Baking Show's new delights • Survivor's lies • Netflix's latest Love Island • and more!
Dear newsletter friends,
Whenever I review a show, new or old, I'm hoping it'll be great.
After all, I love reality TV—that's what's kept me publishing reality blurred for 23+ years now.
Even when I get sassy, it's out of love.
Alas, maybe half of my reviews these past few months have been, uh, less than thrilled with what I'm watching. 😆 Maybe it's me, maybe it's the shows.
So this week, I decided to revisit a show I always watch, and infrequently write about, but that's really just giving me an hour of enjoyment and laughs every week: The Great British Baking Show.
It's just fun again—thanks especially to new host Alison Hammond. If you gave up for some reason, I recommend checking back in!
🍰 Reviews and recaps
I reviewed two shows:
I also gathered all my recaps of The Challenge USA together:
🔥 Survivor
Episode 5:
Behind the scenes:
Do Survivor players wear mics? Sometimes! Here's how Survivor audio is captured
🗓️ This week's premieres
Reality TV premieres include the return of Bravo's Winter House and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; MTV's The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, with a cast of all prior losers; and PBS's Spy in the Ocean, a new season of Nature with emotionally manipulative robot animals.
This week's specials and docs include the The Real Housewives of New York City reunion; documentaries about Milli Vanilli, Mr. Chow, and the Enfield Poltergeist; and the return of The Great Halloween Fright Fight for two nights only.
💬 Comments of the week
Really interesting! During last week’s challenge, Julie’s mic was quite visibly bulging through her back, and that was the first time I could ever remember seeing a mic like that on Survivor. That’s a testament to what a great job the team really does!
—Patrick, on this story
...one of the many ways in which rookies are at a disadvantage with these finals is that they actually try to eat the food, instead of just chewing it and immediately gagging it back up. Probably part of why Fessy had such an improvement since the last time he had an eating challenge, cause someone actually clued him in on how to do it.
—Adam, on this recap
🗞️ Reality TV news
In her memoir, Britney Spears wrote about her time judging Fox's The X Factor: "...to act skeptical for eight straight hours while judging on TV? Uh, no thank you. I absolutely hated it."
The Miami Dolphins will be featured on Hard Knocks’ in-season spin-off, and two of its players are not thrilled: Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa responded by saying nothing for more than 11 seconds, while cornerback Xavien Howard said "Hard Knocks is bullshit, especially during the season. No, I’m serious. I’m not a fan."
A butler hired for The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip sued Bravo, claiming "acts of sexual harassment and assault committed by [Brandi] Glanville"; his lawsuit says producers "allowed and even encouraged Glanville to sexually harass" him.
On Cheryl Burke's podcast, fired Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron said he released a statement about Sean Spicer's casting to "let people know that they fucking lied to me" and "at that moment, I knew this is probably my last season, because of that one betrayal. Up until that point, there were people of character there."
Show news:
These classic reality shows are coming to Netflix—and some are leaving! Yay for Face Off!
Samantha Brown's latest travel show, Places to Love, is now on YouTube, she announced on TikTok
🤩 I recommend
On Netflix, this excellent season
On Hulu, The Great Halloween Fright Fight, a two-episode spin-off of this fun series
This new free streaming channel, whenever you need a little Julia Child or whatever PBS Food show is airing
That's everything from me this week. Have a terrific weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 359 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 27 October 2023, and it doesn't need to act skeptical
📸 Photo of Halloween cupcakes by Monika Borys