DC ExtraTime: Celeb-Exes On The Beach Go Dating in the Caribbean...

 FOLLOW-UP  Angela and Nelson's

 Couples Therapy (October 2019)

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

In where some of DCBLOG's very best work lies, we have uncovered many of the most interesting and fascinating stories involving the people of MTV Reality television. A lot of these posts have covered appearances those who star on shows ranging from The Challenge to the Shore world and beyond make on programs outside of the linear MTV channel itself, along with music videos, movies and even YouTube. But one of the most notable -- perhaps the most infamous, even -- of these appearances in recent years took place on the one form of TV anyone & most especially those who are strapped for cash can receive with a rabbit ears antenna and don't have to pay a single cent for, even in this streaming world.

While we were going about what turned out to be the last full year of the old normal, there was one romance that garnered much attention in this community of D-list celebrities who star on TV's most buzzed about shows in this genre. A guy who began his rise to fame on arguably the most-renowned alumni class of his original show six years ago found his perfect match not on Season 3 of Are You The One, but on MTV's other entry to reality dating goodies when he fell in love with a Season 1 original of the U.S. version of global franchise Ex On The Beach. And in a world where couples in this field come and go as often as clicks of a remote control, so began the kind of relationship that was tailor made for MTV, and perhaps even more as it turned out.

While Season 34 of The Challenge, War of the Worlds 2 was airing in the fall of 2019 as did Season 3 of EOTB, Nelson Thomas and Angela Babicz stole both the show and the buzz from those two shows by coming onto a two-part episode of Dr. Phil to air out their off-and-on relationship with America's favorite psychologist. They first met up in New York two years earlier when they shared a room with four people linked to them by those several degrees of separation in Derrick Henry, Tori Deal, Jordan Wiseley and Cory Wharton, along with many of their fellow Challengers. Our two subjects would later compete alongside those four on a future Challenge... and that's where the twisted story of #Nelgela begins -- one that we never even thought we would do a follow-up on two years later.

DC ExtraTime: Angela & Nelson's Couples Therapy

A Follow-Up to AYTO Meets Dr. Phil

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Two years ago, DCBLOG featured the man who possesses the top-rated daytime TV talk show, all part of a stable of highly-popular syndicated programming of what will soon be a teammate in the new Viacom/CBS alliance. And what happened there over a week ago was enough for us to bump The Challenge and Ex On The Beach off the front page into the week's big attraction for those who follow MTV Reality, and a perfect opportunity to introduce casual viewers to this world.

Dr. Phil McGraw has had quite a life in going from growing up in the Southwest to becoming a psychologist, and then to an extremely successful career in that field of offering medical and mental health advice to people of all ages. A partnership with Oprah Winfrey not only saw him partner with her both on her show and in counseling during a high-profile court case with the daytime queen, but landed him his own TV show. Dr. Phil began its 18th season last month amidst much attention when Jackass alum Bam Margera appeared on his show amidst the rehab drama surrounding the former MTV star, and would then celebrate its 3000th episode by inviting back its most memorable guests.
   It was on two separate occasions in the summer of 2017 that we featured Dr. Phil for a unifying reason: two members of the same Are You The One? cast being featured on his show, but just as being members of the audience. Las Vegas native Brandon Tindel and San Diego dental assistant Jasmine Pendleton were paired in the fifth week's matchup ceremony on Season 2 of AYTO in fall 2014, a week after the show's very first blackout ever: no lights recorded in any nighttime light show to see if they have recorded any perfect matches in the quest to win $1 million and true love. And Brandon's brief cameo on Dr. Phil came a day after a clip of him quitting Rivals 3 that caused host TJ Lavin to go off the deep end appeared during a Challenge retrospective special.

When we featured Brandon and Jasmine back then, we never even thought that the day would come for people who were on any MTV reality show would become actual guests sitting next to Dr. Phil on set instead of watching it from the audience. But as we got to turn the calendar to October, this very item would come to pass, where the guy who made his Challenge debut the same season as Brandon joined America's favorite psychologist on set. And he was joined by a girl he met on an MTV show nearly a year earlier when they were on the second season of Ex On The Beach. So began a turbulent relationship with so many ups and downs, it was only a matter of time before it became worthy of it being covered not by a traditional end-of-season reunion, but by of all things, daytime TV.
   Officially, it is classified as the 3005th & 3006th episodes of a talk show that serves as America's window on relationships and mental health which, very recently, officially turned adult age. But for those who are used to watching all the drama that packs any hour of an MTV show, you might say that this may count as just another hour of it even though it airs on local, free-to-air TV instead of on anything goes cable. And those who got to see it were witness to an episode that might as well be called Angela & Nelson's Couples Therapy, starring Angela Babicz & Nelson Thomas.