Andy Dehnart (born August 26, 1977) is an American journalist and television critic. He may be best known asreality television's "longest-standing critic"[1] for hisonline journalism, as he is the creator of the genre's first tracking website, realityblurred.com.[2] He is a member of theTelevision Critics Association.
Currently a contributor of television criticism and cultural journalism toNPR,The Daily Beast andmsnbc.com, Dehnart has also written forSalon.com,Wired.com,The Boston Globe,Metro, theChicago Tribune andPlayboy.[3] He regularly appears on television and the radio to discussreality TV and popular culture.
USA Today named Dehnart one of the Top 100 People in Pop Culture in 2001.[4]
Dehnart earned an MFA in nonfiction writing fromBennington College,[5] where hisnon-fiction studies included a lecture which explored the cultural impact ofblogging, then a relatively unknown phenomenon inpopular culture.
Dehnart now teaches writing, journalism, and communication studies atStetson University inDeLand, Florida, where he advises the student newspaper.[5] He has also taught forJohns Hopkins University'sCenter for Talented Youth.
Earlier, Dehnart moved toChicago in 1999 to work as managing editor of a non-profit website, and later he worked as a producer for thepavement.com, a site for recent college graduates, and BrassRing, a recruiting solutions company. A native ofNaples, Florida, Dehnart received his BS from Stetson, where he majored in journalism and earned minors in political science and religious studies. While anundergraduate, he edited the weekly campus newspaper,The Reporter, for two years; both years, it was named the best private college newspaper in the state of Florida.[6][7]
Dehnart is openly gay.[8]
Type of site | Blog |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Reality Blurred LLC |
| Created by | Andy Dehnart |
| URL | www |
| Advertising | Yes |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | 2000; 25 years ago (2000) |
Reality Blurred is an Americanentertainment news website Dehnart created in July 2000,[9][2][10] and the daily-updated site quickly became a primary source for devotees of the reality TV explosion. It was the first website to coverreality television.[11]
It tracks reality TV shows[12] and includes reporting, analysis, commentary, interviews, and show reviews.[11][13]
Reality Blurred launched July 2000 as an entertainmentblog modeled afterJim Romenesko's MediaNews[11] but focused on earlyreality television shows such asSurvivor andMaking the Band. Media coverage of the website said it "analyzes the reality TV genre"[14] and "tracks daily press coverage of all the currently running unscripted TV series."[15]
In 2010, the website published theSurvivor contract and rule book.[16]
Reality Blurred was first to report news such as CBS's plans for a season ofBig Brother onCBS All Access, which becameBig Brother: Over the Top.,[17][18] and Netflix casting journalistAlex Wagner to hostThe Mole.[19]
Dehnart still writes for the website.[20] Other contributors toReality Blurred have includedStephen Fishbach,The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies contestant Corey Lay andJane McGonigal.[21][22]
Two months after its launch,Entertainment Weekly gradedReality Blurred an "A," calling the website "a Virgil to guide you through television’s latest ring of hell" and a "smartly dressed compendium of so-real-it’s-real links."[23] Slate namedReality Blurred the best culture blog about television[24] in 2003.
Reality Blurred won the 2021Los Angeles Press Club’s award for Entertainment Blog by an Individual Not Tied to an Organization in the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards.[25]