Survivor 41's changes, Top Chef Portland's excellence, Project Greenlight's return, and so many renewals!
Dear newsletter friends,
It was an active week in the TV industry, with a flood of announcements, starting with Discovery and WarnerMedia saying they’d merge, meaning Discovery+ and HBOMax may someday become one.
I’ve compiled a fun list of highlights from all the announcements this past week, which include all sorts of renewed shows and brand-new ones, many of which I’m excited about.
The very best news for me was:
Project Greenlight returning, with Issa Rae as mentor to a female director
Survivor back on CBS’s fall schedule—but with two huge changes
Remember that time when Mark Burnett’s NBC reality show dreams burned up, literally? One of the other announcements reminded me of a show he announced in 2000, and that sent me on a deep dive. Walk down memory lane with me!
A review and a tweet
I haven’t yet watched Top Chef’s Restaurant Wars episode from last night but:
I finally reviewed Top Chef: Portland. It’s terrific!
And here’s a tweet instead of a recap:
My brief thoughts about this week’s Masked Singer Cluedle-Doo “twist.”
Reality TV news
In Australia, “Bachelorette Brooke Blurton makes television history as the show's first Indigenous, bisexual star.”
Mark “The Beast” Labbett is returning to The Chase for its second season on ABC.
NatGeo’s Sharkfest has partnered with MISS "to encourage diversity and inclusion in the field of shark science and inspire the next generation of scientists." That’s important in part because of what happened last year.
A bankruptcy attorney said of RHOBH’s Erika Jayne: “Anything that she does that flaunts her wealth, which is ostensibly everything she does, will be evidence against her.”
MTV’s first Unscripted awards were announced Monday. Here’s the full list.
Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter inaccurately stated that Sharkfest wouldn’t return until 2022. It will be back in this year, while its partnership with MISS will begin next year.
More news
Top Chef Family Style is back in production after its crew went on strike; they now have a union contract
HGTV is bringing back Cash in the Attic
How much does an HGTV host get per episode? $3,500 for the host of Windy City Rehab, who’s suing the show for $2.2 million.
Inside Pixar’s new batch, Unpacked, is out, and has a new narrator
⭐️ I recommend
This great series from the AV Club on “Reality TV Game Changers,” which started with Pedro Zamora, and includes some people you’ll remember and some you may not!
This list of 100 “unhinged, unexplainable, unforgettable Real Housewives moments” by Brian Moylan, who has a book on the Housewives coming out next week (I’ll be publishing an excerpt from it on Tuesday).
This story about Jill Zarin and Bethenny Frankel’s friendship breakup on RHONY
This Bravo show, which has never been better
That’s everything for this week. Hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 244, first sent May 21, 2021, and it doesn’t need a subtitle, either.
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