Survivor is back • So is Tyler Henry 👻 Also: fake Gordon Ramsay, Aaron Hernandez & more
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy (almost) fall! 🍁 It officially starts Sunday, though we’re still in summer here in Florida, especially with possible tropical storms kicking around in the oceans.
Fall TV really did arrive this week, and bringing a new season of Survivor, and much more.
Among the other shows is a new cooking competition on Netflix, Culinary Class Wars, which I reviewed and liked very much.
Next week, it’s the return of Bake-Off, Drag Race UK, Halloween Wars, plus other new shows I’m excited to cover in the coming weeks.
But that’s then. Let’s focus on now!
👻 Two funny fake things
A review of Netflix’s new live reality show:
A celebration of the greatest thing AI has ever made:
🥥 Survivor & Below Deck
Survivor 47
Below Deck Med:
🏈 True crime
Amazon Prime’s A Very Royal Scandal: Interview with the empire
FX’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez runs a predictable play
🎧 Listen to The Docket:
True-crime news from Sarah D. Bunting:
New Jersey cold-case detectives are (re-)investigating the 1977 death of Sigrid Stevenson—as we see yet another case covered by the Unsolved Mysteries reboot return to the headlines.
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
Reality shows premiering this week include new seasons of The Golden Bachelorette, Dancing with the Stars, Halloween Baking Championship, and Antiques Roadshow, plus more The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Sister Wives, Caught in the Act: Unfaithful, and Jersey Shore Family Vacation.
This week’s documentaries and specials are the same as last week’s highlights because last week I screwed up! 🙃 Sorry about that.
Those include the special Secret Celebrity Renovation with Markus ‘Mookie’ Betts; Nöthin’ But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of ’80s Hair Metal on Paramount+; Child Star on Hulu; South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning on PBS; and Stopping the Steal on HBO.
💬 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 Survivor recap, Bad Mitten wrote:
I also want push back on your assertion that Andy “bailed” on the challenge. There were pretty clear instructions that only 3 people could work on the puzzle, so what help was Andy going to be anyways if he wasn’t one of the three people working on the puzzle (plus the twitching made it seems like he was having a pretty legitimate heat exhaustion/cramping situation).
On this news, Kyle wrote,
Tell me not to watch this series without telling me not to watch this series.
I can’t deal with Ryan Murphy productions, though I did grudgingly enjoy Swans vs. Capote.
🗞️ Reality TV news
I ranted about a stupid article: How are we still blaming reality TV for Trump?
From reality blurred’s front page mini-blog:
Shark Tank is adding a new permanent shark, Daniel Lubetzky, to the panel for season 16, which will be Mark Cuban's final season.
Guest sharks for the new season:
Todd Graves, founder of Raising Cane’s
Jamie Kern Lima, co-founder of IT Cosmetics and billionaire former Big Brother player
Rashaun Williams, venture capitalist and Atlanta Falcons LP
Kendra Scott, founder of, uh, Kendra Scott
Sean "Diddy" Combs—who produced and led Making the Band after its O-Town years—was arrested and charged Monday with "racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution," with the Justice Department saying he "abused, threatened, and coerced women and others, and led a racketeering conspiracy that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes."
The indictment says, since 2008, he "led a criminal enterprise that existed to facilitate his abuse and exploitation of women, to protect his reputation, and to conceal his conduct."
Investigation Discovery announced that it's working with the production company behind Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV on a series "exploring the rise and influence of Sean 'Diddy' Combs and the allegations of violent behavior and illegal activity that have trailed the music mogul." It's scheduled to premiere next year.
Australia's Network 10 announced some of the cast members of the upcoming Survivor: Australia v The World, including Cirie Fields, Parvati Shallow, and Tony Vlachos, plus Australian players Kirby, George, and Shonee. Other players will join from South Africa, Norway, and New Zealand.
10 also announced their late 2025 revival of Big Brother, with host Mel Tracin and "24-hour live streaming, live nominations and live evictions."
These graphs are fascinating, showing the shifts in various TV genres over time. They rely on IMDb data and classifications, so perhaps imperfect, but that rapid increase in reality TV is certainly undeniable—and it's cool to see it next to other genres.
🤩 I recommend
This new cooking competition on Netflix
The just-concluded season of Bobby’s Triple Threat, which is still weird but was better because so many guest chefs were known to the titans, and that humanized them
This fake Hell’s Kitchen trailer starring AI Gordon Ramsay 🤣🤣🤣
This clip of Ken Jennings screwing up hosting Jeopardy!
That’s everything from me this week! Have a fantastic weekend.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 396 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 20 September 2024, and it’s still laughing at AI Gordon Ramsay.