Chris Harrison replaced after leaving quarantine, Big Brother's COVID-19 denier, and Eco-Challenge's return
Dear newsletter friends,
I know it’s a cliche now that we’ve all lost track of time, but I just realized that I put “July 7” on last week’s newsletter, at least in the image at the top.
So I’m just getting used to the idea that it’s August—which is already halfway done.
Clearly, I’m as exhausted as the deer in the photo, so let’s just get to this week’s news.
The big stories:
This week, I reviewed two shows, and both are ones that I’d highly recommend to you:
Eco-Challenge (Amazon), which is back and is outstanding, uplifting, and electrifying reality TV
Tough As Nails (CBS, Wednesdays and streaming), which has produced a fascinating and surprising outcome
Speaking of recommendations: I recommended you watch Taskmaster last week, and then The CW pulled it off the air before its second episode even aired. 😆 Alas!
Thankfully, seasons 1 to 7 are on YouTube, free even to us in the U.S., and The CW is streaming season 8, also free, on CWSeed.com
Actually on TV this week, besides Eco-Challenge, were premieres of a new Hard Knocks and a Selena Gomez cooking series.
Survivor’s surprising turn
My summer re-watch of Survivor: Borneo is approaching the point of the season when I remember the boot order—but I’d totally forgotten that immunity saved Kelly from being voted out by her own alliance!
Read my full Survivor recap here.
Speaking of Survivor, its unofficial historian and statistician, Jeff Pitman, examined Survivor and the problem with the first vote. He tried to quantify and understand why “BIPOC contestants almost always seem to end up at the top of the target list.”
It’s a great read that concludes “BIPOC contestants have clearly faced tougher obstacles than their white counterparts at all but one of the last 10 seasons' first Tribal Councils.” Yikes. Read the full story here.
Also, to follow up on this story from last week, the centerpiece of Shark Week aired this week, starring a convicted rapist and man who admitted to physically assaulting his wife—and guess what that special featured? Shark science? Of course not. It featured unnecessary harassment of wildlife. Do better, Discovery Channel.
Listen to me
Finally this week, I was a guest on two podcasts, which happened to land on the same day, even though they were taped months apart!
#AmWriting, on which we discuss freelancing, writing, and, of course, reality TV
Daily DVR, in which we explored the last two decades of reality TV (and my coverage of it) in about an hour.
That’s everything I have this week. Enjoy your weekend.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 207, first sent 14 August 2020, and it finally has the month right.
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📷 Photo of a deer in Wollaton Hall and Park, Nottingham, United Kingdom, by Jason Grove