Made from Humans: How Reality Becomes TV

Creating a cooking competition from scratch

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On this week's show: America’s Culinary Cup and Padma Lakshmi’s dream of shaking up the cooking competition genre. Did it work? And how did it come together? I have insight from Padma and its showrunner.

I also have reality TV recommendations for you, and stick around to the very end for life advice from reality TV, this time from Padma herself.

Plus: Why this show has a new name!

Mentioned

  • 2026 New Voices AMPLIFY Creators
  • 24 in 24's Ikea set location
  • My America's Culinary Cup review
  • Why Padma Lakshmi didn’t want blind judging on America’s Culinary Cup
  • Iron Chef America is fake, in case you didn't know

    • Recommendations

    • Couples Therapy (Showtime and Paramount+)
    • The Comeback (HBO Max)
    • Extra Hot Great episode 613: Iron Chef S03.E23: Squid Battle (from Dan Cassino)

      • Credits

      • Made from Humans: How Reality Becomes TV is copyright 2026 by Reality Blurred LLC.
      • Find me at realityblurred.com or andydehnart.com
      • Our theme song is “Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under the Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License.
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        Made from Humans: How Reality Becomes TVBy reality blurred's Andy Dehnart