DC ExtraTime: Mama Day Walks Into a Daytime Soap...

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

All Photos Courtesy CBS

As we ring in the new year this long weekend, we can all be relieved that 2020 is finally over at last, and that we can only hope and pray for good things to come in the next 52 weeks. But if there is something that you can remember about the year that's just gone by from an MTV sense, it's that the shows that we cover here are finally getting the attention they deserve from the mainstream media and from more of the fandom that are obsessed with these shows.

   This is most especially true of The Challenge, where last year's Total Madness was really the only sport that was going on during the shutdown of all sporting activity in this country during the pandemic, and where we are three episodes into Double Agents, which was safely filmed in Iceland. And judging by the two facts that it's led all of cable TV on Wednesday nights last year in the key demographics (including the duel of two rival wrestling promotions in the WWE's NXT developmental circuit and the upstart All-Elite Wrestling) and two seasons joining Netflix in addition to being on CBS All Access (the soon-to-rebranded Paramount+), more and more fans are joining in the fandom of Challenge Nation.

   Reflective of the increasing awareness of this The Challenge and all of MTV Reality getting this increased exposure is not just the merger of Viacom and CBS that was completed over a year ago, but also those who have been on these shows appearing on shows outside of their original series both within and outside the system. In the interest of the casual viewers who we target on this site in addition to the hardcore fans, we have made it a point to feature each and every appearance of personalities from this world on this site - and there was so many of them in 2020 alone.

   And that includes what went in between both last season and the current one airing right now: two of those Challengers who were on past seasons of this show of recent memory were chosen to return to their roots in a different game than what they got themselves into. And it's with one of those stars that brings us to our first DCBLOG post of the new year, and something that went down during this holiday week off in Challenge Nation when Double Agents didn't air a new episode on New Year's Eve Eve.

As we have been trapped at home during the year that's just past, it has brought into focus what it's like to have sort of a long summer vacation of sorts, or putting ourselves in the shoes of those who have nothing to do when we're usually at work or school. It's here that, as much as it has been the #1 network in primetime for most of TV's existence as well as late night the past few years thanks to Stephen Colbert, CBS has long been just as large a powerhouse during the daytime hours.

   The Eye is host to two popular family-friendly game shows in Let's Make a Deal and The Price is Right, where we featured AYTO alumni Ryan Malaty and Diandra Delgado dressing up and getting down on the former and Real World & Challenge alum Trey Weatherholtz winning a surfboard on the ladder. The network's entry into daytime discussion, The Talk, features Sharon Osbourne - herself an MTV alum as part of the rock star family that was the channel's highest-rated series before Jersey Shore. And two days every March, these shows and two others mentioned below are preempted for the opening rounds of the annual binge-fest of college basketball known as NCAA March Madness.

   But it's in the once-ubiquitous genre of serial soap operas which have formed the foundation of CBS Daytime's 30+ year reign as leader of the daytime pack. It's likely your grandparents remember shows that stretch back into the golden age of the medium like As The World Turns, Guiding Light, The Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow. The familiar strains of an instrumental piece that accompanied a highlight reel of Olympic legend Nadia Comaneci's perfection in Montreal has long signaled the start of every episode of the daypart's highest-rated show, The Young & The Restless, chronicling the lives of the families that call a Milwaukee suburb home.

The sister show of Y&R and also created & produced by its creators of the late William J. & Lee Phillip Bell is The Bold and the Beautiful, which first went to air in the spring of 1987 and replaced an political-themed soap set in Washington long before the soon-to-end reality show we've had to go though the past few years. Bold takes place in a much more different setting than its Midwestern counterpart: Los Angeles and in the world of high-end fashion and a haute couture business owned by the Forrester family. Its patriarch Eric, played by John McCook, has been on the show from day 1... so has Katherine Kelly Lang, who portrays central female character Brooke Logan.

   B&B is the youngest of the soaps still left on the networks, even though it's just a relatively young 34 as the genre's lone half-hour series. Though its sister show is the most-watched in the U.S., the younger sibling is the most-watched globally as the 36 million figures also factors in those watching overseas, including down under on ViacomCBS sibling Network Ten in Australia. It's also credited with a key milestone: it was the first American TV series to resume production during the pandemic when cast & crew returned to their set at Television City in Hollywood in mid-June, utilizing the industry's new stringent guidelines from regular testing to mask wearing when cameras aren't on.

   And over the years, various characters from Y&R and B&B have crossed over into the other's territory... and so have those from that summertime guilty pleasure.

