‘supermarket sweep’ is back, baby!
Why rebooting a hyper-capitalist ‘90s game show in the middle of a pandemic isn't as crazy as it sounds.
I wasn’t sure this day would come, but Supermarket Sweep is finally returning to television with its premiere hosted by new host Leslie Jones airing tonight on ABC.
If we’re friends, you already know my love for the original show runs deep. Last year, I wrote a piece for the precursor to this blog that dug into the reasons why. To cut to the chase, the show (via its reruns that are accessible via Amazon Prime, YouTube and now Netflix as well) is a comfort to me — bringing me back to the days of forcing my parents to play my handmade “home edition” of the show in our living room.
In my previous piece, I wondered out loud if a reboot of the ‘90s hit would even work today, with its celebration of hyper-capitalism seemingly clashing with our urge to ask whether each and every one of our possessions still “spark joy.” But launching amid a pandemic which has cost thousands of lives and millions of jobs, as well as a political climate that some days feels like it just couldn’t get any worse until it inevitably does, speaks to the reboot’s potential to offer an hour of mindless nostalgic escapism along the lines of Netflix’s hit Floor Is Lava.
Still, this show obviously couldn’t avoid reality altogether. According to EW.com, the show was filmed under strict COVID-19 protocols inside a massive hangar at Santa Monica Airport last summer. And the show has made other adjustments to acknowledge the times we live in by donating all the grocery items to food banks.
The show also upped the prize money from the somewhat measly (by 2020 standards, at least) $5,000 pre-tax grand prize offered by the ‘90s version of the show to winnings as much as $100,000. Honestly, that’s inflation for you. And another key change is that, according to ET, the contestants all had a hand in designing their sweatshirts this time around. Meanwhile, the promo shots reveal no sign of those white dickeys that all contestants wore under their sweatshirts in the original show. This is an improvement.
And of course, the biggest change is the addition of the show’s new host, Leslie Jones. Based on her interviews, tweets and teaser clips from the show, Jones appears to be genuinely overjoyed with this new gig, and it’s with good reason: According to ET, Jones was a huge fan of the original show and actually auditioned to appear on it with her roommate at the time, whom she had “trained” for the opportunity. Her dreams of glory were dashed when that roommate had to leave the audition early for a work shift, but in 2020, the dream is coming full circle.
I still have questions: Are they going to be tossing around real meat this time? (In the original, it was all fake.) Will winners get to keep their sweatshirts? (The first go-around, strangely, only the second and third-place teams got to keep them, as a consolation prize.) Will the new show feature more *wink wink* “roommates?” Will it result in another surge of fans sliding into OG host David Ruprecht’s DMs seeking feet pics?
But above all: When does casting for the next season begin? Because I need to restart my training.
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Read: Last week, Vanity Fair published a scorching essay from Caroline Giuliani, the daughter of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, urging readers to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over her father’s boss. For anyone who’s struggling with difficult conversations around the election with family right now — I know this because I’m currently living it, and it fucking sucks — this was a grounding read.
It takes a lot to stick your neck out and challenge your family on these deep-seated questions of today, especially in such a public manner. But to avoid doing so out out of fear of repercussions or a concession to complacency fails to rise to the emergency of this moment. The election is now 13 days away. The time to have these difficult talks, if you haven’t already, is now.
Listen: Last week, I talked about Sade as one of the top-three musical acts on my concert bucket list. And this week, there was an important development related to another one of the acts on that list: In her new MTV Unplugged concert, Miley Cyrus covered a deep cut, titled “Communication,” from the Swedish pop band The Cardigans. The song leads off the band’s criminally-ignored album Long Gone Before Daylight and it just makes me so happy to know that Cyrus has dug this deep into Nina Persson and co.’s catalog.
Watch: If you want to feel some pure joy, you need to be following TikTok star Kadeem Hemmings’ channel. This video to A-ha’s Take on Me has racked up 1 million+ views. It’s totally wholesome and honestly features some of the finest choreo of 2020, though it will also make you miss goofing off with your buddies. Honestly, can we get Ocean Spray or some brand to sponsor these guys, too? We did nothing to deserve what they’re serving. As if that wasn’t enough, they were at it again a few days later, this time with a 2 million+ video featuring an elusive human jump rope:
Bonus: Am I the only one who’s been wondering how American treasure Patricia Clarkson is doing in the pandemic? Yes? OK, well, anyway: I thought you should know that the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actress appears to be alive and well, and recently appeared in this pro-Kamala Harris video lip syncing “Woman” alongside RuPaul’s Drag Race star Nina West and fellow drag performer La Tina Turner.
While the video ain’t much, honestly. It reminded me how much I adore Clarkson, and inspired me to revisit her iconic appearance with former SNL star Mike O’Brien in his web series 7 Minutes In Heaven. Trust me, seeing the Oscar nominee whisper the name of her lipstick shade — “cherries in the snow” — is worth your four minutes.