Summer reality TV dates, Big Brother's Mike Malin guilty of felony stalking Will Kirby, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
Here it is: My summer 2021 reality TV schedule and guide. 🎉
I’ll update that page throughout the next three months; it’s linked in the header on every reality blurred page, for quick access.
As I write in the introduction, I try to keep it as accurate and up-to-date as possible, which is getting increasingly more challenging with all of the streaming outlets and cable channels, never mind the current practice of announcing new shows at the last minute, if at all. So do let me know if you see something that’s awry or missing!
Also this week, I highlighted 5 documentaries about the Tulsa Race Massacre, which one historian called “a mass atrocity … hidden from history.” PBS’s doc is now streaming free.
I also reviewed Small Fortune, NBC’s new game show, which has really fun little games, and a great host in Lil Rel. (Not a huge fan of all the practicing, though.)
News
It’s been 20 years since the formation of Chilltown on Big Brother, and now Mike Malin has been found guilty of felony stalking Will Kirby. The details are horrifying, including threats against Will’s kids.
Bachelor in Paradise will rotate through celebrity comedians as hosts rather than use Chris Harrison
Judge Judy is ending after 25 seasons, but Judith Sheindlin says her new show will be the same: “I do what I do”
ViacomCBS—which owns a bunch of reality TV-producing networks, never mind CBS, home of Survivor—was the subject of a Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations study that the New York Times summarized like this: “Since 2002, ViacomCBS and its predecessor companies, Viacom and CBS, together avoided paying $3.96 billion in U.S. corporate income tax.”
As if fast food workers haven’t suffered enough this past year, some of them have had to deal with Gordon Ramsay harassing them and wasting their time at drive-thrus. I guess this is supposed to be funny?
Speaking of Ramsay, his NatGeo show, Uncharted, returned this week. I used to love his shows, but alas, I’m not a fan of this. (I did an interview with its showrunner about how it was produced, my criticism of it, and whether early controversy affected production.)
Now streaming free
Showtime has made 11 of its shows free during Pride month, including the awesome Couples Therapy season one (highly recommended!), plus the documentaries Beyond the Opposite Sex and Sam Sex America, and also a scripted show that I really loved: Work in Progress. (Showtime tells me that, to see them, if you have cable, they’ll be on demand; if you have Amazon or Hulu or any of these services, you can see the shows there.)
The “pilot season” of a Broadway OnDemand reality show, Theality TV, which follows an off-Broadway musical attempting a one-night-only show on a $10,000 budget, is now free on YouTube.
⭐️ I recommend
This NBC show; I hope its future episodes are as good as the first
This profile of Jazz Jennings, star of TLC’s I Am Jazz, which will be returning for season 7
This behind-the-scenes story about how The Real Housewives is produced, if you didn’t read it last week
That’s everything for this short first week of June. Have a great weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 246, first sent June 4, 2021, and it does not need to practice.
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📷 Photo of the sun behind storm clouds by Sam Schooler