*** WARNING: One Video Embedded in This Post Contains Adult Language Not Usually Heard on Conventional Television... Parental Guidance is Suggested. This Post Also Contains Spoilers for Some Readers... Please Read with Caution. ***
BY DC CUEVA
You are not alone: I've been obsessed with Are You The One and Ex On The Beach since they began on MTV and is now into A Double Shot at Love this summer, while my mom & dad are longtime loyal members of Bachelor Nation. But you're not gonna believe this: since we're busy watching YouTube Vegas slot videos (like both my mom & dad are right now at this moment as this post goes to press), sports, news, my MTV obsession and other things, neither me nor my parents subscribe to any pay TV streaming service... same goes for premium channels.
But there is something of interest to those who follow those who fall in love on television thanks to browsing through the Instagram feeds several times each day. It's what happened last weekend as public places begin to open back up after that long & quiet spring caused by the corona crisis that brings us to the latest subject of Someone You Should Know: a star from one of the year's breakout hits across the whole TV dial - not just factual entertainment. And it comes from an aspect of the media that, at first, wouldn't be the first choice in the world of reality TV, but in the space of the first six months of this year has given us some delightful guilty pleasures.
But there is something of interest to those who follow those who fall in love on television thanks to browsing through the Instagram feeds several times each day. It's what happened last weekend as public places begin to open back up after that long & quiet spring caused by the corona crisis that brings us to the latest subject of Someone You Should Know: a star from one of the year's breakout hits across the whole TV dial - not just factual entertainment. And it comes from an aspect of the media that, at first, wouldn't be the first choice in the world of reality TV, but in the space of the first six months of this year has given us some delightful guilty pleasures.
The King Kong of streaming services, Netflix, might not usually come to mind at first thought when it comes to shows outside their specialties of top-notch drama and comedy. But they are, after all, the company responsible for giving us reason to binge-watch shows over the internet instead of on a traditional linear platform. Through that, they've contributed to the landscape House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why and Fuller House, among others... and instead of waiting week to week and sit through commercials, they are all made available to watch PBS-style all at once... often times while most of us are asleep.
But along with its massive success in scripted fare, Netflix is growing more and more in the non-scripted realm. The events of what went down in Tulsa over the weekend might bring to mind the infamous Fyre Festival, which was the subject of a scathing docu-pic last year as well as a similar film dropping at the same time on Hulu. There's the two Netflix collaborations Taylor Swift has had in a 2018 Reputation Tour concert film and the follow-up Miss Americana. And of course, Real World alum Karamo Brown is part of the new Fab Five of Queer Eye, whose fifth season debuted earlier this month in where his journey to stardom began in Philadelphia.
Knowing that the likes of Disney+, HBO Max and NBC's Peacock were launching in 2020 to join a field that also included CBS All Access, Pluto TV, Hulu and conventional broadcast & cable outlets, Netflix decided to dip its toes more into the reality sands. But to do that, it had to forgo its custom of making available an entire season of its series at once and spread apart episodes of two of its three high-profile series in this genre over three weeks.
PROGRAM NOTE
Along with covering this summer's MTV Reality love fest of A Double Shot at Love with Pauly D. & Vinny and the road to the final on The Challenge Total Madness, in a last-minute change DCBLOG will be scaling back our WRAP's of the summer portion of Season 3 of Siesta Key to a biweekly format; we'll be covering last week's premiere and tomorrow's episode 2 in a combined offering starting with this coming week's blog wave and continue every other week, replacing our planned biweekly Challenge episode recaps. We'll also be covering the controversy surrounding the ejection of Alex from the Siesta Key cast as part of an ExtraTime Special to come in due course.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
But along with its massive success in scripted fare, Netflix is growing more and more in the non-scripted realm. The events of what went down in Tulsa over the weekend might bring to mind the infamous Fyre Festival, which was the subject of a scathing docu-pic last year as well as a similar film dropping at the same time on Hulu. There's the two Netflix collaborations Taylor Swift has had in a 2018 Reputation Tour concert film and the follow-up Miss Americana. And of course, Real World alum Karamo Brown is part of the new Fab Five of Queer Eye, whose fifth season debuted earlier this month in where his journey to stardom began in Philadelphia.
