DC ExtraTime: The Life We Live Takes Texas

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

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

All Photos Courtesy IG @Dre.Media

Since this DCBLOG site began covering MTV Reality eight years ago, aside from weekly episode coverage we also cover the world at large through its prism, and we've often branched out of the world that TV's most-talked about reality shows to cover other things related in one way or another to this community. That includes the amazing content created by someone who had the pleasure of meeting his favorites from The Challenge when it launched its first $1 million season back in the summer of 2017, and who's also made a name for himself as we have followed his entire odyssey on this site.

There, Secaucus, NJ native Andres Rodriguez got to meet his favorite player, several-times Challenger, Real World alum and Lohan Beach Club queen Kailah Casillas, among others at a workout event before the premiere of The Challenge XXX. Some of his good friends also came along for the trip across the Hudson River to New York City, most of whom took part in competing on The Caucus Challenge -- a homemade version of the show they love which has translated into ten seasons of them competing in Dre's backyard, plus a special spinoff last year during a family summer camping trip.

The pandemic that wrecked last year's best laid plans caused things to take a turn for something different for what the star of this show likes to call his company Dre.Media, as Andres turned his focus to a spinoff of Caucus: a Real World-inspired spinoff that brought together him, friends and strangers for a weekend retreat from real life back home for what is simply more than just your ordinary vacation. The Life We Live has brought him and his fellow travel mates to Florida, the Poconos, Upstate New York, New England and during winter break this past year to the Rocky Mountains.

And in each of those five instances, TLWL has seen plenty of drama go down, as it often does when the cameras are on and where things that happen back home also make the flight from the Tri-State Area (and now, beyond). And this Spring Break, they've once again made their way out west... this time to the state where everything is big: Texas.

DC ExtraTime: The Life We Live - Rocky Mountain Style

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

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

All Photos Courtesy IG @Dre.Media

Winter --- it's perhaps the most magical of the four seasons when the first dusting of snow begins just as we ring in the Christmas holiday season. But as evidenced by what happened down in Texas recently, it can also be just as excruciating as a sweltering 100° summer heatwave when temperatures fall well below average into the freezing range when things get out of control. But you just can't help but stare in awe of whenever that mixture of ice and rain fall out of the sky, and for a time we all become kids again putting together snowmen, do snow angels and take advantage of the slopes to go skiing and snowboarding.

It is in this backdrop that offers the compelling setting for the biggest season yet of a YouTube show put on by someone who I first discovered here four years ago. There that summer of 2017, he got to meet his favorite member of MTV's The Challenge, Kailah Casillas, and the rest of her Season 30 cast... so did some of those who he collaborated on for his homemade Caucus Challenge series in his Secaucus, New Jersey backyard. And ever since we first featured him then, Andres Rodriguez has continued to bring an increasing local and national fanbase some guilty pleasure television that is created, produced and edited all by himself... and one which has also increased by one show to a Real World-like spinoff.

And while we were all getting snowed during this winter of 2021 as well as what we hope will be the last weeks & months of this seemingly endless but now almost about to end COVID lockdown, over the holidays Dre decided to go big once again during the midst of this pandemic. This time, he invited along some of his friends and asked a bunch of newbies to join him for the biggest season yet of his more chill but equally as dramatic sister series of Caucus. And if the first four seasons of it brought its fair share of drama and fun in New York State and Miami, then The Life We Live has no doubt saved its juiciest stuff for the group's first-ever trip outside of the Eastern Time Zone and into the Rocky Mountains.

DC ExtraTime: The Caucus Challenge Goes to Camp and to Beantown

*** CAUTION: Certain Videos Embedded Below Contain Adult Language & Situations Not Intended for a Younger Audience. Parental Guidance is Suggested. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

IG @TheAndresRodriguez

As we are finally into the final 48 hours of 2020 and anxious to ring in 2021 tomorrow night, those who we've been thinking about right now and a lot during the holidays are our family and friends. For many of us, we have not spent much time in person with either or both of them this year because of the pandemic and whose only contact have been through virtual parties on Zoom or digitally. But for those of you who have been healthy and being extremely aware of this reality we are in now, then you have gotten to cherish that quality time... that includes the subjects of this year's last ExtraTime.

Ever since we first introduced them three years ago, Andres Rodriguez and his tight-knit group of friends from Secaucus, NJ have been regulars of this DCBLOG site. It's for that we have chronicled the entirety of his signature series for his YouTube channel, The Caucus Challenge, and its Real World-inspired spinoff The Life We Live. Yes, it's likely that you have been obsessed with watching those new MTV Challenge and Are You The One seasons that they have on Netflix and CBS All Access all this month, but this clique has also forged their own identity for great television in creating ten Caucus Challenges and three prior seasons of TLWL before this year.

In a perfect world, we would be enjoying watching the eleventh & twelfth seasons of Caucus by now... but of course there were other plans. So instead, what the franchise's creator & host had in mind earlier this summer was something different and something familiar. And on a night where Double Agents is taking this rare Challenge Wednesday off for the New Year's holiday, we'd thought we'd give you a suggestion for what to watch, and share you how Dre & Friends spent their Lost Summer of 2020.

