Carson Kressley Wants You to Visit His "Carson-Nation!"

A fact of reality television life is that reality stars tend to have rather short lifespans. After all, how many folks recall who won the third season of Top Chef? Or who hosted the last season of Shear Genius?

And even fewer reality shows can honestly say they had a lasting impact on the pop culture landscape. But that certainly isn't true of Bravo's Queer Eye For the Straight Guy which ran from 2003 to 2007 producing 100 episodes and not only reshaping the Bravo network, but making gay men part of the zeitgeist in way they never had been before.

Carson Kressley

And one of those men helping make that impact was Carson Kressley, one of the few reality celebrities who has proven to have the talent and appeal to have fashioned a career long after his initial fifteen minutes of fame ended.

Kressley appeared at the TCA Winter Tour where he not only discussed the legacy of Queer Eye, as well as why he's endured, but the rather astounding fact he's managed to land not one, but two shows on OWN, Oprah Winfrey's new network. Not exactly an easy feat when you think of how many people want to be associated with Oprah.

AfterElton: So nice to see you again, Carson.
Carson Kressley: Oh, the gay site. Yeah! There’s like a lesbian one too called AfterEllen, isn’t there?

AE: Yes, they came before us.
CK: I know. The lesbian’s always get the job done early. Those crafty lesbians.

AE: How are you?
CK: I’m fantastic!

AE: You seem like such a good fit for Oprah.
CK: Thank you.

AE: From the days of Queer Eye you guys were helping people, then when you had your show, How to Look Good Naked, where you were helping women with body image issues.
CK: Yes.

AE: Can you talk about what Oprah saw in you and why you feel good to be on her network?
CK: Well, I think for the first couple of times she thought I was Suze Orman because we have the same colorist. [laughs] I’m very honored to be a part of it. And you know Oprah is such a great judge of talent. She found Nate Berkus and Dr. Oz and Rachel Ray and Dr. Phil. I think what she maybe saw in me was that I have heart and I want to be kind to people. People deserve to feel good about themselves. It’s not about the gay thing, although it’s certainly what’s made me the way I am.

You know, for a long time I didn’t feel good about who I was. I couldn’t be like, “Hey look at me! I’m gay, whoa!” You know you worry about your family, are they going to love you or are your friends going to desert you? And once you get past that you feel tremendously empowered and you feel incredibly lucky and you want to help people feel that way too. Whether it’s because they are overweight or because they have stress in their marriage or because they are not dressing as cute as they could, my job is to make people feel good about themselves and I think that’s something that Oprah really believes in.

AE: It seems like so much of the world is about tearing things down and being negative.
CK: Right.

AE: How hard do you think it is going to be for The Oprah Network to success doing these kinds of uplifting shows?
CK: I think Oprah probably said it best today and I’ll paraphrase her saying, she wants to deliver good TV, positive TV, TV that builds people up and doesn’t bring them down. She believes there are people out there that want to hear that kind of thing and watch that kind of programming. She built this network for them, for her viewers so they will have a place to come to see that kind of programming and I think they will come. I think people want that.

AE: We both know what it’s like, growing up gay in a less than gay-friendly world, and we’ve seen how much things have changed. I just want you to talk about being part of that change and how it makes you feel. Especially in light of the “It Gets Better" campaign and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
CK: It’s really hard for me to feel like I made a big difference in people’s lives. I don’t see myself as being this catalyst for change or someone that did anything extraordinary. All I did was be myself. But when a young person would come up to me and say, “Well, because you were out on Queer Eye For the Straight Guy I realized that I could be out and be successful” or “I could be out to my family. I was able to talk to them about it because of your show.” So those are the most gratifying things that come from being on TV, when young people, old people, whatever, come up to you and say, “I felt like I could be me because of you.” That’s really cool.

And growing up, I was thinking about this, you know there weren’t a lot of gay role models for us. I don’t think there were any because it was so taboo that no one was out and that’s the power of being out, other people can see you and that’s Oprah’s whole thing. It’s about being an inspiration to someone. It’s not just that she’s an inspiration it’s also the stories she shows on her show. If someone can leave their abusive husband then maybe you can too, if that’s your problem.

If someone can lose 100 pounds and be healthy then maybe I can too because it’s inspiring TV and if I’m able to say, “you can be successful and happy and be exactly who you are and be gay and flamboyant and out and however rainbowy your flag is get out there and wave it.” That’s great. If I can inspire somebody to be themselves then I’ve done something way more important then just be on TV.