1 Girl 5 Gays
1 Girl 5 Gays, sometimes abbreviated as 1g5g, was a Canadian talk show that premiered on October 14, 2009 on MTV Canada. In October 2010, gay-interest sister network Logo picked up the program and started airing it in the United States. Aliya Jasmine Sovani was the host for the first three seasons and part of the fourth. Lauren Collins, known for her role as Paige Michalchuk on Degrassi, replaced Sovani as the host.
| 1 Girl 5 Gays | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Talk show |
| Presented by | Lauren Collins (season 4-6) Aliya Jasmine Sovani (season 1-4) |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (including commercials) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
|
| Original release | October 14, 2009 – 2014 |
Out Magazine described the show as containing "frank, often curse-laced discussions about bareback sex, masturbation and one-night stands", and analogised it with "The View meets Dr. Ruth, only with hot gay men instead of menopausal madams".[1]
Format
In each episode, one female (or "one girl") — Aliya Jasmine Sovani from 2009 to 2013, and Lauren Collins from 2013 to 2014, sits down with five panelists (or "five gays"), usually gay men but occasionally lesbian women, to discuss 20 questions about love and sex. The "five gays" in each episode are a rotating panel, each having differing backgrounds and points of view. The fast-paced discussion explores serious themes as well as lighthearted topics dealing with romance and pleasure.
The show also featured special episodes, such as a high school edition, HIV+ men, co-ed episodes featuring lesbians and gays at the same time and more.
At the end of the fourth season, the show presented two special episodes featuring twenty "gays" departing the show, as producers chose to begin season five with a new cast, who were introduced 30 September 2013.[2] MTV Canada resumed airing episodes with the new cast and Collins on October 4, 2013, but as of February 2014, Logo had not yet begun airing the show's fifth season; the show's official Twitter feed noted on March 17, 2014 that Logo had opted not to continue airing episodes after the end of season four.
When the show aired during prime time, some segments were grayed out and muted, with a notice that the uncensored show would air later.
Panelists
The rotating panel of gay men included Michael Yerxa, Jean-Paul Bevilacqua, Juan Manuel Gonzalez Calcaneo, Jonathan Morton-Schuster, Matt Barker, Dean McArthur, Matt Santos, Philip Tetro, Ian Lynch, Andrew Edwards, Jake Mossop, Thomas Trafford, Ishmael Furoz, Jonathan Nathaniel, Gerry King, Simon Lysnes, Max Claude, Alex Brown, Jason Yantha, Dillon Scheenaard, Alex Illest, JP Larocque, Rafay Agha, Gabriel Rojas, Jae MT, Kiel Hughes, Gaelan Love, Michael Lehman, Shawn Hitchins, Taylor James, Thomas Haskell, Chris Corsini, David Robert, Maurie Sherman, Ralph Rosario, Brad Blaylock, Ryan Carter, Ibrahim Hasan, Scott Do, Matthew Agius, Micha Baltman, Anthony Berarco, Matt Sims, Perez Hilton, James Bar, Jeffrey Bowers, Brett Ashley, Chase Hutchinson, Jonathan D. Lovitz, Mitchell Boucher, Mike Germanotta, Jamie Gillingham and Taurel Lorenz.
A smaller number of episodes featured a panel of lesbians,[3] including Brittany Leigh, Christina Mac, Brittany Emmons, Courtney Jean Milner, Valerie Bosso and Nicole DeLargie.
Cancellation
The program's cancellation was announced in 2014, as part of significant staffing and production cutbacks at Bell Media.[4]
References
- Shane Michael Singh (June 29, 2011). "Catching Up With 1 Girl 5 Gays". Out.
- Fairbrother, Jim (30 September 2013). "1 Girl 5 Gays - Season 5 Cast". MTV.ca. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
- "1 Girl 5 Gays Returns to Logo's Late-Night Line-Up 9/26". tv.broadwayworld.com. 2011-09-05. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
- "Big changes at MTV, Much as Bell Media makes deep cuts to production staff" Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine. Edmonton Journal, July 10, 2014.