Bravo’s Brain

Reality TV was typically the province of grub eating and other humiliations before Lauren Zalaznick, an executive at NBC Universal in charge of Bravo, made it chic. Zalaznick, who introduced to the network shows like Project Runway and Top Chef, “has been polishing the genre of reality TV to a high sheen, taking its contestants off primitive islands and placing them squarely in sophisticated corners of cities like New York and Los Angeles,” according to a New York Times Magazine profile. The key to the formula is “flattering the viewers’ sense of their own good taste.” The result has unlocked one of television’s most desired demographics: Bravo is now the fastest-growing entertainment network among women ages 18 to 49.