Survivor's twists, Big Brother's sad winner, Masked Singer's ...
Survivor's twists, Big Brother's sad winner, Masked Singer's first two unmaskings, Chopped's insane pilot, Food Network judge's death, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy TV premiere week, and welcome to Reality in Focus’s new look and feel, thanks to our new home at Substack. More on that later. There’s so much reality TV to cover first!
Before we get to this week’s premieres—the confrontational Big Brother 21 finale, The Masked Singer’s return, and Survivor’s premiere—let’s talk about news from the previous week.
American Ninja Warrior finally had its second $1 million winner in 11 seasons—and, incredibly, NBC spoiled that there’d be a winner before the finale.
Usually reality shows always have winners! But not ANW, because its final obstacle courses are so unforgiving. Even its winner had to use an advantage he won to get a second shot, or he would have been out in the first round.
When I wasn’t watching people fly through the air on ANW’s course, I wrote about the new Bachelor star, Bachelor in Paradise’s same-sex engagement, America’s Got Talent’s ‘best final’ ever, and Bring the Funny’s end.
All in the same story!
Exciting news for RuPaul’s Drag Race fans: We’ll be able to watch Drag Race UK in the US, on TV, one week later. 🎉 That starts two weeks from today.
Earlier this week, Drag Race won its second Emmy during an Emmy telecast dominated by Masked Singer promotion.
And even earlier, RuPaul won another Emmy and tied Jeff Probst; each now has four Emmys for reality show hosting.
Here are all the reality TV and nonfiction Emmy winners.
They include Queer Eye and Queer Eye’s editors, three of whom I interviewed before they won their second Emmy. Read that interview to learn how they do their work, crafting stories from hundreds of hours of footage.
Food Network judge’s death, Chopped’s pilot, and other news
Guy’s Grocery Games judge (and champion) Carl Ruiz died last weekend.
This week’s episode of the Guy Fieri-hosted show was Halloween themed, and one contestant who resembles Carl dressed up like him: a really fun but bittersweet episode. It was dedicated to Carl.
If you like Chopped, you must read this story, which is about its history: Its format, which has since been widely imitated, was actually inspired by another reality show, ElimiDate.
But that’s not all: Food Network initially wanted the show to be like a Fox reality TV show, so its pilot was filmed in a mansion with Ted Allen as a butler, and a billionaire’s dog eating the losing contestant’s food. Amazing!
In other news:
Survivor, Big Brother, The Masked Singer, and DWTS
This week was TV’s official premiere week, and that set up several reality show showdowns, including the new Dancing with the Stars facing off against The Voice, and The Masked Singer versus Survivor.
But first: Big Brother. Its live finale ended with the saddest-looking reality TV show winner I’ve ever seen: he looked like he'd just lost, not won $500,000.
That was because he’d just been confronted with his behavior in the house, including his treatment of women; my friend Hamsterwatch called him “one of the most problematic [contestants] ever.”
Here’s my full recap of the finale, which includes an example of his behavior. And if you’re unsure what all of this was about, here’s some background:
Why Big Brother’s editing of Kemi, Jack, and Jackson was so bad—including how a producer asked Kemi to speak in a more stereotypical way
Let’s move on to lighter news: The Masked Singer.
The Masked Singer won its battle: it bowled over Survivor, which had its lowest premiere ratings ever. Alas.
There are spoilers in my recap, which covers the first two unmasked singers, and the show’s new format.
Also, from earlier this year, here are answers to Masked Singer questions, including whether or not the singers use autotune.
I really liked this new Survivor and its cast, which is so great they didn’t need Rob and Sandra, too.
Here’s my Survivor Island of the Idols premiere recap, which includes a tally of how much screen time Rob and Sandra got.
Before the premiere, I wrote about my enduring love for Survivor, why it’s format is so perfect, and why that can still be screwed up.
I did that using an extended metaphor: Survivor is pizza: perfect, malleable, resilient. Will we ever just get pizza again?
And that’s making me hungry. But before I go, some newsletter news!
This newsletter is now being produced on a platform called Substack. I made the move mostly to make your experience better (the formatting should be cleaner, for one) and to make producing it easier.
Also, Substack makes it possible for me to offer paid subscriptions. Don’t worry: This Friday newsletter will stay free and remain just like it has been. But I’m going to experiment with bonus e-mail content, such as a preview of the week’s reality TV premieres arriving in your inbox before anyone else sees it.
Initially, these new messages will be free, but eventually they’ll go behind the paywall. You can learn more here, and if you’d like to subscribe today, here’s 20 percent off forever as my thanks.
Okay, that’s everything. Have a terrific weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 163, first sent 27 September 2019, and it is not good at guessing masked singers.
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