DC ExtraTime: A Ring and Number Two for Chey Not Shy

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

IG @CheyNotShy

Even before the events of the past year would rear its ugly head on us, 2020 and 2021 was anticipated in a more gentile and positive way in the MTV Reality community due to the record array and number of announcements of engagements and arrivals of new babies. And there has been a slew of them taking place in the past 24 months with those who we've enjoyed on The Challenge, Jersey and Floribama Shore, Siesta Key, Are You The One, Ex On The Beach and The Real World... but don't even make us try to mention each and every of those in this story, although this is the first of two to come.

But when it comes to those on TV's most-revered reality network getting pregnant and becoming new parents, there's one other MTV show where those instances are worthy enough to make tabloid front page news than Teen Mom, and twelve years ago this month saw the birth of a franchise that's actually longer than Jersey Shore when predecessor series 16 & Pregnant made its debut. Teen Mom 2 is currently into its 12th year with Jade Cline of Young & Pregnant (aka Teen Mom 4) replacing Chelsea Houska who departed the series last year, joining originals Kailyn Lowry and Leah Messer, and relative newbies Briana DeJesus and Ashley Siren who joined TM2 from other spinoffs of the show.

For those of us who have been more than entertained by two seasons of The Challenge airing this first half of the year - and who also follow three other shows in that first paragraph, there is reason for some of you to at least have some interest in Teen Mom. It's for the fact that the rest of the MTV Reality world is represented in this sorority by the ecosystem that surrounds the franchise's first person of color to be a leading figure in either the OG or TM2 shows - and who's also a close friend of Ashley's. And in what's been an amazing past six months for Cheyenne Floyd, it has culminated with saying "yes" to a proposal and welcoming her second kid in the space of only thirty-five days.

DC ExtraTime: Another One for Chey Not Shy...

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Instagram @CheyNotShy

Three years ago on the pre-Christmas weekend in mid-December, the tight-knit MTV Reality family was sent for a tailspin by one stunning announcement from a man who had just came back from filming two back to back seasons in two different locales. Then two-time Challenger and Real World alum Cory Wharton returned from a social media hiatus of filming Vendettas in Europe and flying straight to Hawaii for the first American season of Ex On The Beach to announce that a paternity test taken in fall 2017 revealed that he is a father much to everyone's surprise. And exactly two years later, it was deja vu all over again: before going out to compete on Total Madness, he and the girl he met on that first Ex season there in Hawaii revealed that were expecting, and he would become a father to two kids.

The second time around was no surprise when it was announced in October of last year, but Cory and Taylor Selfridge had to adjust to having to give birth to and raise their new kid Mila Mae during the midst of this unprecedented pandemic, just as so many others both in the MTV inner circle and out have had to grapple with during this crazy time. But we never forget that first one, which brought into focus the brief relationship he had with Are You The One Season 3's Cheyenne Floyd on The Challenge: Rivals III in 2016, and helped to bring the flag of Challenge Nation into uncharted waters: joining the Teen Mom OG sorority when Ryder K. was still a 1-year-old. Of course, this gave reason for the MTV King to be given have a channel logo as a tattoo for being on four different series.

In seeing Chey's Instagram photos in the last few months gave her followers and the Teen Mom fans some idea or hints of what might be happening, but last week saw it be confirmed in a social post. And last Thursday and almost three years to the day of Cory's daddy reveal, she posted the following:

DC ExtraTime: Introducing Baby Mila Mae

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

It may feel like long ago now, but last fall there was another bombshell that had the world of MTV Reality shook once again. Though this time, there wasn't the kind of surprise that accompanied the first time that Cory Wharton announced to everyone that he was a dad once again, as many of those who've competed with him on many Challenges and shared an MTV show with him are now tackling life's biggest challenge of parenthood & raising kids when they're not entertaining us on our screens.

It was in mid-October that he and a girlfriend who he met on Ex On The Beach, Taylor Selfridge, granted US Weekly an exclusive scoop where they would announce that, in spring 2020, they would be expecting her first baby and his second kid in the span of just under three years. And for the second time in that same timeframe, everyone in the social universe once again had reason to give them congrats, all before he would fly out to Prague to film the current season of The Challenge, and his first time competing on the show in over a year.

IG @CoryWharton_IG
& @Taylor.Selfridge

In the six months since, they had the opportunity to host a gender reveal party some of their MTV friends including those in line to join the family for Total Madness, as well as everything that comes with expecting the newest member of the increasing family for both Cory & Taylor, which we've had a glimpse of on Teen Mom OG and with more to come there. But obviously, the ladder trimester of this pregnancy fell during this unprecedented time of the whole country being on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was only when they found out that they would have a baby girl that it would be the only time they would celebrate the new entry with friends.

