real talk
Family feuding
Stars of ‘90 Day Fiancé’ get their own spinoff series
By Kenneth Andeel
TV Media
Family feuding: TLC’s family
of “90 Day Fiancé” spinoff shows
will grow by one on Monday,
July 22. “The Family Chantel”
is noteworthy for being the first
spinoff of the main series that
follows one couple rather than a
set of different couples, and it’s
positioned to give viewers a mas-
sive dose of series stars Chantel
Everett and Pedro Jimeno.
With six seasons in the books,
“90 Day Fiancé” has proven to be
popular with fans of overcharged
relationship-centric reality TV
drama. The series follows couples
that consist of an American
citizen and a foreign significant
other, and each pair must get
married within a 90-day span or
the non-American spouse gets
sent back to their home country.
The series’ popularity has
spawned several satellite shows.
“90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever
After?” follows couples that ap-
peared on the original show as
they continue their married lives
together, and “90 Day Fiancé:
Before the 90 Days” features
couples early in their relationship,
before they begin the process of
acquiring a visa. “90 Day Fiancé:
What Now?” is another variant
of the “updates from previous
couples” format, and “90 Day Fi-
ancé: Pillow Talk” is a companion
show that allows cast members
to react to episodes of the main
series.
“The Family Chantel” focuses
on Chantel Everett, a nursing
student from Atlanta, Georgia,
and her husband, Pedro Jimeno, a
native of the Dominican Republic.
The pair first appeared in Season
4 of “90 Day Fiancé” in 2017 and
have been a regular presence on
the franchise’s update shows ever
since.
The first season of “The
Family Chantel” kicks off with
a healthy dose of drama. In
some of their most recent ap-
pearances on TLC, Chantel and
Pedro have been part of a near-
brawl at Chantel’s parents’
house, during which Pedro and
Chantel’s brother locked horns,
and participants in an awkward
20 | Screentime
vacation back to the Domini-
can Republic, during which Ch-
antel followed Pedro after he
insisted on taking a solo trip
to visit his family. While in the
Dominican Republic, Pedro’s
family bickered with Chantel,
and she was shown a provoca-
tive video of him dancing with
another woman, which Chantel
struggled to deal with.
Far-flung foods: Celebrity
chef Gordon Ramsay adds yet
another television series to his
enormous body of work when
“Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted”
premieres Sunday, July 21, on
Nat Geo.
The new series aims to take
Ramsay out of his comfort zone
in the kitchen and dispatch him
to various destinations around
the globe to learn about the food
and culinary traditions of diverse
communities. Chef Ramsay finds
and harvests the unique local in-
gredients required for the dishes
he encounters, and learns about
local techniques and flavors.
This isn’t the first time Ramsay
has gone international. In his
series “Gordon’s Great Escape,”
Ramsay visited locations that
included India, Thailand and
Vietnam. That series was billed
as more of a personal journey of
discovery in which Ramsay pur-
sued knowledge of cuisines
that already fascinated
him. “Gordon Ramsay:
Uncharted” seems to
have a more random and
freewheeling itinerary,
with stops in Alaska,
Hawaii, Laos, Mo-
rocco, New Zealand
and Peru.
Early news
releases about
the show teased
Ramsay partici-
pating in compe-
titions against
the locals that
pit his versions of
dishes against their
Chantel Everett
and Pedro
Jimeno star in
“The Family
Chantel”
July 17, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald
traditional recipes. After some
internet backlash that criticized
that format for having nasty
colonialist roots — depicting a
wealthy Englishman traveling
around the world to outdo locals
at preparing their own specialties
— Nat Geo issued a statement
begging critics not to prejudge
the content of the show, which
hadn’t even gone into full pro-
duction at the time.
It’s still unclear how much
of the competitive aspect has
made it into the final version,
but footage of Ramsay climb-
ing trees and cliffsides for rare
ingredients confirms that the in-
gredient-hunting element of the
adventure has been preserved.
The new series also took
some heat for its timing follow-
ing the 2018 death of Anthony
Bourdain, a celebrity chef/host
who also produced series involv-
ing international travel to par-
ticipate in regional food scenes.
After the death of Bourdain,
people began to worry that the
wildly successful formula he de-
veloped on “No Reservations”
and “Parts Unknown” would be
copied by other networks but
would lack the
irreplaceable
qualities
that made
Bourdain’s
shows feel
non-exploit-
ative and
ethical.
Late laughs
The Tonight Show
With Jimmy Fallon
A new study found that
drinking coffee
can help burn
fat. America
was like,
“Great! I’ll
have TWO mocha
frappuccinos with
whipped cream and
sprinkles.”
Last night, the brother-
sister team the Flying
Wallendas walked across a
tightrope 25 stories above
Times Square. Even more
impressive — they were
stuck behind a slow-
walking group of tourists.
The very first Democratic
debates are this week
down in Miami. Most of the
candidates are busy with
debate prep, while Bernie
Sanders spent the day on
the beach with a metal
detector.
Tomorrow the big names
are Elizabeth Warren and
Beto O’Rourke. If things go
well for Warren, she might
catch Biden in the polls,
and if things go well for
Beto, ABC might make him
“The Bachelor.”
Things are getting ugly
between the U.S. and Iran. I
guess after Iran insulted
him today, Trump tweeted,
“Iran’s very ignorant and
insulting statement, put out
today, only shows that they
do not understand reality…
.” Trump was like, “No one
understands reality better
than your reality star
president.”
The debate was right here
on NBC, and there was a lot
of excitement in the
building. It felt just like the
Super Bowl. You know, if 20
teams played the game
over two nights and the
winner wasn’t decided for
another year.
Trump tweeted and called
the debate “boring,” but he
still watched, even though
he called it a, quote, “very
unexciting group of
people,” as opposed to the
rock stars he usually hangs
with like Mike Pence and
Steve Mnuchin.
I think I know why Trump’s
upset. He’s probably jealous
of the Democrats, if you
think about it. They got to
be on TV, they got to talk
about themselves, and they
got to be in Florida.
We are coming to you live
from New York City, and
Nicki Minaj is my guest
tonight! Nicki’s going to be
on live, which means right
now the NBC censor is
breathing into a paper bag.
There was a 40-year age
difference between
tonight’s candidates,
ranging from 37 to 77.
With Pete Buttigieg next
to Biden, it looked like
Take Your Kid to Work
Day.
Speaking of Buttigieg, he
said Democrats need to
move the party forward,
and claimed his opponents
want to “return to the
1990s.” Hey Pete — the top
movies right now are “Toy
Story,” “Men in Black,” and
“Aladdin” — we’re already
back in the ‘90s.
The Late Show With
Stephen Colbert
While we’re in the middle
of a humanitarian crisis on
our border, in these
detention facilities, this
afternoon, we learned that
Customs and Border
Protection commissioner
John Sanders is expected to
step down. You
know what
they say:
when the
going gets
tough, the
tough go, “Good
luck with that, sucks to be
you.”
The Late Late Show
With James Corden
In California recently, a
woman was arrested for
shoplifting at a Target store
after she went into one of
their dressing rooms and
drank an entire six-pack of
the store’s beer.
Without a
doubt, this is
the most
K-Mart thing
to happen in a
Target.
A man in South Carolina
was so dissatisfied with
how his Mexican pizza was
made at a Taco Bell that he
stormed into the kitchen
and made his own. He then
took off, and is wanted by
the police. Yeah, I hate
when Taco Bell Mexican
pizza doesn’t have that
authentic Mexican pizza
taste.