• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Andy Dehnart

writer, TV critic, teacher

  • about me
  • writing
    • highlights
    • essays and reviews
    • long-form journalism
    • reporting and journalism
    • publications
  • speaking
    • What I can do for you
    • interviews and press
  • newsletter
  • contact me

long-form journalism

Andy Dehnart > writing > long-form journalism

Some stories and topics take more time to explore, and more words to explain. These are stories that I spent weeks and months writing and reporting, and that take deep dives into their subjects.


Photo Credit: Playboy

Reality on the High Seas

Sea Shepherd activists went to the Faroe Islands to try to stop whaling, a tradition that goes back centuries. Aboard their ship was an Animal Planet film crew.

This piece won the Society for Professional Journalists’ Sunshine State Award for magazine feature reporting.

Photo Credit: Playboy

The Curse of Reality TV

No genre of television leaves more human wreckage in its wake than reality television. But who’s at fault? The shows themselves, or the people they attract? I tried to find out, reporting from the set of Hoarders, a show that either helped or exploited mentally ill people in crisis,  and spent time with a Survivor cast member, soccer coach, and pastor who felt like the show damaged his reputation.

Photo Credit: Salon

Behind the scenes of Trading Spaces

The first time I watched an episode of television be produced was in suburban Houston, during the height of the Trading Spaces craze. In this piece, I shared what I learned about how reality becomes TV.

Primary Sidebar

Andy Dehnart, photographed by Kellie Warren, March 2019

Hi! I'm Andy, a writer and teacher who obsessively and critically covers reality TV and unscripted entertainment, focusing on how it’s made and what it means. Learn more about me.

follow me

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

RSS recent writing on reality blurred

  • Survivor 42’s ‘impressive’ winner: as satisfying and joyful as the season itself
  • Why Survivor 42 was so much better than Survivor 41
  • Real World turns 30: Here are 19 wild descriptions of it from 1992
  • A Survivor 42 player became ‘a real competitor in this game, not a goat to be herded’
  • Amazing Race and Survivor will be paired together for the first time ever this fall
  • How The G Word with Adam Conover improves on Adam Ruins Everything
  • The Quest on Disney+: questions, answered about this new season
  • Reality TV news of note and must-reads: May 2022
  • Please die, Survivor’s Do or Die, for threatening great strategy with a dumb game of chance
  • Disney+’s The Quest: so impressive and immersive the real-life players get lost

what I’ve been doing

  • Three podcasts, two stories, one wild year December 30, 2021
  • Thank you again, SPJ Florida! August 8, 2021
  • Me and my writing, in your inbox October 24, 2019
  • I asked CBS executives about their reality shows’ problems with race. Here’s what happened. August 16, 2019
  • An anniversary, and three recommendations, plus a way to really stay up to date July 15, 2019

“It’s good to be curious about many things.”

—Mister Rogers

Footer

RSS recent reality blurred stories

  • Survivor 42’s ‘impressive’ winner: as satisfying and joyful as the season itself
  • Why Survivor 42 was so much better than Survivor 41
  • Real World turns 30: Here are 19 wild descriptions of it from 1992
  • A Survivor 42 player became ‘a real competitor in this game, not a goat to be herded’
  • Amazing Race and Survivor will be paired together for the first time ever this fall

let’s connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright© 2015–2022 Reality Blurred LLC. Thanks for visiting.