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    Bronwyn Newport’s Style Stands Out on ‘Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’

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    The addition of Bronwyn Newport to the cast of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” has added a maximalist approach to a series known for its understated aesthetic.When Bronwyn Newport, a fashion blogger, joined the cast of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” for its fifth season, she immediately caused a stir among a cast of compelling reality TV veterans, and not just because she was quickly drawn into the drama.The typical Salt Lake City fashion aesthetic is relatively casual — one popular uniform is jeans, a neutral-colored sweater and a designer bag — replete with “Utah curls” in which waist-length hair is styled into beach waves. With her dark, blunt-cut bob and her loud, whimsical outfit choices, Ms. Newport couldn’t have blended in among her Salt Lake peers even if she wanted to (she didn’t, of course).“I just think that — almost to a fault — my goal is to look different,” Ms. Newport, 39, said in a recent phone interview. “When people don’t get it or don’t like it or look at it weird or misunderstand where I’m coming from, from a style perspective, it almost spurs me on in a really immature way.”Ms. Newport’s maximalist approach to style has its roots in the Netherlands, where she lived as a child, as well as in the rest of Europe, where she says fashion leans architectural, edgy and is less directed at the male gaze. She considers every day an occasion for dressing up — ordering Chinese food calls for pajamas printed with Chinese takeout containers, for example — and would not be caught dead in jeans.Ms. Newport, left, is easy to spot among her “Real Housewives” co-stars like Meredith Marks.Joshua Applegate/Bravo“If you see me in jeans, you should be concerned,” she said jokingly. “We’re at the beginning of a spiral of some kind where I am unwell, mentally or physically or emotionally somehow.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Love Is Blind’ Resets, ‘Survivor’ Stalls: A Reality TV Check-in

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicLong-running reality-television franchises — with their familiar rhythms, tensions and resolutions — can provide a wonderful way to pass the time while, say, waiting for votes to be counted.The seventh season of “Love Is Blind” recently concluded with a pair of storybook weddings and a handful of collapsed connections. Following a stretch of public scrutiny that included lawsuits about labor conditions, it felt like an effort to underscore the show’s potential as a generator of true love.“Survivor,” now on its 47th season, has become a show about people who have previously been obsessed with “Survivor,” creating an echo chamber regarding the strategies deployed, and narrowing the casting to a certain kind of obsessive fan-turned-player.On this week’s Popcast, a palate-cleanse conversation about some of the year’s biggest reality-television shows, how legacy franchises develop a kind of self-awareness that can lead to change, and whether shows can ever benefit from full reboots that erase their history.Guests:Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times’s pop music reporterCaryn Ganz, The New York Times’s pop music editorConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

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      Part-Time Farmers, Part-Time Rock Stars: A Chinese Band’s Unlikely Rise

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      The band, Varihnaz, has gained fans by offering an alternative to China’s hyper-polished, fast-paced modern life, with songs about pesticides and poultry raising.Before setting out on his band’s first national tour, before recording another album and before appearing on a major television network, Ba Nong had one task: finishing the summer harvest.Standing in a field edged by rolling hills, two days before the first tour date in late September, Ba Nong, the frontman of the Chinese band Varihnaz, looked over the yellowed remnants of the rice stalks he had spent the past few months tending.“The land gets to rest, and I get to go play,” he said.Planning around the harvest may be an unconventional way to manage an ascendant music career, but Varihnaz is an unconventional band.For its members — two farmers and a former bricklayer from rural Guangxi in southwestern China — the land and their music are inseparable. Rather than the usual staples of love and longing, their lyrics dwell on pesticides and poultry rearing.Varihnaz means “fields filled with fragrant rice flowers,” in the language of Guangxi’s Zhuang ethnic minority. To fans, the group offers a refreshing break from China’s hyper-commercialized popular entertainers, with music about a simpler, slower way of life, an alternative to the intense competition of modern Chinese life.Ba Nong hopes his music helps people consider shrugging off mainstream expectations themselves. “The more tolerant and developed a society is, the more diverse its lifestyles should be, too,” said the musician, who is 44.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Bachelor’ Is Shattering Its Own Fairy Tale

