BY DC CUEVA
Tonight, it all begins as we get to enjoy at home with reality TV and sports fans like the start of the "most dangerous season ever" of the competition we all deserve more than ever, as The Challenge: Total Madness takes shape with the beginning of its thirty-fifth season. Things will no doubt heat up in the heart of the battlefront of Eastern Europe as twenty-eight competitors both familiar and fresh will take to the grounds of the Czech Republic capital of Prague for a season to remember as they compete for $1 million.
Every time we start a new season of some of the major series we cover here, we at DCBLOG give ourselves the assignment to go around the World Wide Web and social media to answer a question on the minds of most of you: "Who Are These Newbies?" This is in reference to first-time rookies making their debuts on The Challenge, when notable reality personalities come on Ex On The Beach, and most recently when The Bachelorette's Robby Hayes invaded Siesta Key. We make sure to give everyone the proper welcome and respect they deserve to help you, our readers, know them a bit better in us adding background, perspective, insight & context on who they are. And those we've profiled on here in our nearly eight years blogging numbers in at just around 130 people.
Every time we start a new season of some of the major series we cover here, we at DCBLOG give ourselves the assignment to go around the World Wide Web and social media to answer a question on the minds of most of you: "Who Are These Newbies?" This is in reference to first-time rookies making their debuts on The Challenge, when notable reality personalities come on Ex On The Beach, and most recently when The Bachelorette's Robby Hayes invaded Siesta Key. We make sure to give everyone the proper welcome and respect they deserve to help you, our readers, know them a bit better in us adding background, perspective, insight & context on who they are. And those we've profiled on here in our nearly eight years blogging numbers in at just around 130 people.
Twenty years ago after the two companies were first aligned, a then-desperate 3rd place network trapped in the ratings cellar for over a decade looked to, of all things, reality TV, as a last resort to regain its footing, and Americanized versions of two shows that started in Europe. That gamble paid off big time as Season 1 of Survivor became a pop culture sensation with over 50 million viewers tuning into that memorable finale. Summer 2000 also saw the launch of Big Brother, which had some growing pains that year but eventually grew into an eventual American summertime staple. And a year later, the Eye asked the creator of its CSI franchise, Jerry Bruckheimer, to create a reality-based global journey along the line of Road Rules, which became The Amazing Race.
What happened there with CBS' launch of those three shows which ultimately helped it regain title of "America's Most-Watched Network" offers the backdrop to this year's class of Challenge rookies, where a Survivor castaway, four Big Brother houseguests, and a TAR alum comprise six of the seven first-timers on Total Madness. And the seventh is an MTV alum who made waves four years ago on the same season of Are You The One? as a girl who's now part of an MTV power couple and another lady who made news last year for a World Series striptease... and he's also appeared on many other reality shows as well both in America and overseas.
As we always do here, we'll take the chance to introduce these newbies for you here with how their original series' bios described them when they began to dive into the reality field, what happened on their original and subsequent shows -- including offer clips of those shows, and any extra info on them that might be of particular interest. But, there are two interesting twists to all of this: First, the policy we have had in place since Final Reckoning states: if a rookie challenger appeared on a prior MTV series or if we wrote on them previously, then they're exempt from being featured in that season's Newbies post.
In that case, you won't be seeing either Asaf Goren or Jay Starrett on here: we featured the AYTO alum in his own post back in 2017 -- including his time on MTV and So You Think You Can Dance and his cameo in a Britney Spears video, plus another post on him on Food Network's Worst Cooks in America... and we'll be looking at more of his reality resume later on. And in the case of the Survivor alum, Jay was featured in our Newbies post on the exes of EOTB Season 2, plus the time where he was part of the viral moment of Bradley Cooper photobombing a beach workout of him and BB18 alum Corey Brooks -- both exes of Morgan Willett, now Johnny Bananas' girlfriend.
But in addition, there's another one: for the first time on here, someone who we featured in our Someone You Should Know posts pertaining to when MTV Reality personalities meet up with those outside the community bubble meet up will have actually been case for an MTV show. In this case, in 2018 we featured a couple from AYTO Season 6 meeting up with two other rookies, Big Brother 20 romance Bayleigh Dayton and Chris "Swaggy C." Williams. In their case, we will be featuring #Swayleigh in showing just footage from their Big Brother season and their time together, and that will appear later on.
