I came up with yesterday’s cartoon simply because I watch all three shows. And all three shows are on opposite each other on Sunday nights, so I was thinking, they need to be combined.

I know, trash tv, you say. But not really.

I’ve been watching Big Brother since the first episode 20 something years ago. I think in all these years, I’ve only missed two episodes. When I’m traveling, I watch it on the CBS app the next morning if I miss it at night. It’s on every summer – throughout the whole summer – it’s my summer comfort food.

Naked and Afraid is an amazing study in human nature. There is also Naked and Afraid XL, which I like even more. No, you really don’t see the people naked, just some bits. I like it so much that I did a 10 With Tom interview with one of the naked guys, Ryan Holt. Naked and Afraid is about a man and woman, sometimes three people, who spend 21 days in some godforsaken place with nothing – they need to build shelter, find water, food, etc. It’s a different couple or triple every week.

Naked and Afraid XL is 12 past players, usually all well-known to viewers who have to survive for 40 days – the last one was 60 days – and people drop along the way. It’s interesting to see the interactions and how they survive with each other. They start off in four groups of three and eventually find each other in the jungles somewhere. Personalities clash and it is interesting to follow the dynamic each week. No one is voted off like Survivor (another favorite show of mine), but people drop out due to injury, fatigue, etc. There is not just one person standing at the end, there is usually a small group left who make it to the end.

Now 90 Day Fiancé, which is it’s own juggernaut with 90 Day Fiancé, 90 Fay Fiancé Before the 90 Days, 90 Days Happily Ever After, 90 Day Fiancé, The Other Way and so on. It’s crazy. It’s about people who give up their whole lives to move to a foreign country. It almost seems as if it is scripted because you can’t believe this is real – people will leave their rich, cushy lives to move to a third world country and live in a shack.

My friend who worked on reality tv has worked on 90 Day Fiancé and his brother still does. He tells me it is all real, not scripted and that’s what got me so into it. I stared watching during long dark days of covid lockdown and just got addicted from there.

And now I see there is a real show called Naked and Afraid of Love on Discover + !!

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