Top Chef, Wipeout, Amazing Race creators' new show, Pooch Perfect, Haute Dog, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
I wrote a lot this week! And I didn’t get to everything I wanted to, primarily because this was such a busy week in reality TV (22 premieres!) and for me (four reviews, a podcast appearance, and everything else below).
I will soon review The Challenge: All-Stars, but until then, I hope you enjoy what I did write.
Reviews
I reviewed:
Race to the Center of the Earth, which is from the creators of Amazing Race and similar except without a lot of the things that annoy me about modern Amazing Race.
Pooch Perfect and Haute Dog, two shows on which people spray paint and glue things onto dogs, but only one of which is at all watchable (the other is a disaster)
The revival of Wipeout, which is an unmitigated failure
Did you watch any of these? What’d you think?
Top Chef Portland
Top Chef is back! And I went deep on its production in two stories:
Top Chef Portland’s physical distancing makes no sense. Just look at the photos in the story! And as I wrote, plenty of reality TV shows have this problem.
How Top Chef was produced in a pandemic: an interview with two of its executive producers from Magical Elves
In other Bravo news, Million Dollar Listing: New York’s premiere date and cast are now on the calendar.
News
Jen Shah was arrested while filming Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and charged “with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering”.
More than 130 documentary filmmakers wrote a letter PBS’s CEO about its “commitment to diversity” and over-reliance on Ken Burns. Burns said he supports their efforts.
Masked Singer producer Jensen Karp went viral last week for his Cinnamon Toast Crunch tweets—and then came the stories of abuse, including on another reality show he produced, Drop the Mic.
Fox has ordered Domino Masters, hosted by Eric Stonestreet, which will have "ambitious domino building challenges.” I love this video, but would I want to watch a show about setting up all these books? Or anything else? Probably not.
⭐️ I recommend
This show from the creators of The Amazing Race
This interview with Trishelle Cannatella about The Challenge, The Real World, and a lot more
This new season of Top Chef, despite this weirdness
This episode of Extra Hot Great, on which I was a guest and had a lot of fun. Among other things: We all pitched potential Survivor themes, and I’m very proud of mine!
Okay, that’s everything for this week. Enjoy your weekend, happy Easter to those who celebrate, and enjoy all the reality TV you watch.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 237, first sent April 2, 2021, and it’s wiped out after this week.
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📷 Photo of Jemez National Recreation Area in New Mexico by Stephanie Klepacki