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AARP’s Favorite Reality Shows of 2024 (So Far)
Our top 10 picks to binge this year include ‘The Bachelor,’ ‘Survivor’ and ‘The Traitors’
AARP (David Moir/Getty Images; FOX/Getty Images; Robert Voets/Getty Images)
Has there been a bigger disappointment this year than the all-too-quick divorce of The Golden Bachelor couple Gerry Turner, 72, and Theresa Nist, 70, announced just three months after their televised nuptials? But while it may be hard to transfer onscreen fairy tales back into the real world, unscripted TV continues to provide all manner of gripping drama, head-to-head competition and laugh-out-loud moments. Here are AARP’s favorite reality TV offerings of the year so far.
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The newest season of "The Amazing Race" contains all the usual globe-trotting thrills.
Jeffrey Neira/Getty Images
The Amazing Race (CBS)
There’s a clockwork precision to CBS’s venerable series in which two-person teams travel to foreign cities to compete for a $1 million prize. Season 36, shot in 2022, contains all the usual globe-trotting thrills — though there seems to be a huge uptick in map-related confusion this time around. Couples who are not always on the same (map) page can create sparks, of course, and that makes for riveting TV. Plus, it was fun to watch 27-year-old Danny pushing his scrappy 55-year-old schoolteacher mom, Angie, out of her comfort zone.
Where to watch The Amazing Race
The first "Golden Bachelor," Gerry Turner.
Brian Bowen Smith/ABC
The Bachelor (ABC)
At least one critic has proclaimed Season 28, featuring tennis teaching pro Joey Graziadei seeking a fiancée among 32 contestants, “the best Bachelor season of all time.” And it’s not just because of the sour taste left by the much-hyped The Golden Bachelor, whose 70-something couple’s marriage lasted just 100 days after the cameras finished rolling. Graziadei broke convention by being a stand-up guy who didn’t blurt out the L-word to multiple women and even mercy-eliminated candidates before the rose ceremony instead of dragging out the suspense. Plus, he seemed game to don costumes, plug sponsors and revel in some of the more ridiculous aspects of the franchise. He deserves his happily-ever-after with his chosen mate.
Glass artist Robert G. Burch appears on season 4 of Netflix's glass blowing competition show "Blown Away."
Netflix
Blown Away (Netflix)
You’d think that watching a competition series about artists would be, well, like watching paint dry. But Blown Away, which pits experienced and seriously talented glass-blowers against each other for a $100,000 prize in the latest season, shatters expectations — as well as delicate works in progress. Not only do the competitors work up a serious sweat around 2,000°F furnaces, but all too often their creations come crashing to the floor in the final minutes. This season’s standout was Karen Willenbrink Johnsen, 62, a glass-blowing instructor with a kooky personality who started the season creating several of her signature, hyperrealistic birds instead of showing a wider skill set.
The "Conan O'Brien Must Go" series is a spin-off of his podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend — and a successor to his many remotes and travel specials.
Conaco/Max
Conan O’Brien Must Go (Max)
Conan O’Brien, 61, is not the first comedian to send up the travel documentary, but he takes the genre to hilarious new heights in his four-part series — even deploying his drone in unusual places like the inside of a Norwegian hotel. Amid all the jokes and ridiculous costumes, he manages to explore real sights as well as cultural differences that set countries like Argentina, Thailand and Ireland apart — all the while making sure that he, the ugly American, remains the butt of the joke as he samples street food in Bangkok or fakes a blood-soaked injury on an Argentine soccer field. “Whenever I visit a new country,” O’Brien explains, “I like to learn the local customs, so I can ignore them.”
Where to watch Conan O’Brien Must Go
Justin Willman in "The Magic Prank Show."
Courtesy Netflix
The Magic Prank Show With Justin Willman (Netflix)
Comic trickster Justin Willman, who starred in Netflix’s Magic for Humans for three seasons, returned with a new Candid Camera-inspired series in which he stages elaborate pranks on regular folks at the suggestion of their friends and loved ones. For example, a guy whose girlfriend was worried about his distracted driving is led into a trick car with a disguised Willman at the wheel focused on anything but the road while an unseen stunt driver actually steers the car from the roof.
