All the reality shows premiering this spring. Plus: TAR, SYTYCD, and ANTM!
Dear newsletter friends,
My big project this week was compiling my quarterly guides to new seasons and new shows, and there are a lot coming our way! Here’s my:
And if you’re looking for less investment than a series, many feature documentaries are coming to TV and streaming, focusing on everything from Anthony Bourdain’s life and career to animals at play:
Also this week, I reviewed a show I really look forward to each spring, and made an argument about it:
The Amazing Race concludes
After a season like no other, Amazing Race 33 ended this week with two back-to-back episodes. Here’s:
I’ve been thinking about the finale and this season, and will be writing a longer piece about why TAR 33 was so satisfying overall. In many ways, it became a throwback to earlier TAR.
Speaking of early TAR: If you need more Amazing Race content or are just new to the newsletter, check out my oral history of Amazing Race season 1.
Reality show news
So You Think You Can Dance is returning with ‘brand-new twists’—but without its host and judges?
Fox renewed Next Level Chef, the show that could have been so much more than it is
I agree with Leah Finnegan: “Tom Colicchio’s comments on the Gabe Erales fiasco are gross.”
Chef José Andrés is in Ukraine helping to feed people through his charity World Central Kitchen
🤩 I recommend
Things I’ve found amusing, helpful, fascinating, amazing, and/or all of those things:
This competition, which is even better in its third season
This piece by a former America’s Next Top Model contestant. It’s a small slice of the inhumanity people are subjected to, by producers and networks, for our entertainment. The hotel/stipend detail is particularly brutal—I couldn't stop thinking about how much money people made from ATM as I read that.
This clip from Wheel of Fortune—and then Pat Sajak’s response to the reaction
That’s what I’ve read/watched/written about this week. Have a terrific weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 280, first sent March 4, 2022, and it stands with the people of Ukraine, and all the people who are helping them. 🇺🇦
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📷 Photo of flowers in California’s Wind Wolves Preserve by Sonia Cervantes