Summer reality TV!
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy June and Happy Pride! 🏳️🌈
This year it’s all the rage for companies and corporations to be part of a cowardly retreat, even from their usual pinkwashing.
reality blurred may be only a tiny company, but it’s not afraid of Wall Street or the president or whatever.
There’s a simple reason for that—well, besides that its owner, me, is a gay person!
That reason: The right to exist, love someone, and have equal rights shouldn’t be up for debate, period. Alas, the same tired arguments from my childhood are just being repackaged again to distract people from real problems.
So, let’s celebrate LGBTQIA+ people this month, especially in this era where our trans friends especially are under attack for just having the courage to be themselves. 🌈
🏙️ Recaps and reviews
Reviews:
Netflix’s Untold: The Fall Of Favre
Oxygen’s Unknown Serial Killers of America
Below Deck:
Top Chef:
Episode 12: The final challenge in Canada
Episode 13: A Delta ad cuts one chef in Milan
From my podcast:
🏝️ ICYMI
Coming later today:
an interview with Eliza Orlins!
Next week: Francesca Hogi!
🗓️ Summer reality TV premieres
It’s that time of year for a fresh new reality TV premiere guide!
📖 Write your way to success
Last chance to register for my summer creative nonfiction class: six Wednesdays, starting June 18, all online.
✅ If you’re a professional looking to improve your writing at work, I’m developing an online course just for you! If that’s of interest, could you take this quick survey? It’ll help me shape its content. Thanks! 😀
💬 Comments of the week
In this Top Chef discussion, Yasin wrote,
As a Canadian I’m actually disagreeing with a lot of your takes and it’s been really nice to see them showcase Canada and the different parts. I loved that they did a whole Niagara Falls episode which is something even the American audience can relate with as a lot of Americans prefer the Canadian side vs the US side.
and Victoria replied,
it’s interesting to me you feel like they showcased different parts because i really feel like they did not showcase different parts at all! it’s called “destination canada” and we went to two places in canada — they went to more places in Wisconsin!
🗞️ Reality TV news
Awesome news:
Besides renewing its The Great American Baking Show and specials for new seasons, The Roku Channel gave us thrilling news: It's bringing The Great British Sewing Bee (seasons 1 to 10) to the US for the first time, and adding The Great Pottery Throwdown (seasons six, seven, and the Christmas specials) to its library, too! Also coming: The Great Canadian Baking Show (seasons 1 to 8 and specials).
I've asked them when this will happen, since that's the key question, and they won’t say anything yet. 🙄 But great competition TV coming to free streaming = win!
People news:
Both the US and UK versions of Love Island have dropped players for pre-show behavior: Peacock made Love Island USA cast member Yulissa Escobar disappear after people noticed her using a racial slur on podcasts, while ITV dropped Kyle Ashman before its Love Island started when news broke that he was once "arrested over a fight at a funeral"—though he was released and not charged.
16 and Pregnant’s Whitney Purvis had her son, Weston, in season one of the MTV show, when she was 16. Weston died Monday at age 16, she announced on Facebook.
Big Brother 25’s Cory Wurtenberger, who you may remember from his unfortunate mustache, did a Reddit AMA yesterday with some gossip and some behind-the-scenes info.
Among other things, he discusses what happened before Luke's expulsion for using a racist word, and reveals that Diary Room producers "all have different reputations in terms of how pushy they can be/how much they try to feed lines."
As to his producer, Cory wrote, "I could kinda sense there was a direction he wanted the game to go and was super intentional to not allow myself to be swayed. It's all super vague and the show is by no means rigged, but I do worry about how more impressionable recruits respond to some of this stuff."
🤩 I recommend
This new Bravo show, with its Housewives wreckage
Jeopardy! Masters, which is over but now all on Hulu, and is just great TV
This piece about “a very old US story, one that can be reliably evoked”
That’s everything. Thanks for reading to the end, and have a fantastic weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 422 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 6 June 2025, and in a few hours it’s running for president of the Television Critics Association! 😱