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Showing posts with label #DCBlog #MTV #SiestaKey #LagunaBeach #TheHills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #DCBlog #MTV #SiestaKey #LagunaBeach #TheHills. Show all posts
CAUTION: This Post Contains Potential Spoilers, Please Read with Caution Below. But No Worries, It's Only Small & Minor Ones with Just Cast Info. To Prevent Trolls from Spoiling Things Below, Comments In This Post Have Been Turned Off.
And here we are... the third weekend of April and more than a year & a month into this new normal. And while things might still be not back to normal just yet, it's no doubt feeling nice and pleasant when it comes to the world of MTV Reality - and not just because the channel is turning the big 4-O.
If the sentiment given by Challenge Mania co-host Scott Yager is holding true, then 2021 as MTV sees it has been so good so far... but it hasn't just been about just the beat he (and us) covers the most. After we saw her baby gender reveal party on this week's finale, Teen Mom Tuesdays are transitioning from Cheyenne Floyd and the OG ladies to their TM2 counterparts with a friend of the mommy to be, Jade Cline of the Young & Pregnant 4th generation, taking the spot vacated by Chelsea Houska. And we've just wrapped up an emotional Homecoming trip down memory lane with the cast of the first season of The Real World in New York on Paramount+, three decades after they launched this entire genre.
Right now, we are in the final stages of Season 36 of The Challenge as the four sets of Double Agents are contesting the $1 million final up in Iceland, just south of the Arctic Circle. As it has been in every regular season since Rivals I, this finale is a two-day final split into two parts, and with our utmost respect to those who are cord-cutters and who are preferring to watch both parts back-to-back, we'll be carrying over our usual weekly SocialPulse diary of episode interaction into next week during an expanded weekend of episode content. But that doesn't mean that this week hasn't been eventful: this week has week 3 of The Challenge All-Stars on Paramount+ and another visitor to the Floribama Shore bubble in Montana... and we'll have those ahead in this week's set of goodies.
And as far as what we've got now and what we have coming up in this, there is plenty... drama, love and a first look at who we'll be getting to see when we get set to cover a regular Challenge season later this year. And we'll have the chance to gather around our crystal ball to take a Look Ahead at what we got in store in the spring and summer in the world of MTV Reality just to come...
Coinciding with the channel's resurgence in the past year, one of MTV's great success stories has been unfolding in the docu-soap Siesta Key. Those who watched the first half of Season 1 of the summer series have been glued to the drama down in Florida in its winter half, and in a few days from now is its season finale.
Before there was Bananas, there was Spencer Pratt, who first popped up on a little-known reality series where he was Brody Jenner's right-hand man. But it was when he invaded the second season of Laguna Beach spinoff The Hills in 2007 that would become his legacy to many reality TV fans. There, Spencer began to date and then shack up with Heidi Montag, and it was the beef between them and her former roommate and friend Lauren Conrad that was one of the overarching stories of the show's six-season run.
Outside the MTV cameras, the Speidi story was just about everywhere: the second season of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! U.S. where they left a sour taste in everyone's mouths with what happened there, an episode of How I Met You Mother, and even their own musical single. After they got hitched, Spencer & Heidi also created headlines when she had to file for divorce which then turned out to become nothing less than a publicity stunt, and him getting cuffed up in Costa Rica after getting caught trying to smuggle in hunting weapons in a flight to that past Challenge host country.
With two stints in the U.K. Celebrity Big Brother house -- runners up in their first go in 2013, Marriage Boot Camp and time to talk to Rob Cesternino of Rob Has a Podcast, it was no surprise that a 2015 Yahoo! poll named Spencer over Omarosa and Survivor's Russell Hantz as the "Greatest Reality TV Villain" a year before that steal that likely made that vote meaningless. He has settled down a bit: a USC political science degree, a baby who just turned five months old. And it's no surprise that he was asked by Cosmopolitan Magazine to offer his thoughts on MTV's Florida-based revival of the reality-soap concept, Siesta Key... which brings us to a few weeks ago.