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| Casts of The Circle (top) and Too Hot to Handle (below) - courtesy Netflix |
This strategy began back in New Year's Day when Netflix made waves with the U.S. version of the trend-setting British series The Circle: a show described as a cross between Big Brother and Catfish. Contestants were sequestered in their own apartments and socially distanced from other players (before that term became more well known in these times) in which they could only communicate with each other through a social media app and their desktop, and created totally different identities to try to win over support and take out other players. In the end, New York party boy Joey Sasso was the last man standing and received the spoils of $100,000.
The second (and the only one to be made available all at once) was Too Hot to Handle: one that might be that run-of-the-mill dating series but it was anything but. Its premise was to challenge the season's multinational cast of 14 singles to create genuine connections without resorting to hooking up. A virtual assistant dictated this game worth $100,000 where, if a single was caught in the act, the cut of the final prize purse would be deducted - think, a mix of Are You The One and Stranded with A Million Dollars. The ten who remained in the villa and who obeyed the code of not having sexual relations with one another shared in the money, including Camden, NJ's Sharron Townsend who previously appeared on the steamy 2017 MTV show Undressed.
Sandwiched in between those two shows and fittingly premiering on Valentine's Day is our subject: Love is Blind, which follows along the lines of The Circle but is in many other ways different from Too Hot and a show also produced by its show's producers, Married at First Sight. Here, this show is done speed dating style, but where the thirty singles chosen are offered a much different experience in dating than what they are used to. They are placed in different pods so they don't have any in-person relations with their dating partner and without distractions from anyone else to look for their perfect match without seeing each other, and like The Circle the men and women are sequestered separately.
If they decide to pursue things further, they can opt to propose to their virtual date, but they only have ten days to do so. And it's only when they head into the real world and to a couples retreat by the beach that they meet up with their partners for the first time in person, followed by a Bachelor-style visit to various family members back home. And it all culminates with wedding day in deciding to get hitched or to split up before saying "I do," for which two couples go to do exactly that. And the hosts of Love is Blind are no doubt familiar to MTV viewers in 98 Degrees' Nick Lachey and former TRL host & his wife Vanessa Minillo.
The Lacheys felt a bit of nervousness along the way, as plenty of drama heated up in Atlanta where the show was filmed for most of the season and on the couples trip in Mexico - and it was filmed over a year before it was brought into our living rooms. In the end, it was Detroit's Lauren Speed & Maine's Cameron Hamilton who found true love as they became a perfect match as they are still together, as are Georgia natives Amber Pike & Matthew Barnett who also got hitched and are happily in love. Venezuela's Giannina Gibelli & Germany's Damian Powers did split up before wedding day, but got back together when the cast reunited for their post-reunion finale in early March.
Someone who also got engaged but was one of three couples who split up before coming to the altar is our focus here: Mark Cuevas was a 24 year-old fitness trainer from Chicago when he walked into the Love is Blind pod for the first time. Despite being that young, he stated his intentions of wanting to settle down with a ring on his finger, though he didn't have much luck finding girls at the gym when working on his abs during the day and getting down at the bar after dark, but he does have a passion of wanting to help others.
When it came time to meet those eligible suitors who he could interact with through sound behind the light wall, Mark hit it off almost out of the gate with regional manager Jessica Batten, who lives 100 miles to the east of Chicago in Rock Falls, IL outside of the Quad Cities. He was also competing for her heart along with Barnett, but they didn't know that she was ten years' Mark's senior, aged 34. Like any other good love triangle that forms on these shows and as it was for the other couples, there was plenty of drama with Mark, Jessica & Barnett, as seen in their flashback video below.
By the time the ten-day deadline to get proposed came to the LIB house, it was Mark who beat Barnett to get to pop the magic question to Jessica, and she got to say yes. But that's only half of the story: once the guys & girls finally met each other on their retreat in Playa del Carmen (south of Cancun), things blew up between Jessica and Amber at the club. But that was a minor item compared to what went down in the wedding chapel: when the pastor asked her if Mark would become her husband, Jess told him and Mark, "I cannot. I'm so proud of us for getting through the ups and down. I don't think either one of us is ready to take this on."
