Anyone familiar with Bethenny Frankel would agree that she is aptly named. Boy, is she frank. She's parlayed her frankness into a TV career that's included a stint on The Real Housewives of New York, a couple of Bravo spin-offs about her love life, a couple of other reality show competitions, and now, her own daytime talk show.
In the opening moments of bethenny (which debuted Monday on FOX in six cities: Phoenix, L.A., Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia and Dallas), viewers got to see a montage of that brash, irreverent Frankel magic: Bethenny and her natural foods and Skinnygirl Cocktails business; Bethenny and her series of cookbooks and how-to books; Bethenny and all that TV, and finally, Bethenny here in her very own, brightly decorated talk show studio.
Watch Bethenny's first monologue here:
After all that Bethenny, it was funny to watch Frankel herself stroll on stage and declare that, really, the show wasn't all about her.
But that can be forgiven, because the truth is, the energetic Frankel is well suited to helm a daytime gabfest. Juggling a big slate of guests -- some girl talk with Vanessa Williams; a guy panel with Kevin Nealon, D.L. Hughley and Mike Catherwood; and the requisite sex segment with her resident sexpert Dr. Raj -- her bravado and no-holds-barred conversational style was as over-the-top as Chelsea Handler's, but slightly less snarky.
She asked Hughley the obvious questions that a nosy (er…inquisitive) white woman would inquire of an outspoken black comedian. Do black men really have bigger penises? And why do they prefer big butts? Of course, Frankel is the self-described "queen of too much information," so it's only natural that she would expect her guests to join her in oversharing.
In a segment on how to skip paying top dollar on beauty products, she slathered Miracle Whip on her face and sour cream under her arms. For comedic effect, she scraped some of it off on a tortilla and pretended to eat it. This could have turned viewers off -- or made them laugh. In fact, the same could be said for the show itself.
Watch as Bethenny tells iVillage how she won't be following in anyone's footsteps on her talk show:
Will there be more viewers who love it, or more who hate it? Frankel's betting on the former. And she does have a tendency to win!
