Snatch Game & sous chef woes • Extracted's twist • 3 reviews, 5 recaps, and more!
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy Friday! Another cold front swept through Florida this week. It was 38 this morning, which is practically arctic for us. ☃️
And in reality blurred’s birth city of Chicago, it would have been a heat wave. 😂
Thankfully, I have plenty of reality TV to watch, so I’m staying inside and warm.
And I have a lot of writing about that TV to share with you this week, so let’s get to it!
♟️ Competition recaps
The Traitors
Episode 9: Traitors go to war with each other, again
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Another stinky Snatch Game proves Drag Race needs a lesson in the art of improv
🎧 Listen to me chat about this story—and my own improv experiences!—on my podcast this week
Deal or No Deal Island
Episode 7: Did a Big Brother winner make a good deal with a Survivor winner on DONDI?
My interview with the eliminated player: ‘That cutthroat shit? That’s who I am’
👍 More recaps!
Below Deck Down Under
Episode 3: Who has just one functional thumb yet is still more useful than BDDU’s sous chef? This guy!
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
📺 Three reviews
Fox’s Extracted upends survival reality TV with a captivating twist
Netflix’s American Murder: Gabby Petito is a wasted opportunity
ID’s Who Is Luigi Mangione? This hour-long doc won’t tell you
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
This week’s premieres include the start of Tournament of Champions, which opens with two weeks of “The Qualifiers” matches to fill in the bracket; new shows How I Escaped My Cult and Fur Babies, which probably will never be in the same sentence again; and the return of 90 Day Fiance. Plus: new sports shows Onside: Major League Soccer, Court of Gold, and WWE LFG (Legends & Future Greats).
Specials and docs include the start of the three-part The Real Housewives of Potomac season nine reunion; the story of Hazel Scott, the first Black woman to have her own TV show in America; and docs about Tibet, Pompeii, London’s Natural History Museum, and Thomas Jefferson.
🧑🎨 Blogging!
Now more than ever, our voices matter. As a blogger for 25+ years, I think the form offers a lot of opportunity to share what matters to us in a medium that allows us to embrace and lead with our passion, personality, and idiosyncrasies.*
*For example, my obsession with the line between fiction and reality in TV, which started with me watching Mister Rogers Neighborhood back in the 1980s!
If you'd like to start blogging now—whether that's turning your expertise into a website or sending a newsletter to your family—I'm running a series of how-tos, tips and tricks.
You can find all previous entries here: https://www.andydehnart.com/blogging-advice/
📭 If you want to be notified when I publish a new entry, join this temporary e-mail list that's just for this series (afterwards, poof! gone), and I’ll send you a list of all previous entries:
💬 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 recap, parker wrote,
Quinta Brunson gave the queens such great advice on the judging panel; they should have had her as a mentor before the challenge.
On this review, Christine wrote,
I had not planned to watch this, but would have changed my mind had your review been positive. But ignoring the sociological issues surrounding this case is a huge negative for me. Dr. Phil being involved is the definite hard pass.
On this review, Krishelle wrote,
I watched this yesterday. I mostly agree with your review. I wished they would have spent far more time on “missing white women” syndrome, and explaining more why this story captivated people. The AI voice thing creeped me out. It reminded me of the Black Mirror episode when the woman brought her fiance back to life using AI.
🗞️ Reality TV news
Survivor’s Brandon Hantz, aka ‘Loco,’ indicted for arson, conspiracy
The Bachelorette’s Katie Thurston wrote on Instagram, "I have breast cancer." In a long post, she said "other stories like mine ... helped. So I intend to be the same for others."
It's been 25 years since the special Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, and Darva Conger talked to People about her experience, such as how she was cast. "I was just interested in the free week in Vegas. I didn't think it was going to be real," she said.
Show news:
The Bachelorette’s cancellation means a bunch of people were fired. I updated my story.
Between July and September 2024, The Real Housewives franchises—11 U.S. series and 31 international series—earned Peacock $33 million, The Wrap reports. And its analysis says that, in the last four years, it's "cumulatively earned just shy of $300M in subscriber revenue."
In comparison, Below Deck’s many series "contributed nearly $130M in subscriber revenue to the platform since Peacock launched," The Wrap says. And The Traitors earned "nearly $15 million for the platform" in Q1 2024.
Hey look: there's some money to pay the cast and crew more!
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced the winners of their film awards today, and both Documentary of the Year and LGBTQ Documentary of the Year both went to Will & Harper, the Netflix documentary following Will Ferrell and his friend Harper Steele as they take a cross-country road trip.
The other nominated LGBTQ docs were Chasing Chasing Amy, Frida, Merchant Ivory, and Queendom. All winners are on GALECA's site. (Full disclosure, I'm a member of GALECA so I voted in the awards.)
🤩 I recommend
Extracted on Fox, which has a fun twist on the survival competition
Tournament of Champions on Food Network, which is in the middle of its four-episode qualifier run now.
Bonus: This interview with behind-the-scenes of the show
MapQuest—yes, it’s still around!—has this fun Gulf of Map Explorer. Name the Gulf of Mexico whatever you want and then send the map to a friend. (Note that playing around doesn’t really change its name, though.)
Coming next week: An interview with a TV court show judge, a review of TOC’s Qualifiers, recaps, and the premiere of Survivor 48. 🥳
This newsletter will take next Friday off, so I’ll see you back here in your inbox in March!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 408 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 21 February 2025, and it laughs just as hard as ever at old Snatch Game clips