It’s their turn to see red

IT was the best of times. It was the grungiest of times. For a couple of minutes back in the early ‘90s, during MTV’s curiously chic “House of Style,” Todd Oldham democratized interior design for an ambivalent generation. His aesthetic: cheap quirk, a sort of anti-design for those who conflate a refusal to throw things away with an affinity for vintage.

That it’s taken this long for Oldham to end up hosting a Bravo show is one of the great mysteries of the late cable age. An openly gay figure who’s no stranger to media, Oldham paved the way for Bravo’s entire format a decade before it was fashionable, or feasible. So with the arrival of “Top Design,” which portrays the design process as bourgeois sport, really, who else could host?

“Top Design” (premieres at 11 p.m. Wednesday) follows “Top Chef” (bringing its tepid season to a close this week) and “Project Runway.” These shows explode the notion that creative industries are exclusively concerned with art. Play-by-play and color commentary are implied -- mostly the divas speak for themselves: “How do you argue with a narcissist?” “Top Design” competitor Michael Adams gripes after a disastrous teaming with co-contestant John Gray. (Really, how do you?)

Interior design, at least as it’s portrayed here, isn’t as visually engaging as the fashion design or the cooking that have come before it. Missing are the broad strokes of physical exertion that would otherwise be filling the screen. Instead, in the first episode, the contestants mostly think. There’s a little painting here, some hardwood floor installation there, but to the viewer, the 12 designers are imagining their rooms. The finished products are, almost without exception, a surprise.

Last year HGTV aired a similar contest, “Design Star.” That show’s contestants were slightly more eccentric and fun than Bravo’s lot, though also slightly less talented. In this week’s first episode, a conceptual room design is the winner, an indicator of more vibrant things to come. (One can safely cringe at the contestant who, when she hears the challenge theme is “inner sanctum,” thinks “Asian.”) Oldham is less sharp-tongued than either “Runway’s” Tim Gunn or “Chef’s” Tom Colicchio. A genial back-patter, he’s here mainly to cash in on his legacy. More direct is head judge Jonathan Adler, something of a high-end Oldham, whose end-of-show sayonara is, no joke, “See ya later, decorators!”

The most intense cultural policing, though, comes from Gray, who at 40 is the oldest male contestant. In the episode’s opening scenes, he surveys his wispy housemates and sighs, grousing, “They’re all so young and just carrying on and queeny, I would rather go live with the girls. Actually, what’s the difference?”

Minutes later, when Oldham is revealed as the host, Gray is maybe the most excited of all. Then, during the challenge, the aforementioned floor installation and painting is all him, much to the consternation and relief of Adams, his hapless teammate. Call Gray post-Bravo, or even post-gay. Maybe a decade from now there’ll be a whole network predicated upon that vision, and Gray will have a show of his own.