NBC gives <i>Queer Eye</i> a full hour in prime time (9522)

Nothing succeeds like success: NBC's peacock is turning pink for a night of prime-time TV later this month. The TV network said Wednesday that it will show a full hour of the breakout hit Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on Thursday, August 14, instead of a pared-down, 30-minute episode as originally planned. The show will air in the 10 p.m. slot usually occupied by the medical drama ER, after back-to-back episodes of the gay-themed comedy Will & Grace.

Airing on NBC's Bravo cable network, Queer Eye features five gay men with expertise in grooming, food and wine, culture, interior design, and fashion giving a makeover to a stylistically challenged heterosexual man. The show has broken ratings records for Bravo and generated heavy pop culture buzz. NBC has already picked up the show once, airing a half-hour version of a full hour-long episode last month. On Monday NBC had said it would show another edited half hour on the August 14, ahead of an appearance by the show's "Fab Five" on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. They are also set to return to the show on the next night with one of their signature "make-betters."

"We wanted to offer this exposure again but keep it in its original format so viewers can have a full Queer Eye experience," NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker said in a statement of the decision to air a full hour.