Andy Dehnart

Happy anniversary to The Mole, which premiered 23 years ago today!

- Here's my behind-the-scenes story of all the wild things that happened to the producers that first season: https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2022/10/mole-behind-the-scenes-oral-history/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

- And my recaps from season 1, if you want to read/watch again: https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2021/07/mole-season-one-recaps-reviews-episode-analysis/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

The Mole behind the scenes: an oral history of its early seasons The Mole premiered 23 years ago today! Read the wild, true story of how its producers created that first season, from choosing the mole to the crew’s mutiny.

A+ to the NatGeo publicist and/or photo editor who included not one but three portraits of Mr. Hyde as part of press materials for the new Dr. Pol reality show. (I'll have an interview with Dr. Pol and his son Charles Friday about it. The show, not the cat, alas!)

Happy new year! I hope 2024 is a wonderful year for you!

Will Survivor 45’s finale complete the winner’s arc, or give us yet another new-era winner from left field?

Will Survivor 45’s winner make sense? Survivor 45’s winner will be Austin, Dee, Jake, Julie, or Katurah. Will Survivor’s poor editing for winners continue? What does a winner’s edit look like for a game of Calvinball?

My picks for the best reality TV of 2023

The best reality TV shows of 2023 Here are my picks for the best reality TV of 2023, including The Traitors, The Devil’s Plan, and The Great British Bake-Off, plus several honorable mentions.

Don't miss this list of Television Critics Association members' favorite pieces they wrote this year—so much great television criticism and coverage, all in one place!

The TCA 2023 End-of-Year Spotlight! Plans for Winter Press Tour 2024 are in the works! Also, check out the 2023 End-of-Year Spotlight, featuring the membership's favorite pieces of the year.

If you need something to watch, here are more than 20 recommendations from reality blurred readers—a few of which will end up on my list of my favorite 2023 shows!

Your 2023 reality TV recommendations and favorites Here’s what shows your fellow reality TV fans recommend from 2023! I asked and you delivered some great recommendations for reality TV shows I missed or didn’t cover.

Your winter reality TV premieres are here! Bookmark this as I'll update it constantly over the next three months as shows are announced:

Winter 2024 reality TV schedule and guide Here’s your winter reality show 2023/2024 schedule, a frequently updated list of premieres for broadcast, cable, and streaming reality TV shows, game shows, documentary series, and other prime-time…

What reality TV show or doc series that you watched this year would you recommend to others? Bonus points if it's something I did not cover, or did not get coverage elsewhere! Add your selection here:

Tell me: What reality show do you love that I didn’t cover this year? I’m compiling a list of your great reality TV recommendations—of shows I did not cover this year, or perhaps one I hated that you loved. Use the handy form in the story to share your favorite 2023…

Weekend recommendation: Twin Love, a a fascinating show not for the dating, but for the twin parts.

Twin Love is a provocative experiment, but dating is the least-interesting part Amazon Prime Video and Freevee’s Twin Love takes 10 sets of identical twins, splits them up, and has them date each other to see what will happen. And it takes some surprising turns!

For the first time, I set a November NaNoWriMo goal, and completed it, thanks to more a more realistic goal. Now: How do I keep up this momentum?

MiniNaNo report card: NaNoWriMo success! — Andy Dehnart

Every planner ad I see—and the reality I know awaits should I succumb and buy yet another planner.

(Photo by Jessica Lewis/Pexels; text by me.)

I entered my birthday into population.io's calculator, and while it told me how many years I probably have left, it was this graph that shook me. It's fascinating and distressing!

I have lots of guilt over not being able to watch every reality TV show—or to even check out the shows people recommend to me. So I'm turning this into a feature by asking you what you loved this year that I've missed. I'll publish a readers' recommendations list in a week or two.

There's a handy form right here—please add your favorite to it!

Tell me: What reality show do you love that I didn’t cover this year? I’m compiling a list of your great reality TV recommendations—of shows I did not cover this year, or perhaps one I hated that you loved. Use the handy form in the story to share your favorite 2023…

Show off your enduring devotion to and/or fanaticism for reality blurred to anyone who you encounter—and still retain your individuality by choosing your favorite color and style! 😍 http://realityblurred.threadless.com

Have you watched any of Squid Game: The Challenge, the reality TV version of the drama? I found it to be bleak AF! And boring! And occasionally interesting, which made me feel gross!

