BY DC CUEVA
■ @DC408Dxtr @ TW / IG / YT
An abbreviated WRAP here with just an AYTO Things to Know recap and poll results, plus we'll discuss the strange world of connections within Team MTV, as well as a Real World'er being spotted on network television. But first, we'll head into the Strategy Room for a stage-by-stage look at how the Dirty 30 final went for our six finalists... join us here next.
STRATEGY ROOM
DIRTY 30 FINAL: GAME TRAX
As once again we'll be saving our proper finale recap for after we find out who wins this Challenge season, we do have the stage-by-stage placements of the six finalists in the final. For those who love cycling and watch the Tour de France each July, as we wrote here last week you don't have to win any of the stages to get the yellow jersey in Paris: simply have the lowest cumulative time in this final, and you'll win $450,000. Here now, the standings of the full final.
►STAGE 1: ROCKS (Pairs)
1st: JORDAN & CAMILA
2nd: DERRICK & CARA MARIA
3rd: CT & TORI
►STAGE 2: BOLA (Pairs)
1st: JORDAN & CAMILA
2nd: CT & TORI ▲1
3rd: DERRICK & CARA MARIA ▼1
- Partner Change: As top two finishers in Stage 2, Jordan and CT swapped female partners in Tori and Camila respectively
►STAGE 3: PUZZLE (Pairs)
1st: CT & CAMILA (CT: ▲1)
2nd: JORDAN & TORI (Jordan: ▼1)
3rd: DERRICK & CARA MARIA
►DOUBLE CROSS
(assessed 5-minute time add-on penalty)
Guys: JORDAN (by CT)
Girls: CAMILA (by TORI)
►STAGE 4: TOTEM (Individual)
RACE
- 1st: JORDAN and CAMILA
- 2nd: DERRICK and TORI
- 3rd: CT and CARA MARIA
MOUNTAIN
- times unknown
PUZZLE
- 1st: JORDAN and CAMILA (Jordan: ▲1)
- 2nd: DERRICK and TORI (Derrick: ▲1)
- 3rd: CT and CARA MARIA (CT: ▼2)
Partner Change: As top two finishers in Stage 4, Jordan and Derrick swapped female partners in Tori and Cara Maria respectively
►STAGE 5: SMOKE HOUSE (Pairs)
1st: JORDAN & TORI - 0:40 (Tori: ▲1)
2nd: CT & CARA MARIA - 0:59 (CM: ▲1 / CT: ▲1)
3rd: DERRICK & CAMILA - 1:06 (Camila: ▼2 / Derrick: ▼1)
►STAGE 6: FINAL RACE (Individual)
1st: JORDAN and CAMILA (Camila: ▲2)
2nd: DERRICK and TORI (Tori: ▼1)
3rd: CT and CARA MARIA (CT: ▼1 / CM: ▼1)
THINGS TO KNOW
AYTO EPISODE 8
♥ TAYLOR & THE EXES: While The Challenge's most exciting challenge is when TJ asks trivia, on Are You The One? it's when the exes come that becomes the most cringe-worthy along with entertaining. In New Orleans, the exes of both the guys and girls come invading the house, and for this season's visit the house gets to interrogate them on their past flings. The exes get to find out what has been going on in the house, from Clinton's ex finding out about his plays with Uche & Jada, to Nurys crying about maybe getting back together.
But all eyes are on Joe's ex Taylor - the same one who we saw with Andre last season, and whom Joe learned about her cast's collapse and how the house should focus on the game and not did what she and others did in the Caribbean. For someone who was the nice girl next door last season, Tay finds herself in in the middle of the drama herself where Geles asked her questions and she gets so ticked off she begins to yell when they talked about the possibility of getting back together. She tells her, "Yes we've talked about marriage and he's going to come back to me but we're not together so don't get it twisted." Perhaps, a Battle of the Exes 3 is ahead for them?
