Pseudo-celebrity Survivor, School of Chocolate, Real Dirty Dancing, Amazing Race and more
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy Friday. Yesterday, one of my favorite new shows of this year, Alex vs. America, was renewed for a second season.
At a (virtual) TCA press conference, I asked Alex Guarnaschelli what she likes in the challenges and expects from season two—i.e. will the contestants get more strategic?
Alex also told an amazing story about how she actually started judging cooking at age 7, long before she learned how to cook.
Celebrity Big Brother and (not) Celebrity Survivor
On Wednesday:
CBS announced the cast for its not-celebrity-Survivor reality show that has celebrities surviving for two weeks. It’ll be paired with Survivor in March.
Celebrity Big Brother began its three-week run; here’s its schedule and its cast of celebrities best known for reality TV. I thought the first episode was fine? And then I didn’t watch last night.
As always, I highly recommend following @hamsterwatch 🐹 , whose live feed reports and comprehensive website are how I follow along with Big Brother without always having to watch every minute of Big Brother.
Reality TV show reviews
I reviewed:
Real Dirty Dancing: Fox’s celebrity reality TV remake is surprisingly sweet
Netflix’s School of Chocolate and The CW’s Great Chocolate Showdown
Take Out with Lisa Ling on HBO Max
Of those four shows, I recommend three! 🕺💃 🍫🥡
For other premieres, see the winter reality TV premiere guide and this week’s list of documentaries on TV and streaming.
The Amazing Race!
My recap and its alliterative headline:
If you’re new to my Amazing Race coverage—welcome! You might want to read this, too:
🤩 I recommend
This show—er, “special event series”—which surprised me
This Netflix show (the second review in the story)
This profile of Great Pottery Throw Down judge Keith Brymer-Jones
This profile of Jackass star Steve-O
That’s everything from me. I hope you have a terrific rest of your Friday and a great weekend.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 276, first sent Feb. 4, 2022, and it wants to go canyoning.
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📷 Photo of a squirrel in snow by Yannick Menard