An Amazing Race first • an amazing new Traitors • two Bravo interviews
Dear newsletter friends,
Hello! It’s that time of year where I ask for your help, in the form of this quick survey.
I strive to create things that add value to your life and help you out, and thus your responses will help me plan and improve reality blurred and this newsletter in the coming months and year.
Last year, one person’s comment resulted in the new chart format for my quarterly schedules.
While I can’t promise action on every suggestion 😅, I do promise to read and consider everything.
Thanks!
And speaking of feedback: based on the poll we did earlier this fall, I’m trying an experiment right here…
🎄 📧 The 13 Days of Holiday Reality TV 📧 🎄
… directly to your inbox!
From tomorrow until Thursday, Dec. 4, I’ll be sending one e-mail a day to you with a new recommendation.
At the end, you’ll have a curated list of shows to get into the spirit of the holidays and/or occupy your mind during this season.
Some of those TV shows will be explicitly holiday-themed (and that pretty much means Thanksgiving and Christmas; sorry, other holidays!), while others will be warm, cozy shows you can pull up a chair next to and watch, either with your loved ones—or instead of talking to your loved ones. 😆
Do let me know what you think of that, too. Okay, on to my regular coverage!
🎙️ Bravo!
This week, I interviewed a longtime online friend, Ben Mandelker, co-host of the Bravo podcast Watch What Crappens, who I got to know when he founded TVgasm and created comedic gold like this.
Here’s our fun conversation:
Below Deck Med:
And my exclusive interview with the villain: Anna the antichrist tells all!
Ugh:
📺 Recaps and reviews
🏰 Celebrity Traitors UK
🏝️ Survivor
🎰 TOC: All-Star Christmas
🪩 Dancing with the Stars
🇬🇷 The Amazing Race
🇺🇸 True crime
It’s Kennedy Week on Best Evidence, with lots of great coverage:
Also in true crime:
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
This week’s premieres include another new Food Network competition, Gingerbread Land: The Biggest Little Holiday Competition, and last year’s The Great British Baking Show: Holidays now on Netflix in the U.S., plus new seasons of Canada’s Drag Race, Southern Charm, and The Dolls.
Also: Ken Burns’ The American Revolution, which is streaming free on PBS’s apps.
Documentaries premiering this week include High Horse: The Black Cowboy, a look at an untold history that’s executive produced by Jordan Peele; and Thoughts and Prayers, a doc about the $3 billion industry that trains kids and teachers how to deal with active shooters. You know, instead of doing something about guns.
💬 Comments of the week
On Marshal’s DWTS recap, Yasin wrote,
Dancing with the Stars rewards authenticity and Whitney is the definition of inauthenticity. I’m not surprised she lost.
On my review of The Road, Justyna wrote,
I love country music, and this was a novel idea, BUT it has me bored to death! Not because of the talent, but just the format of the show is way too slow. The contestants have been wonderful, and I wish all of them great success!
On my interview with Anna the antichrist, CD wrote,
Anna, honey, Aesha was not kissing your ass (being polite is part of her job), she doesn’t mop the deck and she sure as hell isn’t jealous of you. She is the star of that program, not you.
🗞️ Reality TV news
Survivor 50’s premiere plan = no Celebrity Big Brother 2026. Sorry, CBB fans!
AMC now has a new streaming service, All Reality, with 2,500 hours of shows like Bridezillas and Love After Lockup. It’s $1.25 for the first two months.
Bravo announced The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, which will premiere in 2026.
Dolores Catania from RHONJ has been cast in a friend role, and The Bachelor franchise regular Ashley Iaconetti will be one of the main cast, along with Alicia Carmody, Rosie DiMare, Liz McGraw, Rulla Nehme Pontarelli, Kelsey Swanson, and Jo-Ellen Tiberi.
Bravo has renewed Below Deck and Below Deck Mediterranean for next year; Below Deck Med season 11 already filmed in Croatia. And Below Deck Down Under is also returning.
In other words: Below Deck Sailing Yacht is done, good riddance. But its chief stew, Daisy Kelliher, will be on Below Deck Down Under, which returns Feb. 2, with Captain Jason, Chef Ben Robinson, and second officer João Franco (ugh).
Former Real Housewives of Potomac cast member Mia Thornton was arrested for allegedly stealing the furniture from a rental apartment
Jeff Probst is pretending he didn’t question Parvati Shallow’s Australian Survivor win, saying “I innocently asked Jeremy regarding Parvati winning Survivor Australia, does that make her a two-time winner?” and again turned it on Jeremy Collins by saying “your opinion was my opinion, is that the games are different.”
Yet Probst also said, “somehow, Jeremy's answer, his own opinion as a player, got attributed to me and now I'm the one who said that Parvati's win doesn't count. I didn't say it. I don't even have an opinion. And if you think that was a leading question, and I was hoping Jeremy would answer that way, you don't know me.”
Sure, Jan.
🤩 I recommend
Celebrity Traitors UK, now on Peacock
Donating to your local food bank, if you can—or finding one to help yourself or someone you know
That’s everything for today. Have a great weekend and Thanksgiving week! 🦃
This newsletter will take off next Friday, Black Friday, and be back December 5. But you’ll be hearing from me with recommendations between now and then. 🎉
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 445 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 21 Nov. 2025, and this morning its cat chased a squirrel and returned with a chunk of squirrel fur in her mouth, and now this newsletter needs a Xanax.