Two Emmy-nominated network reality shows will go into production soon, joining Big Brother 22 (which premies next week), Love Island, and The Bachelorette, plus America’s Got Talent.
Both ABC’s Shark Tank and Fox’s The Masked Singer will film entire seasons soon, and The Real Housewives of New York City will film its reunion in person, which seems like a great idea: spending hours in a space, screaming at each other.
The Real Housewives of New York City—which is currently in the middle of a terrible, drunken mess of a season—was not able to film all interviews with the cast members in person, so those were filmed remotely.
Host Andy Cohen is not filming his daily talk show, Watch What Happens Live, is filming his show remotely.
Yet for some reason, Bravo has decided to film the reunion in person.
Page Six first reported the news Tuesday, and then Andy Cohen confirmed it on his SiriusXM show.
“It is looking like we will be doing our RHONY reunion in person. Very excited!” he said, according to People. Cohen also said that, “Everybody has to get tested, there’s very few crew, there’s very few people allowed, we are all six feet apart.”
Being six feet apart is is advised for people who are briefly passing each other in public, but is very likely not enough distance for people who are in an enclosed space, never mind screaming at each other for hours. And it is indoors: Cohen said the space they’re using is “not an outdoor venue but it’s definitely a spaced-out venue.”
Perhaps Bravo thinks that killing some of the cast of The Real Housewives of New York City would be a fitting way to end this awful season.
Fox’s hit The Masked Singer released a promo Wednesday, and promised in a press release that the show will be “back with an all-new season this September.”
The promo does not have any new footage, because nothing has been filmed yet, but the promo does have clues to the new singers’ identities, meaning the show has been at least partially cast.
As to when it will film, or how, Deadline reported that Fox “is hoping to get the show back in the studio over the next six weeks so it can hit the September deadline, but obviously … the situation remains fluid.”
The show’s winners are determined based on studio audience votes, so how will that work in a time when shows are dispensing with tightly-packed studio audiences?
The Australian version of the show is going to film its studio audience in a separate theatre in Sydney, TV Tonight reported. Audience members will vote, though they won’t see the losing celebrity revealed, which is similar to how the Fox version is filmed.
The audience ticket site says that “attendees will be temperature-checked and asked to sign a health declaration upon arrival,” which is essentially useless, because people without symptoms can infect others.
It doesn’t say anything about whether audience members will be required to wear masks, which would be the responsible thing to do—and thematically appropriate for The Masked Singer!
All six of Shark Tank’s regular stars—Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary—were just nominated for the reality TV host Emmy. And now they’re going to film a new season.
The ABC reality show typically films its entire season, more than 20 episodes, over about one month, though that’s broken into two two-week segments. Typically, it films for two weeks in June and two weeks in September.
This year, it’ll film all episodes at once, though it’s not yet clear how many episodes that will be.
And the show will not use a studio at the Sony Pictures Studios in Hollywood, as usual, but instead set up in Las Vegas, where Love Island is filming at a hotel.
KTNV reported that ABC “confirms the show is in pre-production at an undisclosed location in the Vegas valley.”
The production will be “keeping the stars and crew within a single facility,” Deadline reported, adding that many “LA-based crew members have made the trip to Las Vegas to work on the new episodes, set to begin shooting soon.”
What kind of facility? And why Las Vegas? Are they taking over part of a hotel, too, perhaps using conference facilities as a studio?
Neither story says anything about which sharks will be participating, and also does not mention the real cast members: the entrepreneurs who pitch the sharks. Those who appear on Shark Tank often do so with friends or family members, who help pitch and/or demo products and services.
How will they be kept safe while traveling to and from Las Vegas, disaster zone? What will the sharks do if the founders they invest in die before they’re able to do due diligence? Has everyone involved in this truly done their due diligence, or are they just rushing into production to prioritize profit over human life?
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American Ninja Warrior’s “real-life ninja” Drew Drechsel, who’s 31, was arrested by federal authorities and charged with crimes related to having sex with a minor. He’ll be edited out of an all-star ANW season that NBC filmed just two weeks ago.
During a TV interview today, Julie Chen confirmed rumors that multiple Big Brother 22 all-star houseguests tested positive for ᴄᴏᴠɪᴅ-19. But now that interview has been deleted.
Scripted shows are not yet back in production. But reality TV is, filming in the U.S. and internationally. Besides Big Brother, there’s Love Island, Shark Tank, American Ninja Warrior, Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Bargain Mansions, and Impractical Jokers, among other shows.
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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.