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I'll say no. Bodybuilding by definition is extreme, and most people don't like extremes. Even casual things like diet gets on people's nerves--how many of us despite extreme vegans or vegetarians or people that SWEAT by the carnivore diet.
As trends shift I think athletic women will become more "acceptable" but with a body positivity movement running around I don't think it will get more mainstream than that. Heck, I bet if you looked around you coudl find disparaging comments about Katy O'Brian who showed up in Quantumania looking pretty jacked (she is a one-time figure competitor herself and still keeps in fantastic shape).
Judging by the quality of the Olympia stream (it was not great and the show overall i heard was not good, with several delays) this would not be something a network would ever tackle. ESPN never reupped whatever deal they inked with crossfit ane I would say that's much more commercially viable and accesible.
Also, the era of the action star is about dead, minus Tom Cruise. At least how they were. Arnold and Ferrigno were great public faces for bodybuilding in film and tv but Arnold had a charisma that is hard to match. And movies like that rarely pop up anymore. Maybe a streamer would take a risk but everyone is bean-counting these days.
Also, unless you have a pretty comfortable niche as a character actor, you're going to want to be as diverse as possible in terms of a look you can pull off, and if you're absolutely jacked, even if natty, you're gonna have a tough time. you might be able to get by if you're a Biel type but she wasn't that great of an actress to begin with.
If there was a time to get SOMEONE to do it, it's now with all these superhero franchises getting stuff done, and the most we've gotten is a CGI'd model of She-Hulk and a dude painted green to be a stand in for one scene, plus Natalie Portman getting some digital work to look a little bigger in some scenes as Thor.
BBing will NEVER been something that is mainstream simply because there aren't enough people interested in the sport. Male bodybuilding has a much bigger audience than female bodybuilding, and even that still has relatively little recognition (i.e. you're not going to hear sports commentators and talking heads discuss the results of the Arnold or the Mr. Olympia.) It will always remain a niche sport in the sense that the majority of its audience will either be people who are directly involved in fitness (people who bodybuild, lift or so some other kind of strength sport,) their family members, or, and ironically probably the smallest percentage of fans, fetishists. On the last point, while everybody here is sexually attracted to muscular women, I bet that the amount of people here who are actually also into the sport and competition aspect of bodybuilding is quite small.
Plus, the perception of bodybuilding being a "freak show" will always be there are will contribute to it never going into the mainstream. To Joe Sixpack, bodybuilders are cartoonishly large men and women with an unsustainably low bodyfat percentage, and of course, while most people are still very ignorant about PED use in sports, more people than not know that steroids are used in bodybuilding due to how obvious it is. The bodybuilding shows you used to see on ESPN2 were there because when the network was conceived, it was meant to show more alternative and extreme sports. However, when that didn't generate the viewership of its flagship channel, it phased that out in the late 90s to just another extension of ESPN.
Is there a female bodybuilder (pr physique, figure, etc) that can bring the sport mainstream and acceptable to the masses? Ms Olympia has been revived but to fans like us. Is there a woman (or women) that can bring women’s bodybuilding to the point of it acceptable to people who still think it’s taboo? To the point that competitions can be viewed on networks like ESPN (like the good ole 90s).
What makes it a TV product? You're old like me, even if you're not as old AS me. Being that you're old, what makes you think the audiences of today have an interest in what niche audiences enjoyed 30 years ago? That's a mostly rhetorical question.
Fitness and physique competitions are interesting to the people who find them interesting and they're not interesting at all to anyone else. Even the people who LIKE the competitions complained a lot about the last Olympia.
If you think it's a viable TV product, buy the airtime and produce the show. If you get serious viewership, you'll attract advertisers.
In my humble opinion, no it never will be (at least not anytime soon). The last time it was relatively "mainstream" was when the ladies looked like Rachel Mclish, Cory Everson, and Lenda Murray -- when they were on ESPN and in Flex Magazine regularly. Even then, despite its popularity, it was still seen as lesser than Sports Illustrated and Playboy.
As of now, it won't get that kind of popularity back, especially with some of these ladies doing porn / OF and dying from the "effects" of the sport.
It is far too expensive to become a top bodybuilder without a large return on investment. Therefor the contestant pool will always be small, keeping bodybuilding a niche sport. I have been in the gym for many years and have no desire to watch a competition unless I know someone competing, and even then, it's only for support.
The unhealthy lifestyle doesn't help it's cause either.
What makes it a TV product? You're old like me, even if you're not as old AS me. Being that you're old, what makes you think the audiences of today have an interest in what niche audiences enjoyed 30 years ago? That's a mostly rhetorical question.
Fitness and physique competitions are interesting to the people who find them interesting and they're not interesting at all to anyone else. Even the people who LIKE the competitions complained a lot about the last Olympia.
If you think it's a viable TV product, buy the airtime and produce the show. If you get serious viewership, you'll attract advertisers.
To add to this, another thing that contributed to the end of seeing stuff like this on TV was the Internet. Back when fitness shows and bodybuilding competitions aired on ESPN2 (again, the "alternative/extreme" sports channel," that was really your only venue to watch that kind of thing. And the producers of those fitness shows weren't dumb. They knew what dudes who tuned in at odd hours wanted to see, and it wasn't to do a workout alongside the cast members of Bodyshaping or Kiana's Flex Appeal (it was laughable how they were like "you can follow along at home!" while training with equipment you would only find in a gym along with wearing skimpy swimwear lol). Now, with not only the advent of the Web but also how advanced digital streaming is, you can find material like that easily at any time of the day.
In lieu of what Tre is asking about if niche audiences today like what niche audiences liked 30 years ago, I would answer yes, but they would look toward other more convenient avenues besides cable television.
And honestly, I'm fine with it never reaching the mainstream. Not that reaching mainstream is a bad thing, but with how readily available things are in practically every interest and hobby that's out there, you don't have to look far. Wargaming is a pretty niche hobby. Luckily, I live in a major city and can find people to play Warhammer 40K with, and even if I didn't, I could play games like that digitally.
Is there a female bodybuilder (pr physique, figure, etc) that can bring the sport mainstream and acceptable to the masses? Ms Olympia has been revived but to fans like us. Is there a woman (or women) that can bring women’s bodybuilding to the point of it acceptable to people who still think it’s taboo? To the point that competitions can be viewed on networks like ESPN (like the good ole 90s).