But after the jump, we begin with two of Swayleigh's other houseguests in the BB20 house who pose a big athletic threat to perhaps follow in what an alum of the global Survivor franchise did of winning it all in his first try, as we are only hours away from getting this all started once again...
🏠 FEYSAL "FESSY" SHAFAAT
Big Brother 20
Whenever anyone with a strong athletic background makes his or her way to The Challenge, it's always an anticipated arrival and our first subject fits this sentence well, though when a man nicknamed "The Stinger" made his national TV debut it was in a different environment and his day job was a little bit different.
Feysal Shawn "Fessy" Shafaat was a 26-year-old substitute teacher from Orlando, FL when he came to the Big Brother 20 house two years ago, coming from a Muslim family with deep religious roots. In his BB season bio, he described himself as being a "joker, hilarious and confident," while his life's motto states, "Everybody dies but not everybody lives. Live every day like it's your last." And Feysal might have something in common with Kortni from Floribama Shore as he wet his bed while he was a kid and he can become buddies with Nilsa in them liking pizza too... he can even cite Taylor Swift as a guilty pleasure in his iPod playlist.
What makes Fessy anticipated from an athletic side is that he's a former college football player and standout high school basketball player, but who instead played in the not widely-covered Football Championship Subdivision outside the buzz of the conferences that compete for a College Football Playoff berth. This 6'5", 243 lb. tight end played four seasons for the University of Chattanooga in the Southern Conference, was a two-time All-American who clocked a 4.79 in the 40-yard sprint and graduated with a Psychology degree... but what cost him an NFL chance was tearing his ACL in his senior year. Otherwise we would've likely seen him first on Champs vs. Stars than Total Madness.
But seeing his chance to shine on Sundays slip away did open the door for Fessy to be on two reality series: the first being American Ninja Warrior in 2018 when it was held in Orlando (though we don't have footage of his run). But him being on the same show that gave us Ninja Natalie was a warmup act for him joining Big Brother in 2018: he saw his strategy entering the house as trying to find some loyal, use his social skills early on and save his physicality for later rather than showing it off from when they enter the house.
When he did, Fessy joined several alliances starting with FOUTTE (Five of Us Till The End) with him, eventual girlfriend Haleigh Broucher, Swaggy, Angie "Rockstar" Lantry & Kaitlyn Herman. They later merged with another tribe to form The Hive with them & Scottie Salton but, that too, also fell apart in spite of winning multiple challenges for Head of Household and Vetoes by way of plenty of bad moves. Fessy himself can be put to blame for a bonehead move when he became HOH when his alliance took out a member of the majority (including by a close ally of his, JC Mounduix), but he was tricked to nominating just two from his own team as the others turned on him & Haleigh and soon enough he was nominated for eviction and he was on the way out at the season's halfway point.
A consolation prize awaiting him was that he is still together with Haleigh more than a year after leaving BB20, an experience marked by his loyalty and trustworthiness despite coming to Total Madness as a rookie. But Faysal also has own brush with the law: when he was 21 in 2013, a wild night of partying saw him spend a night in a car with just three tires after hitting a curb and sleeping with no clothes on, and was cuffed by local police for indecent exposure.
🏠 KAYCEE CLARK Big Brother 20
Two times last summer as the Viacom/CBS merger was being brokered, DCBLOG featured Big Brother alumni gathering twice during Season 21, first in Orlando at the Hearts of Reality weekend, and then in Las Vegas for an unofficial wrap party after that controversial season ended. Several BB to MTV figures were in attendance at either or both events, including our second subject.
San Diego native Kaycee Clark was 30 years old upon her arrival to the Big Brother 20 house, though before heading to SoCal she was residing in the Phoenix area with her ex-girlfriend before breaking up. In her BB season bio, she saw herself as "fun, positive and athletic" and saw her life's words as "Think outside the box, take risks, and never give up." Before going to the desert, she had the same job working for the same grocery story since high school, while her Filipino mom met her Navy dad while on duty in the Islands... and daddy Clark has gotten to enjoy watching BB with his daughter, a family tradition for someone who describes herself as a self-described superfan.
