The state of reality TV • Survivor chicken pox • lots of news • recaps
Dear newsletter friends,
I really struggle to write headlines sometimes, especially for my reporting. I just wrote 1,000 words and now I need to summarize those in 10?!
There are some stories that I want to just write, Please read this it has so much amazing stuff!, and this week, I published three of such pieces.
The good stuff this week is information and insight from more than a dozen people who work in reality TV, in various production-related jobs, from executives to editors.
They told us what it’s really like in the industry right now, and it’s fascinating and bleak and occasionally hopeful.
Mostly, I hope you’ll read them—not for my writing, but for what they shared:
The reality TV industry is in chaos and people are in despair. Producers explain why.
What reality TV producers think about unionizing crew—and reality show stars
The reality shows producers watch and admire—and the best part of their work
A review and a preview
Food Network:
CBS:
The Summit: Coming soon! My review of CBS’s new competition will go up soon, before Sunday’s preview (CBS, 9 p.m.). That episode will re-air Wednesday, in its normal post-Survivor timeslot.
Not a spoiler: It’s great!
👩❤️👩 Recaps
Below Deck Med:
Survivor 47:
…information spread like a case of chicken pox in an elementary school with an award-winning wrestling program
🔪 True crime review
🎧 Listen to The Docket:
True-crime news from Sarah D. Bunting:
Apologies for not posting this sooner, but back in July, The New Yorker had a SUPER-readable piece by Heidi Blake on the Whitehouse Farm murders.
I reviewed the 2020 ITV miniseries a few years back; it wouldn't have occurred to me based on that that "Jem" Bamber hadn't committed the murders, but "Did the U.K.’s Most Infamous Family Massacre End in a Wrongful Conviction?" raised pretty serious doubts.
NFL hall-of-famer Brett Favre revealed during congressional hearings yesterday that he's recently gotten a Parkinson's diagnosis. The hearings were on welfare reform, but as ESPN's write-up notes, Favre's announcement about his health—likely a downstream effect of multiple concussion events during his career —"overshadowed Favre's testimony about TANF, the welfare funds at the heart of the sprawling Mississippi case in which he has been embroiled since 2022."
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
This week’s reality TV premieres include a new season of The Great British Baking Show (today, on Netflix) and the next RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (on WOW Presents Plus).
Also: new seasons The Floor (woo hoo!), Halloween Wars, Hell’s Kitchen, Crime Scene Kitchen, The Masked Singer,and The Voice, plus new series Social Studies, which follows a group of teenagers over a year, and TV on the Edge: Moments That Shaped Our Culture.
Documentaries airing this week include PBS’s The Choice 2024: Harris vs. Trump; Netflix’s Will & Harper, following Will Ferrell and his trans friend on a road trip; PBS’s Who’s Afraid of Nathan Law? about Hong Kong’s “most famous dissident”; and Paramount+’s We Will Dance Again, about The Nova Music Festival in Israel that was attacked by terrorists.
💬 Comments of the week: Survivor edition
On this recap, Clifford wrote:
Eighteen contestants, each with a PhD in Survivor Strategy from Probst University makes for a tedious show. Add to that, a production team that can’t think of a genuinely new idea for challenges.
I can’t help but to compare this sinking ship of a series to a newcomer called Outlast that takes a third of the Survivor concept and produces an engrossing and exciting show without all the bells and whistles that Survivor has added over the years.
On this recap, Ami wrote:
I’ve been reading your Survivor recaps for at least 15 years and in the last few years, it’s become clear to me that you no longer enjoy the show, so why do you still cover it? It’s not like you cover Big Brother, Love Island, The Bachelor, etc. on a weekly basis, so why continue to churn out these sarcastic, mean-spirited recaps when you can be spending your time covering shows you actually enjoy?
