Queer Eye fans are already missing Bobby Berk. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)
Netflix has dropped the first full trailer for season eight of Queer Eye. And while it looks like another fabulous, uplifting season, fans seem more focused on bidding Bobby Berk farewell.
Berk, who has been the Fab Five’s design expert ever since Netflix rebooted Queer Eye in 2018, announced in November that he would be leaving the show.
The TV personality told fans about his “necessary” decision with a “heavy heart”, noting that season eight would be his last.
Now that the trailer for the new season is officially out, fans are reeling all over again, knowing that this is the last time they’ll see Berk as part of the Fab Five.
In the trailer, fans see Berk back in action with the rest of the gang: Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, Karamo Brown, and Tan France, giving some New Orleans heroes the makeovers they deserve.
The lucky heroes getting the Queer Eye treatment this season include a former nun and Kiss superfan, the football coach for the Louisiana School for the Deaf who doesn’t realise his value and is at risk of being cut, a Bayou-born outdoorsman looking to reignite the spark in his marriage, and a man who has spent so much time caring for his brother that he has forgotten about himself.
Rest assured there will be plenty of tearjerker moments in store!
But all that’s on fans’ minds is the fact that they’re one step closer to having to say goodbye to Berk.
Commenting on the trailer shortly after it dropped, one fan wrote: “This show will NOT be the same without Bobby. The guy is such a talent and seems like such a wholesome lovely person. Nonetheless, this season looks amazing.”
A second fan said: “So sad Bobby gonna leave after this season, QE won’t be the same without him.”
And a third commented: “I can’t wait !!! So upset that this is Bobby’s last season though”
Berk has not yet explicitly said why he decided to leave the beloved Netflix series, though there has been plenty of speculation.
“It’s not been an easy decision to be at peace with, but a necessary one,” Berk said in his announcement back in November.
“Although my journey with Queer Eye is over, my journey with you is not. You will be seeing more of me very soon.”
Shortly after Berk shared the heartbreaking news, US Weekly reported that an inside source had alleged that he had been “asked to leave” the series because he “wasn’t vibing with the cast.”
The source had claimed: “His heart was not in it and the rest of the cast started to resent him because of that.”
Now, it would appear that there might be something to those rumours, after fans copped that Tan France unfollowed Berk on Instagram.
Not only that, but in a post to Instagram last week to announce the season eight release date, Berk tagged all of his Queer Eye castmates but France.
At first, France was not tagged in Berk’s post whatsoever, but Berk has since tagged France’s @shaded Instagram account, which the fashion expert created to celebrate people of colour and hasn’t been active since October 2020.
As a result, fans are dying to know what went down behind the scenes. But, at least for the foreseeable, the Fab Five are keeping their lips sealed.
Queer Eye season eight arrives on Netflix on 24 January.