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When youre rebooting a show, its sort of double-edged sword when you go into it, Bajaria says.
Watch: Here’s a Sneak Peek at Queer Eye Season Two
[If] the last series is really about tolerance, this one is about acceptance.
Youve just renewedQueer Eyefor a second season.
Im not even going to ask for viewership stats, because I know you wont give them.
And that means people are feeling an emotional connection, and they want to share it.
That doesnt always happen.
People are just so excited.
They want other people to experience it.
The word of mouth [is] actually driving the show week-to-week.
We want to make thebestunscripted shows.
you could just have a really great, organic experience of watching the episodes straight through.
And you dont have to stick to one or two genres.
Shows likeDopeandConfession Tapes that sort of docuseries.
The talk shows.Queer EyeandNailed It.Areas like cooking and cars theyre not new formats or genres.
But we can elevate it.
We can do a different kind of take on formats that may seem familiar.
Even with the breadth of shows there really is something for everybody its a very personalized experience.
Its been a really good start to the unscripted initiative.
WithNailed It,the goal will be to have a go at get more episodes in 2018.
So willQueer Eyebe back in 2018?
And how many episodes will it be?Yes.
I think were going to do eight.
Lets shift over another part of your portfolio talk shows.
And a weekly series just lends itself to that.
It was more organic.
The show came in, and we wanted the right thing for that show.
Can you give a sense of how the shows from Michelle Wolf and Hasan Minhaj will look?
You havent said much about what theyre going to be.You know, theyre so early in their process.
For Hasan, we dont even have a writers room, we dont have any of that.
Michelle Wolf is a very different format [than] Hasan Minhajs.
They will definitely have very different visual styles than each other, and a different tone.
American talk-show hosts, at least the comedic ones, have historically been overwhelmingly white and male.
But do you still think theres more to do?
Is aiming for diversity in your slate something youre conscious of?Im definitely conscious of that.
But for us, it was also, who are thosenextpeople?
The new voices who really are smart and funny and have a vision and something to say.
Theres always more to do [on diversity].
You see a lot more diverse voices coming up through comedy and stand-up.
It looks very different than even when I started 20 years ago in the business.
Also, [Netflix has] 120 million members globally, right?
All of these shows launch everywhere in the world.
So the diversity in voices and points of view and backgrounds is really important.
Or did you just send out the signal to the talent agencies: Bring us your hosts!
Bring us your formats!
?As you’re free to imagine, we got a lot of pitches in the area.
A couple of people we pursued … but it was a little bit open.
Are you looking to find a talk show thats not based in the U.S.?
Would you launch a British or Australian or Indian talk show thats streamed globally?Oh, yeah.
Were definitely open to that.
We do that with scripted shows.
Theres no reason that cant happen with unscripted or talk.
Right now, youre doing mostly weekly talk shows, with David Lettermans series airing monthly.
But its not the focus right now.
With the talk shows, some of the initial orders with Joel McHale for instance have been 13 episodes.
Thats a very old-school, linear TV number.
Joel his show is really strong and hes so talented.
Even watching week-to-week, you find it getting stronger and stronger.
Joel will be on, and then Michelle [Wolf] will be on, and more in summer.
So if you want to watch a show weekly, therell be another, right?
Youre not waiting another year.
Therell be a regular cadence.
And then with each show, well evaluate if were gonna do more.
But were not in the kind of linear cable [business of], Lets do the entire year.
Is 13 the right number?
Is 15 the right number?
Were learning a lot this year.
Youre not going to have three new talk shows coming at you all at that same time.
Weve considered a couple of them, [and] we would absolutely do a game show.
We just havent found the right one.
Do you want your unscripted roster to grow as dramatically as the scripted side?
Its not really that.
Lets build this audience and be thoughtful about this process.
There are so many different categories in unscripted, and I think youll see it expand.
