Tournament of Champions secrets, Survivor clothes, Rat in the Kitchen, trans reality stars, and more
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy April 1, aka April Fool’s Day! For reasons that I’ve written about before, I’m still not returning to my former tradition of publishing satirical stories. Alas!
I would, however, like to acknowledge yesterday, March 31, which was the Trans Day of Visibility.
I am grateful for the trans people who’ve appeared on reality TV shows, who increase visibility and help other transgender people see real people like themselves. As a gay kid, watching The Real World was my first introduction to LGBTQ people, and helped me see that I wasn’t alone.
That’s why representation is important—and especially important now considering the attacks on trans and LGBTQIA+ people and kids around the country, including in the state where I live, Florida.
There are many brave people who are fighting back against these cowardly politicians who are, in the words of a young activist, just "using queer people as political pawns."
So, thank you to those activists, and thank you to all the people who go on TV for our entertainment and make a difference just being themselves publicly.
Tournament of Champions secrets
I took a deep dive behind the scenes on Food Network’s great competition Tournament of Champions, thanks to its executive producer, Brian Lando, who answered the burning questions I had after watching the show for three seasons.
So, I present to you:
Even if you don’t watch the show, there’s a lot of fascinating details about cooking competitions, like how the kitchen gets cleaned so fast, and what happens to the food while it’s waiting to be judged.
I reviewed and recapped
Survivor 42’s fourth episode, which showed us how another player blew up their own game
I also updated my story about the clothes Survivor players wear with some new insight from a former player.
Reality show news
You may have heard something about The Oscars, and what happened just before the documentary film award was presented.
What kind of got lost in that was Questlove’s win and emotional acceptance speech for his doc Summer of Soul. You can stream that and watch most of the nominees now.
Oh, and one of Summer of Soul’s producers was not happy about a different Chris Rock joke.
In other news:
Paramount+ released the trailer for The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans, which looks awesome.
Its premiere date is now on my spring schedule, along with season five of The Repair Shop and other recently announced premieres.
“Adderall is everywhere on [Bravo] shows,” Gawker reports.
Todrick Hall didn't actually apologize for his Big Brother behavior, but said that thing about being sorry if anyone was "offended," and also weirdly disassociated himself from his own words: "I wish that the personal statements wouldn’t have been said. I wish I wouldn’t have crossed into a personal level. But I don’t regret being on the show and I’ve learned a lot from it."
No one wants to buy/air Colton Underwood’s wedding. Colton now says he he wants to keep his life private. Sure, Jan.
🤩 I recommend
This show, which has been a fun way to spend Monday nights
This interview with Love is Blind’s creator/EP
This video of robotic slime. Amazing!
That’s everything I have this week. I hope you have a terrific weekend.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 284, first sent April 1, 2022, and it misses the days when April Fool’s Day jokes on the Internet were not indistinguishable from toxic misinformation.
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📷 Photo of a bumble bee in Iford, Dorset, UK, by Belinda Fewings