There, Pratt Daddy was in New York to drop in on TRL to offer his thoughts on Siesta Key in the Times Square studio with DC Young Fly and company. Those who check out Cosmo for the episode recaps know that he has no filter when getting to offer his two cents on the Florida heartthrobs. But while in the digital room getting asked questions about the cast, he had absolutely no idea that one of the Siesta Seven was in the same room as him.
During the winter half of Siesta Key, Kelsey has gotten back together with resident gym rat Garrett, and has also flirted with the new stud in town Carson. The Midwesterner has also seen modeling knock on the door again, which saw her go up to New York along with Madisson... only for reality to set in afterwards. That was only part of the second half of a season that has seen the whole dynamic of the clique change considerably from when it all began a few weeks before Dirty 30 premiered.
Kelsey had heard Spencer say some negative things about her on both TRL and on Cosmo, and saw the perfect opportunity to get back at him. And in that classic manner we all love, Kel goes into disguise with a wig, a makeover and using a different name to serve as a boom mic operator for a camera crew while MTV News is asking him about what's been transpiring this season. See for yourself below, as this surprise Punk'd prank unfolds. Sorry, no Ashton Kutcher appearing.
This summer, those who live the good life in Southern California have been served well: Anthony Davis and Kwahi Leonard deciding that Los Angeles shall be the place to be again in the NBA with the Unibrow joining LeBron & the Lakers and the NBA Finals MVP bringing Paul George along across the hallway to the Clippers. This all went down at the same time that the Southland and Las Vegas were rocked by those two major earthquakes over the 4th of July weekend, as well as the opening earlier in the summer of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge down the I-5 in Disneyland.
Another part of this SoCal Summer has been taking place on MTV, as it continued to recognize the millennials' fondness of the 2000's and early 2010's in reviving The Hills. Even without the two main stars of the original show - Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavaliari being happily married and being moms, the New Beginnings revival has continued to carry the channel's momentum as Speidi, Audrina, Whitney, Brody Jenner, Jason and Frankie have been joined by Baywatch mama son Brandon Thomas Lee and Ms. Marissa Cooper, Mischa Barton of The O.C. fame, which brings full circle the show it was inspired by, Laguna Beach, which premiered fifteen years ago this coming fall. And as it was nine years ago this summer, The Hills, Jersey Shore and the Teen Mom franchise are headlining this summer in the MTV schedule, along with The Real World on Facebook Watch.
The journey that brought us to this summer of rekindled feelings began in a way two years ago this month when the East Coast-based, college-aged inspiration for this reality soap, Siesta Key made its debut. The show maintains what made Laguna and The Hills so good in all of the addictive drama that takes place among a rich and wealthy group of twenty-somethings and teens as they looked to find love and navigate through life in America's top beach town just outside Tampa Bay. What Siesta lacks in not calling the star-power and celeb hotspot of the world its home, it makes up for adding a Real World-like element to the mix in all of the castmates being relatable to the MTV audience in having backstories of going through much hardship growing up, and touching upon social and personal experiences also. And seasons 1 and 2 have sure offered its fair share of drama amidst the sweltering heat of a hot, humid and sultry Florida summer.
Earlier this spring, Siesta Key was renewed for a Season 3 to come on the coattails of the happenings in Hollywood (for which a Season 2 of The Hills: New Beginnings has just been ordered). We should expect plenty of drama to come our way from the west coast of Florida later this year, with the storyline those who watch Siesta religiously are anticipating of what's next for Juliette and Alex, post their breakup after Chloe's discovery of him being caught cheating. Plus, there's something that's emerged for the most famous member of the Class of 2019 at Florida State University: Juliette forging a relationship with Robby Hayes of The Bachelorette -- yes, that same Robby who fought for JoJo's heart with Ex On The Beach alums Chad and Chase on their 2016 season, who then dated Scheana on Season 7 of Vanderpump Rules, and is a good friend of Kathryn from Are You The One? Season 5.
