Fox is scraping the bottom of the barrel with Celebrity Watch Party, Ultimate Tag and Labor of Love

The Washington Post

The three reality shows that have their premiere in May "certainly have that late-spring stink about them — shows that are each mildly enjoyable in a fleeting way while also serving as a sort of omen about what lies at the bottom of most barrels," says Hank Stuever. Ultimate Tag, he says, aggregates the look of pro wrestling, roller derby, a trampoline party and an expensive gym membership with overproduced, hard-to-follow rounds of tag. Meanwhile, Labor of Love is, unlike The Bachelorette, even "more bluntly and even gallingly heteronormative; it is literally about breeding, obsessed with a biological outcome above all other options, including adoption, which (host Kristin Davis mentions was the right solution for her." Celebrity Watch Party is the only one of the shows made in response to the coronavirus pandemic. "It’s hard to think of a show that would be easier to make, which is why Fox ordered 10 episodes last month as a fun, fizzy way to fill up some of the prime-time schedule while the network, like its competitors, rations out what’s left in its cupboards," says Stuever. "The celebs are of course game, because all their other gigs dried up. Celebrity Watch Party is one of the rare ways left to be on TV without using Zoom. The viewer’s reflexive response is of course despair: Has it really come to this, you ask — watching other people watch TV?" ALSO: Ultimate Tag is less like tag and more like flag football.