Home Shopping Wields Star Power From Reality Realm

Home-shopping giants QVC and HSN for years have included marquee talent from cable-TV reality shows on their roster of vendors, from Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi of MTV’s Jersey Shore selling perfume to stylist Rachel Zoe of Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project offering a clothing and accessories line.

That trend shows no signs of letting up. Lavender- haired Kelly Osbourne, one of the hosts of E!’s Fashion Police, is debuting her “Stories … by Kelly Osbourne” apparel line on HSN this month (Sept. 25 and 26). Her Fashion Police co-host, Giuliana Rancic, was recently on HSN with her fashion collection.

And this summer, two stars from Bravo’s Housewives franchise, NeNe Leakes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Melissa Gorga of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, launched collections, clothing and fashion jewelry, respectively, on HSN.

Part of the appeal of TV personalities to home-shopping networks is that they have fan bases that are willing to check out, if not buy, products these stars have designed or endorsed. And celebrities can plug their homeshopping products by wearing them on their own TV programs or during their public appearances, such as on talk shows.

Gorga donned one of her HSN fashion-jewelry necklaces for a party on an episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey.

QVC also has embraced pop-music personalities. San Francisco-based Train was slated to perform live on the network this past Friday (Sept. 5) during the Train: Q Sessions Live broadcast, showcasing songs from their new album, Bulletproof Picasso, and past hits. Viewers could order the new album more than a week in advance of release and receive a bonus live-performance CD.

At left, a look at some of the celebrity talent that have found homes on home-shopping channels.