Restaurant Wars • BB26 schedule • Fashun fun • Ctrl+Alt+Desire
Dear newsletter friends,
I hope everyone is safe and sound with this latest wave of severe weather crossing the U.S.
We’re expecting the storms today in Florida, where they’ll bring some relief from a series of brutally hot days.
It’s too early for summer to start! But resisting what is happening won’t do me much good, so instead I’ll rant and rave about reality TV, which seems much more productive! 😇
🧑🚀 Three reviews and a question
Reviews:
E!’s OMG Fashun, Julia Fox’s LOL and WTF fashion competition
Paramount+’s Ctrl Alt Desire, a surprisingly thoughtful docuseries
PBS’s Space: The Longest Goodbye, which unearths the real challenge of Mars travel
A question I asked The CW’s executives:
🐹 Recaps
Survivor
Top Chef Wisconsin
Episode 8: Have Top Chef’s contestants ever heard of Restaurant Wars?!
Episode 7: Sausage = Top Chef Wisconsin’s best so far
Big Brother Canada
Hamsterwatch concluded her recaps of the season:
Episode 28: Was a train wreck a comp or a metaphor for BBCAN12?
Episode 27: BBCAN12’s final four get fake awards for surviving this season
🔪 True crime
Bewitched, Borden, and black widow: The Elizabeth Montgomery BET-CRP
True crime scores big at the 2024 Pulitzer AwardsMay 7, 2024
Listen to The Docket:
Is AMC+’s popular true-crime show a waste of its charming host, Hilarie Burton Morgan?
True-crime news from Sarah D. Bunting:
From the "don't sprain your eyes rolling them" desk: Kevin Spacey has endorsed RFK Jr. in his presidential run. The picture Rolling Stone selected for Miles Klee's write-up is a classic, as even Robert Kennedy Jr. himself seems to think this is a garbage turn of events (and he'd know).
Season 9 of PBS North Carolina's My Home, NC premiered yesterday; other guests this season will include the hosts of the Criminal podcast (as well as a local sports team's therapy pig, Hamilton; baw). Non-NC viewers can watch the show on the PBS app.
Oxygen has announced its new and returning true-crime slate for 2024-25. Their line-up includes new shows with working titles like Philly Homicide and The Girl on the Milk Carton, as well as returning "favorites" like Snapped. Get the full list at Deadline.
Also at Deadline: the "real-life" Martha at the center of surprise hit Baby Reindeer told Piers Morgan she's planning to sue over the portrayal of her. Fiona Harvey, whom "internet sleuths" tracked down without delay after the series blew up on Netflix, told Morgan in an interview, “There are two true facts in that [show]: [The BR creator and star's] name is Richard Gadd, and he works as a jobbing barman on benefits, in the Hawley Arms,” and went on to call Gadd "completely off his head," which seems defamatory its own self.
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
Scheduling news:
Does BB26’s later start mean a shorter season?
For other newly announced summer debuts, check the June and July reality TV schedules
Reality TV premieres include: The new dating series Love Undercover; the new competition Next Baking Master: Paris; and new seasons of The Real Housewives of New Jersey and In Pursuit with John Walsh
Documentaries premiering on TV include Black Twitter: A People’s History, Hollywood Con Queen, and The Final: Attack on Wembley, plus several nature docs, including Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons 🐻; Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story 🦦; and The Guardian of the Monarchs 🦋
⌛️ Sale!
Get 20 percent off a summer reality blurred t-shirt—any color, any style, any size.
Use the code SPRING20 — but hurry! That offer expires 6 p.m. ET today, May 10, 2024.
💬 Comments of the week
On this Amazing Race recap, Michelle wrote:
You should reconsider your use of the term “smooth brain”. It is a derogatory term for an actual terminal illness called Lissencephaly. Families loose their children to this condition and that term is unkind. Think of it as using the “R” word. I am not in anyway a snowflake but knowing someone that lost a child with this condition it has made me more aware of Lissencephely and how we can support them by not using derogatory terms related to their terminal condition.
On this Big Brother news, HL wrote,
I don’t have an issue with returnees, my issue is the people the producers typically choose are not people any of the viewers have any desire to see (like Frankie). Maybe one person from another series (I think Cirie added a lot to the show last year), but other than that, they should stick to all-new houseguests until they can actually get the houseguests the viewers actually want to come back.
🗞️ Reality TV news
From The Digest, reality blurred’s new front page mini-blog:
Ozzy says that, during Survivor Fans vs. Favorites, he sewed dental floss, sleeping pills, and a magnifying glass into the hem of his shorts to sneak them past production.
(That anecdote is from a podcast episode that's almost a year old, but I missed it then, but saw it excerpted on TikTok this week.)
Ozzy said he and Yau-Man started a fire with the magnifying glass, and producers "totally thought I had smuggled a lighter" but "they never caught me."
In "did we really need this" news:
Deal or No Deal Island is getting a second season. NBC says it "is averaging 5.8 million total viewers across all platforms, more than doubling its live audience."
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is returning to ABC, with Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin hosting. ABC promises "heartwarming stories, inspired volunteers, and mind-blowing builds for deserving families," plus Clea and Joanna organizing with product.
Spring Baking Championship judge Kardea Brown responded on Instagram to the all-too-frequent racist reactions that some Food Network fans have to any person of color winning or being successful.
"The network is so strict on us, on how we decide—we literally have a rubric," Kardea said. "The network has never decided or told us to vote in a way for ratings—never." Mostly, though, she focuses on the racism: "I'm sick of it," she said, noting that some people "let shit like this slide" but she won't because "it's sickening."
José Andrés's incredible World Central Kitchen is back feeding more people in Gaza, less than a month after seven of its team members were killed by Israel Defense Forces, who bombed their humanitarian convoy. This week, WCK served 1 million more meals, and has 8 million meals ready to go.
In the face of so much death, destruction, and suffering, it's easy to feel powerless—I sure do!—but supporting WCK and their awe-inspiring work is one step I can take to help, in a tiny, tiny way.
🤩 I recommend
This new podcast about Internet main characters
That’s everything from me this week. Enjoy your weekend and week ahead!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 382 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 10 May 2024, and even it knows you feed the judges first, c’mon!