Project Runway! • Pets on The Circle • Survivor 🌭 • Grey's Anatomy lies
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome to our new community members who subscribed over the past week.
In very exciting news, Project Runway is being relaunched, again, with another ‘refresh.’
The show was previously relaunched and refreshed on Bravo, which I thought maybe two years ago but turns out that was 2018, so it’s been more than six years.
While writing about this, I realized the original Project Runway premiered 20 years ago this December.
In related news:
Another anniversary: Trading Spaces came to us 24 years ago last Sunday! Read my behind-the-scenes story if you want to reminisce about the show that gave us a hay wall and a fireplace that caused sobbing.
🌭 Recaps
🏔️️ The Summit:
🌭 Survivor:
🪨 Below Deck Sailing Yacht:
🐶 Questions and answers
My review of the latest quiz show revival:
And the answers to two reality TV questions:
🔪 True crime
🎧 Listen to The Docket:
The Erin Lee Carr Reader: The doc director has two projects out this week; we’re looking back at Carr’s past work with some recommendations.
📖 Book recommendation
My friend Nancy Barber wrote a great book in which she—and this is real—walked 314 miles across five Southern states in 10 days, in the middle of a brutally hot summer, supported only by strangers who’d set up relief stations in their yards.
Her story, Vol State 500K, explores how that experience "blurs the lines of American division and helps rekindle an appreciation of her roots." More here.
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
🚨 Food Network just announced its holiday shows; they start premiering in early November.
🚨🚨 I was interviewed for Vice’s Dark Side of Reality TV episode on Survivor, which premieres Tuesday. I look forward to your critiques!
😅 I screwed up last week: the shows that I said had premiered actually were coming this week. Those include tonight’s return of Shark Tank, plus Married at First Sight and Drag Race Thailand.
Thus, I missed highlighting premieres last week such as Below Deck Sailing Yacht (which I am recapping!), Ancient Aliens: Origins, House of Villains, Expedition Unknown, and the final season of Life Below Zero.
As to specials and documentaries, this week’s premieres included PBS’s profile of an Inuit lawyer; Frontline’s profile of Israelis and Palestinians affected by a year of war; and Hulu’s doc about The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara.
💬 Comments of the week
On this review of BB26, Patrick wrote:
Honestly, a really great season. A fun theme they actually stuck to, interesting twists that (overall) didn’t feel unfair, and a good, diverse group of houseguests. Chelsie quietly played one of the most dominant games we’ve seen in many, many years and I’m really hoping she pulls off a victory. Despite all her HoH wins, she was not domineering and managed to slip under the radar while still pulling all the strings. It was truly a masterclass in gameplay.
Also, justice for Jankie! I loved that little guy.
On this game show review, Sara wrote:
Watched Scrabble. I love Raven, but I was so bored. I liked the beginning better, where I could guess the word. When it became like actual Scrabble, there was no time to play along and no time to figure out where to put a word and get points. I think I nodded off. Hated the terrible red set with bright lights. It looked lonely and cheesy. I wanted more contestants and more action and something to draw me in. It fell flat.
🗞️ Reality TV news
Liam Payne—a member of One Direction, the group formed by Simon Cowell on The X Factor in 2010—died at age 31.
He fell off a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. The cretins at TMZ decided they could go even lower than the gutter they normally inhabit and published photos of his body, before ultimately removing them.
In August, Netflix announced that Liam would judge its new reality competition Building The Band along with Kelly Rowland and Nicole Scherzinger.
Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban is campaigning for Kamala Harris. During a Wisconsin rally, he said, "this election is a battle for entrepreneurs, this election is a battle for small business."
He also said, "I'm gonna give [Trump] a little bit of credit: I honestly think he used to understand how tariffs work. I mean, back in the 90s and the early 2000s, he was a little bit coherent when he talked about trade policy, and he actually made a little bit of sense. But I don’t know what happened to him…” because now he has a “…crazy, crazy notion that putting a 60 percent tariff on every single product imported from China is a good idea.”
Great reads:
Franchises took over reality TV. Now they threaten its success, L.A. Times. Meredith Blake and Yvonne Villarreal dig in to the trends of reality TV turning to franchises—and franchise stars—instead of new shows. I'm quoted, but the story is still worth reading!
One of the best parts of The Golden Bachelor and now The Golden Bachelorette are the singles and their noncompetitive, supportive interaction. Two pieces about that:
Is the Cure to Male Loneliness Being a Contestant on The Golden Bachelorette?, Jezebel. Kady Ruth Ashcraft writes about how nice and emotional it is to see the men having fun together.
Actually, They Are Here to Make Friends, Vulture. Kathryn VanArendonk writes about why "friendship is the current name of the game"—and what makes that possible, like social media connections post-show.
🤩 I recommend
This game show revival, if only to see how Taylor Swift’s boyfriend does as a host
This season of The Floor, which is so fun!
This doc about the lying Grey’s Anatomy writer, based on Eve’s review
That’s everything I have for you this week. I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 395 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 18 October 2024, and it puts onions and mustard on its veggie hot dogs.