We are squarely into the summer season; the fact I haven’t experienced a sleeve of any kind on my arms for more than a month are all the receipts you need to prove that point. Or you could look at your television and see what constitutes as newsworthy. And yes, in this case I do mean one’s television, because what opened their respective seasons on Thursday alone are far more likely to be consumed there than on anything resembling a device and even more likely by someone seasoned enough to default to such an old school option.
If there is an umbrella word for the likes of BIG BROTHER, PROJECT RUNWAY, CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD and PRESS YOUR LUCK it would be familiar. Both of the reality competitions have been in existence for more than 20 seasons and have seen far better ratings days, though BB still remains as one of the most popular and most frequent offerings of all. It also retains a very special place in my heart, as I spent one very memorable summer as a very small but grateful part of its crew that had some special people a tad jealous that I was. As the nameless non-human at the ASBURY PARK PRESS accurately though soullessly noted in advance of Thursday night’s premiere:
Big Brother Season 28 is officially here, and this summer is going to be a wild ride. This is a historic year for the franchise. Season 28 will mark the show’s 1,000th original episode, making it the first primetime series to ever reach that milestone. CBS has also revealed a mind-bending “Time Trip” theme for the summer.
The brand-new cast includes 14 houseguests from all walks of life, including a rocket scientist, an MMA fighter, a jumbotron engineer, and even a former contestant from “RuPaul’s Drag Race”. There are also rumors that a few secret reality TV legends might crash the game later on.
A much more impassioned and personal preview came from uber fan and uber mensch Marc Berman, who many of you hopefully already are subscribers of his own veteran content offering, THE PROGRAMMING INSIDER, and perhaps discovered these musings from. He got to share a little bit of why he gets so ga-gawith INC. magazine yesterday:
For CBS, the show represents more than a summer entertainment staple. It has helped the network maintain a connection with a younger, highly engaged audience as traditional broadcast networks face increasing challenges reaching viewers beyond older demographics. While often dismissed as a guilty pleasure, the show has quietly become an unlikely case study in entrepreneurship.
For many viewers, one episode of Big Brother is all it takes to become invested. Alliances form, personalities emerge, strategies unfold—and suddenly, an entire summer of television becomes impossible to ignore. Beneath the drama and entertainment is a real-time study of human behavior, decision-making, and strategy, much like the business world. At first glance, the comparison to business and entrepreneurship seems far-fetched. Big Brother is a reality competition built on alliances, deception, and social strategy. Entrepreneurship is about launching companies, raising capital, hiring employees, and serving customers. But both reward the same skill: making high-stakes decisions under pressure before having all the answers.
It can be argued one can see some of those same juicy hooks through a more concentrated lens with PROJECT RUNWAY, which began as a Bravo OG abd a production of THE Harvey Weinstein and later became of the few reasons to watch Lifetime besides women in peril movies. These days, it’s one of the few original series that drop onto Freeform, the all but extinct linear spoke in the Disneyverse but as is the case with their more prominent linear shows gets the majority of audience from Hulu and Disney Plus. SI LIFESTYLE’s Cara O’Bleness was Berman’s counterpart in this case:
Season 22 is gearing up to be bigger and better than ever before. With 22 contestants (the most ever before competing in a single season) vying for the chance to launch their fashion career, host and judge Heidi Klum has her work cut out for her this time around. Joining the supermodel this season is Christian Siriano, who fans will recall won Season 4 of the reality show back in 2008. Since then, Siriano has dressed A-listers like Zendaya, Michelle Obama, Ashley Graham, Lady Gaga and countless others-proving just what an incredible launching pad Project Runway can be for one’s career. This season’s judge panel is also stacked with Elle editor in chief Nina Garcia, celebrity stylist Law Roach and supermodel Tyra Banks. Throughout the season, a number of familiar faces will also appear on the program as guest judges, including The Vampire Diaries actor Nina Dobrev, Grammy Award winning artist Ciara and supermodel Winnie Harlow, among others.
That’s an awful lot of old school talent and all-too recognizable beats, which I suspect is the point. Especially in a summer where THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA has returned to our collective zeitgeist, a show that celebrates that creativity and bitchiness that was sold in the wake of the halo effect from the OG film feels all the more comfortable. Personally, I miss Tim Gunn, but seeing Klum defy age and maintain just enough of a mix of faux warmth and sometimes bitchy control felt like settling into an old t-shirt on a lazy, crazy, hazy night.
