Matt Rogers Returns with Second Bravo Culture Awards on June 17
matt rogers returned with Bowen Yang for a second Bravo staging of the Las Culturistas Culture Awards, taped May 30 in downtown Los Angeles ahead of a June 17 air date. The move turns a podcast off-shoot into a repeat televised event, which is exactly the kind of durability awards programming keeps chasing.
Year One Pressure
Rogers said last year they were “so panicked about whether or not it could happen, we forgot to enjoy it a little bit,” a blunt admission that the first Bravo outing was as much about proving the format could work as it was about the jokes. Last year was also the first time the show aired on broadcast after being done on a smaller scale in New York for several years.
Bowen Yang said, “I think we’re really steady this time, and I think that just means that we walked the crucible of year one. I think there are things about tonight and this year that I think will certainly outdo last year.” That is the sharper read on where the show sits now: it is no longer a one-off experiment, but a repeatable special with enough traction to justify a second run.
Campaigns Worked
Rogers also said, “Some of the campaigns have been incredible, and guess what, they work! Who knew we could be bought?” Yang answered, “Everybody knew.” Rogers then added, “and that makes us just like every other award show,” before joking, “I never said that.” The line lands because it pushes the Culture Awards closer to the mechanics of traditional prize shows, where lobbying is usually implicit rather than joked about on the carpet.
The taping included categories such as the Hilary Duff Award for Millennial Excellence and the Top Fact About Greta Gerwig That You May Not Know, which gives the show a different operating logic from standard awards telecasts. It is built around specificity and in-jokes, but that narrowness is the point: the format is designed for people who actually want to watch awards rather than tolerate them.
Joel Kim Booster Advice
Joel Kim Booster said traditional awards shows should “Be funny again, I think that’s a big one,” and added that there are “so many jokes per minute in this show that it’s sort of like exhausting sometimes to watch; I’m like out of breath watching because there’s so many jokes.” He also said they should “stop trying to appeal to an audience that does not care about awards shows, and start writing towards the people that actually do care and want to watch it.”
Hannah Einbinder offered a shorter version of the same critique: “That gay people should be in charge.” That punch line fits the shape of this franchise, which has already moved from a smaller New York event to a second Bravo telecast with guests and presenters treating the campaigns as part of the show rather than a side effect. June 17 will show whether the audience has grown with it.