This past week, Juliette, Chloe, Alex and the rest of the crew made their way up to Music City USA: Nashville, TN for one of the many escapes from paradise that Siesta fans should look anxiously forward to on Season 3. We'd suspect that they got some advice on where to go and what to do there from those who call Nashville home now: Challenge and Real World alumni Davis (Denver), Jonna (Cancun) and Chris/"Ammo" (Las Vegas III), as well as Mattie from CMT's Party Down South and The Challenge: War of the Worlds... and word is that we may see her on another MTV show not long from now. And Nashville is also home to another Siesta-style docu-soap: last year, Hills/Laguna creator Adam DiVello created CMT's Music City, which chronicles friends not only going through life together, but chasing dreams of music success in the capital of all things country.
Below, some snaps from the cast and from a couple fans from Instagram of Siesta's adventures in Smashville, where the clique's resident rapper (and sometimes pot-stirrer), Pauly, celebrated his birthday along with Jules' friend Hannah, who was featured in the winter half of Season 1. And, also check out our look at the cast reenacting scenes from The Hills from before New Beginnings.
As we bask in springtime in May and count down to summer starting in a matter of weeks, there is something that those who follow MTV Reality television is most looking for. In more than a month, the latest rebooted MTV series of years gone by will return to our screens when The Hills: New Beginnings takes its first baby steps on June 24th. But the countdown to the return of one of the channel's most iconic hits can be traced not just to the series two of its stars came from that debuted fifteen years ago this fall, but also all the way across the sunbelt to the west coast of Florida.
This winter and spring saw an eventful Season 2 of Siesta Key, a season that once again brought drama as red hot as the sunny, 100-heat heat of a Florida summer to our screens, as they channeled the Californian spirit of Laguna Beach and The Hills out east. As it was for Season 1, this sophomore season began with the birthday rager that turned this town into Fight City Beach South after the many bar brawls that went down up the road by the Floribama Shore, and ended with a dramatic breakup of the couple who started this summer as the king and queen of this kingdom south of Tampa Bay.
Right about now, it's that time of year again where hundreds of thousands of college students will be thinking about that week in the coming weeks where they can just run out of school and just be free for a change. Spring Break is approaching for the many of you millennials who check out this website to escape reality for our view of MTV Reality - in fact for some of you, it's just begun down in South Padre Island, TX as Challenge vet "Big Easy" Eric and Real World alum (and Catfish guest star) Jay G. again handling partying duties. And this year MTV itself is bringing back its sacred March tradition with Cancun hosting the return of MTV Spring Break weekend this month.
Along with those two towns, Florida has long been a destination for college students to party down, whether it's in Daytona Beach, Miami or anywhere else on the state's many beaches. Florida has become an MTV hotbed in the course of the past two years, with a longtime Spring Break town of Panama City Beach having just hosted its second season of Floribama Shore, and down the way in a suburb of Sarasota which has been host to an addictive MTV guilty pleasure.
Season 2 of Siesta Key has no doubt seen the level of drama amp up a bit in the sun, and where the modern-day Laguna Beach has certainly offered plenty of high stakes among its elite clique. During the course of its sophomore season, we've had more awkwardness at the annual over-the-top gala of the Kompo house becoming an Egyptian mecca (which this site featured here last year), a music video causing two relationships to be in dire jeopardy, and this past week seeing Pauly get arrested again for a marijuana charge which could spell trouble ahead.
And while the other main characters have had their time in the spotlight, as always the main storyline has been the seemingly perfect but now not-so-perfect relationship of the royal couple of Juliette & Alex. And it has unraveled just as much as the Paulie-Cara-Danielle triangle, spurred on by the town's resident authority on eliteist gossip and who loves to stir the pot more times than you can say the show's name three times fast, Chloe, and a BFF friendship she's forged with one of Alex's many exes, Cara Geswelli. What's transpired with him and the rest of the cast in the past month has no doubt changed the complexity of the clique, and there may be more too if the midseason trailer is an indication.
