Andy DehnartGood Monday morning. Somehow, this is the last week in June, and with summer having officially started last Friday, summer reality TV is going strong.
There are still premieres to come, including the behemoth CBS reality competition that usually does quite well in the ratings and on the Twitter: Big Brother, which kicks off this week, along with other shows making their debuts this week.
Let’s start with The Hills, the MTV series that became a reality TV mystery—What was real? What wasn’t?—returns tonight (MTV, Mondays at 10).
The Hills: New Beginnings will reunite many of the old cast members (but not Lauren or Kristin) and bring in new people (Mischa Barton and Brandon Thomas Lee).
Casting Mischa Barton is particularly clever not because she has a familiar name, but because of this.
MTV is also airing a new season of Are You The One? (MTV, Wednesdays at 9), but now with a cast of gender fluid people, so biological sex isn’t a determining factor in who hooks up with who. Meet the new cast here.
Tuesday night, Big Brother returns for its 21st season: BB21 will then air Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 8, and then shift its schedule because of Love Island.
Also back on Tuesday: Chopped Junior (Food Network, Tuesdays at 9).
Back this weekend: Sunday Best (BET, Sundays at 8), a gospel singing competition that was cancelled back in 2015. BET promises this season will be “new and improved” with “a brand new stage and exciting themed challenges.”
Instant Hotel, an Australian show that I became addicted to because of its hilariously villainous behavior (on a show about Airbnb rentals!), had a second season, and now that is coming to the U.S. (Netflix, June 28).
RuPaul’s Drag Race producer World of Wonder has produced a documentary for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Stonewall Outloud (YouTube, June 28) “brings the original audio recording of Stonewall to life, in a documentary that features contemporary voices in the LGBTQ+ community,” according to YouTube.
Three other documentaries airing this week:
- It’s been 10 years since Farrah Fawcett died, and the ABC News documentary about her life, This is Farrah Fawcett, will air on cable (REELZ, Tuesday, June 25, at 8 p.m.).
- 100%: Julian Edelman (Showtime, Friday, June 28, at 9 p.m.) is “an imaginative look inside Julian Edelman’s underdog journey from major injury and NFL suspension to Super Bowl MVP in 2019,” according to Showtime.
- The Gospel of Eureka (PBS, Monday, June 24, at 10) goes behind the scenes of “drag shows and a passion play in a small Arkansas town,” PBS said.