DC WRAP: The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros - Week 5

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

As you go about the beginning to this week, time for us here to WRAP up Week 5 of The Challenge Champs vs. Pros ahead of tonight's finale. This past week saw endurance being tested on the part of the players left here, which saw the Champs prevail. And after a grueling elimination involving the same rope-style challenge which saw the seemingly invincible Laurel meet her match, Wes and Lolo win but saw her steal the show in making a generous gesture to the one she beat, Ashley.

   Coming up - in a departure from what we were planning to do at first, we'll head inside the Strategy Room to look at where this season stands going into its last act, the final coming up tonight. And afterwards, we'll join a Real World original as she takes up her spot alongside Rob Dyrdek and friends. That's all next.

 STRATEGY ROOM 

INTO THE FINALE

So, as we head into the final, there's clarity about those who are still here with us and have a shot at winning.

CHAMPS

With our poll suggesting that 95% of you are rolling with them, the Champs now have momentum going into this final winning the last challenge, and with having a solid group in Wes, Cara Maria, CT, Camila and Darrell, it should be a 2 to 3-1 chance that one or both of the two winners of this season will come from these five. Obviously, ten titles among these five will validate this point, and their experience of having gone through this ringer before in 21 total finals appearances will surely help.

PROS

For the Pros, Lolo Jones, Lindsey Jacobellis, Louise Hazel, Gus Kenworthy and Kamerion Wimbley make it to the final week with a chance to take the crown. Three of them are Team USA hopefuls for the 2018 Olympics, a fourth being a celeb competition show veteran, and the fifth motoring his Pros team to a heat win in the endurance challenge. Just like the Underdogs on Invasion, the Pros have been able to hang tough and win a few challenges from the Champs here will make their case.

STANDOUTS
● WES: For the standout Champ here, this run of winning three eliminations have brought memories back to Wes' first Challenge, Fresh Meat I, where he took down five of them en route to a finals berth as a rookie. He had his biggest elimination win in taking down Johnny Bananas in their first-ever elimination battle and likely the final chapter of their rivalry. And him taking down Jordan and then Louie will make Wes a favorite to win for the guys in the deep men's field.

● LOLO: There's absolutely no doubt that the star of Champs vs. Pros has been Lolo Jones. Her story both in and outside the Olympic world going into this season has been well documented, and this Challenge has added more to a profile that will again emerge when the world gathers in South Korea in eight months. Her being able to win three eliminations, overcome adversity, and doing the ultimate deed at the end of last week all make Lolo the sentimental favorite going into tomorrow.

PREDICTIONS
The final has, of course, five players a side, but uneven when you split up the men and women. Three guys champs facing two Pros, and two girls Champs against three female Pros. In the former, there's eight Challenge titles against Olympic veterans and an NFL star. And in the ladder, two female champions will face off with two 2018 Team USA prospects and a British decathlete.
   In the guys' race, I predict that the champs should have no problem and I feel that either Wes or CT should win... this will no doubt validate a great season for Ginger if he wins. For the guy Pros, I don't see Kam or Gus Kenworthy winning, but maybe topping one or two of the guy Champs will be a goal to perhaps finish 2nd knowing how strong the guy Champs are here.
   And for the girls, I also believe the champs will also prevail there in either Cara or Camila having a good shot at winning, but don't be surprised if Lolo makes a run and possibly upsets them. Louise Hazel has had a lot of experience doing these celeb reality competition shows and that may make her a co-favorite among the female pros... and like Lolo, Lindsey Jacobellis has been fueled by past failures and that will give her reason to go all in too.

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#DCExtraTime

RIDICULOUSNESS FEATURING TAMI ROMAN

A few weeks ago in marking the 25th anniversary of the longest running show in MTV history, DCBLOG took a look back at a memorable sophomore season of The Real World when, 24 years ago, the show went west to Los Angeles. There, we joined Challenge icon Beth and country pioneer Jon as they caught up with roommates Dominic and Irene and revisited the same house by the beach where their journey to fame began, part of the path the show and MTV has helped in form of entertainment that has become a ubiquitous part of pop culture.
   The most notable member of that Season 2 cast never had a chance to compete on a Challenge, but she has become one of The Real World's most successful alumni and a trail blazer in the reality TV genre. And over a week ago, she returned to her MTV roots to sit down with the panel who, each week, join one of the channel's most well known names for a look at hilarious videos and plenty of opportunities to laugh.