Along with Cara in making a return to the town where they grew up, the other newcomer to the cast is Jared Kelderman, who came back to the Key just off of a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, where he was a crewman and a drone operator out in California. Before serving in the military, Jared went to high school with most of the Siesta cast and dated Alex's high school sweetheart, Madisson, which helped to spur a vendetta in a local businessman's playboy son who's now the reason for unrest in the Siesta crew (if you saw Alex arguing with one-time friend Chloe this week, you have the gist of it).
Just as it was when the series began in summer 2017, Season 2 began with Alex's birthday party in his house's backyard, which coincidentally has the feel of a weekend rager at Spring Break, and where Rich Homie Quan got to perform. But while everyone else gathered to kick off another Siesta summer, both Jared and Cara came uninvited to the party, with her tagging along with Chloe, and him coming for the ride along with Brandon and Garrett. And it was when he got next to the birthday boy and Pauly that ignited a massive brawl, along the lines of what we've seen a lot of in PCB.
And the week after the first of many big blowups in Siesta, and at Brandon's 70's-themed outdoor birthday barbecue, Jared decided to stir the pot a little when he convinced Madisson's best friend, Kelsey, to have some alone time despite her having a boyfriend. They snuck off from a night at the disco for some nighttime fun by the beach, and they even got flirty too in them hooking up. This led a girl he got to go fishing with this past week, Canvas, to call him "the talk of the Key," all as he took the news of that hookup in stride with a smile, all as he initiated a love square of sorts among the OG's and newbies in Kelsey's ex Garrett getting close to Cara.
But this week, viewers got to see a different side of Jared, and one that those who known him all his life know who he really is behind that cheery exterior adorn with many tattoos. As someone who decided to take up one of the toughest jobs anywhere going into harm's way regularly defending our country away from home and from family and friends, he knew what he was getting into. And there, he got to experience all the stress that comes with being in the military, and the life after coming home which is just as tough as the time away overseas & in domestic installations.
Ask anyone who has served in the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marines -- which includes Ryan Conklin from Real World Brooklyn of ten years ago, and they'll likely tell you that there is more to their job than just serving a duty as hard as anything on earth, most especially when veterans who return home suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome, best known as PTSD. When Madisson asked him what the transition was like, Jared told her, "What's another word for... awful? Before, I felt like I was doing something. Like, I was actually doing something, you know, like, I was somebody. Some people want to get out, I didn't want to get out. I just had to."
Madisson apologized to him for not being there when he needed the most, and asked him what the transition back to civilian life has been like, where he revealed that he drank every day to escape the haunting memories of his time in uniform. His answer echoed the sentiments of many who have found life back home from the home front so tough: "I get, like, terrible nightmares, I can never sleep. I'm okay with being depressed all the time. It became normal that I just feel like s___ every day. I don’t like people thinking I'm crazy. I don’t like the fact that someone looks at me and that's what they think — that that guy’s going to lose his mind every second now. I feel broken."
Being diagnosed with PTSD, later in the episode Jared went fishing with Canvas where he told her of his plans to see a local therapist in the Sarasota area who specializes in working with military veterans like him, and her adding that they would now look at doing other activities other than engaging in wild alcoholic binges, and doing whatever they can to support each other as he adjusts to post-military life. Also in the episode, Pauly was locked up for being a no-show for a court date after being caught having an open container of 20 grams of pot in his car, a potential felony that will see him face the music with his family this coming week.
As he dreaded the episode that introduced the real Jared Kelderman to America, last week he got to head up to Destin, Florida - a bit a ways from Panama City Beach, where he got to hang out with someone who's different from him in so many ways, but thanks to being part of the MTV family they have certainly bonded.