Where to watch The Magic Prank Show
Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais in “Next Level Chef."
Lorraine O’Sullivan/FOX
Next Level Chef (Fox)
Count on Gordon Ramsay, 57, to take a cooking competition to a new level. In this case, it’s three different kitchens stacked on top of each other in a glossy studio. The bottom one is a bare-bones kitchen with low-end appliances, the middle is a standard commercial kitchen and the top level boasts cutting-edge equipment. Then the show pits pro chefs against home cooks and social-media foodies in all three kitchens for a $250,000 prize. The third season featured a finale showdown among Hawai‘i restaurant chef Zach Laidlaw, New Jersey home cook Christina Miros and Instagram vet Gabrielle Chappel that included searing drama and some delicious-looking plates. Talk about turning up the heat.
Where to watch Next Level Chef
On "Survivor," you need to outwit, outplay and outlast.
CBS
Survivor (CBS)
Even in its 46th season, CBS’s competition series Survivor still has the capacity to surprise. Once again, 18 contestants (ages 22 to 48) stranded themselves on a remote island in Fiji to compete in a series of physical and mental challenges for a $1 million prize. Mind games seem to take center stage this season, along with some entertaining villains. Venus Vafa outlasted many who crossed her; Liz Wilcox, a self-proclaimed millionaire (though she later admitted this was misdirection) flew into tantrums over food (and her severe allergies); and crafty Q Burdette bizarrely volunteered himself for banishment (which the other castaways rejected at that time). What made this season a treat, worth the expanded 90-minute episodes, was the glut of double-crosses and blindsides. Heck, five overconfident contestants got voted out despite having immunity idols that would have saved them if they had only played them.
Taskmaster (YouTube)
The cult following for this long-running British comedy-competition hit has only grown since the show landed a home on YouTube. Host Greg Davies, 56, and sidekick/show creator Alex Horne put five comedians through a series of ridiculous challenges that often reward outside-the-box creativity. (Comedian John Robins, asked to run an obstacle course without spilling any water in a bucket placed in the BabyBjörn he’s wearing, wins once he realizes that the directions don’t say he can’t remove the carrier first.) And that’s not even counting deliberate oddness, like Ted Lasso actor Nick Mohammed mysteriously showing up this season dressed as a vampire, complete with pale-skinned face makeup.
Emeril Lagasse, Kristen Kish and David Zilber on "Top Chef."
David Moir/Bravo
Top Chef (Bravo)
The long-running cooking competition series lost none of its charm when former winner Kirsten Kish took over the hosting duties from Padma Lakshmi, and this season’s Wisconsin setting provided plenty of cheesy (and sausage-forward) challenges. While the food always looks delicious, it’s the human competition that shines — as when one contestant overspends on a team challenge ($325, leaving only $75 for one of her teammates) and then disappoints the judges with her finished dish. This Bravo mainstay remains one of the sharpest knives in the reality competition drawer.
Kate Chastain and Alan Cumming in "Traitors."
Euan Cherry/Peacock
The Traitors (Peacock)
This social-strategy competition series, hosted by the witty Alan Cumming, 59, in ever-more-outrageous outfits that would be perfect for a Met Gala, is an addictive hit for its glossy Scottish castle setting and clever gameplay. While there are challenges to build up the cash prize ($208,100 this year), the real fun is in the winnowing of the cast. Just like that old murder parlor game (or an Agatha Christie mystery), a handful of secret traitors “kill off” a rival each night, and the whole cast also votes out whoever they suspect is one of those traitors. The second season followed the winning formula of casting multiple reality-show stars, which led to a surprisingly bitter rivalry between former Real Housewives/Bravo stars and alumni of Big Brother, Survivor and other competition shows.
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