A new Amazing Race, Runway's return, The Road, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
One story I kept seeing this week—other than The Apprentice host giving everyone a big visual metaphor for his latest grift—was news that everyone wants to buy WarnerBros Discovery.
You may recall that Warner Brothers and Discovery merged, made its CEO hundreds of millions of dollars while basically fucking over everyone else: the people who worked at the company, or produced shows and films, or wanted to watch the shows and films that were trashed just to save money, et cetera.
Wherever WBD ends up next, it’s not going to be good for the people who make TV, or for those of us who watch it.
That’s one reason why Mickey Ramos’ story is so inspiring to me.
Mickey is a long-time reality TV producer who also voiced a character on South Park and reps Power Rangers’ stars.
She was working on Port Protection Alaska when Disney and NatGeo killed off all the Life Below Zero shows.
Mickey saw this coming, and knew a fan base would be left behind. And now she’s single-handedly producing a show that keeps fans connected to the real people who live in Alaska.
Read my interview with Mickey, in which she describes what she did and how it’s going.
While network, cable, and streaming reality TV is never going away, this is the future—especially with corporations and their leaders prioritizing enriching themselves over all else.
🚍 News, a review, and a question
Reviews:
CBS’s The Road, which really surprised me
Breaking news:
In my podcast:
😍 Recaps
🇭🇷 The Amazing Race
🧙🏻♀️ Dancing with the Stars
*� Below Deck Med
🐓 Survivor
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
This week’s reality TV premieres included a new season of Married at First Sight, which moved to Peacock; the return of Wife Swap, but as The Real Housewives Edition—and perhaps without the episode featuring Wendy Osefo, who was arrested last week; and the first special in a new season of PBS’s long-running Nature.
The week’s documentaries include several horror stories: The Rise of RFK Jr., Mob War: Philadelphia vs. The Mafia, and Ancient Desert Death Trap.
Bonus:
💬 Comments of the week
On the Project Runway renewal news, Chuck wrote,
I liked it, but was over the 1 day challenges, team challenges, the twins, and Law. I think Law took Kors spot to say things that can be used as sound bites for the upcoming videos.
And there needs to be more Christian.. I don’t care how they do it. Having one day challenges means that when Christian comes in to critique, there’s either not enough done or the designer really doesn’t have time to take his advice properly.
On Marshal’s DWTS recap, Tracy wrote,
I'd be extremely happy with Robert or Dylan for the win. It's a fun surprise to find out who has a dancer and entertainer hiding inside of themselves just waiting for an opportunity to bring that out and shine. I'm remembering James Hinchcliffe in particular. Who would have thought that a race car driver would be so successful?? Helio Castroneves too.
🗞️ Reality TV news
On his podcast, Jeff Probst asked his co-host, Survivor: Cambodia winner Jeremy Collins, "Jeremy, I'm going to put you on the spot—and I mean this as a legit question: In the Survivor world, does Parvati winning Survivor Australia count in the same way that winning this Survivor does?"
I guess it's easier to shit on Parvati than just saying, I'm jealous of Australian Survivor.
Jeremy said, "I don't think so. In in my Survivor world, I say she has one and a half wins. It's a good win, Survivor Australia is a good win, but it's not the same as Survivor US. It's not the same."
That’s 1) dumb, because of course it does, and 2) if Parvati's win doesn't count, neither do all the 26-day season winners because they played shorter games than the 39-day winners.
Parvati replied in an Instagram comment, "A couple of straight men trying to discredit a woman… get a new move boys".
🤩 I recommend
This CBS show, which I hope will keep staying as good as the premiere
This review of Netflix's The Perfect Neighbor, which explores why it’s so “hard to watch” and “intimate, painful, vital, and messy”
Mickey Ramos’s Alaska-Vibes, especially if you loved Port Protection
That’s all from me on this Friday! Enjoy your weekend.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 441 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 24 Oct. 2025, and it was cold outside this morning, woo hoo!