If you watched Season 2 of Floribama Shore both last summer and then in the winter and continuing to the week of The Challenge: War of the Worlds premiere (and of Gus making his way from PCB to Africa), Kortni Gilson certainly had a summer to remember. She dealt so many times with an abusive ex-boyfriend who lurked everywhere in town like an alligator, and making out with an elderly woman at the club, to violating girl code with Nilsa two times in snuggling with Gus and even a brief pregnancy scare... and even giving a new definition to saying sorry by having that word spelled out in a pizza, of all things.
When Kortni and Jared crossed paths at a local bar in the Florida panhandle last week, they instantly bonded with them appearing in each other's stories on Instagram and Snapchat, and posted the above photo on everyone's IG timelines. She captioned, "What’s better than cute men? 🤷🏻♀️ @jkelderman #siestakey #mtvfloribamashore," and he wrote in his description, "When worlds collide #siestakey #floribamashore". With Gus telling the Floribama gang in the Season 2 finale that he may not return for a Season 3 due to wanting to improve relations with his family, perhaps a spot could be open for Jared to join Kortni and company in Panama City Beach. Imagine what that could be like.
In another Siesta/Floribama crossover, Kortni's roommate (and fellow PCB local) Nilsa has been conducting biweekly debriefs with the Siesta Key cast on the key moments of the season from the local prison... check out those Siesta Key Interrogations on the show's Twitter and Facebook pages - including the premiere version where she grilled Jared, Pauly and Alex on their fight.
For those who were dreaming of snow outside your window on Christmas last month, there's probably a similar feeling of sentiment for those who are just wanting to escape the cold right now after you've just packed away your holiday decorations. It's especially true for those of you who live in New York, Chicago, Canada and everywhere else where the high temperatures on a given January day can vary day by day, but most likely you're freezing in multiple layers going to and from work and school... though you can agree that it's nice cuddle weather for some binge watching, too.
If you happen to be one of those people - and who happens to also be an MTV Reality fan, there is some good news coming your way. Next week sees the long-awaited and highly-anticipated return of one of cable's most buzzed-about series the past few years, and one that helped to spur MTV's overall rise from just another run-down TV channel bitten by the mass exodus to binge-land, to one that now has the industry talking about this one-time music video outlet turned TV hub of the millennial generation. And it is the show that was inspired by a show that introduced a new sub-genre of reality TV: the reality soap... and it will provide a fitting bridge to the latest MTV reboot come spring.
In July 2017, MTV dipped its feet into the sand of the small Sarasota, Florida suburb of Siesta Key, where it discovered a group of those who as kids grew up watching Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari on Laguna Beach and The Hills, and whose lives were just as fascinating as their California counterparts. The same production team behind Laguna was brought on to bring their magic touch from the West Coast to the East Coast, and to a new group of those who despite being slightly older were looking to break out on their own into a new era as adults during the most exciting summer of their lives... while not escaping the drama taking place in the town they call home.
Siesta Key reintroduced everyone to the kind of addictive, guilty pleasure television that had people buzzing a decade ago with Laguna/Hills' unique mix of big drama that glues even the teen-friendly audience in, as well as a cinematic filming style and a bold musical soundtrack to boot. And Tuesday night, the world will be welcomed back to a place judged to the best beach in America for another season in paradise, where the group is a year older, where love will now be taken to a new level, and where old and new will collide to spark some fireworks. But to understand what's coming next in the Key, you gotta look back a little bit to where this journey to Season 2 began... which was long ago.
In the past few weeks, MTV has revealed big plans for the coming year: the show that started a new era for the channel, The Real World, will be returning to its roots and coming to the broad digital platform that is Facebook. Ex On The Beach will return for Season 2 of the U.S. adaptation with familiar faces from MTV and reality TV colliding with their exes. And the iconic rite of March, Spring Break, will return next year as part of MTV's renaissance, all made possible by a touch of old and new dominating the channel... now cable's fastest growing network.
Jersey Shore Family Vacation has been breezing along with what we consider to be Season 8 of the most-watched franchise in MTV history, officially the second season of their return engagement. As this blogger got to celebrate his birthday this week, as a gift for myself I bought the DVD of the first Vacation down to Miami, which marked the first time I've watched & live tweeted that show in real-time since I didn't catch much of their original run, but a move made possible by Kyle from Geordie Shore going onto Vendettas as well as the premiere of Floribama Shore.
