Password's plague • Big Bad Budget Battle bombshell • Alex's answers • Challenge conflict
Dear newsletter friends,
This week, I did some of the most important investigative journalism of my 23-year career covering reality TV.
I spent literally several minutes reporting this story, using forensic tools such as screen capture, and also arrows. Did I mention arrows?
Please take a few moments to read this, and maybe write in your journal where you were when you had your world shaken by its revelations:
While I wait for the journalism prizes to roll in, here’s another recommendation, but not something I wrote.
Instead, this piece was written for reality blurred by a former reality TV show contestant who’s now an Emmy nominee:
I recapped
…my now-regular two summer shows:
I reviewed and interviewed
I reviewed:
NBC’s revival of the classic game show Password, which was one of the many shows that premiered this week
I interviewed:
Reality TV news
Here are all the TCA Award winners—including another reality TV tie!
Two women said The Bachelorette’s Nate Mitchell cheated on them by dating them at the same time; Nate's response was "Two sides to every story."
American Idol runner-up and noted Republican donor Katharine McPhee, ranted on Instagram about crime in Beverly Hills, saying, "I blame every single one of you woke voters."
While "walking into scene at a freaking strip club of all places," Siesta Key cast member Kelsey Owens said she was "cut moving forward on Siesta Key with absolutely no warning."
Joel Madden is replacing Dave Navarro as host of Ink Master when it returns later this month, though Navarro will have the new role of "Master of Chaos."
Survivor casting director Jesse Tannenbaum posted on Instagram, asking applicants to "please stop submitting a TikTok vide of you dancing" and added, "make an effort please."
🤩 I recommend
This episode of this terrific podcast, which got me thinking about the stories I tell in my own life
These two TCA Award-winning reality shows
This show, set shenanigans aside
That’s what I wrote and watched this week! I hope you have a great weekend.
—Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 302, first sent 12 August 2022, and it awaits its Pulitzer.
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📷 Photo of a pool in Ischia, Italy, by Arno Senoner