Record-breaking audiences tune in to Boy Meets Boy and Queer Eye

Gay-themed programming on the Bravo cable network continued to stay hot Tuesday, with a solid premiere for Boy Meets Boy and a record-resetting episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. A gay dating show that airs at 9 p.m., Boy bowed to 1.6 million total viewers and averaged just over 1 million viewers in the 25-to-54 age demographic. While slightly under the audience yield of the Queer premiere three weeks ago, Boy improved its time slot's 25-54 ratings average for 2002-2003 by 434%. Even more impressive at 10 p.m. was the performance of Queer Eye, which became the highest-rated program in Bravo's history by netting 2.8 million total viewers. The series undoubtedly gained new viewers from its trial run on NBC in prime time July 24. (The New York Post reports that NBC is considering another prime-time outing for Queer Eye.) The combination of Queer and Boy powered Bravo to its highest-rated night in prime time ever among viewers aged 18-49, beating out all other basic cable networks on Tuesday. Bravo didn't have the good news all to itself. The new FX plastic-surgery drama Nip/Tuck, created by gay writer-producer Ryan Murphy, outdelivered Queer at 10 p.m. with 3.3 million total viewers. That's a 10% step down from last week's premiere, but the series improved on its 18-49 yield in its first week by 5%, drawing 2.1 million in that key demographic.