Like Fessy, Kaycee has a common trait in playing football - but unlike him she actually made it into the pros for the San Diego Surge in the Women's Football Alliance. In playing for the club for six seasons there, she was a standout wide receiver where, according to OutSports, she scored a team leading five touchdowns in the 2017 season and lead her team in receiving yards. We've embedded below three highlight reels of her in action, and should we see a Hall Brawl or Balls In elimination this season and she gets voted in somehow, Kaycee she will be a prohibitive favorite in either because of her 5'10" frame... and anything related to running in the dailies will suit her well too.
As much as she has excelled on the gridiron, Kaycee saved her best game for the BB20 house up in L.A., and she came with a strategy of wanting to take advantage of, as she told CBS, being a "people person... to use my social skills to my advantage. I want to be as honest as possible in the game. I am a loyal person in real life and I want to stick to that as much as I can." There, her plans were to fly under the radar as much as possible in the early part of the season and align with those who she felt a good vibe with, while also trying to trust total strangers.
In the house, Kaycee got to employ that strategy in laying low for summer's first half before the first members of the jury that ultimately decides the season's winning houseguest started forming. She was part of the aforementioned house majority, the Level Six alliance with her, Tyler Crispen, Angela Rummans, Brett Robinson, Rachel Swindler and Winston Hines, who were in control of the game from the outset. While everyone else was making headlines, the low-key Kaycee was focused on the game aspect and it was in that second half that she decided to turn on the afterburner: in the Power of Veto competitions, she won five of the last six eventually securing her spot in the final three and won not only the last Head of Household challenge but also the jury's 5-4 majority for a $500,000 check.
Her win made Kaycee the second houseguest of LGBT orientation, and the first lesbian, to reign over the Big Brother house after Andy Herren five years earlier, as well as the third person of color and the second of Asian-American descent to win the top prize. She also had to overcome being nominated for eviction two times in one cycle thanks to the Hacker twist earlier on to eventually win the most competitions overall with eight -- Kaycee is one of four to have won POV five times in one season in BB history as well as one of seven to win that distinction three straight weeks, among other marks.
And, Kaycee has her own YouTube channel where we're sure she will be spilling plenty of tea over the course of this season. There, she's hosted her own webcast interview series where she chatted with BB21 winner Jackson Mechie, one-half of #Marlena in Elena from EOTB 3, and below - her chatting up with her fellow BB20 castmates before last year's Celeb Big Brother as well as her trip to Orlando for the Hearts of Reality event.
🌎 JENNIFER LEE Amazing Race 29
Something that has not been prevalent much on The Challenge or on most other MTV Reality shows has been the presence of Asian-American cast members, and one of its most successful alumni is Inferno II champ turned Hollywood big shot Jamie Chung. But the two War of the Worlds seasons last year gave us "Ninja" Natalie Duran who made both finals, and ride or die Dee Nguyen who did one better and won the whole thing last time out. And now, there's someone following their lead.
Jennifer Lee was 25 years old when she made the cast of Season 29 of The Amazing Race which aired in spring 2017 and saw total strangers be paired together. In her cast bio, she described herself as "spontaneous, confident and weird," and whose favorite hobbies included swimming, running on the beach and anything outdoor-related in her digs in Palos Vardes, CA outside Long Beach. Jennifer even had her own Survivor experience of camping in the Amazon for three days and having to live through sleeping in minimal surroundings.
On her Amazing Race journey, Jennifer was paired with a trainer for Team USA's Olympic rugby team, San Diego native Kevin Ng, and they began their global journey in L.A. and culminated in where Battle of the Exes 2 took place, Panama City, Panama. They started out well, but once they arrived in Central America they encountered trouble in losing their way two times in the city, eventually missing a Detour and ultimately became the first team eliminated.
Those who watch Amazing Race know that there's an immense amount of endurance and running that comes with every mission on that show, and Jenn's outdoor experience will suit her well as a rookie. But she did train for all this when she got to train with 2010s boxing champion Victor Ortiz (best known to boxing fans at the man who got KO'd by Floyd Mayweather after a headbutt in their 2011 fight & before the Money Man's outburst at HBO's Larry Merchant). Jenn got in contact with Ortiz before going onto the show to work on strength and conditioning, as she told TMZ Sports.