♥ MORE MALCOLM DRAMA: Malcolm seems to have found himself in the heart of the drama more often than anyone else. This latest instance sees him and Diandra get into it when she and Anthony go into the Boom Boom Room for what everything else thinks is a session on the bed, only for them just to spend time on the balcony playing beer pong. Mr. Drummer doesn't mind giving Didi time to tell him what went down, and this leads to him going to Geles and also gets T'd off when he goes to call Di a "d__k rider." It is, obviously, a really bad insult for someone who didn't want to kiss Anthony just to stay loyal to Malcolm.... and with this involving Anthony's crush early on.
♥ KEITH & ALIVIA HOOK UP, AND KAREEM LOSES IT: As far as the game goes, the attention turns to the two who wins the double date: Keith and Kareem. After what happened to him and Alexis in the Truth Booth last week, the frustration of what happened there last week leads Keith to eventually pick Alivia after she won the tiebreaker over Alexis. Oddly enough, the one who's pursued Alivia all season, Kareem, gets picked by Alexis... of course, double dates can turn into something of an awkward date and it turns out to be the case.
Before that goes down, Keith and Alivia explore what every AYTO house does this time of season: try to get know each other after relationships went bad. She sees a difference to what she had endured in Kareem's aggressiveness in finding Keith's laid-back persona being a breath of fresh air. For Keith, he feels that they are "perfect," and even tells Alexis how he feels... and then he & Alivia kiss, for which she tells and says sorry to Kareem for betraying him. But that's not all...
Keith & Alivia and Kareem & Alexis head on yet another trip to the French Quarter, but instead of a bar hop they get to go to a Tarot card reading and make new friends with some voodoo dolls. For Keith, he's hoping that Alexis doesn't get hurt by what happened the night before, but does want to see if Alivia & him are compatible... and yes, they kiss again, breaking a promise he made to his crush that they would not hook up with their match if they got to 11 for 11.
Being well-informed about matters in the mansion, Kareem decides to spill the tea to Alexis about Keith & Alivia's session... and not surprisingly the Southerner gets upset and then approaches Keith while out on the town. Then, things get heated in their conversation when he believes that he has been taken advantage of and throws a table down for the count and storming out, which becomes a warning sign for her to look for someone even-keeled and not someone with as big a temper as him.
By the way, Keith & Alivia are voted in the Truth Booth and become the house's 7TH STRAIGHT no-match... a fitting end to the best episode so far this season despite no Matchup (and no chart), with a fan favorite returning and a getaway date that's no doubt the most awkward.
POLLS @DC408Dxtr
Who of these three guys is the
champion of Dirty 30?
champion of Dirty 30?
● CT 11%
● DERRICK 24%
● JORDAN 65%
● JORDAN 65%
OUT OF 37 VOTES
Who of these three girls is the
champion of Dirty 30?
champion of Dirty 30?
● CAMILA 24%
● TORI 44%
OUT OF 38 VOTES
Do you think Keith & Alivia really
did anything wrong in hooking up
with his crush Alexis?
● YES! 17%
● NO! 83%
did anything wrong in hooking up
with his crush Alexis?
● YES! 17%
● NO! 83%
OUT OF 54 VOTES
▪ ▪ ▪
ENDGAME
IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL
As we wrote here on Friday night, on the very day The Challenge XXX was revealed at the Austin TV Festival back on June 10th, I was at Disneyland for my niece's 9th birthday. A must for everyone who visits The Happiest Place on Earth is taking for a ride through the lands of the world, with a cast of 300 audio-animatronic kids in costumes from nations and cultures around the world that reminds everyone of global unity and peace. By the time you get off that ride, one song will no doubt stay in your head for days in "It's A Small World," and that offers the bridge to this ExtraTime bit.
If you are part of Team MTV -- whether you're part of what we call the Trifecta or any other show outside of the ecosystem, you are part of a broader family. Those who are part of the casts of any MTV show get the perks: membership, promotion, chances to do events (even shows) with alums, attending the channel's biggest events, and the list goes on. So many times, we have brought you those instances when those from shows from across the MTV spectrum meet, from the Trifecta meeting Farrah from Teen Mom, to recently at the VMA's. And other times, there are those times where all of these people cross paths, sometimes in the most random of circumstances.