Squid Game: The Challenge is even more bleak than the Netflix show it copies Netflix's reality TV adaptation of its hit Squid Game is here, and my friends, it is bleak AF. Here's my review of Squid Game: The Challenge.

If you struggle to actually do the things on your todo list—and/or just love beautiful design with satisfying animations and fun colors—I recommend checking out Llama Life, which is now on sale: https://llamalife.co/pricing?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook This is not an ad; I just love it!

I love talking about my favorite books just as much as I love talking about reality TV. Bookshop curated lists of great books that are deeply discounted through Dec. 18, and I've included one of those lists in my little bookshop here: https://bookshop.org/shop/realityblurred

It's National Andy Day! 🎉 I'm pretty sure this is a joke someone added to nationaltoday .com, but I'll go with it—especially since there seem to be fewer Andys and more Andrews these days. So, enjoy the day, fellow Andys!

Pictured: Me, a couple years ago, with a Christmas PieCaken at my in-laws' house, the only photo I have of just an Andy and celebratory sugar.

💜

Chopped is starting a Julia Child-themed tournament tonight on Food Network. If you crave some actual Julia Child TV, her shows—including The French Chef and Baking with Julia—are streaming, free, on Tubi, Pluto, and Freevee. Details: https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2021/07/julia-child-tv-shows-streaming/

The most-recent episode of The Amazing Race is evidence that producers should have teams drive themselves as much as possible—as that's much more dramatic and interesting than flights!

Forget flights: Amazing Race teams should just drive themselves everywhere – reality blurred On The Amazing Race, nerves frayed, tempers flared, and teams struggled while trying to navigate and drive their own vehicles. Self-driving should be TAR's primary mode of transportation.

Recommended: Face Off, a great reality TV competition between special effects makeup artists. Lots of creative horror, sci-fi, and fantasy creatures—and also realistic makeup, too.

It was a Syfy show that's been off the air for five years, but two seasons were just added to Netflix. The last five seasons are on Peacock. I hope this revives interest and the network brings it back! More here: https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2023/11/face-off-streaming-netflix/

Please watch the new James Bond reality competition on Amazon—not because it's good, but because I'm so curious how long you'll watch before turning it off. Or maybe you'll tell me what I'm missing!

007: Road to a Million is a bizarre use of James Bond—and baffling reality TV Amazon Prime Video's new James Bond reality TV competition is a mash-up of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and The Amazing Race, mixed together in molasses.

This piece is a finalist for an L.A. Press Club National A&E Journalism award—I'm excited and honored, and so grateful for all the people who shared their insight for my look at one of the best reality TV shows ever: The Mole.

The Mole behind the scenes: an oral history of its early seasons As The Mole is revived by Netflix, I went back to its beginning, interviewing people who produced ABC's seasons of The Mole. Here are their stories about everything from how the mole was chosen to the…

I just learned that this story is a finalist in the L.A. Press Club's National A&E Journalism Awards—I'm honored and excited!

The Mole behind the scenes: an oral history of its early seasons As The Mole is revived by Netflix, I went back to its beginning, interviewing people who produced ABC's seasons of The Mole. Here are their stories about everything from how the mole was chosen to the…

I'm excited to announce I've finally made it as an influencer!

My recap of last night's incredible Survivor—and one complaint!

Survivor 45’s spectacular merge episode needed one change to make it even better Survivor 45 episode 6 brought together all the players (don't call it a merge!), and the result was a wildly entertaining episode all the way through that amazing Tribal Council.

What a terrific episode of Survivor last night! Though being me, I couldn't help but wish one element of this new era would itself be eliminated.

Survivor 45’s spectacular merge episode needed one change to make it even better Survivor 45 episode 6 brought together all the players (don't call it a merge!), and the result was a wildly entertaining episode all the way through that amazing Tribal Council.