Amazing Race's winners • First 48's losers • Survivor & Cutthroat Kitchen surprises
Dear newsletter friends,
Looking at headlines I wrote this week, I realized three were in the form of a question.
Shit! Am I watching too much Jeopardy Masters? Am I just being a hack, using the same technique?
Not every headline was written that way; for Big Brother, I just went with direct mocking. 😉
Headlines are critical, because if they don’t encourage people to read, my words go unread. And of course, no ads = no compensation for my work. 😭
But then I looked and realized each question does something different, and I thought I’d give you a window into my thinking:
With Survivor 48’s finale looming, did any player do anything?
The question here was mainly designed to avoid spoiling any surprise. I’ll rarely have a direct spoiler in the headline, though because people tend to watch Survivor live, and I publish the morning after episodes air, my headline will often reference an episode’s theme or arc. This episode—spoiler alert—made that harder because of the surprise-ish ending.
Is Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out worth tolerating Malarkey’s shenanigans?
This was a genuine question: Could I tolerate Brian “Shenanigans” Malarkey as a host? Should you? Is the show worth checking out? The piece tries to answer these questions.
Have a Below Deck captain and chief stew ever been this bad at communication?
This is mostly a rhetorical question, as in, Can you believe these assclowns? But also, maybe I’m forgetting and there’s been a duo who’s less functional than these two!
One more thing about headlines: I hate when someone calls a headline “clickbait,” because I still think of clickbait as enticing headline, zero substance, and I hope I never publish anything with zero substance!
And headlines are bait, just as they have been since the early days of the print newspaper, enticing you to read and learn more.
That said, I always welcome feedback, so never hesitate to reach out!
🪓 Reviews and news
Reviews:
News:
A&E’s The First 48? It staged scenes and created ‘a false narrative’ that sent someone to prison
Recaps
Amazing Race:
Survivor 48:
Below Deck Down Under:
Top Chef Destination Canada:
Top Chef gave its chefs an impossible challenge
bonus: a photo of me almost falling off a tower!
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
The scant reality TV premieres this week included season two of The Secret of Mormon Wives and a new season of Welcome to Wrexham
Docs and specials premiering include an exploration of Naomi Judd’s relationship with Wynonna and Ashley; docs about the “Liver King” and British murderers Fred and Rose West; and a three-night special quiz show featuring four people who Fox locked away for about three months 🤯, and will now be asked about current events, called Greg Gutfeld’s What Did I Miss?
📖 A book update!
I have an update on my book-in-progress, which focuses a lot on reality TV, from The Real World to Survivor.
Speaking of writing: I’m teaching a creative nonfiction class for The Loft this summer: six Wednesdays, all online, with oodles of writing and feedback.
If you want to explore this genre or get practice in it, please join me!
💬 Comments of the week
On my Survivor recap last week, Mike missed my joke and wrote,
Betrale?
Anything you said after that is meaningless.
On my Top Chef recap, Rod wrote,
Top Chef has become a stunt. It’s high quality, challenges and elaborate judging table has reduced to just any other culinary show IMO. Everything has to be a gimmick now and overproduced… Is Jeff probst behind the scenes?
About a show that’ll air mid-season next year, Tanya wrote,
I’m optimistic about the Harlan Coben because he’s one of the few Dad/Airport writers with a sense of humor (not that you’d know that based on the Netflix adaptions, but oh, well). He’s fun, loves a mystery, has empathy, and seems like a genuinely good egg. He also has enough money that I can’t imagine him taking on a gig like this unless he thought it was interesting enough to merit the effort. It bodes well.
🗞️ Reality TV news
People:
Survivor Nicaragua’s Jane Bright died yesterday
‘Well-respected, loved, adored’ reality TV casting director Luke Conklin died
Survivor: Island of the Idols cast member Dan Spilo—who you may recall was removed from the show for inappropriate behavior that exposed Survivor's failure to protect its cast and crew—was fired from a film and as Reacher star Alan Ritchson's manager, Deadline reports. The story says he was fired for "inappropriate behavior that included bullying and yelling at crew."
Tyler Henry is recovering after surgery to remove a "colloid tumor near the center of my brain," he wrote on Instagram, saying "I’ll be on bedrest for a month and look forward to getting back to doing readings."
Erik and Lyle Menendez were resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole...meaning they could get released at some point. (Currently they're scheduled for a parole hearing in mid-June.) More at this New York Times gift link, and/or catch up with our reviews of Monsters and The Menendez Brothers.
Shows:
Big Brother 27’s schedule was expanded: now we can waste even more time on Big Brother!
The BBC announced the cast of The Celebrity Traitors: Alan Carr, Cat Burns, Celia Imrie, Charlotte Church, Clare Balding, David Olusoga, Joe Marler, Joe Wilkinson, Jonathan Ross, Kate Garraway, Lucy Beaumont, Mark Bonnar, Nick Mohammed, Niko Omilana, Paloma Faith, Ruth Codd, Stephen Fry, Tameka Empson, and Tom Daley.
Tiffany Derry explains, in an Eater Q&A, how she became Masterchef’s newest judge: "It was bizarre and incredible. I truly believe that what’s for you is for you, and this is a perfect example. I did nothing; I didn’t go after this. I loved working with Bobby Flay, Brooke Williamson, and Michael Voltaggio on Triple Threat. After it happened, I realized I had to talk to Bobby."
Amazon MGM Studios renewed its insufferable competition Beast Games for two more seasons, the company announced, saying season one was "Prime Video’s most-watched unscripted show ever, amassing 50 million viewers"—however it measures viewers.
Oxygen announced several new shows coming later this year and early next—including The Killer Among Us, hosted by Alan Cumming (and presumably drafting off the Traitors brand). —SDB
Virgin Island is a new reality competition on Monday the UK's Channel 4 premiered Monday. That may sound boring, but the whole point is to get them laid on TV—or, in Channel 4's description, "help them take their first steps towards sex and intimacy." Watch its trailer.
🤩 I recommend
The new Cutthroat Kitchen—seriously! It’s fun!
This profile of Couples Therapy star Orna Guralnik, for its behind-the-scenes details. Also, Couples Therapy!
This Tampa real estate agent’s videos. I don’t want to buy a house but I will watch these all day! 😂 For an example, watch this one
That’s everything for today. Thanks for reading. May you have a happy and healthy weekend and week ahead!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 419 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 16 May 2025, and right now there’s a person sitting near me who’s dry sniffing so much I think they might be auditioning for a 1980s movie about cocaine