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| IG @PrinceOfNorway |
It's the first time that someone came to this season with ties to a previous AYTO castmate, and her stepping foot inside the Season 6 house brought us back to earlier this year. And it was at this time of the first week of November last year that the cast had went through the ringer of that 10th and last Matchup when they filmed that in the Dominican Republic, and swung and missed the night after Gianna's hometown Indians fell in Game 7 of the World Series.
But as much as seeing them together was both awkward and awesome for us, strangely enough Taylor and Joe aren't the only ones with a Season 6 and past season connection. Before being cast on this season and as late as this past spring just as she was waiting for that call, Nicole had done several projects with AYTO Season 1 original and a member of the Exes 2 cast, fellow Bostonian Brittany. They did several web videos together for a New England video site, as well as a TV show airing on regional cable in the Boston area, a region that's produced so many MTV alumni.
These are the latest in a line of stories that link the many people of this community, something we have showcased a lot here since we began blogging in summer 2013. In a post he did for the defunct Real World Dailies site, longtime executive producer Jim Johnston - who took over for the late Mary Ellis-Bunim as production co-pilot along with Jon Murray, discussed the many links among the MTV/BMP ecosystem, for which he offered two examples of something that has occurred a few times in that show's history: roommates casted on the OG of reality TV who knew each other before entering the house.
First, it was nineteen years ago that the first such odd occurrence of this MTV world being as small as it is came when two students at the Virginia Military Institute applied to be on the same season of The Real World Seattle. It came as a coincidence that Bostonian David Burns (who later became known with his forbidden romance with a casting director and his meltdown upon breaking up) and fellow Cadet Nathan Blackburn had not applied to be on the cast but were casted together, and both entered the house by the Pier together. Who can forget the joy they had unlocking the doors to the house as if they were entering Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory?
More than a decade later, the same thing happened on Real World Cancun: Jonna and Derek were waiters at the same bar in Tempe, AZ, near Arizona State University. Neither had any idea that they auditioned for Season 22, and it was only at the final casting interviews that they realized about this strange coincidence. The both were chosen to head down to Mexico, and eventually made it all the way to the last elimination battle on Battle of the Seasons II. And there are many stories of castmates from various seasons being friends or social media buddies before going on Real World.
Romances among those from different seasons of the Trifecta are common, most recently that of Dario and Ashley K., who met on The Challenge Invasion and are still together. But the most notable of which is one that began on what's now seen as be the very first season of The Challenge. When Real World Boston's Sean Duffy and RW San Francisco's Rachel Campos went onto that RV for a special trip across the country among Real World alums, it was love at first sight, and eventually they got married, became parents, and he became a Congressman. And getting married and also having kids is also the case for Challenge alums Tori and Brad, who we last saw winning Cutthroat.
Being part of what we here at DCBLOG refer to as Team MTV is something that is afforded to only a tiny percentage of the American population. Those who've been on AYTO, Real World, The Challenge or shows outside of the Trifecta and spanning shows still airing or were one & done shows number in the hundreds, and it doesn't include those who do series on its international channels. Yes, the chances of getting cast and having those millennials who watch MTV are about as remote as winning the lottery, which explains how small this world of the MTV community really is.
#DCExtraTime
REAL WORLD MEETS A STAR
Last year just after Taylor and her AYTO5 cast were revealed to America, we brought you to the set of one of TV's most-popular shows and one that also shares Wednesday with the love fest. There, Season 1 original Andre Sinclair had a chance to be on that pioneering hip-hop series Empire as an extra and walked in the same Chicago studio and New York setting as those who call Empire Entertainment their home.
Channeling the series' massive success, last year FOX doubled down in the musical drama category by debuting the series Star, which focuses on the journey of three very talented young singers from Atlanta as they plot their journey to stardom. Like its cousin (produced and created by Lee Daniels who also created Empire), the show consists of original music and fantasy sequences along with documenting the hard road every young musician endures to topping the charts. Star is currently in its second season on FOX - this season airing right after Empire and as you might guess, it recently crossed over with the Lyon family.
