The Fab Five are back… Sort of. Netflix’s reality show Queer Eye centers around emotional and feel-good makeovers given to ordinary people (or “heroes,” as the show calls them) by the bigger-than-life personalities that make up the Fab Five. There’s fashion stylist Tan France, culture expert Karamo Brown, hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness, food expert Antoni Porowski, and… Well, there was interior designer Bobby Berk, but this latest season sees newcomer Jeremiah Brent as Berk’s replacement.
Season 9 is the show’s first season after Berk announced his split from the Fab Five last November 2023. In an Instagram post detailing his decision to leave Queer Eye, Berk thanked “die-hard” fans of the show and expressed his gratitude for having been able to change the lives of so many heroes over the course of the show’s first eight seasons. While Berk’s departure initially seemed amicable, a Rolling Stone feature in 2024 revealed that the series had seen its fair share of drama behind-the-scenes. Anonymous production members claimed there had been tension among the main cast — specifically between Berk, France, and Van Ness, whose “rage issues” contributed to the strained relationship between all cast members. Additionally, France allegedly campaigned for his close friend Jeremiah Brent to replace Berk, although France has denied these claims.
With Queer Eye’s ninth season set to release this December, the dynamics of the Fab Five are undeniably different. Even the season’s new trailer tries to acknowledge the cast change with Brown saying in a voiceover, “The world is changing, we’ve grown and changed — even our cast is changing.”
This latest season will also see the Fab Five taking on a new location — Las Vegas — as they set out to help heroes ranging from “a former showgirl struggling to regain her confidence to a dedicated librarian in need of a change,” according to the show’s official logline.
All ten episodes of Queer Eye are available to stream on Netflix now.
