Emmy nominee shocks • Top Chef's new host and cities • Drag Race's new all-stars • Project Greenlight's return • and more!
Dear newsletter friends,
Starting today, actors are joining writers on the picket lines, withholding their labor from studios.
Here's The Mole host Alex Wagner interviewing The Nanny Fran Drescher, who's the president of SAG-AFTRA, about why actors are striking.
The strike may mean more reality TV—which I always love, but I'm not celebrating that in this moment.
It's time that more of the billions being made by media companies make it to the people who create entertainment—and that includes paying reality TV producers and stars more, too.
Just look what a studio executive told Deadline about the strike: "The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses."
If that's what the studios want in order to make themselves more profit, that's pretty evil.
😍 Recaps and a review
Claim to Fame recap:
Tough As Nails recap:
episodes 3 and 4: How was that Tough As Nails ATV mud challenge fair?!
Project Greenlight review:
🗞️ Reality TV news
These are the Emmy-nominated reality shows and hosts, with surprises including Survivor’s first nomination since 2006 (!).
Here's Drag Race All Stars 9’s new format and rumored queens
Top Chef has an outstanding new host and judge, plus a curious new location
HBO renewed We're Here—but with an entirely new cast: Sasha Velour, Priyanka, and Jaida Essence Hall will "continue the goal of the series to spread love and connection through the art of drag across small-town America." Bob the Drag Queen tweeted, "Happy to pass the torch to these three queens."
Survivor: The Australian Outback player Nick Brown resigned as U.S. attorney in Seattle to run for Washington state attorney general
🗓️ This week's reality TV
The reality TV shows premiering this week include: Luann and Sonja in their show Welcome to Crappie Lake; horny idiots in Too Hot to Handle; and new seasons of Celebrity Family Feud and The $100,000 Pyramid.
The documentaries premiering include Frontline's look at Putin’s Crisis and Peacock's Myth of the Zodiac Killer, which suggests there were just unrelated murders, not one killer
💬 Comment of the week
I am a loyal fan of ANW but this 2023 season has me very disappointed. Also not a fan of teenagers competing against adults. I hate the runs at the end. The bios are too long. Don't get to see enough runners now. If this is what it has come to I may stop watching. I loved this show. Loved it. Now not so much. So sad.
—Velda, on this review
🤩 I recommend
This show, which has changed for the better and is still riveting
This show on Disney+ and Hulu, and this show on Max, both hosted by Top Chef's amazing new host
Adam Conover's Instagram, for on-the-ground insight into why writers and now actors are striking
Enjoy the rest of your week and your weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 345 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent 14 July 2023, and it is not being filmed as it writes this.
📸 Photo of a flowers at Lake Tekapo in New Zealand by Sarah Precious