The one & only Queen Latifah is the most-prominent member of the cast, joined by Benjamin Bratt, Quincy Brown and Amiyah Scott - the first transgender to play a major character on a network scripted drama series, following in the footsteps of Orange is the New Black's Laverne Cox. Star has also boasted a stellar cast of recurring and guest stars during its run: Lenny Kravitz, Tyrese, Naomi Campbell, and Darius McCrary -- best known as Eddie Winslow from Family Matters. Also appearing includes Missy Elliott, Big Boi, T.I.'s ex Tiny, Gladys Knight, Monica, Kelly Price and Empire's Jussie Smollett as Jamal Lyon.
For those who watched this week's episode before what went down in New Orleans, you might've spotted someone familiar from the Trifecta. And while we have seen Bruno, Nicole, Sylvia, Tony and brother Shane on The Challenge this year, and the dinner date Madison and Javi Marroquin had before turning to Teen Mom's Briana DeJesus, those Real World Skeletons roommates have all been beaten to the punch in entering primetime network TV by the one whose skeleton came last to Chicago.
Jason came to the Season 30 house from Raleigh, NC who had transitioned from selling cars to becoming a model, and who had been raised by his young mom who gave birth to him when she was 18. In the house, he took a backseat to all of the drama that took place in the house, but it was only later on that he had awoken from that slumber to three big stories: first, he had found out that he was going to be a dad because of a secret baby mama, and he went back home to meet his new son for the first time.
Near the end of their stay in the Windy City, a night of partying and bad behavior that didn't even involve him inadvertently led to a fight between him and Nicole that escalated and nearly took a turn for the worse. And this was before he had to face the final "skeleton" from the pasts of the roommates who traveled there all season: until then, Jason had never known his biological father, and he had to face the music in meeting him for the very first time.
Last week, Jason appeared in a brief cameo spot on Star, for which he tweeted afterwards, "#Star was a great experience. Doing #MTVRealWorld was a cool experience. Witnessing the time and effort it takes to put a scene together for #Star was pretty amazing." Below is that scene.
Being on the set of #Star was a great experience. Doing #MTVRealWorld was a cool experience. Witnessing the time and effort it takes to put a scene together for #Star was pretty amazing. pic.twitter.com/QA5xmPjUgd— Jason Hill (@_Kazuhnova) November 11, 2017
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
And on that musical note, that will just about wrap it up here for the WRAP of this week in the MTV Trifecta. As you might expect, there is a lot more to the story of Part 2 of the Dirty 30 final and this AYTO episode, and for more, check out the following...
● Last week, AfterBuzz TV was joined for their latest AYTO after show by the season's two shining stars, Ethan and Tyler as well as Clinton as they talked about episode 8, the season at this point and, of course, their latest musical collaboration. Check out that podcast here, plus guest spots from other AYTO alums and castmates plus The Challenge and more on ABTV.
● Check out Rob Has A Podcast and its MTV coverage with Brian Cohen (@CohenBrian_), Ali Lasher (@LashTweets) and Adam Buongiovanni (@AdamBongo) as they talked about The Challenge XXX final and the exes' AYTO invasion, plus the site's extensive coverage of Survivor with blog posts, podcasts and much more.
● And remember that man who won Fresh Meat II and a few other Challenges too? Landon from Real World Philadelphia joined Susie and Sarah on The Brain Candy Podcast's Patreon offering for premium subscribers. Check out their latest chat on Patreon as well as interviews with many other past and present MTV'ers and discussion of Dirty 30.
With our usual reminder to bookmark this site for our unique look at the MTV world and to join me @DC408Dxtr on social media, starting shortly is my birthday festivities... that is, if you live on the east coast where it is now November 13th. As has been tradition since I began on social media over a decade ago before I joined Twitter, I will be marking this Monday on my platforms, and you can begin to send in your birthday greetings to me using the hashtag, #DCBDay.
As for this week's wave, we're not done yet: ExtraTime has two dedicated posts coming up here, and next week along with Dirty 30 finale coverage and the AYTO cast's weekend in L.A. for the reunion, we will also preview the upcoming Champs vs. Stars Challenge. For now, enjoy your week ahead and see you then. And Happy DCBDAY.
- I AM DC
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