QVC Host Patti Reilly Bids A Teary Farewell, With People Still Asking ‘What’s Up With That?’

We came in on the tail end of Patti Reilly’s final show on QVC, and she has wiped tears from her eyes several times as we were watching.

She is going to need a truck to take home all the bouquets of flowers she’s gotten during her swan song.

She is now on the air with makeup queen Laura Geller, who she described as her best friend. The show is about to end.

“I’ve been crying here all night,” Geller told Reilly.

Patti Reilly (right) clowning around with Mally Roncal (far left) back in the day

Reilly, who looks pretty good in a cute grey vest and white ruffled shirt, has been taking calls from friends and even QVC vendor and shampoo pooh-pooher Chaz Dean, who told her, “You’re jumping ship! What’s up with that?”

That’s what a lot of people are wondering.

On Facebook a few days ago, Reilly seemed a little annoyed that fans keep asking why she is going.

She posted her answer Monday.

“Why am I leaving QVC?” she said. “I don’t want to look back 5 yrs from now w regret. I want to step thru a potential door of opportunity that I may have never known existed had I ‘played it safe.’ I’ve been praying for a new life & I believe this is part of the plan:) I am grateful for the years spent, but it’s simply time to move on.”

At the very end of Reilly’s last QVC show, hosts Lisa Robertson and Jacque Gonzales came out — and also got weepy –to say goodbye. Gonzales blubbered something about Reilly coming to her wedding that we didn’t quote catch.

“Thank you everybody, for watching me for 11 years,” Reilly said.

Ever-bubbly Mally Roncal, the red-carpet makeup artist, was also on Reilly’s final “Friday Night Beauty” show. In fact, Roncal created two products, a Highshine Liquid Lipstick Duo, just for Reilly.

“I had to take care of Miss Patti,” Roncal said. “You know Miss Patti Reilly, she is a sparkler, a firecracker.”

Geller, by the way, has now lost two of her good buddies at QVC. Host Lisa Mason, Geller neighbor in Manhattan, also exited this year. In fact, Mason and Geller are doing a meet-and-greet in Manhattan to promote Mason’s new book.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: People seem to love or hate Patti. QVC customers are bantering back and forth on our blogs about her, which mentioned the fact that she had lost a lot of weight vey quickly, making some suspect she had some kind of surgery.

Host Lisa Mason, Totally Choking Up Twice, Bids QVC A Teary Farewell Tuesday

We almost started tearing up ourselves as we watched longtime QVC host Lisa Mason do her emotional final show — Diamonique, fittingly — on QVC Tuesday evening.

Mason also did the big reveal about her plans: She has written a book about God called “Big Life Lessons From That Still, Small Voice.” More on that later.

Ms. Mason got choked up and was literally speechless twice during her two-hour show: For a few moments when her fellow host, Jacque Gonzales, called in on-air to say goodbye, and when makeup vendor Laura Geller called in at the show’s finale.

Mason, clutching a tissue, couldn’t get a word out when Gonzales called in. There was a long silence until Mason composed herself and Gonzales spoke up.

“You are my mentor, and took me by the hand day by day and step by step,” Gonzales, tearful herself, told Mason.

Gonzales threatened to hop on a train to Manhattan and stalk Mason in her Upper East Side neighborhood.

“I love you,” Gonzales said.

“I love you too, sugar,” Southern belle Mason replied back.

Later on, Mason joked about her temporary loss of words. “Was it an awkward moment of silence?” she asked. Only if someone doesn’t have a heart, Lisa.

Then near the end of the show, Geller called in and Mason just put both her hands up on her face, covering her eyes, and didn’t say a word, she was so emotional. Geller spoke up and filled up the dead air, singing praise for Mason until the beloved host was able to speak.

“Stop crying, wipe those tears already,” Geller told her.

They apparently see a lot of each other, since Geller lives on 68th Street in the Big Apple and Mason and her husband Gino are on 76th.

“Girl, did you see I lost it?” Mason told fellow host Jane Treacy later in the show, referring to her emotional reaction when Geller called in.

Mason got weepy more than once, not just with Gonzales and Geller.

Lisa Mason bid QVC viewers a teary goodbye

There were plenty of other call-ins, including former QVC host Kathy Levine, skin care vendor Dr. Adrienne Denese, makeup vendor Mally Roncal, designer Louis Dell’Olio, Affinity Diamond expert Michael O’Connor and Chaz Dean.

QVC also aired clips of QVC hosts Dan Wheeler, Jayne Brown and Leah Williams saying their goodbyes to Mason.

