Netflix’s new barbecue cooking competition The American Barbecue Showdown covers well-worn territory, but it does so well—especially with its terrific cast, including judge Melissa Cookston.
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Get Organized with The Home Edit: an Instagram photo turned into a Netflix reality show
Netflix’s Get Organized with The Home Edit is the spiritual opposite of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, which was all about paring things down. The Home Edit is about buying more, and then arranging it to look Instagram perfect.
16 and Recovering: a powerful look at addiction that’s MTV’s best reality show in years
MTV’s 16 and Recovering, which follows students, faculty, and staff at Northshore Recovery High School in Mass., is exceptional reality television.
Dodgeball Thunderdome will pummel you with its awfulness
Discovery Channel’s Dodgeball Thunderdome was filmed this summer, putting people’s lives at risk to produce one of the worst reality competitions I’ve ever seen.
Shark Week and Sharkfest’s experts are mostly white men. Why? And does it matter?
“To say that there aren’t women in shark science is utterly ridiculous,” a Black female marine biologist told me. So I asked both Discovery’s Shark Week and National Geographic’s Sharkfest why they focused on white male shark scientists in their marketing and casting.
Cannonball is a watered-down disappointment
Cannonball, which is being previewed on NBC before airing on USA Network, looks like it should be the next Wipeout or Floor is Lava. It’s not.
Crazy Delicious: Netflix’s competition takes GBBO’s DNA into an ‘enchanted garden’
Carla Hall is one of the three food god judges on Crazy Delicious, which has a Willy Wonka-ish set but in tone and approach, is much more like The Great British Baking Show.
Tournament of Laughs: a bracketed comedy competition where we pick the winners
Comedians face off in a bracketed competition that’ll be judged by viewers in TBS’s new competition Tournament of Laughs, which
Floor is Lava and Don’t: two kids’ games, turned into reality TV competitions
Netflix’s Floor is Lava is visually stunning, with its set of gurgling lava slime, but it needs better narration, like Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool-style narration on ABC’s new game show Don’t.
Samantha Brown calls out the ‘void of diversity’ in travel, food, and home reality TV hosts
Former Travel Channel host and current PBS host Samantha Brown says “the most important” thing TV networks can do now is “to embrace that diversity in their own programing.”
Celebrity Escape Room is a lot of fun, even when the celebs are a little dumb
Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Adam Scott, and Ben Stiller are certainly not the world’s best escape room team, but with Jack Black as their game master, they are quite entertaining.
Ultimate Tag, Fox’s new competition, has some surprises in its arena
Fox’s Ultimate Tag, hosted by JJ, TJ, and Derek Watt, is significantly better than similar reality shows that came before it. But it’s also not the next American Ninja Warrior or American Gladiators.
Big Flower Fight is Netflix’s wilted, underbaked Great British Baking Show
The Big Flower Fight is the latest entry in Netflix’s attempt to wow the world with mediocre versions of popular reality TV shows, and it has plagiarized all the wrong things from The Great British Baking Show.
Worst Cooks’ reality stars—Sonja, Bananas, Wells—perk up Food Network’s worst show
On Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition’s premiere, Johnny Bananas made drinks for Sonja Morgan while Wells Adams whined and Dave Coulier made dad jokes. It was amazing.
Tirdy Works: the shittiest reality show I’ll ever recommend to you
Tirdy Works, a new reality show on truTV, has non-stop moose turd puns but also a lot of warmth and heart. It’s the shit, and I highly recommend it.