An original Survivor died, plus Bear Grylls' confession ...
An original Survivor died, plus Bear Grylls' confession, BravoCon's lineup, Survivor vs. Masked Singer, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
I’ve spent seven of the last 10 nights in hotel rooms—I was speaking to college journalists at their national conference in DC last week, and just spoke at the Mediavine conference this morning, where I’ve been spending time learning alongside other independent publishers.
At night and in the mornings, I’ve been watching a lot of Food Network and HGTV, which is perfect company.
I haven’t seen a single episode repeat in that time; the sheer quantity of shows on both networks impresses me, and I’m gaining new appreciation for how entertaining and well-constructed they are.
And the holiday-themed shows are bringing some of that holiday warmth, which I’m ready for. And yes, Christmas reality shows are here already!
Four holiday baking reality shows are now airing, including one that arrived today on Netflix. Here’s everything that premiered this week.
Survivor ratings, sexism, and memories
Last Friday, we lost one of reality TV’s early stars: Rudy from Survivor Borneo died. This week’s episode of Survivor ended with a card remembering him.
Also this week, Survivor delivered another incredible episode, one that included a discussion of how real-world biases affect people in the game.
That was just one of the many great moments. Read my full recap.
In the ratings, Survivor is being crushed by The Masked Singer on Wednesday nights, but, with a huge assist from my friend Joe Adalian from Vulture, I wrote about the surprisingly good news for Survivor.
Interviews, news, a meme, and a recap
Last week, I reported to you that, 2.5 weeks from BravoCon, Bravo still hadn’t even updated the web site for the convention with any details, like who was coming or what was happening. It’d been months since there was any news.
This week, Bravo revealed the BravoCon schedule and lineup of 88 stars. It’s a mix of bigger stars and those who’d like to be bigger stars.
Only one of the two Housewives in this meme—which is really getting a lot of play recently!—is attending. If only the cat would be there too.
In two interviews I published this week, there are answers to burning questions I had about two long-running shows:
Bear Grylls admitted Running Wild plants dead animals along the route
How America’s Got Talent auditions work, and how it recruits acts
I recapped The Profit season 7’s premiere, on which Marcus Lemonis did something he’s never done before.
I know Halloween is over, but this video of Hannah Brown and Kalen Allen going through a haunted house made me laugh so, so hard. I won’t spoil it, but there’s something that happens repeatedly that I found ridiculously hilarious.
That’s everything for this week. Happy Friday! Thanks for subscribing and reading my stuff. I’m very grateful!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 169, first sent 8 November 2019, and it misses Rudy—not in a homosexual way, that’s for sure.
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📷 Photo of a mug of fall warmth by Anita Austvika