Bravo’s ‘Work Out’: Jackie Warner Says ‘Bravo Is an Ugly Cesspool of Women Behaving Badly’
Jackie Warner, known for Work Out and Thintervention on Bravo shared that she believes the network has become an “ugly cesspool of women behaving like children and behaving badly.”
Warner dished on the Hot Takes & Deep Dives podcast about her experience with Bravo and the trajectory of the programming on the network. She said she was miserable while filming Work Out because producers forced her to fabricate most of the drama. Warner adds that the featured trainers on her show were not trainers, but actors.
Andy Cohen was a producer on her show until he scored Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “Andy was really into the Housewives,” she says. “So Andy’s baby was mostly the Housewives. And then Andy wanted to be a star and he got his show. So he pretty much stepped down from all executive producing roles.”
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Warner recalls a different type of Bravo when Work Out premiered. “Project Runway was their baby,” she recounts. “Do you remember when Bravo used to do uplifting and wonderful shows? And now Bravo is just an ugly cesspool of women behaving like children and behaving badly.”
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“I don’t even watch that junk anymore,” she insists. “But remember when it was Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which was a very loving, inspirational show that people loved. Do you remember when it was Project Runway where these kids were finding their dream and making their lives happen?”
She says the golden era of Bravo was when they featured uplifting programming. “Then they brought on the Housewives,” she says. “And also Blow Out. And then Work Out! Work Out was a little uglier than Blow Out. But that’s when it started going downhill was when they started really wanting to ratchet it up.”
She says her show was fake
Warner knew many of the Housewives. “I knew all the New York gals, I knew all the Beverly Hills gals. I knew I’d say half of the Orange County girls. And that’s because we all used to have to do press together.” She adds that she and Patti Stanger from The Millionaire Matchmaker had a strong connection too. She was also friends with Tabatha Coffey from Tabatha Takes Over.
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“And also Bravo requires you to do a lot of parties,” she adds. “You gotta go to a lot of parties and work red carpets. And they get you the limo and they get your hair and makeup. And you look beautiful and you’ve got your outfits. So it was fun, I enjoyed all of that.”
But she wasn’t happy doing the show. “I was miserable from beginning to end,” she says. “I was asked to do a lot of things that were completely against my moral fabric. That were completely out of my comfort zone because I’m a very self-protected person. I was bullied and pressured and pulled. If I didn’t have a girlfriend this season, if I didn’t have something going on, they were going to cancel me. It was horrible. It was the worst experience of my life.”
Warner adds that because she doesn’t normally have a dramatic personal life, the show became hard to do. “So guess what we did? We made up 90% of that drama. The cast. They weren’t even trainers. They were actors. The only trainer that made the actual show was Erika [Jacobson]. She worked for me at Sky Sport. None of them were trainers. Especially Brian Peeler. He was a total moron. All he did was take steroids. Bottom line is I hated the trainers.”