As we told you last month, NBCUniversal is rebranding G4 as Esquire Network, which they described as “an upscale Bravo for men.” The new network only had a few shows under its umbrella at the time, including a cooking show titled Knife Fight and reruns of Parks & Recreation and Party Down. (It’s since added an Anthony Bourdain-produced travel show called The Getaway and reruns of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.) Today the Esquire big-wigs announced two more original shows, and HOO BOY it does not look like they were kidding around about that “Bravo for men” thing.
How I Rock It (working title) features host and NBA player Baron Davis and profiles a variety of athletes, musicians, celebrities, designers and other influencers. The style-centric outing received an order for six half-hour episodes.
Also a working title, Risky Listing follows the New York real estate agents charged with making deals on the city’s bar, restaurant and nightlife spaces. It received an order for six hour-long episodes.
Okaaaaaayyyyy… but can you elaborate a little, head Esquire Network bro?
“We are building an exciting slate of original series for men with style and substance,” said Esquire Network head of original programming Matt Hanna. “How I Rock It is really for all those guys who’ve admired another man’s style but were afraid to ask how they got it. We’re going to be the middleman for them with this series. And in Risky Listing, we’re going to take our viewers inside the high-stakes, big-ego world of New York nightlife real estate to see these listings agent gladiators go toe-to-toe.” [THR]
I can’t even put into words how much I do not want to watch cocky New York disco real estate bros “go toe-to-toe,” whatever exactly that means, so I am going to skip straight over that and talk about this Baron Davis show. It also sounds kind of dumb. But — BUT — if they do an episode where Baron Davis sits down with Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook and asks him 30 minutes of questions, Frost/Nixon-style, about the outfit he wore to All-Star Weekend this year, I promise I will at least DVR it.
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