Besides that one week with Phil Keoghan & co., in essence Jennifer might be to this season what Esther was to WOTW2 and Alan was to WOTW1: fitting the mold of ordinary people like you & I competing as fresh meat of sorts. But that's hardly the case for a girl who's a full-time model in the land of the Instagram influencer: Jenn has over 230,000 IG followers and who has been featured in plenty in Reddit pages focusing on Asian beauty. Those who follow modeling know that maintaining that beautiful body and look all around is paramount, and that is a challenge in itself.
But there is also that one other national television experience Jenn has had prior to coming onto Total Madness: before her Amazing Race season she sat down with the voice of Azizi in last year's remake of The Lion King, Eric Andre, on his self-titled talk show on Cartoon Network's nighttime sibling Adult Swim (the same channel that featured Exes 2 and AYTO on Robot Chicken). There, Eric interviewed Jenn in an episode featuring Instagram models and in a show that epitomizes the cult nature of low-budget public access cable where Tom Green once roamed twenty years ago.
If Jenn's Amazing Race journey lasted all of one episode, then Panama is just a destination in a passport that has seen her travel to several exotic destinations as her YouTube channel has been able to tag along with her to Mykonos (where Kailah went for her successful mission to take down Lindsay Lohan), Bali and below, Australia as well as domestially in Hawaii and Miami. And in that last video, a special guest from the 2000's makes an appearance: the man behind MySpace.
🏠 #SWAYLEIGH Big Brother 20
As we wrote up top, DCBLOG originally featured the Big Brother couple known affectionately as Swayleigh back in December 2018 when Clinton Moxam and Uche Nwosu met up with Bayleigh and Swaggy C months after the couple famously got engaged on the stage of the season 20 finale before Kaycee won it all. You can find out more about Swayleigh in our Someone You Should Know profile on them in the link above.
For their time in the BB20 house, Chris (a former Div. I college basketball player who played in only two games for Jersey City-based St. Peter's University in the MAAC conference) earned a reputation for being one of BB's least-liked houseguests in recent memory and got the boot two weeks into that summer, but not before he made "Swaggy C" a household name. And for Bayleigh (a pageant queen who competed in the same Miss USA 2017 competition as AYTO Season 7 alum Lauren Roush), she endured a huge blow-up with Tyler after Haleigh told the house that was the Hacker and nullified Tyler's vote, leading to Bayleigh becoming the first member of the jury.
Below, that fight and the first mention of the Swayleigh name from their time being sequestered in the famed BB estate, followed by the big moment of them getting engaged on the season finale. And before he went onto War of the Worlds, Josh interviewed the newly engaged couple for PopTV, which airs the mother show's late night companion, Big Brother After Dark. A warning: the Bayleigh-Tyler fight contains adult language.
Bay and Chris have also let everyone in on their now public life thanks to the Swayleigh Gang YouTube channel, and below is a 2-part, two-hour documentary on their journey as well as them discussing her pregnancy and wedding plans. And this is not the only post we plan to do on them: Bayleigh also appeared on one of TV's most popular game shows where surveys and families rule the day, and Swaggy has, of course, a love affair with basketball including getting to know the boss lady of the Lakers... we'll let you in on both of those later in our Total Madness coverage.
Two years ago, the wheels of what would eventually become the media industry's newest power were set in motion by MTV exes deciding to bring those from Big Brother to come onto not only The Challenge, but also Ex On The Beach, before executives from Viacom and CBS began discussing about getting together once again. Like it or not, this has had a huge impact on how the show you love watching, as those who have followed Paulie, Josh and their fellow houseguests on those hot summer nights have pumped more viewership into The Challenge and more media coverage as well.
It's not surprising that four of Big Brother's most notable castmates have joined in on the fun here with Swayleigh, Fessy and Kaycee joining in on the fun, along with one of Survivor's biggest castaways in Jay on a stage that is now the most ideal time for this to begin with no sports going on and this being the only game in town. Add in the picture-perfect appeal of Jenn, and the versatility & lightheartedness of Asaf, and this season's rookie class doesn't seem like a bad one at all.
