Survivor stopped production, plus a Project Runway review and a Drag Race DQ
Dear newsletter friends,
At the beginning of this week, I hosted an improv show after sitting in the audience and watching another show. Meanwhile, as I started getting coronavirus e-mail from every company I’ve ever done business with ever, I thought about opening this newsletter with a joke about how reality blurred is regularly cleaned with Seventh Generation disinfecting spray and continuing operations as normal.
But this pandemic got a whole lot more serious in the last 48 hours—or perhaps, I just started taking it more seriously—so neither of those things no longer seemed like the best ideas.
These are anxious and uncertain times for all of us, and for me, this is where entertainment can be particularly useful. Even on a non-global pandemic day, if I’m feel anxious or overwhelmed, a Golden Girls marathon feels really soothing.
So I’m planning to keep doing what I do, especially recommending great television for you to watch as a diversion, or as something to do while everything is cancelled and we’re all self-isolating.
Unrelated to the pandemic and just related to my mission with reality blurred, I’ve started a page with everything I enthusiastically recommend, and will develop that as a resource more over the coming weeks and months.
For example, I highly recommend this new cooking competition.
Those recommendations are different from my list of reality show reviews, even though some of them may overlap, because I wouldn’t recommend every show I review.
What shows do you turn to in times of stress? We’ve been discussing over on Facebook, or just comment right here!
Cornoavirus stops Survivor; delay stops Amazing Race pay
The Amazing Race suspended production at the end of last month because of COVID-19’s spread, and now it’s affected Survivor, too.
Survivor 41 and 42 filming has been postponed. CBS says the fall season will now start filming in late May, but it’s clearly too soon to know if that’s optimistic.
One major effect of these productions stopping: most of the crew members are freelancers, meaning they are out of work.
Speaking of pay: Do Amazing Race teams get paid if their season hasn’t aired? What about Survivor and Big Brother? I have answers from CBS contracts and an Amazing Race cast member.
As to the season of Survivor that’s currently airing, here’s my recap of Survivor: Winners at War episode 5, which had some fun new pairings and also a fun ending.
Four reviews and some news
I reviewed four shows this week, two of which I pitted against one another:
In other news, RuPaul’s Drag Race disqualified a queen but will still air season 12.
Here are the week’s reality TV highlights, including a new version of The Circle, which I am looking forward to dipping into this weekend.
And finally, a dumpster set itself on fire on this week’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and became the most 2020 thing imaginable. (There’s a clip here.)
I hope all is well with you and yours. Keep washing those hands!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 185, first sent 13 March 2020, and it’s been obsessed with cleaning and isolating from other human beings for most of its life.
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📷 Photo of an island near Cassis, France, by Guillaume Bleyer