Baking Show review, Gold Rush news, DWTS voting, Survivor's Applebee's ad, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
Today, the semi-finals of The Great British Bake-Off arrive on Netflix for those of us in the U.S.
So far, I’ve been loving The Great British Baking Show season 10, and also loving watching weekly instead of feeling overwhelmed when a pile of new episodes is dumped in my lap.
I reviewed this season, and as part of that, looked at this season’s challenges, some of which are less about baking than before.
I also reviewed Rhythm + Flow, Netflix’s hip-hop competition—and highlighted some reviews you should read, because their writers know hip-hop better than I do.
Two recaps and two interviews
Survivor: Island of the Idols skipped the Island of the Idols this week (fine by me!) and instead took us all to Applebee’s instead.
In my Survivor recap, I explore the return of product integration and also the tribe swap.
I also had fun recapping a very weird Shark Tank episode. Did you know that Kevin O’Leary has his own cooking-themed YouTube channel, with three whole videos? I did not either!
Dancing with the Stars had a shocking elimination, or at least, a shocking bottom two, and that prompted me to write about why its new voting system is a failure.
Two in-depth interviews for you this week, one of which broke some news:
I interviewed Gold Rush producer and pre-show host Christo Doyle, and in that conversation, he revealed that The Dirt will be returning soon—as an aftershow.
How an engineer found his way to exploring cities that haven’t been touched for thousands of years: a conversation with the star of a new NatGeo show.
In other news, two new international Nailed It! shows arrive on Netflix today, as does a show about mating birds. Details, and other reality TV premieres, here.
Two shows I’m very much looking forward to seeing, Lego Masters and Flirty Dancing (watch a preview), both now have premiere dates that I’ve added to my constantly-updated reality TV premiere calendar.
Those dates are in January 2020, and I’m in denial about how close we are to that year. Wasn’t it just Y2K? I also realize that the passage of time has become a theme in these weekly dispatches, perhaps because checking in weekly makes me aware of how quickly the days go by.
I hope your week has been as delightful as an episode of The Great British Baking Show, and that your weekend is too. Thanks, as always, for reading my stuff and subscribing to Reality in Focus!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 167, first sent 25 October 2019, and it still wants to know what Lori’s Golden Ticket is actually for.
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📷 Photo of Halloween decorations by Javier Molina