmy for Outstanding Structured Reality Series four times in a row. Now the show — in which the Fab Five (Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk and Karamo Brown) travel the country helping people with grooming, fashion, cooking, home decor and life coaching — could make Emmy history. If “Queer Eye” wins this year for Season 6, it will set a new record for the most consecutive triumphs in that category, breaking its current tie with ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
For David Collins, who created the “make better” reality series (and its groundbreaking 2004 predecessor, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”) with his company, Scout Productions, the milestone is “nothing short of mind-blowing.”
“This little gay boy from Cincinnati, Ohio, in a million years, never thought that this was possible,” he said, gesturing to himself. “I grew up in a time when you weren’t even saying the word ‘gay,’ let alone ‘queer.’ To be here now in 2022 and to be nominated and potentially set the record in the category — it is just a huge moment.”
On a sweltering morning in Kansas City, where he was shooting Scout’s upcoming reality-series adaptation of “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning” with Amy Poehler, Collins reached us via Zoom to talk about the success of “Queer Eye.”
The show now has a total of 29 Emmy nominations. What does it mean to you that it has been embraced so enthusiastically?
I mean, what a journey “Queer Eye” has been, from its inception 20 years ago this year to now. I’m a daddy of twin 13-year-old girls and those girls get to see a whole new world that I didn’t. So for me, it is just a huge, humbled moment to realize that not only did I not know that to dream this big or to think that this was possible, this little idea of two different worlds, right? Two different people’s two different sides of the story coming together to share their story and have that be celebrated. It’s really mind-blowing.
What I love and am probably most proud of is: Jen Lane, the mama bear of all mama bears, who runs the show for us, has evolved the (“Queer Eye” concept). Everyone loves a good transformation, right? Who doesn’t like to see a good before-and-after? But it’s not just transformation. This is storytelling with a massive heart.
Right. Viewers kind of fall in love with the people the Fab Five visits and helps.
All of them. Each season we get such amazing heroes. We call them “heroes” because they get to have their story told. And that storytelling becomes more than a new outfit and a new couch and a new, organized closet. That’s the cool part right now. We’re not just straight guys and gay guys. It’s men, women, gay, straight, Black, white — it’s all the beautiful colors that we bring as humanity. Whether it’s a father who has a trans daughter and was afraid to meet her…or the Jones sisters four years ago. These two sisters had worked really hard at this family business, and the guys helped give them confidence in themselves again. Purely coincidence: I’m here in Kansas City and put the TV on and the Jones sisters are on the local news talking about how they’re retiring because their barbecue sauce has done so well. Amazing!
You shot season six in Austin, Texas, but production was shut down during episode 1 because of Covid-19. How did the pandemic influence the show after you all returned from lockdown?
It was a fine balance because Americans were like, “Do we wanna keep talking about the pandemic and seeing masks and all of that?” But the truth is, people’s stories became even more relevant because they were at home and they were alone and we were kind of forced to look at ourselves. We had just started, then we had to take a break and recalibrate, do some re-casting and then come back in. The Fab Five, for them it was special because they had not seen each other for a while. You see that the guys had missed each other.
Over six seasons, your show has done a lot for visibility and inclusivity during an extremely polarized time. Is there anything that “Queer Eye” hasn’t tackled yet that you’d like it to?
Well, look, I think in today’s climate — you know, gay rights, Roe versus Wade, freedom of choice, even climate change, for that matter — we want to stay engaged with the other side and continue to push the conversation. You know, we’ve never been political. The core message behind “Queer Eye” is seeing each other’s humanity. I go back to my family in Ohio and ooh, it’s a hard smack of reality sometimes. But I’m also like, okay, I have to take the time to sit and listen and hear their side of the story and I share mine and hopefully, those two stories find a different middle ground each time. I love that we get to continue to go into cities and towns that perhaps aren’t terribly comfortable with five gay men coming into the town and asking questions and opening doors and talking to people. That part for me is the joy of the series.
Read more from the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue here.
