Survivor and Jeff Probst's inadequacy, Bravo and ABC news, two reviews, gratitude for you, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
Here in the U.S., next week we have Thanksgiving followed by our national consumer orgy, aka Black Friday. Two things related to that:
First, the Friday edition of this newsletter will take that day off so it can go shopping at Target, but will be back two weeks from today.
And second, since Thanksgiving is the season of gratitude, let me use that as an excuse to say thanks to all of you for subscribing to this newsletter—for opening the message, and then for reading my reviews, analysis, and reporting.
And thanks to those of you who’ve upgraded to paid subscribers. I’m so grateful for everyone’s support of independent journalism and TV criticism.
If you haven’t yet taken this quick year-end survey, I’d appreciate it. It asks for your thoughts about reality TV: what you love and what frustrates you. I’ll be compiling the anonymous answers into a year-end story.
Producers and people who work in the industry: please take it, too! Your insight and perspective is valuable.
The survey also includes a couple questions about what I can do better, and the responses so far have already given me good feedback, even about this newsletter: Someone mentioned being frustrated by multiple links to the same article, which I was doing because I thought it’d be helpful, but that feedback will help me be more mindful and clear.
Also, thanks to another person’s note, I will attempt to tone down references to living in Florida during the winter months—though since we suffer so much during the summer and then hurricane season, I feel a little justified in occasionally mentioning things like that I’m wearing a sweatshirt and shorts today. Oops! 😄
On to this week’s news and reviews!
Two reviews and an interview
I reviewed another of Disney+’s new unscripted shows: Marvel’s Hero Project, which is a celebration of amazing kids and their work. If only Marvel would have taken a cue from those kids and been less self-congratulatory.
From the producer of The Profit comes a new show starring Alex Rodriguez trying to help celebrities (Brian Dunkleman! Ryan Lochte!) who are struggling financially.
Here’s my review of Back in the Game, which has some amazing moments with A-Rod, but also kinda confused me.
Have you seen the new show on which two men get bitten by venemous things? Read my interview with a History Channel executive about Kings of Pain, and, as my headline says, whether it’s science or stupidity. (In that story, there are two videos to help you judge for yourself.)
Coming soon, I’ll have a review of Drag Race UK, which has been a delight. Its finale aired in the UK this week but we have two more episodes to go on Logo. Dare I say it? Compared to the US version, it’s been…
Survivor’s failures
After last week’s awful pair of Survivor episodes, I did watch this week, but decided I’m no longer covering this season as entertainment, because it’s just not.
I watched to see if the show would do anything to acknowledge its failures. It didn’t. It just moved on.
And worse, CBS and showrunner Jeff Probst continue to fail to acknowledge the damage they’ve done: to viewers, and to their cast—especially to Kellee, who had to endure weeks of unwanted touching while the production did nothing.
In the past week, we’ve heard from the two contestants who were voted out last week, and also from a long-time Survivor journalist who’s decided to stop covering the show.
I gathered all that together here: Jeff Probst’s insufficient apology and response, and more on Survivor’s failures from Kellee, Jamal, and Josh Wigler.
Food Network revives a competition, and news from Bravo and ABC
This week, ABC’s renewed almost all of its ‘summer fun & games’ reality shows, minus one, and one host is also missing from that announcement.
BravoCon happened last weekend, and was not a reality TV Fyre Festival! (I’m glad for those who went but also am also a tiny bit sad we won’t get that documentary.)
I gathered together all of BravoCon’s big news, including a new Housewives, Top Chef’s return, and a Vanderpump Rules spin-off.
Before Food Network was competition reality TV all the time, it had a show called Food Network Challenge, and that’s now being revived.
Earlier this week, Bravo resurrected Blind Date, and Netflix brought back Nailed It! Holiday for a new season.
Also, before I sign off: While I’ll be publishing a new quarterly reality TV premiere schedule on Dec. 1, I keep updating the current guide, and it now has lots of winter premieres, from The Bachelor to American Idol to the return of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
I hope you have a terrific weekend and Thanksgiving week, whether Thanksgiving is something you celebrate or ignore. Thanks again for reading!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 171, first sent 22 November 2019, and it had a cough but now it’s doing much betta!
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📷 Photo of pumpkin pie by Element5 Digital