TOC interviews • Amazing Race • Top Chef duos • What Jennifer Did
Dear newsletter friends,
Seeing the moon cover the sun from my driveway was incredible, but I think I enjoyed watching the eclipse on TV even more.
Part of that was that, here in Central Florida, we only got a partial eclipse, so it was pretty sunny throughout.
But the bigger part was the collective experience that ABC's coverage provided, with live shots from multiple locations as the eclipse moved across North America.
Just watching crowds of people suddenly plunged into darkness, and reacting with collective awe—that was awesome for me, the power of nature and television to bring us together.
And next eclipse, I'm going somewhere where I can experience totality. 🌚 🌝
🏆 Tournament of Champions
My recap of the dramatic finale:
Final four interviews:
Maneet Chauhan: ‘I walked in knowing what the competition is about’
Jet Tila: ‘I just add to the scars, and hopefully they motivate me or teach me’
Coming this weekend: an interview with Britt Rescigno
👯 Recaps
Top Chef
Survivor 46
The Amazing Race
Big Brother Canada
Hamsterwatch recapped for us:
Episode 17: Visitors from Big Brother’s past show up on a sleepy eviction episode
Episode 16: A toothy veto comp and an emotional veto meeting
Episode 15: Big Brother Canada’s HOH comp results and noms, plus cracks form between allies
🔪 True crime
Netflix reviews:
More true crime:
Listen to The Docket:
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
Reality show premieres include The Challenge: All Stars, at long last; Lovers and Liars, which is The CW's flipped version of FBoy Island; and new seasons of Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog, The Wizard of Paws, and Collector's Call
Specials and docs premieres include an addition to Quiet on Set: Breaking the Silence, which will have an interview with Drake Bell. (As the Best Evidence team asked: Do we need more?). Also: docs about Parkinson's disease, Brandy Melville, and raptors.
💬 Comments of the week
On this Netflix review, Suzanne wrote:
In my personal murder taxonomy (what, doesn’t everybody have one of those?) I call these kinds of cases “tower of lies” murders, where the kid starts fibbing to their parents (about their progress in school, usually) and the lies just keep building and building until finally they decide murder is preferable to coming clean.
On this recap, Kerri wrote:
It amazes me just how short sighted the producers are about all their supposed “improvements”. In all seriousness, they are sloppy and lazy, if anything.
This has happened for several seasons now that a tribe ostracizes one member, but we the viewers are never shown why, other than the opinion of one other tribe member being aired. In this case, Venus, i have seen nothing to demonstrate why she deserves the derision of her entire tribe other than biased opinions. Hey, editors, show us why!
It reeks of a Jr. High mentality where someone gets singled out for no apparent reason other than group think. We deserve better as a viewer.
🗞️ News from The Digest
From reality blurred’s new front page mini-blog:
CBS announced that The Amazing Race 36 will conclude May 15, with a 90-minute episode, and Survivor 46 will conclude the following week, on May 22, with a three-hour episode, which already sounds exhausting. —AD
Former American Ninja Warrior star Drew Dreschel's sentencing for charges he pled guilty to has been rescheduled, again, from today to April 16. In a letter, the Department of Justice said that his victim(s) may testify during that hearing. —AD
Well-regarded t.c. podcast Bone Valley is in the works as a TV docudrama. Per Deadline, the production is "with Cathy Schulman’s Welle Entertainment and Primary Wave Music. Dana Stevens (The Woman King) will adapt." —SDB
WNYC reports that NYC Mayor Eric Adams has hired "high-profile" attorney Alex Spiro to defend him in the sexual-assault lawsuit against Adams. Spiro, who has defended Jay-Z and Elon Musk among others, was the subject of a New Yorker profile last summer. —SDB
The latest on the Shohei Ohtani situation: his ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, faces federal charges for the theft of $16 million from the Dodgers star. CNN's story says the charges stem from "evidence Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani in phone calls to a bank in order to authorize wire transfers to associates of the illegal gambling operation with which he had been involved." Mizuhara had access to the accounts because he helped Ohtani, who didn't speak English, set them up in the U.S. Ohtani is absolutely the victim here, but does...he not speak arithmetic either? I get that rich people don't always pay attention, but: it's $16 million. Also, get gambling away from sports or this will happen again. —SDB
🤩 I recommend
This special streaming on Hulu and Disney+, even if you saw the eclipse yourself
The "Three of a Kind" episode of Wildcard Kitchen, which was so fun
Again, FreeTaxUSA, if you still need to do your taxes. This is not an ad, but switching to it made doing my taxes at least 25 percent more pleasant!
Coming next week: a review of Food Network's new 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing, a new Ask Andy, and much more.
I hope you have a terrific weekend and week ahead.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 378 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 12 April 2024, and it actually did its taxes early this year!