I truly enjoy your writing, but your Survivor coverage clearly brings you no joy, and your writing is at its best when your covering shows that you actually enjoy / actively don’t hate.
and Melissa wrote:
While I’m not thrilled with the last few seasons of new era Survivor, they do give you plenty of material for outstanding recaps. Thank you!
🗞️ Reality TV news
Reality star news:
John Raymond, the first person voted out of Survivor: Thailand, was convicted by a jury of "three felony counts of child cruelty for taping students' mouths shut and a count of second degree child cruelty for holding his hand over a 4-year-old child's mouth keeping the child from breathing," the Shreveport Times reports.
A witness said the four-year-old "went limp" when Raymond did that at the Christian school he founded.
He'll be sentenced Oct. 23, and faces a maximum of 40 years in prison for the second-degree charge alone, according to the Advocate.
Raymond is also a member of the Louisiana Republican Party's state committee, which is now trying to remove him after endorsing him for political office last year.
Eduardo Xol, who did landscaping design on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition during seasons two through eight, died after being stabbed. He was 58.
Survivor: Island of the Idols cast members Elizabeth Beisel and Jack Nichting got married, but their EXCLUSIVE OUR WEDDING IS IN PEOPLE story doesn't mention Survivor; it says they "met while traveling." I can't blame them; after all, that was Survivor's worst season ever.
Show news:
Did you know that ABC's drama Lost—which premiered 20 years ago, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004—owes its life to Survivor, and stole its name from another reality show?
The details: How Survivor inspired Lost, which stole its name from yet another reality series.
Max announced that it's ordered Fast Friends, a reality competition show based on Friends. It's basically an exercise in corporate synergy, taking place on the recreated sets at "The Friends Experience: The One in New York," and will have contestants racing around the sets while playing "trivia, puzzles, and games."
The author of The Bill Gates Problem, Tim Schwab, wrote an essay about how he says Morgan Neville's production company, Tremolo, "grossly misrepresented themselves" by claiming their documentary about Bill Gates would "directly challenge Bill: ‘are you too rich?’"
Instead, What’s Next: The Future with Bill Gates’s description calls him a "visionary philanthropist" and director Neville says "Bill is one of the most curious people I’ve met, and the amount of learning he still does daily is truly inspiring."
Schwab asks notes one credited producer "appears to work for Gates Ventures, which does PR for Bill Gates" and asks "why is Netflix putting out more propaganda for Gates? Why is Netflix so afraid to challenge our ‘good billionaire?’"
Some great reality TV reads for your weekend:
The Prince We Never Knew, The New York Times (gift link). Sasha Weiss watched Ezra Edelman’s nine-hour Prince documentary, which will likely never make it to Netflix because Prince's estate objects to its content. Weiss writes about what's in the documentary and how it was made.
For ‘Chimp Crazy’ director Eric Goode, ‘The end justifies the means’, L.A. Times. Amy Kaufman profiles the activist filmmaker behind Chimp Crazy and Tiger King, writing that he "does not necessarily feel obligated to follow the educational or ethical guidelines by which conservationists and journalists abide."
How ‘Love Island USA’ Became a ‘Perfect Storm’ of Reality TV Magic, Rolling Stone. An interview with Love Island USA’s executive producer, Simon Thomas, about how it's produced and why this season really exploded on Peacock
Why Some People Are Paying to Be Left on a Desert Island—Alone, Afar. This isn't about Survivor or any other reality TV show, but companies that people pay to give them the same experience, just without the TV crew.
🤩 I recommend
Food Network’s latest competition, which has a fun theme and setup 🏨 👻
This list of reality shows reality TV producers admire and/or watch
This behind-the-scenes video about Survivor camera operator Paulo Velozo
Also:
Buying a banned book or two, which supports small bookstores and gives 🖕 to the book banners!
Joining me in writing letters to voters. (Get a kit with stamps and letters free if you request it by Monday.)
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 392 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 9 August 2024, and it always appreciates learning about what’s happening behind the scenes on reality TV shows.