DC ExtraTime: Playing The EXGAMES

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

With The Challenge: Total Madness now in the books, now begins the speculation of what next season for the show might be. It's still a long way off of who might be given the call to go into what will sure be the strangest season ever for the show as it now tackles a boat load of things that we really don't even want to elaborate on right now. Whatever the case, it has to follow what might not be the best season ever after tonight's back-half of the reunion, but one that has kept those hungry for some competitive action entertained during this COVID-cased quarantine lockdown.

It was a year ago at this time that we were in the midst of the summer offseason in between the two War of the Worlds seasons, and during the summer of 2019 Facebook's revival of The Real World brought three seasons in Atlanta, Thailand and Mexico City to social media. But from the MTV front - and aside from Big Brother 21, love was in the air in the revolutionary all-LGBT themed Season 8 of Are You The One? and Season 3 of the U.S version of Ex On The Beach. Once again, familiar MTV faces from fairly recently in alumni from AYTO, The Challenge and Real World to one of the biggest in Making the Band's Aubrey O'Day were part of the drama as were #Marlena of BB19.

Pic Courtesy: ExGames on YouTube

However, when it came to those figures who made connections among everyone in last year's EOTB house, the one romantic ecosystem that stole much of the buzz surrounded that of Cameron Armstrong, who three years ago competed on the musical competition series Boy Band and then returned to the ABC network in a small role of a nurse on the cop drama The Rookie. He found himself in a love triangle with two exes - one of which was still living with him in Ariana Nova, and another who she crashed his getaway date with singer Alexis McNeal. And he had to face the music with both of his exes when the threesome were summoned into the Shack of Secrets, and where awaiting them was a day in The Exes Court with Judge Devin Walker, and where another ex, Jocelyn, came walking in as a witness.

We might not know at this early stage what the theme for Season 36 of The Challenge might be, but if there is a season that might involve lovers that might come down the road, then shockingly two of the three figures might figure into the mix of who might be casted. That belongs to those former exes who still have feelings for each other if it just on a amicable level than most other pairs of EOTB exes, and it's all because of their own homemade challenge series fittingly called, ExGames.

A year before Cameron was cast on Ex On The Beach, he and Ariana made a YouTube channel that's posed the question of who might excel in a series of at-home challenges involving some of the same crazy things that we're used to when we watch MTV's The Challenge, or when the singles try to win themselves an AYTO getaway date. We all know of all of those prospective couples who are exes and who might have a chance to excel in a future Battle of the Exes 3 if it ever pops up... but Ariana & Cam might have an inside edge if that ever comes to fruition.

The first video of the series in September 2018 (and we won't spoil the result on here) saw the couple take on that classic game of being dared to consume an awkward food or drink mix: in this case, it's worms, crickets and dirt all being mixed into a smoothie drink.

Challenge #2 saw #StrongSquad and #NovaNation engage themselves in a classic spelling bee, just like those that might come up in a crucial junction in one of TJ Lavin's favorite trivia challenges. This spelling bee has words that are both difficult and easy, but whoever comes away the winner gets the chance to shoot a taser gun at the loser who has to endure the shock of not getting those words right.

It took for after the afterglow of their EOTB stint for Cam and Ariana to resume the ExGames when, once again, they had to endure that battle with wits and brains. Only this time, they had to answer their questions correctly while also having to take as many as 25(!) shots.

And most recently, these exes took a cue out of what EOTB alum turned MTV mom, Taylor Selfridge, got to do with Jake Paul: going into a pool/tub of icy-cold water at 39° (or just about 4° Celsius). For their version of the Ice Bucket Challenge, Cam and Ariana have to get trivia questions right in order to not stay as long in the water, which also includes Scrabble-like letter tiles. Again, watch and enjoy... and you may see them again, this time on the big show.

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