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reality check

Big Brother 20 ends; Survivor, DWTS, and The Voice begin; and 11 more reality show premieres

Will Smith
Will Smith, who will jump out of a helicopter live on his 50th birthday Tuesday, invited people via YouTube to enter a contest and attend his post-jump birthday party

by Andy Dehnart 24 Sep. 2018 | 8:47 am

Good morning! It’s the last Monday, and the last week, of September, and it’s a busy one.

Let’s start with Wednesday’s 90-minute premiere of Survivor David vs. Goliath (CBS, 8 p.m.), which will be followed by the finale of Big Brother 20 (CBS, 9:30 p.m.), which by all accounts has been a significantly better season than last year—a low bar, perhaps, but it’s still great to see Big Brother be better.

Back tonight: Dancing with the Stars (ABC, Mondays at 8) and its cast of quasi-celebrities; and The Voice (NBC, Mondays and Tuesdays at 8), with coaches Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton.

And this weekend, two veteran reality series are back, too: Hell’s Kitchen (Fox, Fridays at 9), which has its first fans vs. favorites season, and America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, Sundays at 7), which is back for season 29.

If Halloween-themed Food Network competitions are your thing, there are three shows premiering this week:

  1. Halloween Baking Championship (Food Network, Mondays at 9), a competition between bakers
  2. Halloween Wars (Food Network, Sundays at 9), a competition between teams that each have a cake artist, pumpkin carver, and “sugar master”
  3. Halloween Wars: Even More Monstrous Scares  (Food Network, Sundays at 10), which is basically the best-of Halloween Wars

On Friday, Netflix has a several shows premiering, including:

  • their original Housewives-ish docudrama Made in Mexico
  • a new season of Chef’s Table, which finally profiles more chefs who are women and people of color
  • a new season of Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father, following the comedian and his dad
  • and a series from the author of Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?, which is called A User’s Guide to Cheating Death

Finally, there are new seasons of The Best Thing I Ever Ate (Cooking Channel, Thursdays at 9) and Shifting Gears (Discovery, Mondays at 9).

Will Smith bungee jumps live, a profile of Jane Fonda, and more

Will Smith will stream his bungee jump—from a helicopter, over the Grand Canyon—live on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, Sept. 25, which is also his 50th birthday. He explained why he’s doing it in this video.

 

Also airing this week are these four documentaries:

  1. Survivors (PBS, Monday, Sept. 24 at 10) looks at the 2014 Ebola epidemic by profiling “unsung heroes” in Sierra Leon. That keeps the focus on people in West Africa, rather than what the director calls our 2014 “preoccupation with the foreign experience” of the virus.
  2. No Greater Law (A&E, Monday, Sept. 24, at 10) “explores the struggles between an Idaho-based faith healing community and a Sheriff investigating the deaths of children from the community,” according to A&E.
  3. The actor and activist Jane Fonda is the subject of director Susan Lacy’s documentary Jane Fonda in Five Acts (HBO, Monday, Sept. 24, at 8), which “draws on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps,” according to HBO.
  4. Transplanting Hope (PBS, Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 9) is an up-close look at organ donation. It’s from NOVA, and “takes you inside the operating room to witness the emotional, high-stakes process of transferring organs from donors to recipients,” according to PBS.

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about Andy Dehnart

Andy Dehnart’s writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Vulture, Pacific Standard, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He has covered reality television for more than 18 years, and created reality blurred in 2000.

A member of the Television Critics Association who serves on its board of directors, Andy, 41, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. Learn more about reality blurred and Andy.

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reality blurred is your guide to the world of reality TV and unscripted entertainment, with reality show reviews, news, and analysis. It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart. He's still writing and publishing it today.

reality blurred is regularly updated with highlights from the world of reality TV: news and analysis; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of these reality TV shows, including Survivor, Big Brother, The Great British Baking Show, Shark Tank, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, and many more.

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