With just one more episode to go until the end of an explosive season of Love Island UK, Alex Casey has already crowned her winner. I’m always worried about being too thirsty. Not in the sexy, online way either, more like the desperately parched man in a terrifying Paul Jennings story I read as a … Read more
With less than a week to go until the Love Island UK villa evicts its beautiful tenants, Alex Casey and Tara Ward look back at the season that was. Alex: Did you get my text? Tara: I GOT A TEXT Alex: *Ovie in the background voice* MESSAGE! I can’t believe it has taken us this … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. It’s a wacky, wacky week on The Real Pod this week. But is it wackier than the fact that Gilda Kirkpatrick saw a literal ghost in Jamaica? Wackier than the fact that Hilary Barry visited The Spinoff … Read more
Last night on The Block NZ, something incredible happened: James Reid from The Feelers showed up. Every now and again, something completely unexpected happens on reality television that shakes you awake from your slack-jawed couch coma. It’s that jolt of electricity you get from a ponytail falling off on Dancing With the Stars NZ, or … Read more
A local photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ requesting they work “unpaid” on Married At First Sight NZ. Update 17 July: Warner Brothers have responded with a comment attached to the bottom of this story. A wedding photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ on Reddit after the production company requested that … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week the pod has been cursed with an almighty stench, but that won’t stop us recording our first full-length international podcast. It was an explosive semi-final week on Dancing With the Stars NZ, containing everything from … Read more
The latest season of British reality show Love Island is set to hit TV screens at the unconventional tea-time hour of 5pm. Jihee Junn explains why the decision is troubling. Update, 1 October 2019: The Broadcasting Standards Authority has ruled that the edited version of Love Island that ran at 5pm on Three earlier this … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on the pod we’re absolutely snowed under with exciting news from the reality TV world, the real world, and the Nando’s world. There’s a 24 year-old sheep knocking around, the old Milo formula is the … Read more
Three eliminations down, three women gone. But why is Dancing with the Stars so harsh to its female contestants? Miriam Moore writes. The fourth week and third elimination of Dancing with the Stars has come and gone. Once again, the talent was off the charts, and we got to see what Aotearoa’s group of B-to-H-list celebrities … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. With Duncan in Thailand, Alex and Jane (and occasionally Tina) shoulder the burden of recapping the past week in reality TV and extremely real news. There’s a bloody big cat on the loose in the South Island, … Read more
Marketing might have you believe Masterchef is a show about cooking. Vanessa Crofskey is here to inform you what it’s really about: dads. There’s something addictive about Masterchef. At one point in high school I watched it everyday. Two minute noodles and cold cups of tea would be slurped down in indigestible succession as my family gathered … Read more
Alex Casey reflects on the most dramatic season of Married at First Sight in history. Looks like we made it. Three months. 41 episodes. Well over 60 hours. Two cheating scandals. One multi-million dollar fraud conviction. One virginity lost. Zero moments of calm. This season of Married at First Sight has truly been like no … Read more
It’s half Stars in Their Eyes and half the monsters from Labyrinth, and it might be the most bizarre reality TV show ever – and we need it here. Have you ever felt empty inside? Like there’s a chasm in your chest so big tourists would take photos of it? A hole that is often filled but never … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the eighth week on Married at First Sight Australia, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we’ve got two weeks of MAFS madness to recap. Billy and Susie went to hell and back again, and then Billy had to come back one more time to get … Read more
Changing Rooms was a 90s DIY show like no other. After this year’s Australian Changing Rooms reboot crashed due to low ratings, Tara Ward relives the glory days of the UK original. This year’s Australian reboot of Changing Rooms came and went from our screens quicker than you could turn a piece of MDF into a hanging shelf … Read more
Six seasons in, Below Deck remains the wildest drama on the high seas. Now’s the perfect time to catch up on this hugely entertaining boat-based reality series, argues Dominic Corry. Vanderpump Rules and the various Real Housewives shows may dominate the Bravo brand, but a world away from those land-based shenanigans, there’s another Bravo reality … Read more
Love Island has smashed streaming records all over the world and Three’s purchase of the global rights, along with a pricey local franchise, will complete a radical transformation of the channel. This week The Spinoff learned that Mediaworks, parent company of Three, plans on launching a New Zealand version of ITV’s megahit Love Island. The … Read more
Heartbreak Island is back for another year, bringing more raunch and drama than ever before. Watch as Alex Casey dives in. What is Heartbreak Island? Is it a moral toilet? Is it an ambitious mutant? Is it a chance to get hotties to talk about climate change? Is it all just a bit of a … Read more
Alex Casey went speed dating with some Heartbreak Island contestants and things got real serious, real fast. Everything around us is slowly sinking. Foot Island. The Tropicana Bar. Even Auckland’s hottie factory The Lula Inn, where I have returned to my favourite booth to do my favourite thing – date a bunch of young, attractive … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the third week on Married at First Sight Australia, with special thanks to Nando’s. The real Married at First Sight Australia experts are back recap a truly diseased week on the good show. There were waxed buttholes, there was a cheating scandal, there were many, many chicken pox. Sam and … Read more
When reality show mutant Heartbreak Island launched last year, people lost their collective minds. But why? I’m basically a reality-TV virgin, but when Heartbreak Island aired last year, I was obliged to watch at least one episode because my brother was involved. There was no other reason I would, at that point, have cast my eyes upon … Read more
Will we ever truly reach peak TV? Maybe! And if we do, 2019 might be the year when it happens. Sam Brooks and Alex Casey run down all the things you absolutely cannot miss in 2019. Golden Boy / Mean Mums (TV3) The successful pilots from TV3’s inaugural pilot week are presumably coming this year, both having … Read more
The most anticipated reality TV event of the year, Celebrity Treasure Island may have just got its first castaway. Hit the dab, 2019, you’ve done it again. I might still be moderately drunk from Hogmanay, but The Spinoff has been handed some extremely piping hot intel from a high level source that Max Key is … Read more
Alex Casey goes on a speed dating mission to get to know the beautiful brains behind the beautiful bodies of Heartbreak Island. This post was originally published 11 June 2018. They were hottest people I had ever seen in my life, all skin tight dresses and sharp suits, hair coiffed and curled for the gods. … Read more
In the now-annual event of the year, five of our podcasts’ hosts join forces like a mighty end-of-year podcast rat-king. Join Gone by Lunchtime, On The Rag, The Real Pod, Pod on the Couch and Dietary Requirements in regurgitating the highlights and lowlights of the year that was, and pondering the year that will be. In … Read more
In the seventh episode of Project Runway New Zealand, the designers had to make an athleisure look for Georgia. Henry Oliver ranks the results. Well, this is good timing! Just this week I was reading about the history of the athleisure/activewear trend and GUESS WHAT, it is, in fact, not a trend at all, but the … Read more
In the sixth episode of Project Runway New Zealand, the designers had to make a high-fashion look inspired by wallpaper designs. Henry Oliver ranks the results. Like a headmaster starting the assembly after some school-wide bad exam results, let me say up front how disappointed I am with the designers work this week. Tut tut. Last … Read more
We lured an official judge from The Great Kiwi Bake Off into the offices to critique our cakes, and it was an emotional rollercoaster. Here at The Spinoff, reality TV is kind of a big deal. So when a new show comes out, we really put our heart and soul into it. Alex Casey and Sam Brooks … Read more
Almost 15 years ago, the first ever season of New Zealand Idol aired on our screens with the public voting Ben Lummis all the way to the top. Today, Lummis is re-emerging onto the music scene with a new song, new mindset, and possibly, even a new tour. Looking back, 2004 was the golden era … Read more