The hilarious, quick-witted duo behind pop-culture podcast Las Culturistas is back with another year of honoring all forms of pop culture.
For the second time since it began as a live event five years ago, the Las Culturistas Culture Awards will drop on June 17, airing simultaneously on Bravo and Peacock. Filmed May 30 at Downtown L.A.’s United Theater on Broadway, the awards honor “culture’s biggest and most obscure moments with humor, performances and unapologetic specificity.”
Tailor-made for die-hard consumers of music, film and television — particularly reality TV — there’s no awards ceremony quite like this one. The ceremony is a spoof of the industry’s litany of awards shows, a love letter that skewers their seriousness; a variety show in its own right, packed to the gills with song-and-dance numbers; a fever dream for Real Housewives and Summer House watchers, with stars of both Bravo franchises in attendance; and a celebration of queer obscura, as evidenced by categories like “Eternal Lesbian of the Pop Culture Mind” and “The All Good Either Way Award for Bisexuality in Media.”
This may not be your mom’s go-to awards ceremony, but it’s likely appointment viewing for your Gen-Z coworker.
The day after filming the Culture Awards, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers sat down with the Television Academy to discuss what goes into crafting one of television’s most entertaining awards ceremonies.
Television Academy: This year’s Culture Awards ceremony has an opening monologue that includes a full-on song-and-dance number. Tell me about the process behind that. Is it a fun one? Daunting?
Matt Rogers: It's a little bit of both, actually, because I wouldn't say that Bowen’s and my number-one skill is choreography. And yet it is something we keep doing. But I think we just try and lean into our vision as much as possible, and we had a pretty clear one this time.
But the thing that motivates us to do that is to pack these opening moments to the gills with pure entertainment. It's a literal song and dance that we're doing after a little volley of jokes — a light tasting menu of topical jokes about the culture in our point of view as queer people, in the way that we specifically engage with this kind of culture, and little jokes about Bravo, little jokes about Peacock, about ourselves. I think we just check all the boxes, and then we go right into a song and dance that ties it all together and is its own comment on the past year.
Bowen Yang: One thing we love about awards shows is the many different ways people choose to open them. We've studied all of them, and we’ve created sort of an amalgamation. [With the Culture Awards] you have your typical host monologue, but there’s also a [musical] number. Like, we're just trying to satirize as many elements of awards shows as we can. So, the opening number and the opening monologue and even the Super Tease is all part of that.
What was the one moment that, right after the awards, each of you were like, “Oh my God, I can't believe we pulled that off”?
Rogers: There were multiple individuals that I can't believe we booked. But one in particular … not just because of their immense fame, but also because of the red tape that may be associated with nailing this person down.
Yang: One of the most adored, recognizable figures in all of pop culture was in the show. I've never seen a room erupt like that in my life. But there were many individuals who traveled a great distance to show up to the show and who couldn't believe they won.
Rogers: From far and wide, people journeyed to the Culture Awards. And let's just say that every universe of IP is in play.
Yang: The Culture Awards is a collaboration across all of pop culture’s space and time.
A highlight of the Culture Awards has always been the category creation, and also some of the comical nominees you guys come up with. Are those a joint effort?
Yang: Well, we used to do them just the two of us, when it was just us writing the show in the first three years when it was a live [non-televised] show. And I think we set the language and the tone of what they are. This year, we were joined by three incredible people in our writers' room: Joe Firestone, Sam Taggart and Celeste Yim, who also wrote for the show last year. And we all really do it together. And, to be honest with you — and I like this about it — I forget who comes up with what. I appreciate us all speaking the same language and working together to collaborate and create this thing, because that's really what makes it what it is. I will say, though, when we were talking about who to fill our room with, we did pick three of the silliest people we know, because we really want to push it more in that direction.
Rogers: We really weren't sure how it was going to work or execute on the day of the awards, but I think it all really sung nicely. The process of it was really done by committee. We did a surplus of category pitches, and then in each of those, we did 20 or 30 nominations, and then we just kind of picked the top five.
Yang: It was like BAFTA longlists.
The Culture Awards are so closely intertwined with the world of Bravo. Two quickfire questions: One, your favorite Bravo series of all time. And two, the Bravo series that has had the best current or recent season.
Rogers: I would say my favorite Bravo series of all time, just in terms of being a watercooler show and me being able to laugh with my friends about it, is definitely The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. And I would say it's the same answer for the second question. I think the show’s fourth season, the one with Monica — Reality Von Tease — was top tier. And season five was good. They’ve only had one iffy season, which I believe was three. But I would say that's my answer.
Yang: And I would say the same. Salt Lake City has really had a tremendous positive impact on me and has enriched my life in many ways.
Rogers: We've made friends with several of them. We count Heather Gay as an actual friend.
Yang: And we love Angie K.
The Las Culturistas Culture Awards airs June 17 on Bravo and Peacock.
