‘Queer Eye’ looks for wider audience

Continuing the flow of programs between cable and broadcast networks, a condensed version of Bravo’s makeover show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” will repeat Thursday on NBC, following “Will & Grace.”

NBC owns Bravo, which delivered record ratings last week by its admittedly modest standards with the program’s premiere. More than 1.6 million people watched the show -- about five times the cable channel’s average second-quarter audience, based on Nielsen Media Research estimates.

NBC is describing the telecast as a one-time-only event to provide greater exposure for the series, but the move also raises the prospect of using Bravo as a lab to develop programs that could later migrate to NBC. “Queer Eye” features five gay men with backgrounds in areas such as food and wine, grooming and interior design who are assigned to make a straight man more cultivated.

Although cable networks have been repeating (or in TV-speak, “repurposing”) some prime-time shows within a few days of their network telecast, a few programs have headed in the other direction. USA Network’s “Monk,” for example, which just earned an Emmy nomination for star Tony Shalhoub, aired on ABC last summer, while UPN ran MTV’s “Celebrity Deathmatch.”