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.

Inside MTV Reality: The Challenge Invades Big Brother All-Stars

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

We've just had Halloween and THAT event last week, but for those of us who follow reality TV year-round, we've all finally have had a chance to take a breather in this unique time in our world after having a sense of normalcy being restored for most of this year. We witnessed Johnny Bananas conquer The Challenge once again as it provided us with much needed escapist programming to take our minds off of the world outside our windows, which made its way to Total Madness when controversy saw a recent champion get blacked out by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Season 35 of the fifth major pro sport was really the only big "sport" that was going on in the course of a spring and early summer of 2020 of this COVID world, and just shortly after came a rite of summer. After five seasons of having those who have stepped inside its famous house, CBS stalwart Big Brother took center stage among avid fans of the non-scripted space and those who watch the show every year. That includes those from Challenge Nation who joined the party watching the episodes with Julie Chen-Moonves and the live feeds if they're lucky to fork some money for CBS All Access, which added past Challenges, Real Worlds, other MTV shows and the UEFA Champions League to their lineup.

This was the first Big Brother season to take place in the new ViacomCBS, but the first since summer 2005 that the Eye network and MTV have been on the same team under the same corporate umbrella, and twenty years after that first season during the summer that helped put the Eye network back on the map. Of course, the seeds of the eventual integration of the two networks' parent companies can be traced back to when The Challenge needed to add some fresh blood to the competitor list, and they looked to former Big Brother houseguests to help pave the way for other reality shows outside the MTV fold to join in. Since then, seventeen of them have crossed over to doing not only the past four Challenges, but also three seasons of the U.S. version of global sensation Ex On The Beach.

Those of you who followed the fortunes of Josh, Natalie and the rest of those former houseguests from Vendettas to Total Madness joined with them and everyone else to watch BB All-Stars, the show's 22nd regular season but the second to cast an entire group of past alumni to take up residency in America's most heavily-watched summer house with over 100 high-def cameras to watch their every move 24/7. And you can tell from everyone buzzing about it on your social media feeds that, once again, things were back to normal in how your fellow followers got to analyze every move from their couches as once again, it took over our lives. And there were a couple familiar faces as after five seasons of it invading The Challenge, it was time for Big Brother to return the favor.