Tonight is the premiere of The Challenge: Total Madness, and of course we at DCBLOG will surround this season with our wall-to-wall and acclaimed blog coverage each week with SocialPulse episode reaction from the cast and fans like you on social media, our take on the traditional episode recaps and our signature original storytelling. Make sure to bookmark this site and for all of that and much more, and we invite you to like, comment and share in the DCBLOG experience and spread our word on the social media platform of your choosing, as well as subscribe to us too.
Unlike other avenues where coverage of MTV Reality is offered, our weekly episode content will typically not be posted directly after the episodes air, as a way to make it fair for those who are cord-cutters and don't watch the episodes live like most of us do. To this end, our episode coverage always begins on the weekend to allow those non-cable viewers all the time to catch up on watching their episodes on their schedule, before we bring them and everyone else Inside MTV Reality for our specially-curated coverage starting as early as Friday night.
And after taking some time off from live tweeting, DCNOW will return from its sojourn with my live & curated commentary on the premiere on Twitter @DC408DxNow. And after the premiere airs on the west coast, at 9:30PM PT ExtraTime will join an MTV alum as she tries her luck on TV's zaniest game show... see you for that, and Happy New Challenge Year everyone.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
🏠 FEYSAL "FESSY" SHAFAAT
Big Brother 20
Whenever anyone with a strong athletic background makes his or her way to The Challenge, it's always an anticipated arrival and our first subject fits this sentence well, though when a man nicknamed "The Stinger" made his national TV debut it was in a different environment and his day job was a little bit different.What makes Fessy anticipated from an athletic side is that he's a former college football player and standout high school basketball player, but who instead played in the not widely-covered Football Championship Subdivision outside the buzz of the conferences that compete for a College Football Playoff berth. This 6'5", 243 lb. tight end played four seasons for the University of Chattanooga in the Southern Conference, was a two-time All-American who clocked a 4.79 in the 40-yard sprint and graduated with a Psychology degree... but what cost him an NFL chance was tearing his ACL in his senior year. Otherwise we would've likely seen him first on Champs vs. Stars than Total Madness.
But seeing his chance to shine on Sundays slip away did open the door for Fessy to be on two reality series: the first being American Ninja Warrior in 2018 when it was held in Orlando (though we don't have footage of his run). But him being on the same show that gave us Ninja Natalie was a warmup act for him joining Big Brother in 2018: he saw his strategy entering the house as trying to find some loyal, use his social skills early on and save his physicality for later rather than showing it off from when they enter the house.
When he did, Fessy joined several alliances starting with FOUTTE (Five of Us Till The End) with him, eventual girlfriend Haleigh Broucher, Swaggy, Angie "Rockstar" Lantry & Kaitlyn Herman. They later merged with another tribe to form The Hive with them & Scottie Salton but, that too, also fell apart in spite of winning multiple challenges for Head of Household and Vetoes by way of plenty of bad moves. Fessy himself can be put to blame for a bonehead move when he became HOH when his alliance took out a member of the majority (including by a close ally of his, JC Mounduix), but he was tricked to nominating just two from his own team as the others turned on him & Haleigh and soon enough he was nominated for eviction and he was on the way out at the season's halfway point.
A consolation prize awaiting him was that he is still together with Haleigh more than a year after leaving BB20, an experience marked by his loyalty and trustworthiness despite coming to Total Madness as a rookie. But Faysal also has own brush with the law: when he was 21 in 2013, a wild night of partying saw him spend a night in a car with just three tires after hitting a curb and sleeping with no clothes on, and was cuffed by local police for indecent exposure.
💥 💥 💥
San Diego native Kaycee Clark was 30 years old upon her arrival to the Big Brother 20 house, though before heading to SoCal she was residing in the Phoenix area with her ex-girlfriend before breaking up. In her BB season bio, she saw herself as "fun, positive and athletic" and saw her life's words as "Think outside the box, take risks, and never give up." Before going to the desert, she had the same job working for the same grocery story since high school, while her Filipino mom met her Navy dad while on duty in the Islands... and daddy Clark has gotten to enjoy watching BB with his daughter, a family tradition for someone who describes herself as a self-described superfan.
Like Fessy, Kaycee has a common trait in playing football - but unlike him she actually made it into the pros for the San Diego Surge in the Women's Football Alliance. In playing for the club for six seasons there, she was a standout wide receiver where, according to OutSports, she scored a team leading five touchdowns in the 2017 season and lead her team in receiving yards. We've embedded below three highlight reels of her in action, and should we see a Hall Brawl or Balls In elimination this season and she gets voted in somehow, Kaycee she will be a prohibitive favorite in either because of her 5'10" frame... and anything related to running in the dailies will suit her well too.