Tami Roman came to that 1993 Real World season from White Plains, NY as part of a female girl group and a career goal to host her own talk show. She also came there as someone who might not be able to do a Real World season in current times: a married lady as wife of NBA player Kenny Anderson. Growing up, though, was much different: her mom once worked three jobs at the same time to help pay the bills, but when the elder Roman was left unemployed she and her daughter were left homeless and had to endure life on the streets of New York. That humble past helped Tami become strong and independent while also appreciating the finer things in life.
   As we showed you in our RW Los Angeles retrospective, she was picked up on an RV ride along the way by Jon and Dominic, which brought them cross country to Los Angeles, where they were joined by Aaron, Beth S., Irene and David. For someone who was born to be on camera and had already had some modeling experience, it was, of course, on Real World there that her vivacious, no-nonsense personality was first seen in front of a national TV audience. She watched that first season in SoHo thinking it would be a cool thing to be one of those seven strangers living in that house, and little did she know that she would help cast a mold for others to follow in bringing that "Don't give me any s___" attitude to this show and to MTV's reality programming.

   Old school fans will still remember the first notable house fight to take place on The Real World when tensions between the guys and girls led to comedian David deciding to pull the covers off her bed, and exposing her to just her underwear. That led him to leave the house, becoming the first RW roommate to be evicted. But Tami is also remembered for allowing cameras to capture a very personal moment: on the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, Tami allowed cameras to capture a personal moment when, while she was pregnant, she decided that it wasn't the right time to become a mom this early. And she made the tough and personal choice to have an abortion… the first time something like that was captured on television.

   And in the same manner as both those who joined this world by way of the romantic experiment, Tami has also had the chance to do shows produced by both production firms behind the three shows of the Trifecta. On her Real World season, cameras documented her doing an episode of the early '90s dating game show Studs, which was produced by Lighthearted Entertainment, helmed by Howard Schultz - who created and executive produced the first two seasons of Are You The One? as well as VH1's Dating Naked.

Tami has gone on to bigger and better things, even after the highly-publicized divorce of her and Kenny Anderson which ultimately brought her to a career in television and movies, as well as starting her own lines of hair supplies and cosmetics. This has seen her appear on several few TV shows and sharing a set with Courtney Cox, Kevin Hart, Terrence Howard, Vivica A. Fox and Empire's Taraji P. Henson before landing her ultimate gig.

   In 2010, Tami was chosen to be one of five main cast members for VH1's Basketball Wives, which documented the lives of being (or in Tami's case, once being) the spouse of an NBA player, and the show continues airing on MTV's older sibling today - even as she has become partner to boyfriend Reggie Youngblood. In addition, Tami & Reggie also appeared on WE Network's Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars, and has a large social media following: over a million followers on both Twitter and Instagram.
   And over a week ago after taking time off in the aftermath of the death of his beloved security guard friend Christopher "Big Black" Boykin, Ridiculousness and host Rob Dyrdek returned for its summer run. And in one of the episodes, Tami was invited to sit on the couch alongside Chanel and Steelo Brim in watching all of the hilarious web videos submitted each week and shown to MTV viewers afterwards. Below is their picture from Instagram.

#Ridiculousness 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

A post shared by Tami Roman (@tamiroman) on Jun 8, 2017 at 7:22pm PDT

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And that will bring this week's coverage at DCBLOG to a close. We'll be back over the weekend to cover the finale of Champs vs. Pros, recap the season and all else too. We will plan to have part 1 of the 2017 Midyear Reality Debrief to review this cycle of the MTV Trifecta and Survivor, plus look ahead at Dirty 30, Big Brother 19 and much more. Again, if you got a reality TV question for me and Andrew Kirk, go ahead and tweet them to #AskDCBLOG and we'll use it in our two posts.
   Be sure to follow DCNOW at @DC408DxNow for live tweets, plus the NBA Draft on Thursday and much more. And follow me on Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, YouTube and other means of contact in the social media world, with videos from my DC SoCal trip still to come, as well as my first-hand account of seeing Chris Paul down in Disneyland.

For now, that's how we look at it this week Inside the MTV Trifecta...thank you for joining us. And until we talk on Twitter, see you back here this weekend, and for now stay cool and be safe.

- I AM DC