DCBLOG ExtraTime: A Big Brother Looks for The Anonymous... with a Survivor and a Meme King

BY DC CUEVA 

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The Cookout with Big Brother show host
Julie Chen-Moonves on BB23 finale night (IG)

Of the group that comprises this year's MTV Battle of the Eras Challenge cast, three-fourth's of the field had their start as MTV'ers on The Real World, Road Rules, or were initiated on the two Fresh Meat seasons. The entire Fourth Era group comprises of only one native MTV castmate, while everyone else came to us from either Survivor, overseas shows, Love Island U.S. prior to its breakthrough on Peacock, or in this case a summer tradition in Big Brother as it rages on with its twenty-sixth season.

Season 22 three years ago came during a pandemic, tense times in this country, and in a new era for the show: the events of the prior year and of previous seasons beforehand saw CBS make a pledge to make their reality show casts be inclusive and reflective of our diverse society. And it was almost right out of the gate that Big Brother made history: six houseguests - all of whom black -- all secretly worked together as a team to make it to the end together... thus, The Cookout made reality history by the time they partied away at the wrap parties and at Todrick Hall's house after that Fall 2021 finale.

The past couple years have seen four members of that group compete again on the CBS iteration of The Challenge USA, and only one of them in Kyland Young graduated onto the MTV version... and after debuting on Battle for a New Champion he is now on Season 40 alongside two champions in Kaycee Clark and Josh Martinez, and the posterboy of this crossover in Paulie Calafiore. But they are not alone when it comes to Big Brother alumni extending these 15 minutes beyond summer: a fellow member of the Cookout also returned to TV a week ago... this time somewhere else on the cable dial.

The DCBLOG Challenge WRAP: Battle of the Eras - The Premiere Part 1

BY DC CUEVA 

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Photo: Instagram @TheChallenge

Hello and we have sadly arrived at the last week of these dog days of summer '24, and for many of you -- we hope you are going through things just fine after summer vacation from your hometown school or college. And after this blogger got to enjoy the world's best in Paris, the focus for those who love competition have turned their attention to many other things -- football of the oval & sphere varieties, baseball (and its overseas cousin of cricket), The W, and the fifth major pro sport of MTV's The Challenge, and the fittingly titled Season 40 of Battle of the Eras.

This year marks a quarter-century since the very first proper edition of this Real World and Road Rules spinoff series began when alumni of those two pioneering shows faced off while traveling the country, and things have changed quite a bit since. This year's MTV Challenge is marking its fortieth iteration as those from that first era of the series are joining those from other generations for this ultimate version of the show... a true all-star cast where the most recent rookies of this group - Nurys, Horacio and Olivia - were so young back then when the likes of Mark, Katie and Darrell first competed.

And as they and the rest of the forty competitors come to Vietnam for this historic season, they are about to embark on a journey that has the largest cast in Challenge history with $1 million going to the victor once the winter comes around. But first up, they have to navigate their way through something that has been a rarity throughout this series but for the first time it's a night challenge that kicks off this season - a paired challenge taking place on the lake. Whoever comes away not with power will face the ultimate prospect of being sent home first -- and this time, there will be a handful that will ultimately fly home.

Though it's later than planned due to my high priorities away from here, DCBLOG is properly marking our tenth anniversary season of Inside MTV Reality with this fortieth Challenge. And we are entering a new era here as we are reimagining the way we cover the episodes every week: yes, you'll still see the best of the reax from the former Twitter to the episodes and big moments... but we're combining that with looking in at the week's top moments and other things as we present this first proper edition of The DCBLOG Challenge WRAP. Well make that, the first two weeks of this season -- see you after the break as we kick things off with part 1 of a two-parter as we kick things off.

The Look: The Caucus Challenge - Double Trouble

 CAUTION:  Videos Embedded Below Contain Adult Language and Content Intended for a Mature Audience. Viewer Discretion is Advised. 

BY DC CUEVA 

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Though it's coming later than planned for reasons not to be elaborated here, this fall DCBLOG is finally getting this chance to properly mark our 10th anniversary season... and we're expanding our horizons to feature not just MTV coverage, but other pop culture content too. But some things just never change in the course of the past decade on this beat, including getting to add more to covering our most recurring subjects from the YouTube world, of all things.