Mason, who joined QVC in 1995, also offered a bit of advice to viewers.

“Find a way to bring happiness to your life,” she said. Amen to that!

QVC did Mason a kindness by flashing the home page for her new website, lisamason.org. We tried to get on the site after the show, but it was down. Maybe it crashed from the traffic from her fans.

Finally, Mason briefly talked about her book.

“It’s a great book, it’s not about me,” she said. “But it’s called ‘Big Life Lessons From That Still, Small Voice.’ It is about God and it’s coming out end of February. I’ll let you know where. And I want you to be there with me when we launch it. And it really is about how important God is to me and always will be. That will never, never, never vary in my life.”

Then Treacy and Wheeler come on the air with Mason, Wheeler handed Mason a bouquet of roses, and Treacy brought out a big cake that said “Best Wishes: We Will Miss You.”

For astrology buffs, Mason is a Capricorn born Dec. 28, which is also her wedding anniversary with Gino.

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News Flash: Philadelphia Inquirer Discovers That QVC Sells More Than Cubic Zirconia

The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday broke the big scoop that high-end designers have made their way to QVC because of its “sales clout.” Yes, the consumer press finally got a clue.

We did a huge blog on that topic for Thanksgiving, and have written many other blogs about why big-name designers like Badgley Mischka, Vivienne Tam, Robert Lee Morris, Judith Ripka and Stephen Dweck — whose wares can be found at shops like Neiman Marcus — now have lines for QVC and HSN.

The story, by Inquirer fashion writer Elizabeth Wellington, is headlined “Fashion Fete’s Eyes on QVC: Sales Clout Turns Heads in New York.”

The story talks about QVC telecasting live from Fashion Week in Manhattan again this year, and how “the seller people used to go to for Grandma’s holiday sweater” is now “a major industry player” in the fashion world.

That’s because designers have discovered a rather simple fact, one that snobs who look down their nose at home shopping channels, have yet to grasp: You can make a hell of a lot more money selling thousands of items an hour on QVC than selling just a few costly items in a brick-and-mortar store.

The story quotes Doug Howe, QVC’s chief merchandising officer, as well as the QVC vendors celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal and fashion designer Bradley Bayou.

Roncal told the Inquirer she once sold 20,000 eyeliners in eight minutes on QVC (we use her mascara).

Bayou is quoted as saying he was skeptical when QVC first approached him. He hopped on board.

“When you show couture, you sell maybe 10 to 20 pieces (a season), but when you show on QVC, you can sell 1,000 pieces in an hour,” Bayou told the Inquirer.

The newspaper also reported that QVC rival HSN, those sly pusses, will have a breakfast in New York to show off its new spring fashions in a couple of weeks.

QVC Is Pumping Up The Volume For Fashion Week, Debuting Five New Designers

QVC will kick it up and introduce five new designers to the network during its Fashion Week telecasts from Manhattan’s Bryant Park starting this weekend.

QVC will debut designers Thuy, Mara Hoffman, Erica Davies, Pamella Roland and Christian Francis Roth. Celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal will be responsible for the models’ makeup at the home shopping network’s runway shows.

And QVC veterans Isaac Mizrahi, Rachel Zoe, Marc Bouwer, Lori Goldstein, Erin Fetherston, Chloe Dao, Pamela Dennis and Bradley Bayou will be on hand.

Joining forces with IMG Fashion, QVC’s runway broadcasts will mark the largest amount of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week programming produced by the network to date. QVC’s shows from Bryant Park are scheduled to air Saturday from 10 p.m. to midnight and next Wedneday from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Additionally, for the first time ever, QVC will bring the energy of Bryant Park to Studio Park, its headquarters in West Chester, Pa., with two live broadcasts scheduled for Sunday 11 p.m. to midnight and next Tuesday from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

There will also be a special Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week edition of PM Style next Monday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“QVC has become a powerhouse for launching fashion collections from some of the industry’s leading designers and stylists. We’re thrilled to welcome back and introduce such an impressive roster of talent and are extremely confident that our customers will love the beautiful, accessible array of fashions and accessories they will be launching with us at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week,” Claire Watts, QVC’s president of U.S. Commerce, said in a canned statement.

QVC is also joining leaders in the fashion industry to support the Council of Fashion Designers of America with its “Fashion for Haiti” initiative. QVC will sell “Fashion for Haiti” T-shirts on-air, on QVC.com and at its shows at Bryant Park that will benefit the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which is supporting immediate, high-impact relief and long-term recovery efforts for the victims of the earthquakes.