TLC’s What Not to Wear is dead. Long live TLC’s What Not to Wear.
K&K has it on good authority — the intra-webs, yo — that TLC’s longest running prime time television show is getting yanked off its hanger after 10 seasons and thrown into the network clothes bin like so many stonewash denim applique vests, ill-fitted tube skirts, faded Minnie Mouse T-shirts and low-cut, hoochie-mama party dresses.
A spin-off of the original British series, What Not to Wear and its impeccably dressed hosts, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, gained a loyal following by ridiculing overworked schlepps about their woebegone wardrobes, giving them fashion advice and strict rules to follow and then setting them loose on the streets of New York with a well-stocked credit card. The gussied-up guinea pigs would then get a fancy new hairdo, receive makeup tips from foxy makeup artist Carmindy, shed a few tears about how they never felt attractive until now and then reveal their stunning transformation to Stacy and Clinton before showing off their new look to friends and loved ones back home.
All in all, it made for an entertaining and uplifting hour of mindless television that K&K is not ashamed to admit provided us with some valuable, lifelong fashion lessons. For instance, we no longer wear buttless jeans as seen in the 1981 Ryan O’Neal sex comedy So Fine, and we only wear white Velcro runners and fleece jackets when we purposely want to look like our dad.
What Not To Wear begins its final run of shows in July with “more dramatic transformations, bigger ambushes, shopping sprees on a grander scale, and special guest appearances” before heading off to that fabulous wardrobe in the sky.
After that, TLC, a.k.a. The Learning Channel, will continue its winning mandate of producing high-quality reality TV shows about people who are addicted to licking cats, conservative Christians who have ridiculously large families, and what can best be described as white trash minstrel shows, which make viewers feel better about their own couch-bound lives.
