--- description: Find out why Boy Meets Boy has one of the most influential reality TV seasons of all time. title: Boy Meets Boy: The 50 Most Influential Reality TV Seasons image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt391eb7c143ee8f3e/698a33f4cabb1d07fbe50802/boy-meets-boy-reality-tv.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 04, 2022 # Boy Meets Boy Season 1 (2003) by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Season 1 of 'Boy Meets Boy' Season 1 of 'Boy Meets Boy'Everett Collection The same year that Bravo broke ground with _Queer Eye for the Straight Guy_, the network also cranked out this nasty piece of work. Disguised as [_The Bachelor_](https://time.com/collection/reality-tv-most-influential-seasons/6198489/the-bachelor/ "undefined") for the male-seeking-male set, this short-lived summer dating show found protagonist James courting 15 suitors in hopes of finding his ideal “mate.” The twist—which was only revealed to James four episodes into a six-episode season—was that half of the contestants were straight guys hoping to win a cash prize by duping him into falling for them. Although he ultimately chose a gay winner, by virtue of its premise alone, _Boy Meets Boy_ flirted with gay-for-pay disaster. An[ ambivalent _Advocate_ cover story](https://www.advocate.com/television/2016/9/08/first-finding-prince-charming-remembering-bravos-boy-meets-boy "undefined"), published in advance of the premiere, made nervous reference to the[ murder of a _Jenny Jones_ guest](https://people.com/crime/netflix-trial-by-media-jenny-jones-murder/ "undefined") who’d brought his straight colleague on the show to confess a secret crush. In the years that followed, reality TV kept stumbling in its depictions of queer romance. MTV’s _A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila_ was a male-gaze-friendly battle of the sexes for a bisexual woman who’d later be ejected from _Celebrity Big Brother_ for endorsing Nazism. The tragedy of Miriam Rivera, the transgender model at the center of _There’s Something About Miriam_, a British reality series that treated her gender identity as a shocking twist, ended with her 2019 suicide. While such horrific errors are rarer these days, the fact that so many mainstream dating shows continue to exclude queer narratives confirms that heterosexism still has a hold on the genre. —_Judy Berman_ _If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental-health crisis or contemplating suicide, call or text 988._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/reality-tv-most-influential-seasons/6197764/boy-meets-boy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/reality-tv-most-influential-seasons/6197764/boy-meets-boy/"},"headline":"Boy Meets Boy","datePublished":"2022-08-04T12:30:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:05:15.112Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/reality-tv-most-influential-seasons/6197764/boy-meets-boy/","keywords":["franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt391eb7c143ee8f3e/698a33f4cabb1d07fbe50802/boy-meets-boy-reality-tv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt391eb7c143ee8f3e/698a33f4cabb1d07fbe50802/boy-meets-boy-reality-tv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/reality-tv-most-influential-seasons/6197764/boy-meets-boy/","name":"Boy Meets Boy"}}]}] ```