What I'm planning for Survivor's 20th anniversary. Also: Holey Moley, behind the scenes
Dear newsletter friends,
I was going to start by apologizing that this was a very light week for writing, but Thursday I published a 3,500-word behind-the-scenes piece about Holey Moley II, and I think that counts as at least three stories.
I also wrote a piece about why quarantining Big Brother, The Circle, or Survivor casts isn’t an easy solution to get reality shows back on the air.
And today, I wrote this piece, which is the one piece I really hope you’ll read, even if the headline makes you flinch.
So, yep, I’m also going to give myself a break.
Also, next week, my quarterly guide to reality TV premieres will go live (it’ll be here on Monday). And even more monumentally…
Sunday is the 20th anniversary of Survivor: Borneo’s premiere!
Ya’ll are the first to know what I’m doing to celebrate and mark the occasion: recapping season one, Survivor: Borneo, all summer long. 🎉
Okay, yes, this is far less spectacular than what I did on Survivor’s 10th anniversary: published the Survivor cast contract and Survivor rule book. But I’m still super-excited to revisit this season.
Back in 2000, having just been fired from my first recapping job, I started reality blurred but ironically didn’t write long recaps—the early days of the site were brief posts, mostly linking elsewhere, sometimes brief summary of what happened. Also, I didn’t launch reality blurred until July, halfway through that first season.
It’ll be impossible to watch it like I did that Wednesday night 20 years ago—but I’m going to try, and figure it out along the way.
If you want to watch with me—and I hope you will!—season one is:
$10 on Amazon for the entire season
If you find it elsewhere, please let me know. Watch episode one so you don’t get spoiled by my piece on Sunday! 😉
In other news
A few stories I’ve read this week:
America’s Got Talent was one of the shows that premiered this week, and former judge Gabrielle Union was profiled by Variety. That profile prompted NBC to declare it’d been exonerated by its own internal investigation into AGT’s toxic culture.
HBO Max launched. If you’re wondering what the difference between HBO and HBO Go and HBO Now and HBO Max are, my friend Joe Adalian at Vulture has you covered with this great story.
Martin Holmes put together an oral history of Survivor: Borneo for Inside Survivor, and one of the people he talked to was Charlie Parsons, who created the format in the UK.
Drag Race ends its season tonight, and Kevin O’Keeffe wrote about this season for Primetimer, exploring how “[s]eason 12 proved to be remarkably resilient.”
That’s everything I have for you this week. Be safe and well.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 196, first sent 29 May 2020, and it has no idea where 20 years have gone.
💻 This newsletter is hand-crafted in Florida by me, Andy Dehnart, and is supported by reality blurred patrons and paid subscribers to this newsletter. Please consider becoming a patron or upgrading your newsletter subscription!
💌 If you like this newsletter, forward it to a friend! If you're that friend, you can subscribe here!
✅ Bookmark realityblurred.com and visit daily for the latest of my reality TV news analysis, reviews, and commentary.
📷 Photo of Stora Kornö in Sweden by Karl JK Hedin