And speaking of comfort food, knowing ABC’s Summer Games have returned is a sure of a sign that my blood pressure spikes and bouts with insomnia are receiving natural treament. CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD is back for a 12th g0-round, with a revised production structure that was previously used on special epsidoes that keeps the teams on for an entire hour and has doubled the potential FAST MONEY payout to $50,000–not that the NFL “legends” that populated it to kick off the Disneyverse countdown to Super Bowl LXI this coming Janaury came even close to winning it. But that leaves a lot more time for host Steve Harvey to mug and guffaw his way into acknowledging these “big bad men” and provide what will ultimately become viral memes that have accelerated its acceptance into the digital age. A no less welcome guilty pleasure for me is PRESS YOUR LUCK, perhaps one of the most successfully evolved relics from the game show golden age of the 70s and 80s that takes the simple task of deciding when to stop a flashing light and elevates it to a potential–but never awarded–million dollar payoff and has added the emotional hook of more modern formats with a bevy of personalized dream prizes that arguably the best and certainly the leggiest new era emcee, Elizabeth Banks, milks with all of the emotion of the talented actress she has been and still is.
Even the scripted and non-linear world is reaching back into familiar IP with Netflix’s much anticipated and already renewed reboot of LITTLE HOUSE OF THE PRAIRIE that finally landed on the platform amidst all of these other mild distractions. I gave that a shot and quickly discovered it’s not exactly a runback, a key point not lost on INDIE WIRE’s Max Gao:
In developing her new Netflix adaptation of “Little House on the Prairie,” showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine knew from the outset that she wanted to expand the narrative beyond the scope of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic children’s novels. Her vision for the first season finally introduces a long-overdue perspective, paralleling the Ingalls family’s illegal settlement in Kansas with the Osage Nation’s fight to remain on their own land in the 19th century. In this retelling, the Ingalls – patriarch Charles (Luke Bracey), matriarch Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald), and sisters Laura (Alice Halsey) and Mary (Skywalker Hughes) – are forever changed by their bond with a neighboring Osage family, the Mitchells, whose young daughter, Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts), becomes Laura’s best friend. Over the course of eight episodes, the families are left to grapple with the largely unspoken tension between white settlers and Osage citizens, leading to difficult conversations about land rights.
“The reason to tell this story in 2026 is that we get the opportunity to tell the Osage point of view,” Sonnenshine told IndieWire. “They’re in the book, but we see them from afar. We never get to know them; we don’t get to characterize them. This [show] gives us the opportunity to portray them as parents and children and brothers and sisters. The most exciting thing about this season is that we get to see two families trying to figure out what the best future is in this country for them.”
It’s equal parts opportunity and albatross, as TV FANATIC’s Tarcia Bush allowed:
“Doesn’t Hollywood have any original ideas?” It seems like that’s the first thing people say whenever a beloved television series or movie gets a reboot or reimagining. Fans immediately question why Hollywood can’t leave a classic alone. Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie is no exception. Since the project was announced, many longtime fans have wondered why anyone would want to revisit something that already felt perfect. I’m one of those people.
For many of us, Little House isn’t just another classic television series. It’s a cherished childhood memory. It was good, wholesome television that brought families together and taught valuable lessons every week. Whether it was about kindness, forgiveness, faith, or helping your neighbor, the series always left viewers with something to think about.
(I)t’s impossible to talk about Little House without talking about Michael Landon For many fans, he wasn’t just playing Charles “Pa” Ingalls. He was Pa Ingalls. His warmth, humor, and heart became the foundation of the series, and that’s a big reason so many viewers struggle with the idea of anyone else taking on the role.
And I’m one of those people. Like the others quoted here, I appreciate the reframing and definitely appreciate the attention to detail of the revisioned Walnut Grove. But the moral compass and grounding that was omnipresent in the OG LH is just not there in this iteration. And knowing what I know about what the demographies and psychologies that define those uberfans, I just can’t help but cast doubts as to whether opinions like Bush’s are even more of an outlier in these times as were the inexplicably decently sized audiences that supported weekday afternoon reruns in unlikely markets like New York and Los Angeles back in the day.
I guess I’ve been spending too much time in the world of reality. And perhaps a little too much time in the hot sun as well.
Until next time…