Regardless, everyone not only in Challenge Nation, but everyone else in the broader MTV community, have had this time of year of spring circled on our calendars well in advance, for that Cory would find himself on two separate shows airing on the channel on back-to-back nights, something that's a rarity in TV circles among programs that air just once a week: Teen Mom on Tuesday, and The Challenge on Wednesday. And this only adds more to the universe that surrounds the mom of his baby, Cheyenne Floyd, which brought them to the Teen Mom universe, joining the OG's of the series.

While Episode 4 of Cory's return engagement of The Challenge took over our attention at midweek last week, the focus for Cory & Taylor were on the final hours of her nine-month pregnancy. Last week's episode of Teen Mom saw him finding out the news of her having a baby, and in the hours before that saw them getting woke by a 3.8 earthquake that struck the Southland after midnight late on Tuesday. But last Wednesday night as Total Madness was airing out west, she was in labor as they were due to deliver her new baby... and at 9:17PM, twenty-two hours after arriving at the hospital and two hours after her water broke, they proudly welcomed baby girl Mila Mae Wharton.

The now 2-time father got to share the news for the first time on Instagram live in him saying, "She's here! Everybody's safe, everybody's healthy. Taylor's fine, the baby is gorgeous." Afterwards, they got to enjoy the first hours and days of her new life as a mom in private before yesterday, when on also on Instagram they officially welcomed their new kid to the social media universe. And in the captions that accompany the IG pictures below, the new parents got to officially welcome Mila Mae to everyone, one that the new dad got to say, "I MAKE SOME PRETTY BABIES!!!!", and the new mom calls of her new bundle of joy, "my little chunky butt."

Inside MTV Reality: Cheyenne's Teen Mom OG Journey

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

As we're now in March, it's springtime and the shows that began in the fall on the network side of things get more juicier at the ladder half of their seasons. And during what's been a most eventful first few months of 2020, reality TV is offering us some much need escapism: Season 40 of Survivor: Winners at War, Big Brother Canada north of the border, and the juicy drama down in Siesta Key which tonight wraps up the winter portion of season 3. And after we cover that on here this weekend, our focus will shift straight to The Challenge: Total Madness which begins in three weeks from now, and that will come as good news to a competitor on that season, which brings us to this...

In the midst of Women's History Month, next Tuesday Teen Mom OG returns as the franchise enters its second decade in its various forms, dating back to when the two generations of women the show has featured the past ten years were first introduced on predecessor series 16 and Pregnant in summer 2009. The first group of moms -- Amber Portwood, Catelynn Lowell & Maci Bookout -- will welcome back the MTV cameras once again as they navigate parenthood and life as adults in their mid-20's, ten years after their debut when they were at the rightful age of sweet 16 and as teenagers. Also joining them is Teen Mom 3's MacKenzie McKee, who joined this sorority last season, and where this spring we'll be seeing her deal with family tragedy as her grandmother Angie Doughit passed away over the holidays after a valiant and courageous battle with brain cancer.

But there is one reason why many of those who identify themselves as part of Challenge Nation -- and viewers of the shows they're connected to -- have joined the Teen Mom audience: It's for that Cheyenne Floyd is part of the OG cast now, having joined as one of the two replacements for Farrah Abraham along with politician's daughter Bristol Palin (who MacKenzie replaced after she left last year). Cheyenne started on Are You The One? in 2015 as part of its legendary Season 3 class, went onto The Challenge the next year and met the man who now shares custody of their baby girl Ryder. And many times Challenger and Real World alum Cory Wharton has become just as part of her world despite not being together, as now he will now be a dad to two baby girls as his Ex On The Beach girlfriend Taylor Selfridge awaits her first kid in the midst of a busy spring for Cory.

With our almost total focus on The Challenge and other matters revolving around that show and related series, other than being featured occasionally in our episode coverage we've not covered Teen Mom since our introductory post prior to Cheyenne's October 2018 debut... it's OK since the franchise already receives extensive press coverage anyway. But if we got the chance to cover it more often (and with our deep respect to the other castmates who are special in their own way), then it's on just one condition that we only cover Cheyenne's universe. And after the jump, we'll have a look back at some of her journey (and Cory & Taylor's too), before it begins St. Patrick's Day next week.