TAR & TOC's record winners • chat with a Survivor • Jonathan Bennett's holidays
Dear newsletter friends,
I’m thrilled to announce reality blurred’s first 2026 event: a Q&A and conversation with Survivor’s Stephen Fishbach, whose new, Survivor-ish novel is coming out early next year.
Fun fact: I first met Stephen in the middle of Brazil, when I interviewed him at Ponderosa before Survivor Tocantins started. He later shared how Survivor affected his life.
So, I’m excited for us all to talk with him about this new phase of his life.
✅ Jan. 26 • free • virtual • Learn more and sign up
P.S. Five attendees will win a copy of Stephen’s book, which you can also pre-order now. (Pre-ordering really helps authors, because all pre-orders are counted as sales on publication day.)
🎄 In more-recent interview news: I interviewed Jonathan Bennett about his Hallmark Christmas reality show…
…and we also talked about his experiences on reality TV, plus his wild year-round-holidays schedule.
It was a fun chat—and the show is super-fun too, if you’ve not seen it. (The finale airs Monday.)
🏝️ Survivor—and Beast Games?!
My recap of the penultimate Survivor 49 episode:
Big news:
Hilarious:
Kristina explained her nickname for Jeff Probst, "Uncle J," in a video that starts with her saying, "if it bothers you, if it gets on your nerves, if it's cringe for you, I'm very, very sorry, but sincerely—truly, and I cannot stress this enough—I don't care." 😂
She goes on to offer a detailed and fascinating explanation about why she uses that nickname. Watch here.
👨🍳 2 finales
Tournament of Champions:
Here are TOC All-Star Christmas’ winners, who earned TOC’s highest score ever
Bonus! Melissa gave us the behind-the-scenes scoop from her time in the audience, including tasting Jet Tila’s meat
The Amazing Race:
TAR 38 has its Big Brother winner(s) after a flawed final leg in NYC
Below Deck Med:
🗓️ This week’s reality TV premieres
This week’s premieres include Simon Cowell’s new boy band-assembling show on Netflix, which I still plan to review; the Taylor Swift “backstage pass” series The End of an Era on Disney+; and new seasons of Slaycation, Here Come the Irish, Fixer Upper, 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, and Dance Moms: A New Era
Docs and reality TV specials this week include holiday versions of Password and Penn and Teller: Fool Us; Paramount+’s investigation into To Catch a Predator; and docs about Dick Van Dyke, Wizkid, and Masaka Kids Afrikana
💬 Comments of the week
On my recap of TAR38’s finale, I confessed to skipping the penultimate episode, and Antonio convinced me I was wrong:
You missed a good episode last week. The Moulin Rouge dance competition was amazing. Seeing Izzy in a dress was a hoot and seeing all the dancers hanging onto every word Kyland said was fun too. I think they were all in love with him.
On my recap of Survivor, Kyle wrote, simply,
honestly that was a good ass episode
…though Jon disagreed:
What a fuckery of a show! It took me 15 minutes to view this episode and I’m done wasting my time on this season. Could not care less about the outcome.
🗞️ In the news
People news:
Below Deck chief stew Fraser Olender was hospitalized for a heart attack caused by vape poisoning. Fraser is dating Matt Rogers, who said on WWHL last night, "He’s doing a lot better. Don’t vape. Throw it away."
Incarcerated The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah was released from prison early, and will now go to a halfway house or be on home confinement. She was "sentenced in January 2023 to 6½ years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for her role in a nationwide telemarketing scheme," as The Desert News reported.
Salvator Plasencia, who prescribed the ketamine alleged to have killed Matthew Perry, has been sentenced to 30 months. Four others remain to be sentenced in the case. —SDB
Show news:
The Amazing Race 35 cast member Yeremi Hykel and Love Island USA season three's Olivia Kaiser won The Challenge: Vets & New Threats and split $425,000 after a race through the Andes Mountains.
Non Player Combat is being called “Reality TV’s First Fully AI Series,” and I have a few thoughts: no, fuck no, fuck that, fuck AI, fuck this, fucking hell.
🤩 I recommend
This fun holiday show, which just returned for its 13th season—and reading about how it’s produced behind the scenes!
Watching TAR’s finale just for Phil Keoghan and Cookie Monster’s time together
These 6 stories, the best of 2025’s true crime writing
🚨 Next week will be my last big week of the year for publishing, as I settle into the holiday break after that.
But it’s a big week, with Survivor’s finale, plus my best-of-2025 list, and a big report from the people who make your reality TV.
I look forward to sharing that all with you—and if you think a friend would like this, please share it with them!
Thanks for being here with me, and have a wonderful weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 447 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 12 Dec. 2025, and it likes the season where cats explore indoor trees.
