☃️ Winter reality TV • What a Survivor episode!! • Summit secrets • much more
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy December! The start of this month means the debut of my new quarterly premiere guide, and this month, it has a fresh new design. ✨
That was entirely the result of your feedback on the survey I sent out a few weeks ago. Many of you mentioned how valuable this guide is; a few people noted that the quantity of information made it hard to read or scan, especially on mobile.
A few people also mentioned wanting to know where cable TV shows are streaming. I’ve been including that information when it’s confirmed by a network/streamer for a while now.
The problem is that, for many shows, I just don’t know; networks and streamers don’t share that information, and I try but cannot find out. (Friends, the amount of time I spent trying to figure out if a Magnolia Network show was on TV, on Max, on Discovery+, or all three, and when… 🫠 😂)
So, I sometimes err on the side of including less information rather than potentially incorrect information, and am hopeful networks get better at telling us when/where something will stream.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the sparkling new version—and that it helps you find great reality TV over the next three months:
And here is the companion guide for specials and documentaries:
As always, I’ll keep updating both. And now, on to reality TV from the past two weeks.
🧁 Anniversaries and answers
Anniversaries:
- Jersey Shore is 15 years old 🤯
- Project Runway premiered 20 years ago this week.🤯🤯 I’m working on a piece about that.
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Nov. 11 was the 30th anniversary of Pedro Zamora's death, one day after the finale of The Real World San Francisco.
My belief that reality TV is useful art has roots in that season, and Pedro's work to educate people about HIV. Here's what I wrote on the 25th anniversary of his short life.
Answers:
And bonus, appreciation:
🏔️ The Summit
Recaps:
- Episode 9: A devious lie ends a player’s game
- The finale: Who reached The Summit’s end and won the money?
Behind-the-scenes interviews:
- Questions about The Summit, answered
- The Summit’s winner and producer on that ‘huge shocker’ of a finale
🇮🇹 Survivor
My recaps of two fantastic episodes:
- Episode 11: Did Survivor 47’s one-sided vendetta drag a player’s game into the ocean?
- Episode 12: Survivor 47’s Italian Job gave us the absolute best of Survivor
⚖️ True crime
- Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey and not-so-great expectations
- Is Double Indemnity true crime?
- Fyre Festival II, the 13th Step harassment case, and more new true crime to know
- How true-crimey is Al Pacino’s c.v.?
🚨 Your help needed:
-
It's time for Best Evidence's 2024 Year in True Crime review! We're soliciting your opinions on the best and worst properties of the year (and more).
Here's a longer explanation of what we're looking for, and here's the form if you'd just like to dive in. Happy opining!
True crime news from Sarah D. Bunting:
- The Best Evidence bonus review for November 2024 is out now! I talked about a recent book release, Andrew Rausch's The Taking of New York City: Crime on the Screen and in the Streets of the Big Apple in the 1970s, how perceptions of crime work through culture, and what happens when the book you pitch isn't the one you should be writing.
- Jay-Z and his social justice initiative, Team ROC, debut their podcast series Corruption Uncovered tomorrow (December 6). … More info on the pod is here.
💬 Comments of the week
Here are a few of the comments——ones that made laugh or think—from the many great conversations we’ve had:
On this Worst Cooks news, Cookie wrote:
I watched this show when it began and was serious about teaching ‘wanna be cooks’ to actually learn to cook. Then is became this parody of which team/person could be the most annoying student and apparently it caught on because it has been on ‘forever.’ Once it became stupid I bailed and never missed it.
On this Survivor recap, AK wrote:
I think a lot of these players can sense that “Survivor” is close to bringing back players again and want to ensure they are on the list. (Hence Gabe’s comment last week about how he’ll be back.)
On this review, Mark wrote:
Horrible review. I don’t know who wrote it, but it sounds like a naive, immature hateful little bitch (I’m using the writing style of the author to review the review). Either the author was personally involved in hating this show because their Ex produces it, or they are simply an incompetent review writer.
🗞️ Reality TV news
- Half of The Ultimatum season three's cast quit in the middle of the night, LOL. Creator Chris Coelen told Variety, "they snuck around. As a group, they secretly met. And listen, they’re adults. We don’t put restrictions on what people do or don’t do." Sure, Jan.
- A&E said On Patrol Live was ‘brazen theft’ of Live PD. Now, all is forgiven — but why?
- I co-sign the reality shows in TV Line's 10 Worst TV Shows of 2024 list: The GOAT squandered its potential, Drag Race Global All Stars was a joke, and SYTYCD couldn't pick a lane.
- I've tried to watch the new Real Housewives of New York City, but just haven't been able to get into it. So I appreciated Alec Karam's analysis of why it's "flopping so hard," including that it seems like "a carefully crafted work retreat, where a group of women who don’t trust each other or the cameras get together once a week to make a show they don’t entirely believe in."
- Manila Luzon, who's been on RuPaul's Drag Race three times, "designed the cover of the Wicked leather-bound books sold at Barnes& Noble while working at MADA Design, NYC," along with another designer, Manila wrote on Instagram.
🤩 I recommend
- Drag Race Canada & Drag Race Down Under, both of which are far better than the US versions
- This episode of Survivor, which was a perfect illustration of why the show still works
- These gift ideas for reality TV fans—or yourself
That’s everything, phew! Thanks for reading to the end, and for being here. Have a great weekend.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 399 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 5 December 2024, and it loves the smell of a fresh Christmas tree