The bride admitted to Entertainment Weekly that she didn't have a good time with the man who she rejected, and the two have not talked to one another after that and after the reunion. But two viewers most interested in this were former NFL'er turned Bachelorette suitor Clay Harbor who he met up at a club party during the season, and Demi Lovato where she happily confessed, "I freak out over Mark from Love Is Blind. It's just really funny because you can't really get anybody in the entertainment that would be cool because everybody is in the entertainment business. So you have to get somebody who is a politician or from a reality show." And it left Mark saying, "I'm fangirling."
Nearly four months after he had to endure reliving that walk down the altar that became a trip into heartbreak hotel, Mark is continuing to relish in newfound fame with nearly 900,000 Instagram followers while now settling in where LIB was filmed in Atlanta. And he is plowing along with being a rapidly growing name in the celebrity fitness training field and staying fit while staying in touch with family and friends during this COVID lockdown. And it was just earlier today that Mark posted his first YouTube video: a Q&A on what has happened for him since he became a household name, as well as a chat with AfterBuzz.
But the weekend before last, Mark flew up to Cleveland, Ohio for a gig at Barley House, a bar located in downtown in between Public Square and the Cleveland Browns' stadium as bars and clubs begin to open back up with a bit of caution during this time. He met up with those who saw him go through that heartbreaking moment on the LIB finale, and that's where we have our MTV link -- ironically enough, the person he met up with also went through trauma on dating television.
In 2017, we met Gianna Hammer on Are You The One? Season 5 - that season that didn't win the money but gave us those like Taylor, Derrick H. and Kam among others. She forged a relationship with Indianapolis native Hayden Weaver that lasted over a year after they entered season's first truth booth (and emerged a no-match), but though it didn't work out for them long-term it did produce an all-AYTO baby that they share custody of, where yesterday Hayden spent Father's Day with soon-to-be 2-year-old August Luck.
Gianna is also known in this site's circles as one of the two AYTO alumni (Ashleigh Morghan of Season 1 the other) who collaborated with another Internet star, YouTube influencer Rachel Levin, on a Disney Princess video before being cast. And just recently, Gianna was the bachelorette in an Instagram contest, Dating from Home, where one of the two men competing for her affection was Daniel Vilk from AYTO Season 7, who after leaving the house went onto the YouTube version of 90's hit Singled Out.
Gianna captioned on Instagram, "When @markanthonycuevas_ comes into @barleyhousecle and I have a fan girl moment 🤗 #loveisblind #barleyhouse." The one who she ran to after that first truth booth, Michael Halpern, wrote in the comments, "You're too young for him," but other AYTO alumni including Nicole (Season 6), Kaylen (Season 4), Ellie (Season 2) and Truth Booth queen Kiki from Season 3 all showed their awe at AYTO and Love is Blind meeting up.
Next stop: MTV, perhaps? Hopefully Mark can have a better outcome at that then when he looked for love the first time out.
The second (and the only one to be made available all at once) was Too Hot to Handle: one that might be that run-of-the-mill dating series but it was anything but. Its premise was to challenge the season's multinational cast of 14 singles to create genuine connections without resorting to hooking up. A virtual assistant dictated this game worth $100,000 where, if a single was caught in the act, the cut of the final prize purse would be deducted - think, a mix of Are You The One and Stranded with A Million Dollars. The ten who remained in the villa and who obeyed the code of not having sexual relations with one another shared in the money, including Camden, NJ's Sharron Townsend who previously appeared on the steamy 2017 MTV show Undressed.
 |
| Mark (3rd from bottom right) with cast of Love is Blind and hosts Nick & Vanessa Lachey (Netflix) |
If they decide to pursue things further, they can opt to propose to their virtual date, but they only have ten days to do so. And it's only when they head into the real world and to a couples retreat by the beach that they meet up with their partners for the first time in person, followed by a Bachelor-style visit to various family members back home. And it all culminates with wedding day in deciding to get hitched or to split up before saying "I do," for which two couples go to do exactly that. And the hosts of Love is Blind are no doubt familiar to MTV viewers in 98 Degrees' Nick Lachey and former TRL host & his wife Vanessa Minillo.
