Queering Love Island USA—or queerbaiting?

Let's dive into Unscripted Updates, where I discuss things from the news.

And this week, I just wanted to cover five headlines that I want to make sure you haven't missed, because they're interesting, useful, and or shocking, I guess.

The first, the most shocking of all, the Traders US Peacock's version has fired Fergus.

or Fergus, as Alan Cumming says.

And I apologize for that terrible Alan Cumming accent right there.

I'm embarrassed already.

So yes, the Fergus character on The Traitors was portrayed by an actor who is, of course, um, not central to the show.

What I mean by that is Fergus played Alan Cummings' groundskeeper at the castle.

The actor John Ritchie revealed that he had not been hired back for the season that just filmed, which the reports are suggesting that that was the civilian season and then the celebrity season will film a little later.

So in any case, Fergus is gone.

And that's really too bad because although on a reality TV show, having an actor play a kind of ridiculous over-the-top character who's mostly background in B-roll is not central to the game in any way, it really did add to the flavor of The Traitors U.S. and really give the world a sense of, you know, Like, not only, like, that there was something happening here besides just this game using this castle, which of course we all know is a rental by the production, but it also just kind of, like, you know, had to develop a kind of relationship for Alan to play off of, and just a lot of funny visual gags when they used Fergus for various things, so...

I'm very sorry that, you know, he hasn't been hired back, but in his social media posts about not coming back or not being asked back, he did say, this is John Ritchie, the actor again, I'm okay with it.

Thanks for the support, but I'm genuinely fine with not doing the show again.

The last season, so season four, which filmed last year, was not much fun to make, won't go into the whys.

So Don't know what that means.

Fergus wasn't really featured that much, but I'm curious what happened and maybe we'll learn more in the coming weeks or months.

But I will miss his presence, even if it's just in B-roll.

Next update, Top Chef 24 would be usually starting to film in late August and film into September.

That's the usual schedule for Top Chef now.

However, Gail Simmons revealed that Top Chef 24 is going to be delayed.

And the way she talked about it, saying that she both has her summer back and will have an easier fall when she's on book tour, promoting a book that comes out early November, suggests to me that they may not even film until... mid-November or later if she's, you know, on book tour.

And this show takes four to six weeks to film depending upon their schedule.

So it'll be interesting to see what happens.

And this came about because Gil was on a podcast and asked about... where next season is going to be.

And she says, usually by now, and this is the end of June, 2026.