reality blurred

Project Runway season 21 was “the most talked-about season of Project Runway,” Heidi Klum says at the start of Project Runway season 22, and that’s like saying the most-talked about cuisine of the year is lettuce torpedoing its way out of people’s colons because it’s been spiked with acyclosporiasis. The lesson Freeform, Hulu, Disney, and/or production company Alfred Street Industries took away from the reaction is that fans and critics shitting on your show is a win.

I think RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars might be broken. This is not to say I’m still loving the queens this season—especially those who made it to the semi-finals. However, after this week’s talent show being a homogenized lip-sync competition with a variety of imagined adjectives trying to call each performance something it isn’t, I’m not sure this challenge works. As I type this, the online discourse has already begun to focus on the rigged nature of this season.

The crimeNarrowly, per A&E’s show page: “Squatters are taking over homes across the country and Flash Shelton is the man who gets them out. With bold tactics and street smarts, Flash and his team face tense and sometimes dangerous situations to help families reclaim their property.” More broadly? A&E’s now-total transformation into The Law Enforcement, Ain’t It Great Channel. The storyI saw an ad for Squatters somewhere, weeks ago – maybe while watching Crashers for Extra Hot Great?

I’m used to Big Brother depressing me, for so many reasons. I stick with it because it has given us moments of reality TV greatness, and the live feeds offer a fascinating and unparalleled window into reality TV production and editing. And Big Brother can be delightfully dumb, from ejaculating challenges (so powerful they knocked the safety goggles right off of the players) to bringing Rachel Reilly back just to troll us—it totally worked on me!!—only to throw her into a volcano.

About a year before Tyra Banks sued Netflix, the producers, and the directors of Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, she received this e-mail message: Tyra, I hope you had an easy flight back to Australia! I wanted to reach out and say thank you again for joining us for an interview this past Friday. To say that you strengthened the series would be the greatest understatement of all time. Like I said, I’m getting into the live companion piece with Netflix.

Welcome! I’m your host, Andy, and I created reality blurred 25 years ago as a blog to collect interesting links I found about reality TV. Today, it’s home to a wide range of writing about entertainment rooted in real life, from competition reality shows to true-crime documentaries, and a vibrant community of pop culture fans.

Happy 26th, friends! Twenty-six years ago today, I bought realityblurred.com and made this site live to the world. It’s still here today because of you. If you’re reading this, you’re likely a regular, coming back to see what dumb jokes I have about Below Deck, what critique I have of Jeff Probst’s producing decisions, or analysis about a new season or show. Whether you’ve been here more than a quarter century or just this year, thanks! I’m grateful for you.

Made from Humans: How Reality Becomes TV The Real World Hawaii episode that started it all 00:00 / 26:55 Apple Podcasts PocketCasts RSS Spotify YouTube Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | PocketCasts | RSS | Spotify | YouTube This week: A dramatic reading of my very first reality TV recap—to celebrate reality blurred’s 26th birthday today! Also: recommendations, and, at the very end, life advice from a Survivor 50 player who’s on Big Brother 28! Intro: Join me July 8 at 8 p.m. ET for a special AMA on...

RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Salina EsTitties, aka Jason De Puy, is one of the 14 Big Brother 28 players just revealed by CBS—and will likely be joined by other familiar reality TV stars.

Just when I was thinking Below Deck Mediterranean’s producers really wasted money on a house for Gael and Nathan, a cutaway to them in a bed with their spawn is not even worth the two seconds it was on screen. But! Nathan’s absence left his bed empty, where it was filled by Luke’s semen. A puddle the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, based on the pixelation and tsunami warning.