As much as she has excelled on the gridiron, Kaycee saved her best game for the BB20 house up in L.A., and she came with a strategy of wanting to take advantage of, as she told CBS, being a "people person... to use my social skills to my advantage. I want to be as honest as possible in the game. I am a loyal person in real life and I want to stick to that as much as I can." There, her plans were to fly under the radar as much as possible in the early part of the season and align with those who she felt a good vibe with, while also trying to trust total strangers.
In the house, Kaycee got to employ that strategy in laying low for summer's first half before the first members of the jury that ultimately decides the season's winning houseguest started forming. She was part of the aforementioned house majority, the Level Six alliance with her, Tyler Crispen, Angela Rummans, Brett Robinson, Rachel Swindler and Winston Hines, who were in control of the game from the outset. While everyone else was making headlines, the low-key Kaycee was focused on the game aspect and it was in that second half that she decided to turn on the afterburner: in the Power of Veto competitions, she won five of the last six eventually securing her spot in the final three and won not only the last Head of Household challenge but also the jury's 5-4 majority for a $500,000 check.
Her win made Kaycee the second houseguest of LGBT orientation, and the first lesbian, to reign over the Big Brother house after Andy Herren five years earlier, as well as the third person of color and the second of Asian-American descent to win the top prize. She also had to overcome being nominated for eviction two times in one cycle thanks to the Hacker twist earlier on to eventually win the most competitions overall with eight -- Kaycee is one of four to have won POV five times in one season in BB history as well as one of seven to win that distinction three straight weeks, among other marks.
And, Kaycee has her own YouTube channel where we're sure she will be spilling plenty of tea over the course of this season. There, she's hosted her own webcast interview series where she chatted with BB21 winner Jackson Mechie, one-half of #Marlena in Elena from EOTB 3, and below - her chatting up with her fellow BB20 castmates before last year's Celeb Big Brother as well as her trip to Orlando for the Hearts of Reality event.
💥 💥 💥
Jennifer Lee was 25 years old when she made the cast of Season 29 of The Amazing Race which aired in spring 2017 and saw total strangers be paired together. In her cast bio, she described herself as "spontaneous, confident and weird," and whose favorite hobbies included swimming, running on the beach and anything outdoor-related in her digs in Palos Vardes, CA outside Long Beach. Jennifer even had her own Survivor experience of camping in the Amazon for three days and having to live through sleeping in minimal surroundings.
On her Amazing Race journey, Jennifer was paired with a trainer for Team USA's Olympic rugby team, San Diego native Kevin Ng, and they began their global journey in L.A. and culminated in where Battle of the Exes 2 took place, Panama City, Panama. They started out well, but once they arrived in Central America they encountered trouble in losing their way two times in the city, eventually missing a Detour and ultimately became the first team eliminated.
Those who watch Amazing Race know that there's an immense amount of endurance and running that comes with every mission on that show, and Jenn's outdoor experience will suit her well as a rookie. But she did train for all this when she got to train with 2010s boxing champion Victor Ortiz (best known to boxing fans at the man who got KO'd by Floyd Mayweather after a headbutt in their 2011 fight & before the Money Man's outburst at HBO's Larry Merchant). Jenn got in contact with Ortiz before going onto the show to work on strength and conditioning, as she told TMZ Sports.
Besides that one week with Phil Keoghan & co., in essence Jennifer might be to this season what Esther was to WOTW2 and Alan was to WOTW1: fitting the mold of ordinary people like you & I competing as fresh meat of sorts. But that's hardly the case for a girl who's a full-time model in the land of the Instagram influencer: Jenn has over 230,000 IG followers and who has been featured in plenty in Reddit pages focusing on Asian beauty. Those who follow modeling know that maintaining that beautiful body and look all around is paramount, and that is a challenge in itself.
