Survivor update, Padma's show, Matt Rogers' gay hosting, free cheese, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a giant wheel of cheese in my review of a Netflix show.
A company that sells giant blocks of cheese, The Big Cheese, reached out, so now I’m hosting my weirdest giveaway ever: a $99 5-pound block set to the winner’s doorstep, and a $49 2.5-pound block to the runner-up.
So: Enter here to win cheese from The Big Cheese! You can enter daily between now and Wednesday, Dec. 9. Good luck!
Besides cheese, my big project this week was compiling the Winter 2021 reality TV schedule and guide.
There are more than 70 shows on that initial list—and I need to add the recently-announced Discovery+ originals, of which there are more than 30.
I’m exhausted already—especially since I’m still behind on my 2020 reality TV! It’s a good problem to have, so much to watch, though sometimes I would like a little less, or just a little break in the flood of shows.
A review, a recap, and really gay host
I’m working my way through a small backlog of shows I watched and loved this year, but didn’t write about in-depth. First up, a near-perfect show from Top Chef’s host: Taste the Nation: Padma Lakshmi’s exceptional Hulu series
The Amazing Race continued, and here’s my recap and analysis of the episode, on which Travelocity’s gnome got more attention than the eliminated team.
Marshal Knight, who runs the pop culture site Um, Sure?, wrote a piece for reality blurred’s Confessional about Haute Dog host Matt Rogers: the joy of a flamboyant queer reality TV host.
Survivor updates
First, there was some news this past week about what’s happening with Survivor: Three 2021 seasons? In the Dominican Republic?
Even if there are three seasons filmed next year, it seems like we’ll go one full year without a new season of Survivor.
However, Netflix recently added two seasons of Survivor, and that inspired me to go back and clean up the archives of those two seasons.
I put together this list of all my Survivor Cagayan recaps and behind-the-scenes stories. If you’re rewatching, read along!
Next: I’ll be doing that for Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, which also includes pre-game and exit interviews for the cast.
News and other insanity
Here are the 30+ reality shows that’ll be on Discovery+. The service will also have 55,000 episodes of reality TV (!)
Three RHOBH stars have COVID. Variety reports that the show is PERFECTLY SAFE because they’re doing testing and—ready for the good part?—“temperature checks.” I need to check to see if it’s still March because WHAT THE FUCK. Haven’t we known for months and months and months now that COVID spreads asymptomatically? And we’re still pretending that checking people’s temperature is anything more than theatre?
Floribama Shore shut down production after a COVID-19 infection. Deadline, doing its necessary work of pretending that no one in Hollywood could ever do anything wrong, insists “adhering to local, state and federal COVID-19 health and safety protocols.” Except for the part about FILMING FLORIBAMA SHORE DURING A PANDEMIC. Deep breaths.
Women who worked on Patriot Act with Hassan Minhaj “shared their painful, personal experiences of working on a show beloved for its progressive politics and when their tweets came out, nothing happened,” as Sangeetha writes.
The shows that premiered this week, including Rocket Around the Xmas Tree last night and Great British Baking Show: Holidays today.
A celebrity finally won $1 million on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
⭐️ Recommended
This interview with Tom Bergeron, in which he talks about why he wouldn’t come back to Dancing with the Stars, among other things
…and also Mary Berry’s show on Hulu, which I haven’t reviewed yet but is giving me a lot of joy
Shortly Read, which writes for you (?!). I mean, I love writing, so I’m not going to actually use this, except to do fun ridiculous things like asking it to write a Survivor recap for me:
My sister just introduced me to @ShortlyRead, which uses AI to write for you. I started my story with “Jeff Probst” and it wrote this brilliant #Survivor recap. Game changer indeed.
And a Golden Girls episode:
That’s everything for this week. Stay safe, wear a mask in public, and enjoy the reality TV you watch!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 222, first sent 4 December 2020, and it does temperature checks for anxiety.
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📷 Photo of a tree with lights in São Paulo, Brazil, by Rodolfo Marques