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      Recent revelations about contestants’ troubling backgrounds have punctured the franchise’s fantasy — that reality TV is a secure place to look for love.Just three years ago, the “Bachelor” franchise was in serious need of a revival. The longtime host, Chris Harrison, had left the show and ratings sagged. Instead of 10 million viewers, premieres now brought in closer to 2 or 3 million.In 2023, ABC pumped new life into the franchise with “The Golden Bachelor,” a version of the dating contest that followed Gerry Turner, a 72-year-old widower who proudly wore a hearing aid and spoke of finding love after the death of his wife. The premiere brought in over 4 million live viewers (and totaled over 7 million including streaming), making it the franchise’s most-watched debut since 2020.But the show’s honeymoon has not lasted. “The Bachelor” and its various iterations have long promised viewers some semblance of a fairy-tale romance, providing charmed but closed environments where the leads can suss out the suitors’ intentions through extravagant dates, like hot air balloon rides and castle visits. Recent revelations about the show have punctured this fantasy.Just before Turner handed out his final rose, The Hollywood Reporter published details about his past (a spotty work résumé, a trail of scorned lovers) that challenged his image as a sympathetic figure, as put forth on the show. (Turner declined to comment for the article.) His subsequent marriage to Theresa Nist, the season’s “winner,” ended after three months.The most recent season of “The Bachelorette,” which debuted in summer 2024, cast Jenn Tran as the series’s first Asian American lead, a role she hoped would bring positive visibility. “Anytime Asians were in the media, it was to fill a supporting character role, to fulfill some sort of stereotype,” Tran said in an interview with The New York Times before the show’s premiere. “I always felt boxed in by that, because I was like, I don’t see myself onscreen. I don’t see myself as a main character.”But her quest for love ended in public humiliation. On the live special “After the Final Rose,” she revealed through tears that Devin Strader — the contestant she proposed to in the series finale — had broken off their engagement over the phone. Seeing him for the first time since the breakup, Tran sobbed uncontrollably on the show as producers made her watch the proposal in front of a national audience.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Love Is Blind’: Body Language Expert Offers Clues for Season 7

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      As Season 7 begins, an expert says figuring out a participant’s motivation is both an art and a science.Grab a golden goblet. The Netflix series “Love Is Blind” is back, with the first episode of its seventh season having been released on Wednesday, with the host Nick Lachey learning what a situationship is. The series that inspired drinking games (take a sip every time someone says the phrase “genuine connection”) — and is both a reality show and a social experiment — set up shop in Washington, D.C., this time to help 29 singles find love.The premise, of course, is that the singles can’t see whom they are dating because of a glowing blue wall between them intended to eliminate all of the superficial things that might get in the way of love. Once a couple decides to get engaged, they see each other for the first time and attempt to make their relationship work, with all of the complications that phones, work and physical attraction bring.Over the past few seasons, the nagging question concerning the show’s participants was: Are they here for love or for clout? (The recent season, “Love Is Blind: U.K.,” was hailed by many as a return to the show’s original vibe, for its generally emotionally healthy and low-drama cast.)CC Rice, a voice teacher, associate professor and energy reader who posts body language breakdowns of the show under the social media handle @guidedinspiration, says that figuring out a participant’s motivation is both an art and a science.“‘Love is Blind’ is this incredible opportunity to see people in private,” she said. “I’m listening for all of the cues: What do they bring up? Where do they look while they’re speaking? Are they avoidant? Are they trying to connect?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Frank Fritz, a Host of the Antiques Show ‘American Pickers,’ Dies at 58

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      He and his friend Mike Wolfe launched the treasure-hunting show in 2010, part of a wave of reality TV aimed at finding fortune in everyday items.Frank Fritz, a jocular Everyman who as one half of the duo behind the hit show “American Pickers” found ratings gold by unearthing fortunes in attics, basements and garage sales, died on Monday in Davenport, Iowa. He was 58.His manager, Bill Stankey, confirmed the death, in a hospice. He said that the cause had not been announced, but that Mr. Fritz had been dealing with a number of health issues, including Crohn’s disease and the effects of a stroke in 2022.Debuting on the History Channel in 2010, “American Pickers,” which Mr. Fritz hosted with his longtime friend Mike Wolfe, was part of a wave of reality TV shows that mined everyday Americana for stories, profit and no small amount of drama.Unlike older, more sedate shows like public television’s “Antiques Roadshow,” “American Pickers” blended serious appraisal with rough-edged personality and quirky flair.Each episode featured Mr. Fritz and Mr. Wolfe tooling around a small American town in their Sprinter van, trading quips in between visits to local homes and storage sheds, where they would pick through piles of junk to find diamonds in the rough.Mr. Fritz with his co-host, Mike Wolfe, in an “American Pickers” episode in 2011, a year after the series began. History ChannelWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Calling ‘Survivor’ Contestants From Tim Walz’s Motorcade