DC ExtraTime - The Caucus Challenge Presents: The Life We Live

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Instagram @Dre.Media

Back in 2017 while the first $1 million season of MTV's The Challenge was going on, the keen eye of ours caught hold of a made-for-internet competition in the backyard of the house of its creator, who also happened to be a Challenge superfan. Secaucus, NJ native Andres Rodriguez got a chance to meet the cast of XXX: Dirty 30 during premiere week three years ago as part of the fandom that joined them for special workout sessions to help train the next generation of challengers who also double as some of its biggest fans (that includes our latest Someone You Should Know subject, "Big Dave" Olmann).

The reason why we were drawn to Andres in the first place was that he was the creator of The Caucus Challenge, a series of homemade Challenges created for his YouTube channel featuring his high school friends turned competitors as they looked for something to do during spring and summer breaks when not busy with their studies. It was our original story on Caucus back in 2017 that had a huge impact on its creator, and inspired him to do several more installments of the series even after his big moment of walking the graduation stage of accept his diploma. And we would've been featuring a new season of the big show, had it not been for the panic of a global pandemic dominating this twisted 2020.

Last year, Dre decided to broaden his horizons beyond the ten-or-so seasons that he's produced of The Caucus Challenge and create a spinoff series along the lines of what you enjoy about the show that began reality TV as we all know it. Instead of players competing in his backyard, it's venturing out of his house and to places outside of a town better known as a major hub in sports circles and being mentioned occasionally on Jersey Shore, starring some of those who he's known his life and who competed on Caucus, and just living their lives. So began, The Life We Live.

DC ExtraTime: The Caucus Challenge - Rivals Roulette

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Instagram @Dre.Media

Two years ago during The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30, DCBLOG found out about something that was unique and one of a kind that took place in the New York City suburb of Secaucus, New Jersey. It was there that an MTV superfan who has had many opportunities to meet the MTV Reality family at numerous reunion tapings and events, Andres Rodriguez, had invited some of his friends from high school, his neighborhood and everyone else's friends to his house... not for the usual watch parties among friends that take place every week in places across this country of ours, but for something totally different. It has become of one of our most popular stories, a recurring one at best, for perhaps the most unique story we could find anywhere of MTV fandom taken to a whole new level.

For nine seasons dating back a few years to when he was still attending high school, Andres and his friends have taken part in a made-for-YouTube web series inspired by The Challenge that saw the weekly challenges that he had seen his favorite challenger, Kailah and the rest of those he's gotten to cross paths with, be brought into his house's backyard in a town that's well-known for its ties to the media aspects of America's four major sports leagues and not far from the venues that make up the Meadowlands complex. It would become known as The Caucus Challenge... and when he saw this site's original story on it in fall 2017 - which tied in with him meeting the Dirty 30 cast during premiere week, Andres was touched by how what he was able to do received recognition even from a not as nationally known but well respected west coast blog site 3,000 miles away, and soon it got the attention of both MTV and the castmates who he's gotten to hang out with many times since.

Since that first post on The Caucus Challenge, Andres hosted and produced two additional seasons of the show where upgraded the series on the production side to match the same on-air look as the MTV show for Season 8 of Deception and Season 9 of Prime Revival, where the product only got better as did the competition and twists on the field and the intrigue that takes place in between with those who have competed in many seasons before and those who are joining the game for the first time. Because of the climate of the Northeast and New York City, as well as the demands of the school year and work, seasons of his show are not filmed during the fall or winter... meaning that he would have to wait for spring to arrive to film seasons of it between that time and the summer.

In a way, it almost felt like baseball season of sorts for this in this community: there's the long wait through fall, the agonizing winter and them having to wait until March for the feelings to come once more. But in the case of this year, it would make the long wait for a landmark season in this show's history a more juicy one that would be worth sitting through many months for. It's Season 10 of The Caucus Challenge, and a season unlike any other: a hybrid of a popular MTV Challenge format, and a popular Vegas casino game: Rivals Roulette.

DC ExtraTime: The Caucus Challenge - Prime Revival

A Follow-Up to Caucus Challenge (1 & 2)

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

As we begin the fall cycle of covering MTV Reality, very soon DCBLOG will post its 800th overall article - another milestone for a site that signed on in the summer of 2013 and has devoted time, effort and resources to covering your favorite reality shows. And, we've just posted our 200th article of 2018 here - as continue to cover all the episodes, offer the Pulse of the moments that get us talking, and offering our distinctive angle on the shows you love and the people who star in them... and sometimes, featuring fans just like you who help drive the conversation beyond the episodes.

