Queer Eye - Franchises and Spin-off Series

Franchises and Spin-off Series

Queer Eye's American success led television networks in several countries to syndicate the American episodes and some purchased licenses to create versions of Queer Eye for broadcast in their countries. However, few of these homegrown versions have proven as successful as the original and most did not last long before cancellation.

NBC licensed television producer David Hedges and his UK production house vialondon.tv to produce local versions for Europe, with Flextech's Living channel doing the same to produce the United Kingdom's version after a first attempt at a UK production by Making Time was abandoned. The Italian version, entitled I Fantastici Cinque (the fantastic five), aired on the La7 channel. The first episode of the Finnish version, Sillä Silmällä, (literally "with that certain eye") aired March 30, 2005 and created controversy, not for the gay content but for the blatant product placement considered to be a transgression of a Finnish law against "hidden advertising". Australia's take on the show, Aussie Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, premiered on Network Ten in February 2005 but was cancelled after three episodes; a Spanish version named El equipo G aired on Antena 3 for only a few weeks; the German equivalent, RTL 2's Schwul macht cool ("Gay makes you cool") was canceled after six episodes; Queer, Cinq Experts dans le Vent was shown in France on TF1 for eight episodes in 2004; and Esquadrão G, a Portuguese version of the show, was cancelled in Portugal after the end of the first season.

In January 2005, Scout Productions premiered a spin-off series titled Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, set in Los Angeles. It featured a cast of four lifestyle experts (three men and a woman known as the "Gal Pals") who performed makeovers for women. The show was cancelled after one season.