Bravo announces new shows and returning favorites

Bravo, your network for food, fashion, design, and pop culture has announced a slate of great new shows and the return of several old favorites for the coming TV season. Just take a look at what's happening.

New series and specials

"The Rachel Zoe Project"
Premieres September 8, 2008 at 11 pm.

Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, along with her trusted inner circle, husband Rodger and fashion team, Taylor and Brad, will be featured in the docu-drama "The Rachel Zoe Project", as they endeavor to take Zoe's business to the next level. In the series, the perfectly styled, go-to force among "it" starlets, fashion houses, beauty firms and magazine editors will give viewers a fly on the wall look at how she juggles constant deadlines, fashion shows and celebrity clients.

"The Real Housewives of Atlanta"
Premieres Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 10 pm

The latest edition to the "Real Housewives" franchise, the seven episode series "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" follows five women from Atlanta's social elite, from NBA and NFL wives to sassy single moms, as they juggle their burgeoning careers and busy home lives with the whirl of the south's hottest city. An up-close and personal look at life in Hotlanta, these driven and ambitious women prove that they're not just "housewives," but entrepreneurs, doting mothers and classy southern women. NeNe Leakes, DeShawn Snow, Sheree Whitfield, Lisa Wu Hartwell and Kim Zolciak show the world what it takes to live large in some of the hottest zip codes in the south.

"Tommy Hilfiger Presents: Ironic Iconic America"
Premieres October 3 at 8 pm

Produced by Radical Media for top American designer Tommy Hilfiger, this one-hour special provides a cross-country look at American pop culture, highlighting American beauty, fashion, love and sex, design and food. Hosted by supermodel Bar Refaeli and poet Rives, and inspired by Hilfiger's book collaboration with George Lois, "Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture," the special includes an introduction by Tommy Hilfiger and explores how pop culture has influenced American tastes and styles.

Series pick-ups

"Miami Social"
Miami is an international cultural melting pot filled with the young, gorgeous and wealthy looking to live the good life. South Americans, East Coasters, native Floridians… everyone comes to Miami for the sun and fun, it's a city that specializes in people that work hard and play even harder. With "Miami Social," Bravo will follow a successful group of friends who are some of the most connected and interesting young professionals in South Beach, as they go from the city's night life to the board room and magazine offices where they lead their intertwined lives.

In development

"American Artist"
Producer, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Sarah Jessica Parker and her production company Pretty Matches, will team with the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves and Eli Holzman, to produce "American Artist" (wt), an hour long creative competition series between contemporary artists. "American Artist" will bring together aspiring artists to compete for a gallery show, a cash prize and a sponsored national tour. In each episode, contestants will create unique works of art highlighting art's role in everyday life, while they compete and create in a range of disciplines including sculpture, painting, photography and industrial design (to name a few). In working beyond their preferred mediums, artists will have to adapt quickly to changes in order to succeed. Completed works of art will be appraised by a panel of top art world figures including fellow artists, gallerists, collectors, curators and critics. The finalists' work will be showcased in a nation-wide museum tour. 

"Fashion House"
"Fashion House," a creative competition program based on the British format of the same name, replicates the workings of the fashion business through a fashion house. Teams of designers will live together and work to create not just a single item of clothing but an entire, cohesive line. These collections are created on deadline and are presented to commercial buyers with the opportunity of having the designers' line mass marketed. 

"Top Chef: Masters"
A spin-off of the Emmy-nominated hit series "Top Chef" and from producers Magical Elves, "Top Chef: Masters" unites some of the brightest stars in the world of food, award-winning, widely-renowned Chefs who will compete against each other in a series of weekly challenges.

Returning series

"Make Me a Supermodel 2"
Premieres 2009

Bravo's creative competition series "Make Me A Supermodel" returns for season two to search for the world's next supermodel. Beautiful and talented men and women will live together in New York City and explore friendships, romance and naked ambition while undergoing a series of creative challenges designed to test their professional modeling potential, all while exploring what it takes to turn the exceptionally good-looking into the next king or queen of the catwalk.

"The Real Housewives of New York City" Season 2
Premieres 2009

Bravo's watercooler sensation "The Real Housewives of New York City" returns for season two with all five original Housewives and a new cast member, designer, model, author and fashion editor Kelly Bensimon. Season two will follow the busy lives of everyone's favorite Manhattan women as they juggle their careers, children, jam-packed social calendars and summer in the Hamptons. With an average of more than a million viewers per week in its first season, the series increased its delivery week by week in every key measure to become the highest rated freshman docu-drama in network history. "The Real Housewives of New York City" is produced by Ricochet Television Inc. for Bravo. Jennifer O'Connell and Nick Emerson serve as executive producers.

"The Real Housewives of Orange County" Season 4
Fourth Quarter 2008

The original series that began The Housewives 'franchise,' returns to the real-life Peyton Place that is the exclusive gated community in Orange County, CA with the fourth season renewal of its hit docu-drama "The Real Housewives of Orange County." The new season will feature the series' original housewives Vicki, Jeana and Lauri, as well as last season's newest addition, Tamra, and two new housewives sure to make waves. "The Real Housewives of Orange County" is produced by Evolution Film & Tape Inc. with partners Douglas Ross, Gregory Stewart and Kathleen French serving as executive producers. Series creator and Orange County resident Scott Dunlop also serves as executive producer.

"Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" Season 2
Fourth Quarter 2008

The second season of Bravo's "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style," hosted by Tim Gunn, will premiere in fourth quarter with a new "fashion accomplice" for Gunn, Gretta Monahan, fashion expert, personal stylist and owner of Grettacole Spas, Salons and Boutiques in Boston. Each episode will chronicle one person's fashion dilemmas and introduce the answer to all their troubles, Gunn himself, with his inimitable style, propensity for coaching and encyclopedic expertise in fashion. Under his tutelage, deserving folks in need of some change will get the makeover of a lifetime from the man Entertainment Weekly called "a major arbiter of style."

"Top Chef: New York" Season 5
Fourth Quarter 2008

Bravo's Emmy-nominated hit series and the No. 1 food show on cable, "Top Chef," returns for a fifth season, offering a fascinating window into the competitive, pressure-filled environment of world-class cookery and the restaurant business at the highest level. The series, hosted by Padma Lakshmi and presided by head judge Chef Tom Colicchio, features sixteen aspiring chefs who compete for their shot at culinary stardom and the chance to earn the prestigious title of "Top Chef."