Inside BravoCon: "Metaphorically and literally, we were humping for Bravo"

The Daily Beast

"There we were, having our own little collective ecclesiastical experience, sweating under the strobing lights of Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom," Kevin Fallon says of attending a Real Housewives gyration tutorial during the first-ever Bravo fan convention. 'While 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-G' blared over the speakers, we were doing the jitterbug with the Real Housewives of New York City star (Dorinda Medley) as she led the first-ever 'Werk Out With Dorinda' class at the first-ever BravoCon, a three-day fan convention featuring panels, photo ops, concerts, and, it turns out, jazzercise classes, all in celebration of the channel’s popular reality programming and the people who love it. Eventually the gyration turned into pelvic thrusts. Hundreds of us were humping the air in camaraderie. In his hot pink shirt and why-hello-sir exercise short-shorts, Andy Cohen was doing it, too. It was the Bravo version of 'I’d like to buy the world a Coke.' Bravo obsessives, spiritually connected and humping in perfect harmony. It was perhaps the most joyous and demented event of a weekend that could not merit two more perfect descriptors. Metaphorically and literally, we were humping for Bravo."

ALSO:

• BravoCon attendees appear to be majority white, majority female, and majority over 30: "Some are dressed in Bravolebrity drag, in sequins, faux fur, and an entire National Geographic issue’s worth of animal prints; others model Bravo-themed merch, official and otherwise," says Molly Fitzpatrick, describing the event as "the High Church of Bravo." "I count two pregnant women in 'Future Bravo Fan' tees, with arrows pointing down to their bellies. At a single Below Deck event, three strangers wear 'June, June, Hannah' shirts of completely different designs. A fan at the Real Housewives of New York panel with an injured arm decorated her sling with a sign that reads, 'I’ll Tell You How I’m Doing — Not Well, Bitch.' We speak a common language, that’s for sure."
• Andy Cohen says Bravo has cultivated its almost cult-ish fanbase by winking at the audience: “We’ve had a thing with editing that we’ve called the ‘Bravo wink,’ where sometimes we’re winking at the audience,” said Cohen. “Because someone is saying one thing and they’re doing a completely opposite thing. Are people in on the joke that are on the channel? There is no joke, that is their lives. And they’re very proudly living them.”
• NBC Universal's Frances Berwick, who oversees Bravo, says BravoCon is a significant moment in the cable network's evolution: “We’re in a moment in time when it’s really hard to get attention for shows,” Berwick said. “One of the most important things is having a strong brand and having a consistent content filter where people know what they’re going to get when they come to the network. This is about really establishing a connection with the viewer, but also really cementing the brand.”