Andy Dehnart

Andy Dehnart (born August 26, 1977) is an American journalist and television critic. He may be best known as reality television's "longest-standing critic" for his online journalism, as he is the creator of the genre's first tracking website, realityblurred.com. He is a member of the Television Critics Association.

Currently a contributor of television criticism and cultural journalism to NPR, The Daily Beast and msnbc.com, Dehnart has also written for Salon.com, Wired.com, The Boston Globe, Metro, the Chicago Tribune and Playboy. He regularly appears on television and the radio to discuss reality TV and popular culture.

USA Today named Dehnart one of the Top 100 People in Pop Culture in 2001.

Dehnart earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Bennington College, where his non-fiction studies included a lecture which explored the cultural impact of blogging, then a relatively unknown phenomenon in popular culture.

Dehnart now teaches writing, journalism, and communication studies at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he advises the student newspaper.

Dehnart is openly gay.

Reality Blurred

Reality Blurred is an American entertainment news website Dehnart created in July 2000, and the daily-updated site quickly became a primary source for devotees of the reality TV explosion. It was the first website to cover reality television.

It tracks reality TV shows and includes reporting, analysis, commentary, interviews, and show reviews.

History Reality Blurred launched July 2000 as an entertainment blog modeled after Jim Romenesko's MediaNews and "tracks daily press coverage of all the currently running unscripted TV series."

In 2010, the website published the Survivor contract and rule book.

Reality Blurred was first to report news such as CBS's plans for a season of Big Brother on CBS All Access, which became Big Brother: Over the Top., and Netflix casting journalist Alex Wagner to host The Mole.

Dehnart still writes for the website. Other contributors to Reality Blurred have included Stephen Fishbach, The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies contestant Corey Lay and Jane McGonigal.

Reception Two months after its launch, Entertainment Weekly graded Reality 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." Slate named Reality Blurred the best culture blog about television in 2003.

Reality Blurred won the 2021 Los Angeles Press Club’s award for Entertainment Blog by an Individual Not Tied to an Organization in the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards.