Survivor finale questions, answered • Top Chef interview • SYTYCD changes
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy Friday! In last week’s note, I mentioned how Google’s garbage AI is hurting independent sites like reality blurred—and also giving us crappy results!
This week, the ridiculous examples kept coming: Google’s genius AI is telling people to put glue on pizza, exercise by running with scissors, and literally eat rocks.
And its theft from small sites is obvious.
Anyway, I share this because a kind soul created a quick way to access Google’s web-only results: Just search from udm14.org.
Or just use duck.com! 😂 🦆
🌏 News and an interview
News:
An interview:
Wednesday afternoon, I interviewed Soo Ahn on Top Chef Last Chance Kitchen and joining the competition.
Our conversation includes a cameo from a Bravo publicist who didn’t want Soo to talk about Last Chance Kitchen. Drama!
🔔 Recaps and reviews
So You Think You Can Dance:
Survivor:
Top Chef:
Episode 9: Top Chef makes a long overdue change to its rules
Episode 10: Coming this weekend to this page
🔪 True crime
The Beauty Queen Killer’s surprising take on trauma and forgiveness
The Jinx Part Two reaches its conclusion. Did you stick with it?
Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne: not mad, just disappointed
🎧 Listen to The Docket:
News and links from Sarah D. Bunting:
Oxygen's True Crime blog has a process-y look at how Snapped producers choose cases for the show. I kind of wished an independent outfit had done the write-up, versus the "house blog" for the show's network, but what can you do.
The Griffin Dunne memoir I mentioned in my review of the Dominick Dunne bio is excerpted in Vanity Fair. Based on this portion, I think I'm right to be looking forward to reading it.
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
This week’s reality TV premieres include new seasons of The Great American Baking Show (streaming free on Roku Channel) and a new season of Ciao House (on Food Network—will it be better than season one), plus more The Weakest Link, Lingo, Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars, The Parisian Agency, and The Kardashians. There’s also A new season of Race to Survive, but this time in New Zealand.
Specials and documentaries premiering include Vanderpump Villa: The Reunion; docs about The Beach Boys, Lollapalooza, and the record label Stax; and American Experience’s The Riot Report.
💬 Comments of the week
So much great discussion on so many stories. Here are a few of those comments, ones that made laugh, think, or both:
On this story, Martha wrote:
An American Family is my Roman Empire
On my Survivor finale recap, Jeff wrote:
I’m super impressed by the grace Charlie showed at the aftershow. It’s remarkable from anyone, let alone a 25-year old who’s exhausted and has been sleeping outside for a month. I don’t know how much one person can make a difference in immigration law, but the field has to be better off with someone like Charlie in it.
🗞️ Reality TV news
From The Digest, reality blurred’s front page mini-blog:
LeVar Burton will host Trivial Pursuit, The CW's adaptation of the board game, while Raven-Symoné will host Scrabble. The shows will be paired back-to-back on Monday nights this fall.
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, 53, died Thursday from cancer.
His family announced that in an embargoed press release this morning ("TIMELY EMBARGO - 10AM ET/7AM PT MAY 24, 2024 BREAKING PRESS NEWS: OSCAR NOMINATED DOCU FILMMAKER - MORGAN SPURLOCK - PASSES AWAY").
Spurlock's best-known work is Super Size Me, which was nominated for an Oscar. He also produced and starred in some episodes of the FX series 30 Days, which had people experimenting with changes in their lives for one month.
Super Size Me has not aged well.
In 2017, Spurlock admitted to a history of sexual misconduct, writing, "I am part of the problem." In that, he confessed that was was also an alcoholic and "I haven’t been sober for more than a week in 30 years," which was never mentioned in a documentary that alleged to show how food affected his health.
The producers of ABC's stupid and probably short-lived Prank Panel have been sued, along with star Johnny Knoxville, for $3 million by a segment producer who said Johnny Knoxville tased him, causing a broken "fibula as well as a torn ankle ligament, both injuries occurring to his left leg," and six months of rehab. The lawsuit says it "was unprompted, surprising, and inherently dangerous," and there was no plan for that or for the plaintiff to be on camera.
🤩 I recommend
This show; all four of its episodes are now streaming free
This story about Love is Blind, by The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum, who has a book on reality TV’s history coming out next month
Oh, and I’ve saved the best for last: I have updated reality blurred’s privacy policy and terms of service. 🎉
Please try to contain your excitement.
There are no material changes, just clearer formatting and new, human language summaries in the privacy policy. The short version is that I’m in the business of publishing great content, not mining your data, but laws require these notices, so they’re there.
Thanks for reading this newsletter and reality blurred, and have a fantastic weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 383 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 24 May 2024, and it, too, dances like Frankenstein’s monster