The boys of Queer Eye have traveled everywhere from Atlanta, Georgia to Kansas City, Missouri (with a quick stop in Tokyo, Japan) during their five seasons of changing hearts and opening hearts on the smash Netflix show. Their current season in Philadelphia, PA just dropped on Netflix on June 5th, but as cameras started to roll in Austin, Texas on Season 6, COVID-19 hit. Production halted immediately on Season 6, with Tan France and Karamo Brown both heading home, while Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness and Bobby Berk all remained in Austin, TX. Berk spoke with Oprah.mag and gave a sneak peek at some of the changes coming for Season Six and said “something that I’m focusing on more now is my relationship with our heroes,” he said. “I felt responsibility to make sure that everything in my department was being taken care of, even though that’s not my job. So this season I’ve decided to kind of let things go a little bit and allow the people who are doing their jobs to do their jobs—and me to focus on design and my relationships with the heroes.”
With the human interaction between the Fab Five and their heroes absolutely crucial to the heart of what Queer Eye is, the biggest question is, how would social distancing affect the show? Berk says “I do think for a while this will affect the way we interact with heroes. Once we come back there’s still gonna need to be some social distancing, so it’s gonna be hard because all five of us are very much huggers. The very first thing we do is we go and hug,” he said. “That was one of the discussions we had when we were talking about whether we should stop production or if we should hold out for one more week,” Berk added. “We can’t continue filming an episode of Queer Eye with such severe social distancing being required because our show and us, we’re so much about physical love and showing people that love and affection that they’ve never seen or felt before. It wouldn’t have been worth risking our heroes and their family and our crew, anybody for that matter. As for the premiere date, the original production schedule for Season 6 would have it dropping on Netflix in Fall 2020, which may now change due to production delays.
As we indulge in Season Five and eagerly anticipate Season 6 of Queer Eye, a reunion of heroes from two previous seasons will give you all the feels. Fan favorite Mama Tammye and Japanese hero Yoko-San met for the first time. Mama Tammye knows her way around the kitchen and was able to give Yoko-San a lesson in tride and true Southern cooking. They whipped up an authentic peach cobbler, with a surprise visit by Berk himself!
Queer Eye Season Five is airing now on Netflix