A Squid Game reality show?!? • Survivor mystery • Iron Chef's return • Amazing Race route • and more

Dear newsletter friends,

Greetings from blisteringly hot central Florida!

I have a thing for round numbers, empty inboxes, vacuumed carpet, mowed grass. I think it’s anxiety-related: those are things that make sense and/or I can control, unlike, you know, everything else in life.

So when I noticed I’m at 14,869 Twitter followers, I was like: Ooh, so close to 15,000!

If we’re not yet Twitter friends and you’d like to help me get there, here you go! I promise you’ll be rewarded with great content like rants about Survivor.

Speaking of content: Coming next week are deep dives into Life Below Zero and American Ninja Warrior, and some other fun stuff! But here’s what I wrote this week:

Mind-boggling

Netflix is turning Squid Game into a reality competition.

It’ll have the biggest prize in reality TV history, and the biggest cast: 456 people. Sound familiar?

Also, they promise not to murder you if you apply.

Sure, Jan. A big corporation creating content for people who pay? Promising cash to compete in games? Mmm hmm.

Meanwhile, I wrote about a Survivor mystery: Why RHAP’s Rob Cesternino published, then later deleted a big chunk of his interview with Survivor 42 juror Omar, specifically about Omar’s experience on the jury.

Because people have preserved the original interviews, and transcribed it, we know what Omar’s claims were, but not yet why Rob agreed to some third-party’s request to wipe that from the record.

I reviewed…

• Netflix’s new Iron Chef

• A&E’s Digital Addiction, which inspired that GIF. You’re welcome!

Reality TV news

• Here are the nominees for TCA Awards, including eight reality TV shows and several documentary series

• Amazing Race 34 seems to have ended this week in Nashville. Here’s where it went.

• So You Think You Can Dance has a new judge, ‘a great admirer of dancers’

• Among new stories in my news round-up:

  • JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers’ reality show was cancelled even though it was filmed and about to air

  • Love Island is changing its narrator

  • Jennifer Hudson has an EGOT!

  • BBCAN and Legends of the Hidden Temple updates

  • …all that and more is here

🤩 I recommend

• These 8 shows TV critics nominated—it’s a great list, if I can say so myself

• This show, if you like Intervention, and ignore the title

• This show, which you may have missed, but is awesome competition reality TV—and there are three seasons, too!

That’s it for me this week. Have a terrific weekend!

—Andy

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🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 294, first sent 17 June 2022, and it just realized neither of those are round numbers.

💻 This newsletter is hand-crafted in Florida by me, Andy Dehnart, and is supported in part by reality blurred patrons and paid subscribers to this newsletter. I’m grateful for them. If you can—or have a healthy expense account!—consider becoming a patron or upgrading your newsletter subscription.

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📷 Photo of Piestewa Peak in Phoenix by Nathan Fertig