My new podcast • Survivor Sue's face • Love is Blind stunner • much more
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy Friday! I’m still processing the news about Love is Blind and how that may affect reality TV. FYI, my story includes the entire document for you to read—it’s wild.
Earlier this week, I revived my dormant, nascent podcast, which was a one-year thing tied to my newsletter.
Now, it’s all grown up, and will resume/begin again in 2025.
🎧 To listen, just search for Andy’s Reality Blurred in your podcast app of choice, or use one of these handy links:
And if your player can’t find the show, you can always just add the feed directly:
https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/feed/podcast/reality-blurred/
I look forward to chatting with you in the new year!
👬 Reviews
As the end of the year approaches, I realized I didn’t formally review two great shows, so I’m rectifying that starting with:
Netflix’s The Boyfriend: a rare dating show about connection, not competition
Highly recommended!
Other reviews on reality blurred this week:
Peacock’s Making Manson, which uses years of audio recordings of Charles Manson
The book V13: Chronicle of a Trial, about the 2015 Paris massacre
🧼 Survivor
Another fantastic episode:
The show’s biggest mystery, solved:
🗓️ Reality TV & doc premieres
This week’s new and returning reality shows include the show no one asked for but we’re getting anyway: Paris & Nicole: The Encore, in which The Simple Life stars try to put on an opera based on their made-up word “Snåsa”, plus the return of Queer Eye and two new Netflix sports series: Polo follows players at the U.S. Open Polo Championship, and Rugged Rugby, which follows Korean rugby players
Specials and docs include The Great British Baking Show: Holidays, the two holiday episodes from last year, now on Netflix; plus LEGO Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular and The Real Full Monty, on which celebrities strip to raise awareness for cancer prevention.
💬 Comments of the week
On this review, John wrote:
Fantastic review, Andy, of a show I love. I will say that one major piece of product placement–the casting of Usak after the housemates happen to see him dancing at a club, and with the secret understanding that Usak would be in the house for a short time but long enough to potentially boost his career and not, in the end, leave with the boyfriend he professed to want–that set-up made me wonder if other aspects were set-ups, too.
But even if that were true, which I don’t think is the case, I would love the show because it reminds us that you don’t have to be pretty Shun or hunky Usak to be deserving of love
On this story about The Summit, Janet wrote:
I loved every minute of the show. I pray for many more seasons. The friendships formed and the stories that were told during the show. Keep the good work coming.
…and Jeff wrote:
After the first episode it got boring and tedious. I delayed watching the finale for 2 weeks after it aired becuase it felt like a chore, even though I wanted to see who won. The slow-as-molasses voting for the winner was brutally dull and anti-climatic.
🗞️ Reality TV news
Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner was diagnosed with blood cancer, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, last spring. He told People that "there's no cure for it" so "I'm going to pack as much fun as I possibly can into my life and enjoy every moment. And when I'm gone, I'm gone, but I will not have regrets."
His ex Theresa Nist told People that Gerry "told me… that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive."
And she said they got divorced for other, unspecified reasons: The cancer diagnosis "wasn't a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me. If that was something on his part, maybe, I don't know. But no, that didn't factor into ending the relationship," she explains. "Part of it was the distance, but that wasn't the only part. That's really all I will say."
Phil Robertson, star of Duck Dynasty, has both early-stage Alzheimer’s and "some sort of blood disease that's causing all kinds of problems," and "is not doing well," his son said on a podcast.
Vanderpump Rules cast member James Kennedy was arrested “on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence and released after posting $20,000 in bail,” according to the L.A. Times.
Show news:
A&E announced a new series, WWE LFG, a reality competition on which "WWE Legends ... mentor a new generation in weekly matches on their quest to become the next WWE Superstars." (LFG stands for "Legends and Future Greats.")
It sounds at least thematically similar to WWE Tough Enough, which aired six seasons between 2001 and 2015, on three different networks.
🤩 I recommend
The Great Christmas Light Fight (ABC & Hulu), as fun as always
Beat Bobby Flay: Holiday Throwdown (Food Network & Max), which is the best Beat Bobby Flay
Watching Jeff Probst singing in response to a Survivor fan’s song
Bonus scripted show:
Black Doves (Netflix), which is the perfect mix of action, dark comedy, and British spy intrigue
That’s everything for this Friday the 13th! Most likely, I’ll have one more newsletter this year, so I’ll see you back here for that.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 400 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 13 December 2024, and it's sitting on an electric blanket right now, in Florida.
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