Pics Courtesy: IG @Dre.Media

As the milestone fortieth season of MTV's The Challenge takes place in the current Battle of the Eras, it's worth noting that it was only seven years ago that we commemorated the thirtieth season... and had things not turn out the way they did then it could have been better for how it turned out. But even with that controversial summer & fall, we at this site can still thank the Dirty 30 Challenge for letting this blogger be introduced to one of the most loyal friends I have never met in person, but one I'm good friends with in the social media world -- and he can thank the internet for that fame too.

That would be Andres Rodriguez, who we first met not just when he that Challenge XXX cast back in 2017, but for what he got to do in his spare time before premiere week: create a homemade YouTube franchise where he serves as creator, host, producer, editor, sometimes competitor and the figure which this world revolves around. The Caucus Challenge began all the way back in his high school days, and which has continued well after he got that diploma in his New Jersey hometown. It is only part of an empire that also includes docuseries The Life We Live and a pandemic-stricken summer with his six best friends, but the original project is one that we featured a blog review for each season that's come on since that first post.

And as this summer winds away, it was back during the pre-Super Bowl week earlier this year that Dre once again invited everyone back to Secaucus for the latest chapter in his magnum opus: this time, for something totally different. Here, it's his show's own take on that Challenge of two years ago that introduced us to new power players in a game that he likes to call, Double Trouble.

Summer of Sports '24: An Appreciation for the Best in the Biz

BY DC CUEVA 

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All Photos: My Own, from both Thanksgiving 2014 and DC Snapchat

For most of the time on here over the past ten years, DCBLOG has dedicated time, resources and effort to cover the world of MTV Reality TV, and becoming a gold standard in covering The Challenge and so many other shows that I watch as both an avid fan as well as one who's covered it for the passion project that you're seeing here. But one of the key aspects of how I've gotten to cover this world for this long is actually something that comes from a surprise source... so much so, it is actually one of the small handful of content I am most comfortable in along with those guilty pleasures -- one that was been on my mind for two weeks we got to experience this summer, and for which gave us that good feeling inside of watching the world's very best.

Sports represents one of my four biggest passions (along with music, Las Vegas and our primary beat - for which a new season of it just began), and one that's been embedded in my blood since I was a kid growing up as a '90s kid. In this case, the facet of how things operate on this site doesn't come from a particular favorite pro team -- not even the Bay Area teams that I passionately follow, but from of all things -- a company that covers the action at the venues as both an observer and as a giant in its field. And here, they also happen to share the same vision and philosophy that I have with these posts: creating quality work and telling great stories like those they got to tell from that event.

And for one who would only read a book provided that it would fall into any of the big four subjects above, last year I discovered that I could buy those same books I love to read in an eBook form and not have to worry about filling up the library in my room as much. There, the first digital book I've ever purchased was from the man who helped create a dynasty in sports media... and where his influence was felt on the only time in my life that I spent at least part of the one holiday every year where the feeling of family is most prevalent. And that's only the start to an appreciation for the best in the sports media biz -- one that's taken a full decade for this story to marinate until its publication ten years later.

Summer of Sports '24 - Inside The Biggest TV Event of All

BY DC CUEVA 

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If you know me personally or through social media, it's no secret that for these two weeks or so you'll have to get used to me being crazy about that one event I look forward to more than any other in the sports world. For 17 days every two years, fans, viewers and an entire world come together to watch the excitement, human drama and the spectacle that is the Olympic Games... and we are at the halfway point of its latest version in Paris, France amidst so much anticipation for what could be the most memorable Olympiad ever -- one that has had the world buzzing since it began even before the Opening Ceremony.

A tweet years ago by longtime TV medical correspondent, Bay Area native Dr. Nancy Schneiderman sums it up: "More people watch The Olympics in the US than the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL combined. Amazing." From a broader standpoint, it's the only sports event with an equal viewership ratio split of 50-50 among both genders, and both the Summer & Winter Games are one of three major sporting events on U.S. television (the Kentucky Derby the other) to regularly have a larger ratio of viewers among women than men. And considering the enormous interest in women's sports in the past year being coupled with so many storylines coming in, a record viewing audience is anticipated for Paris 2024.

