Queer Eye Star Reveals Why They’re Exiting Netflix Series After Season 8

Last fall, Queer Eye host Bobby Berk announced that he wasn’t returning after the Netflix series’ Season 8, stunning fans of the series as well as Berk, who served as the series’ interior design focused co-host from the series’ first season. Berk’s departure sparked speculation and even some gossip about why and now, Berk is setting the record straight. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Berk explained that while there was a “situation” with co-host Tan France, it had nothing to do with his decision or the show and has since resoled. Instead, according to Berk, the reason he departed Queer Eye was that, at the end of filming Season 8 the cast thought the series was done and he had started to move on.

“The Fab Five and the crew, we all stood there, and we took pictures and cried,” Berk said of the last day of filming Season 8 in New Orleans. “We thought we were done. Mentally and emotionally, I thought we all moved on. I know I did, and I started planning other things.”

Berk explained that the Queer Eye hosts — himself, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, and Tan France — had signed on for a seven-cycle contract with Netflix that concluded in September 2022. However, in November 2023, Netflix announced that they were renewing the series for another season due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes. The hosts were offered a new contract with an option of four cycles and Berk says he decided not to sign — and thought the other hosts had decided the same.

“We’d just assumed that the show wouldn’t come back if we didn’t all come back,” he said. “I was like, I’m not going to be having FOMO because the show is not going to happen. I had become at peace with it.”

However, the other four hosts ended up signing on and Berk says Netflix felt like it could recast just the one person — him. Berk went on to explain that, while he was initially upset, he ultimately wasn’t willing to change the plans he’d set up for his post-Queer Eye life and that he had already mentally prepared himself to move on. As for the rumored feud with France, Berk says that there was a situation, but it had nothing to do with the show.

“Tan and I had a moment,” Berk said. “There was a situation, and that’s between Tan and I, and it has nothing to do with the show.”

He added, “We became like siblings — and siblings are always going to fight.”

Will There Be a Season 9 of Queer Eye?

In November 2023, it was announced that Netflix had renewed Queer Eye for Season 9. Those episodes do not yet have a release date, but it was also announced that the series will move from New Orleans — where it has been set for Season 7 and the current Season 8 — to Las Vegas. Porowski, Van Ness, Brown, and France are set to appear in Season 9

Season 8 of Queer Eye is now streaming on Netflix.