But there is also that one other national television experience Jenn has had prior to coming onto Total Madness: before her Amazing Race season she sat down with the voice of Azizi in last year's remake of The Lion King, Eric Andre, on his self-titled talk show on Cartoon Network's nighttime sibling Adult Swim (the same channel that featured Exes 2 and AYTO on Robot Chicken). There, Eric interviewed Jenn in an episode featuring Instagram models and in a show that epitomizes the cult nature of low-budget public access cable where Tom Green once roamed twenty years ago.
If Jenn's Amazing Race journey lasted all of one episode, then Panama is just a destination in a passport that has seen her travel to several exotic destinations as her YouTube channel has been able to tag along with her to Mykonos (where Kailah went for her successful mission to take down Lindsay Lohan), Bali and below, Australia as well as domestially in Hawaii and Miami. And in that last video, a special guest from the 2000's makes an appearance: the man behind MySpace.
💥 💥 💥
For their time in the BB20 house, Chris (a former Div. I college basketball player who played in only two games for Jersey City-based St. Peter's University in the MAAC conference) earned a reputation for being one of BB's least-liked houseguests in recent memory and got the boot two weeks into that summer, but not before he made "Swaggy C" a household name. And for Bayleigh (a pageant queen who competed in the same Miss USA 2017 competition as AYTO Season 7 alum Lauren Roush), she endured a huge blow-up with Tyler after Haleigh told the house that was the Hacker and nullified Tyler's vote, leading to Bayleigh becoming the first member of the jury.
Below, that fight and the first mention of the Swayleigh name from their time being sequestered in the famed BB estate, followed by the big moment of them getting engaged on the season finale. And before he went onto War of the Worlds, Josh interviewed the newly engaged couple for PopTV, which airs the mother show's late night companion, Big Brother After Dark. A warning: the Bayleigh-Tyler fight contains adult language.
Bay and Chris have also let everyone in on their now public life thanks to the Swayleigh Gang YouTube channel, and below is a 2-part, two-hour documentary on their journey as well as them discussing her pregnancy and wedding plans. And this is not the only post we plan to do on them: Bayleigh also appeared on one of TV's most popular game shows where surveys and families rule the day, and Swaggy has, of course, a love affair with basketball including getting to know the boss lady of the Lakers... we'll let you in on both of those later in our Total Madness coverage.
Two years ago, the wheels of what would eventually become the media industry's newest power were set in motion by MTV exes deciding to bring those from Big Brother to come onto not only The Challenge, but also Ex On The Beach, before executives from Viacom and CBS began discussing about getting together once again. Like it or not, this has had a huge impact on how the show you love watching, as those who have followed Paulie, Josh and their fellow houseguests on those hot summer nights have pumped more viewership into The Challenge and more media coverage as well.
It's not surprising that four of Big Brother's most notable castmates have joined in on the fun here with Swayleigh, Fessy and Kaycee joining in on the fun, along with one of Survivor's biggest castaways in Jay on a stage that is now the most ideal time for this to begin with no sports going on and this being the only game in town. Add in the picture-perfect appeal of Jenn, and the versatility & lightheartedness of Asaf, and this season's rookie class doesn't seem like a bad one at all.
💣 💣 💣 💣 💣
Tonight is the premiere of The Challenge: Total Madness, and of course we at DCBLOG will surround this season with our wall-to-wall and acclaimed blog coverage each week with SocialPulse episode reaction from the cast and fans like you on social media, our take on the traditional episode recaps and our signature original storytelling. Make sure to bookmark this site and for all of that and much more, and we invite you to like, comment and share in the DCBLOG experience and spread our word on the social media platform of your choosing, as well as subscribe to us too.
Unlike other avenues where coverage of MTV Reality is offered, our weekly episode content will typically not be posted directly after the episodes air, as a way to make it fair for those who are cord-cutters and don't watch the episodes live like most of us do. To this end, our episode coverage always begins on the weekend to allow those non-cable viewers all the time to catch up on watching their episodes on their schedule, before we bring them and everyone else Inside MTV Reality for our specially-curated coverage starting as early as Friday night.
And after taking some time off from live tweeting, DCNOW will return from its sojourn with my live & curated commentary on the premiere on Twitter @DC408DxNow. And after the premiere airs on the west coast, at 9:30PM PT ExtraTime will join an MTV alum as she tries her luck on TV's zaniest game show... see you for that, and Happy New Challenge Year everyone.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
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