When we look back to these past few years, it's now becoming a common thing for your favorites in Challenge Nation and all MTV Reality to be on different shows on both that channel and elsewhere. Cory Wharton is now on his 7th Challenge, but has also been on The Real World, Ex On The Beach and Teen Mom OG and got an MTV tattoo on How Far is Tattoo Far. Just off winning title #7, Johnny Bananas is spending his offseason from Double Agents hosting his third season of NBC's 1st Look. And there are a fistful of many other cameo appearances from people past and present that we have written about on here that don't need to be hyperlinked on here for time and space reasons.

   And in between the Madness and the beginning of the current Challenge, there was Big Brother All-Stars: it began in early August rather than in late June due to the pandemic which put just about every film and TV production on hold. Originally supposed to be just the usual bunch of fresh meat being cast for any season, the attention turned to past alumni for the second season to have past houseguests return... and those who were chosen and alternates were all placed under mandatory two-week quarantine before entering the house. And one of them was Bayleigh Dayton from BB20, straight off of her finals appearance on Total Madness but who was evicted about a month in.

   The other to make her way from The Challenge and back into the Big Brother house was Da'Vonne Rogers, who first made waves on season 17 back in 2015 where, even though she was the second houseguest to be evicted, she was first showed America how vibrant she is. She was so liked by the public that she deserved a second chance, and a year later the mom of two & poker dealer emerged out of a bunch of luggage as a late entry into the BB18 house. As it was the previous summer, Mama Day made a huge mark in reading her roommates and forming several alliances before being evicted midway through the season and joining the jury.

   Then there was what went down in between her stays in the summer share: in connection with the first Champs vs. Stars competitor to join the regular Challenge series in Jozea, Da'Vonne was his partner on Final Reckoning and you can remember them and Paulie & Natalie going back & forth between the main house and the Redemption House, and her getting into it with Shady Shane. And who can forget her sophomore season on War of the Worlds of being paired with a man who's made some headlines during the holidays in Bear? But there also two another TV appearances: before her BB18 visit she competed on a Big Brother-themed primetime Price is Right, and then in 2017 she competed alongside two-time houseguest Paul Abrahamian on a TV version of popular gaming app Candy Crush.

   Given everything we saw from her two Challenges and her two previous stays in the Big Brother house, we knew it was almost a sure thing that Da'Vonne would be chosen to be on All-Stars. And it was no surprise that the fandom would fall in love with her once again: she formed alliances with Bayleigh & other past houseguests, and we rejoiced with her when she notched her first competition win in gaining a Power of Veto. She also helped add some light to the Black Lives Matter movement in her & Bayleigh's sharing their common experiences with racism during that summer of upheaval. And it's because of her being open to discuss those matters going on outside the house, along with her personality and other things, that won her America's Favorite Houseguest at season's end.

When we got reacquainted with her upon her reentry into the Big Brother house back in early August, the four total seasons and two guest appearances she's made on reality TV in a five year's span inspired Da'Vonne to take up a new occupation: becoming an acting coach. Those of us who follow the exploits of those who've appeared on The Challenge or other MTV Reality shows and went into an acting career are few but memorable: Mike the Miz has done several movies, Jacinda Barrett became an established actress after Real World London, and of course there's Jamie Chung.

   Given that the Los Angeles area has been home to Big Brother from day 1 and it also being the backdrop for The Bold & The Beautiful, the past few years have seen houseguests take a trip into the world of Forrester Creations for some guest appearances. The one who finished 2nd to Kaycee on Bayleigh's original BB season, Tyler Crispen, and fellow BB20'er Brett Robinson are among the small handful to appear on B&B following their stay in the house (for those curious, both shows are not based in Television City, as Big Brother takes place at CBS Studio Center in Studio City in the San Fernando Valley).

   Just before Christmas, Mama Day gave her fans an early holiday present when she shared the big news of her becoming the latest from the show that made her a household name on Twitter and her social media channels:

I’m soooo excited !!! Catch me on @BandB_CBS MONDAY DECEMBER 28th !! pic.twitter.com/U4uRH7D7U1

— Da’Vonne Dianne Rogers ✊🏾 (@DayDaVonne_) December 21, 2020

And below, a clip of her guest-starring role in The Bold & The Beautiful, playing the role of a member of a local catering company asked to help feed employees at Forrester's in the midst of the events of the past year that's taken a toll on businesses large and small, especially during what is traditionally their biggest time of year of the holiday shopping season. Let's just say that even though the clip is just 23 seconds, it makes the world for those who have followed Da'Vonne from day 1... and already some fans in the social verse are asking for her to gain a recurring role in the world of the soaps.

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