New show will document former Olympian’s “journey”

Apr 27, 2015 07:27 GMT  ·  By

As teased for weeks and speculated for much longer, Bruce Jenner came out as a transgender woman on a 2-hour ABC special with Diane Sawyer, which aired on Friday evening. Again as speculated, E! has confirmed plans to air a docuseries on his gender transition in the summer.

You can see the full press statement below. The bottom line is that Bruce has agreed to let cameras into his life, to document his transition to female and the huge adjustment it entails. Experts will also be included, so that the show would serve an educational purpose as well.

Bruce Jenner is writing history

Voices online agree that the ABC special was history-in-the-making not only because it shined light on Bruce Jenner’s gender identity, and he thus became the first high-profile celebrity to come out as transgender, but also for the way it handled his story.

The 2-hour special was on-point, responsible and respectful, and Sawyer gets credit for the way she knew which questions to ask to allow Bruce to have his story out there.

Since late on Friday, when the interview aired, people have been praising Bruce as a hero, a role model and the new, unofficial spokesperson for LGBT issues. After all, he did say that he was speaking out not for publicity but because he wanted to “change the world,” to help usher in more understanding on gender transition and gender identity.

Seemingly, the new TV program would be a continuation of that.

Tune in this July on E!

“The eight-part, one-hour series premieres July 26 at 9 p.m. on E! and will also air on the E! channels internationally. The series title will be announced at a later date,” the network says.

E! and the Kardashian-Jenners have a long history of working together, since this is the network that, with help from Ryan Seacrest, launched them and later turned them in the most successful family in reality television, through Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

In a way, Bruce’s new show isn’t just a continuation of the ABC special but also a spinoff of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and the latter is what’s giving industry insiders some anxiety. To put it simply, this new E! show could turn Bruce’s transition into that which he claimed it wasn’t: a media spectacle, a reality show.

In recent years, “docuseries”-type of programs have become the hottest thing in reality television, with everyone from Lindsay Lohan to Tori Spelling jumping on the bandwagon. From these two examples, we already know that this type of show is just as “real” as reality television (i.e. they’re heavily scripted and edited), and that they serve mainly to entertain than to educate.

E! Press Release