Like many other sporting properties - unlike most other TV programming, The Olympics is one that brings families & friends together: both those who are avid sports fans like myself, and those casual viewers who might not know everything about sports but are suddenly thrust into it all just by the pure spectacle. This includes those who might not be into football & historically preferred Downton Abbey or the Puppy Bowl than the game (but who were drawn in by the romance of the world's biggest pop star and a tight end), but are into gymnastics, figure skating and the athletes' most inspiring stories. In fact, the Olympics typically is the only event that come close to the NFL as far as TV ratings & viewership go in the fragmented television landscape... and no matter the country, Olympic broadcast rights are among the most-coveted anywhere in the media world.

But when you go inside the broadcast operations either inside the International Broadcast Center or at the respective venues, there's so much more to what viewers see on television, on radio, on their computer and on their mobile device. It's the finished product to as much as seven years' worth of planning, four years of preparation and hard work by thousands of people working for both the host broadcaster, Olympic Broadcasting Services, and the respective rights holding broadcasters from countries around the world. Their mission: capture the power, strength, speed, skill and spirit of competition at its best; tell the stories of athletes who most might not know but out of nowhere become the most well-known people in the world; and to provide viewers the best seat in the house, thanks to the most complex and dynamic broadcast operation anywhere.

Inside MTV Reality: Welcome to The Challenge 40 - Battle of the Eras

BY DC CUEVA 

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And so on this summer's Sunday night, we say Bonjour to all of you... away from this site -- and I have been away for most of this past year-plus, this blogger has just enjoyed his biannual sojourn into enjoying his absolute favorite event, and the only one that I truly binge watch. And just as it was as the world gathered together again after all that time apart three years ago, yours truly is not easing up a bit from the Closing Ceremony of the just-concluded Summer Olympics as he now makes that transition from Paris and the non-stop Games viewing marathon that just ended, straight into his favorite TV show whose newest season is taking place half a world away from the City of Light and love. Most fittingly, the subject of this post just marked the conclusion of these wonderful two weeks by hosting its premiere party at where the Summer Games flame will next be lit in four years from right now.

Photos Courtesy: Jonne Roriz/Paramount

A dozen years ago after years on MySpace and my private Facebook page for family and friends, I began my public social media life signing on my presence on the former Twitter platform the same week of the U.S. Olympic trials and of the most chill Real World season ever. It was after all that that I decided to take a risk and get myself into watching MTV's The Challenge... and like anyone curious as to what he was getting into, the fifth major pro sport and I almost immediately clicked. Here we are twenty-seasons later -- main MTV show and many spinoffs, and now we have arrived on the verge of perhaps the most-anticipated season yet of the reality television world's original & longest-running competition series.

Over the time that I have been following this show since that 2012 Battle of the Seasons, the abundance of competitors who have come onto the scene have been many: big-name legends who were there at the start of this show back in 1999 and the early 2000's, right up to those from all around the world who have come onto this franchise in the past few years... and plenty who I have followed the entirety of their eras. With that deep a well of talent, it was perhaps only a matter of time before a season like this was conceived to mark this milestone season: players from different eras of the show coming together for a season that is surely a can't miss this fall -- and worth it to buy a conventional TV package just to watch it all live.

Imagine... a season that has all (if not, most or many) of your favorites all in one place: one who's won this seven times, another with five but who comes here having placed Challenge Nation's flag atop the house of The Traitors, and those from an earlier time who got their start riding in a recreational vehicle across America. There's also several Challengers who are well-rested from their springtime battle down in South Africa -- from two frenemy rivals to one still in search for title #1. And we even got those who we have followed the entirety of their MTV runs since this site began: a video vixen who came close to winning it all last time out, a master manipulator & his much-derived partner who've come in to defend their titles, and one playboy who made headlines even before the buzz for this season began.

You've enjoyed a good deal over the past two weeks of the world's very best... now, get yourself set for the dessert and the fourth meal. After the break DCBLOG takes our first look at Season 40 of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras... but first, this little teaser of what's ahead over this fall and winter.