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      Covering an election year can be stressful. But instead of binge-watching “Survivor” to decompress, two reporters wrote about the politics — or, lack thereof — on the show instead.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.When I first heard that Jon Lovett, the prominent political podcast host and former speechwriter for Barack Obama, would be a contestant on the new season of “Survivor,” I pleaded with my editor to write about it.(To answer your question, yes, “that show” is still on.)Covering politics during a tense election year in a closely divided country is often deadly serious, and rife with animosity. This seemed like an opportunity to write something lighter.To my surprise, my editor was game.I have vague memories of watching “Survivor” as a kid with my parents in the early 2000s, somewhere around the tail end of the show’s initial run of popularity. I rediscovered it when I started high school in 2012 — season 25 was airing — and was hooked. I began watching religiously, first on my own, and now with a group of friends on Wednesday nights, when the episodes air on CBS.It’s a remarkable run for a series with a relatively simple premise: A group of strangers are marooned on a remote tropical island and must work together to build shelter, forage for food and endure the elements, all while forming alliances and voting someone off the show each week. Though “Survivor” has, on occasion, injected new twists to keep seasons feeling fresh, something about the original format has stuck with viewers like me.For all the various real-life societal issues that have played out on the “Survivor” beach — racial tensions, discussions over gender and sexuality, generational divides — the announcement about Mr. Lovett, one of the hosts of the liberal podcast “Pod Save America,” made me realize that partisan politics had never been prominently featured on the show.I knew my colleague on the Politics desk, Alexandra Berzon, was also a “Survivor” fan, and would be eager to collaborate. At a Wisconsin bar one night in July, after a long day covering the Republican National Convention, Ali and I huddled in a corner, geeking out over “Survivor” factoids while our colleagues swapped political gossip.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jessel Taank is Back For More on ‘RHONY’ Season 2

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      Early on a Monday evening during New York Fashion Week, Jessel Taank breezed into the Sabyasachi boutique in the West Village, passing a life-size elephant sculpture near the sidewalk. But the “Real Housewives of New York City” star couldn’t quite say what it was doing there.“Good question,” she said with a laugh. “There’s apparently a great elephant migration that I wasn’t aware happens this time of year, and Sabyasachi is celebrating that tonight.”In fact, The Great Elephant Migration is a touring art installation featuring a herd of 100 faux pachyderms, handcrafted in Tamil Nadu from a dried invasive shrub. (Actual Indian elephant migration in India happens year-round.)Such obliviousness to details seems on brand for Ms. Taank, 41. After all, who could forget when she called TriBeCa “up and coming” on the last season of the “Real Housewives of New York City”?Ms. Taank with an art installation outside the Sabyaschi fashion week party she attended on a recent Monday night. Lanna Apisukh for The New York TimesBut when she commits these faux pas, she does so with a disarming smile, one that has won over prickly fans. By the end of the show’s 14th season — and the first of the cast reboot — it was clear that she had received the villain edit, criticized for what came off as willful ignorance and bratty behavior. But she had also found a fan base so ardent that, according to Rolling Stone, its members call themselves “Taank Tops.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      When the Devoted Wife Becomes a Winning Brand

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      “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the new Hulu reality show, centers on a clique of influencers in Provo, Utah. In their community, they are steered at young ages into marriages and pregnancies. But on TikTok, they converge into a #MomTok squad, executing coordinated dances in crop tops amid beige McMansions as they rack up followers and brand deals. Now they’ve been upgraded to reality television stars, a cast of frenemies who act out mean-girl scenes and hunt for loopholes in the strict codes of their church.It’s significant that the show identifies these women first as wives, not as influencers. They are professional content creators and, in some cases, family breadwinners. It is their social media popularity that landed them the show, not their unexceptional husbands. Several cast members are actually divorced.The “Mormon Wives” join an extended wife universe — see also: Bravo’s chaotic “Real Housewives” and Instagram’s ethereal tradwives — where the term “wife” no longer strictly refers to a woman’s marital status. “Wife” is a brand. In “Mormon Wives,” it suggests a woman whose public identity is defined by her relationship to the home. A woman whose worth is still measured by her proximity to the patriarchy, even as she claims that her profitable TikTok presence challenges it.These wife-themed shows and tradwife social-media accounts might qualify as simple brain-bleaching distractions, were they not proliferating during this particular presidential election season. The Trump campaign and some of its allies have repeatedly suggested that a woman’s domestic contributions are her highest calling — so much so that they have cast motherhood as a prerequisite for her participation in work outside the home. If a woman hopes to claim a role in public life, she must play the wife and mother everywhere that she goes.In comments from three years ago that resurfaced recently, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, complained of “childless cat ladies” in business and politics, and railed against the “leaders of the left,” like the American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, whom he called “people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children.” (Like Kamala Harris, Weingarten is a stepmother.) Last week, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas appeared alongside Donald J. Trump and suggested that because Harris has not birthed children, she has acquired a character defect unbecoming of a leader: “My kids keep me humble,” Sanders said. “Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”Meanwhile, since Elon Musk took over Twitter, rebranded it X and transformed it into what Charlie Warzel of The Atlantic has called “a right-wing echo chamber,” my feed has featured commentary about how infant formula is poison, day care causes mental illness and children ought to be home schooled or “unschooled” by devoted mothers. Instagram and TikTok supply montages of fantasy housewives: white women in pastoral settings, wearing aprons and kerchiefs, kissing their husbands, rubbing their baby bumps and proselytizing about the benefits of beef tallow.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More