Top Chef's new twist, plus The Vow, The Weakest Link, Dancing with the Stars, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
This week began with us learning how much Donald Trump earned from The Apprentice and his name—and that Trump’s businesses lost $89.9 million the same year that Mark Burnett presented him on The Apprentice as a successful billionaire mogul.
The week ends with us learning our first reality TV star president has COVID-19, testing positive days after mocking Joe Biden’s mask-wearing during a debate where Trump’s family and advisers sat in the audience and refused to wear their masks.
I hope he quickly and fully recovers, unlike the 200,000+ people who did not. I’m glad he has access to rapid and accurate test results and health care that many of us don’t have.
I’m sorry he’s going to experience what 7.2+ million Americans have already gone through.
So many of them were infected because Trump and his administration downplayed the threat, dismissed and mocked even the simplest safety measures, and allowed the pandemic to defeat America.
Top Chef, DWTS, and more news and reviews
Okay, on to more frivolous and entertaining stuff!
Last week, I told you that Top Chef was filming, and this week Bravo confirmed that, and the location, Portland.
That announcement included details about Top Chef Portland’s all-star twist, which is born out of changes the production had to make because of COVID.
Also this week:
I asked Dancing with the Stars producer why Tom Bergeron was fired, and was amazed by his answer.
I then wrote about how DWTS ratings are up, and why that may be (Tyra Banks?!).
I reviewed The Vow and Love Fraud.
I learned what happened to Buddy Valastro’s hand, holy shit.
Behind the story
Here’s the story about this story about this story.
I’ve been a fan of Homestead Rescue, which is like an off-grid version of Restaurant: Impossible, and even interviewed Marty Raney.
In August, someone alerted me to a 1997 song that Raney wrote and performed which had pretty horrifying anti-LGBT lyrics.
I transcribed the song and did some initial reporting, finding all the places where the song was still being sold/played, and also found recent social media posts from Raney promoting the album.
As things go in pandemic times, I forgot about it as more urgent things popped up. When I went back to finish the story this week, I searched to see if the song was still online, and found that it’d been removed from some, but not all services. I then found a Deadline story about it; they, too, had been alerted to the song’s existence.
Why did I still write about it, then? Because the song was still on YouTube, YouTube Music, and Spotify, and Marty Raney still hasn’t said anything about it.
Our society’s attitudes toward gay people have certainly changed in these 20+ years, and maybe Marty’s have, too. But if that’s the case, why not just say so? He refused to saying anything to Deadline.
Discovery responded with only a single sentence: “This song which was written over 20 years ago does not reflect the show or the values of the network in any way.”
What reflects your values is what you do right now, today, and a single sentence is not action.
I certainly don’t think a show should be cancelled over a 23-year-old song. But I wish a network and one of its biggest stars would do more to condemn the way he dehumanized people in a folksy song—a song he was still promoting three years ago.
Read the full story, and read the lyrics.
⭐️ Recommended
Here are my top recommendations for the week:
This HBO/HBO Max show, which is a real-time thriller
This episode of 99 Percent Invisible, which I re-listened to this week and it was just as much of a wild ride as the first time I heard it
This clip from Celebrity Family Feud, when Kathie Lee Gifford’s son-in-law realized that his pants may have been too tight:
That’s an awkward way to end this newsletter, but that face he makes feels like a good summary of the week.
I hope you’re safe, well, and watching great TV. And thanks for wearing a mask any time you are around other people. We can all protect each other. 😷💙
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 214, first sent 2 October 2020, and it would probably be the weakest link.
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📷 Photo of pumpkins in Plymouth, Mass., by Maddy Baker