A year ago while we were fixated on The Challenge XXX, posts on social media were brought to our attention about something unique and offbeat that was taking place on the outskirts of New York City in the New Jersey suburb of Secaucus. There, we discovered a fan from that town who met the Dirty 30 cast before it premiered last year, Andres Rodriguez, and traced his MTV Reality fandom all the way to the backyard of his own house, and perhaps the most unique thing we have ever uncovered in our five years... and one of our most popular stories.
   There, he invited high school friends, both those who he knew and who the competitors had ties to, as they competed in a Challenge-like series created for his YouTube channel but inspired by the shows they watch each week, like you and us. Using his strong videography skills and taking the competitions we watch each week to his backyard, The Caucus Challenge created a stir in his hometown, his high school and elsewhere. And when we featured it on here last year, Andres was deeply impacted by how his work got our recognition and made getting through a tough freshman year in college easier to take.
   During the week that the current MTV Challenge season of Final Reckoning debuted back in July, we did a follow-up on the latest season of Caucus Challenge: there, Dre upgraded the series to have the same graphical style that the MTV show has, as Season 8: Deception saw Challengers tested to their limit and having to evade every twist thrown at them and sacrifice what they got to win it all. In the end, rookie Sergio Castillo bested a field of rookies, several veterans and past champions to emerge victorious to take the trophy.

At the end of our bit covering Deception, Andres teased to everyone that the latest season of The Caucus Challenge would come earlier than you think... Now comes that next chapter: Prime Revival.

DC ExtraTime: The Caucus Challenge - Deception

A Follow-Up to: The Caucus Challenge (Sept. 2017)

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

We hope you, the MTV fans, are enjoying what has already been a big Premiere Week, with the returns of Catfish and Wild N' Out to come, and the countdown now on to Season 7 of Are You The One? - Season of Fate. Last night was the premiere of Season 32 of The Challenge: Final Reckoning in South Africa, and we'll look at last night's explosive opening act here in a few days, along with the debut of Season 2 of Floribama Shore. But to tide you over at midweek, something special...
   Of the nearly 700 posts DCBLOG has done covering MTV Reality since summer 2013, this site has covered every single episode and big moment of the fifth major pro sport and Jersey Shore's Southern cousins, along with Are You The One, Real World and Ex On The Beach, among others. We've also offered glimpses into the people and stories of this special community and the world through this prism, and unique angles into the most buzzed about programming on a channel as young as you are.

But perhaps, in the five years this site has covered this beat like no one does, no single post has had as quite a big impact on fans like you than the story we did last September when we discovered a unique gem in the YouTube atmosphere. There, we traced last year's New York launch tour by The Challenge XXX cast and one of those who met them, a fan of MTV Reality and summer staple Big Brother, Andres Rodriguez, to when he invited his friends in his hometown of Secaucus, New Jersey to do a web series inspired from what they religiously watched those series.
   The Caucus Challenge brought those who Andres knew from high school and their fellow friends from all over this New York suburb known to sports fans where NBA and MLB replay decisions go down there, to the backyard of his house for seasons that film for one day. Then, it is edited in just about the same MTV style to then be posted on his YouTube channel weekly, and it has become much bigger than just a local competition. And our post on this show last fall had a strong personal impact on him and those involved in the series, which is now one of our most-viewed posts on here.
   After Andres took a break from doing these shows for the tall task that is freshman year in college in Orlando, Florida, this past spring over his Spring Break he returned to doing what does best, and again he sent out an invitation to those who were ready to handle what he has in store next. And if the first several seasons provided a good prelude, then they had no idea of what they had in store for what would come in the always intense game of Deception.

DC ExtraTime: The Caucus Challenge

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

Hello there and welcome to DCBLOG's trek Inside the MTV Trifecta during this busy week for those who love reality TV. The past two nights have seen the start of Dancing with the Stars, the finale of America's Got Talent, and the winner of Big Brother 19 will be chosen at night's end, and we're one week away from the debut of Season 35 of the venerable Survivor. And we have a busy week ourselves here: last night was Episode 10 of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30, while tonight is the premiere of Are You The One? Season 6 from New Orleans. Of course, we'll be covering both of them for you in our traditional time of over the weekend, but to tide you over we have this bonus edition of ExtraTime to share with you to put you into this mood for this week's posts.

Often in the soon to be 500 posts we've done here and most on some of television's most exciting reality series, DCBLOG has spotlighted some of the people who drive the conversation of the shows that matter more than any other constituency: the fans. We have featured people of the Trifecta fandom like yourselves in the past, where we've featured firsthand looks at the various reunions, an extraordinary fan becoming a lifelong friend of The Challenge's most loved & hated man, and others who have gotten to meet those who entertain us each week and interact with us in between episodes.
   This story might be the most unique and dynamic story involving those like you who watch these shows with me and everybody who discuss this ecosystem and interact regularly with its hundreds who've been on our screens since it began 25 years ago this summer. And if you thought that just being a fan who only watches and discusses The Challenge is one thing, then wait until you hear this.

Imagine being a fan of the show you love watching the most out of any other, and thinking of an idea so radical it begins to take the web and social media by storm. That's exactly what's been happening with our subject, where a fan who lives just outside New York City was inspired by what we've seen on the fifth major pro sport and got together some of his friends from high school to compete in their own version of The Challenge.

   On this dedicated edition of ExtraTime, we take a look at the wildest and most exciting backyard competition: The Caucus Challenge.