The Lacheys felt a bit of nervousness along the way, as plenty of drama heated up in Atlanta where the show was filmed for most of the season and on the couples trip in Mexico - and it was filmed over a year before it was brought into our living rooms. In the end, it was Detroit's Lauren Speed & Maine's Cameron Hamilton who found true love as they became a perfect match as they are still together, as are Georgia natives Amber Pike & Matthew Barnett who also got hitched and are happily in love. Venezuela's Giannina Gibelli & Germany's Damian Powers did split up before wedding day, but got back together when the cast reunited for their post-reunion finale in early March.
When it came time to meet those eligible suitors who he could interact with through sound behind the light wall, Mark hit it off almost out of the gate with regional manager Jessica Batten, who lives 100 miles to the east of Chicago in Rock Falls, IL outside of the Quad Cities. He was also competing for her heart along with Barnett, but they didn't know that she was ten years' Mark's senior, aged 34. Like any other good love triangle that forms on these shows and as it was for the other couples, there was plenty of drama with Mark, Jessica & Barnett, as seen in their flashback video below.
The bride admitted to Entertainment Weekly that she didn't have a good time with the man who she rejected, and the two have not talked to one another after that and after the reunion. But two viewers most interested in this were former NFL'er turned Bachelorette suitor Clay Harbor who he met up at a club party during the season, and Demi Lovato where she happily confessed, "I freak out over Mark from Love Is Blind. It's just really funny because you can't really get anybody in the entertainment that would be cool because everybody is in the entertainment business. So you have to get somebody who is a politician or from a reality show." And it left Mark saying, "I'm fangirling."
Nearly four months after he had to endure reliving that walk down the altar that became a trip into heartbreak hotel, Mark is continuing to relish in newfound fame with nearly 900,000 Instagram followers while now settling in where LIB was filmed in Atlanta. And he is plowing along with being a rapidly growing name in the celebrity fitness training field and staying fit while staying in touch with family and friends during this COVID lockdown. And it was just earlier today that Mark posted his first YouTube video: a Q&A on what has happened for him since he became a household name, as well as a chat with AfterBuzz.
But the weekend before last, Mark flew up to Cleveland, Ohio for a gig at Barley House, a bar located in downtown in between Public Square and the Cleveland Browns' stadium as bars and clubs begin to open back up with a bit of caution during this time. He met up with those who saw him go through that heartbreaking moment on the LIB finale, and that's where we have our MTV link -- ironically enough, the person he met up with also went through trauma on dating television.
 |
| IG @GiannaHammer & @BarleyHouseCLE |
Gianna is also known in this site's circles as one of the two AYTO alumni (Ashleigh Morghan of Season 1 the other) who collaborated with another Internet star, YouTube influencer Rachel Levin, on a Disney Princess video before being cast. And just recently, Gianna was the bachelorette in an Instagram contest, Dating from Home, where one of the two men competing for her affection was Daniel Vilk from AYTO Season 7, who after leaving the house went onto the YouTube version of 90's hit Singled Out.
Gianna captioned on Instagram, "When @markanthonycuevas_ comes into @barleyhousecle and I have a fan girl moment 🤗 #loveisblind #barleyhouse." The one who she ran to after that first truth booth, Michael Halpern, wrote in the comments, "You're too young for him," but other AYTO alumni including Nicole (Season 6), Kaylen (Season 4), Ellie (Season 2) and Truth Booth queen Kiki from Season 3 all showed their awe at AYTO and Love is Blind meeting up.
Next stop: MTV, perhaps? Hopefully Mark can have a better outcome at that then when he looked for love the first time out.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️
PROGRAM NOTE
Along with covering this summer's MTV Reality love fest of A Double Shot at Love with Pauly D. & Vinny and the road to the final on The Challenge Total Madness, in a last-minute change DCBLOG will be scaling back our WRAP's of the summer portion of Season 3 of Siesta Key to a biweekly format; we'll be covering last week's premiere and tomorrow's episode 2 in a combined offering starting with this coming week's blog wave and continue every other week, replacing our planned biweekly Challenge episode recaps. We'll also be covering the controversy surrounding the ejection of Alex from the Siesta Key cast as part of an ExtraTime Special to come in due course.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
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