During the summer & fall on Jersey, we've seen Pauly, Vinny and MTV's favorite dysfunctional family take an eventful trip out to Las Vegas, the ultimate throwback trip to Seaside Heights, and Angelina becoming more of a permanent part of the cast than it was the first time out. The big wedding of Mike The Situation & sweetheart Lauren is ahead, along with Deena holding her baby shower for her new kiddo with Snooki, J-Woww, Angelina and Sammi Sweetheart -- the first time all five Jersey original ladies have been in the same room at the same time.
A developing story that has been evolving during the OG's return to MTV over the past year has surrounded Sammi's ex: Ronnie and him adjusting to life as a dad, as a boyfriend having to deal with a turbulent relationship with his baby mama Jen, and whatever lingering feelings he has for the ex. Those who have watched him during this have no doubt seen the worst of that new relationship take place which has seen him again be put into the public spotlight. And just recently, Ronnie got to party it up with two members of one of MTV's breakout new hits of the past year & a half.
If recent posts on the show's Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages are an indication, then very soon MTV fans will again have a slice of summer in the wintertime when Siesta Key is slated to return for Season 2. The Laguna Beach and Hills-inspired docu-soap documenting a tight-knit clique of college friends who call the Sarasota, Florida community home debuted in summer 2017 and introduced the YouTube generation to the kind of show that made Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari famous.
The man who's called the king of the castle is Alex, who found himself with more romantic partners than the average AYTO guy when he started season 1 dating Madisson, but after having flings with Kelsey and friend of the group Amanda ultimately found himself in love with another of the exes, Juliette. A close friend of Alex's in his cousin Pauly, who found himself in hot water for body-shaming Chloe and who's also pursuing music just at is for friend Brandon.
Last month, a nightclub in Boca Raton just north of Miami brought two of these worlds together in the name of breast cancer awareness, and the two worlds that represent a couple of MTV's most-watched shows during its resurgence in the past year or so got to hang out. That photo of them is below, and to sort of whet your appetite for Siesta Season 2 check out our ExtraTime post from this summer when Alex threw one of his trademark lavish parties at his mansion, featuring not only his cast but also a live camel and a snake... yes, an Egyptian fiesta.
As families and friends gather together to enjoy barbecue, the beach, basketball and more this long holiday weekend to celebrate Memorial Day and the start of summer 2018, fans of MTV Reality are reminded of those parties thrown on the various shows we've seen over the years. If you watch Are You The One?, you always look forward to that time under the night sky when the singles get down and dirty outdoors with hula girls, torches and a whole lot of dancing. But those are small events compared to the granddaddy of all MTV parties: the over-the-top soirées that made the mid-2000's hit My Super Sweet 16 a joy to watch to see those officially come of age in a grand way.
Last year, a show that came into the American consciousness was Siesta Key: the story of a group of college-aged young adults in a suburb of Sarasota, Florida. It has been likened in many ways to the ultimate soap opera for Millennials, Laguna Beach and its spinoff The Hills, and glued everyone to the drama, fun and lavish lifestyles that Alex, Juliette, Chloe, Kelsey, Garrett, Madisson, Brandon and the rest of their tight-knit clique got to live up summer and then this winter as well. Even this blogger used a discount to complete his collection of the entire first season to enjoy binge-watching this guilty pleasure whenever he's not writing on the Trifecta.
Aside from the romances and the drama among this entire group, the Siesta Key kids became known for parties, both large and small, where drama often goes down. If you saw the Season 1 premiere last year, you may remember Alex's birthday party that quite literally became almost like the stage at Spring Break in Panama City Beach, and where he had to deal with his high school sweetheart Madisson and his ex (and later girlfriend) Juliette being in the same backyard. Or who can forget Chloe's birthday at the Tiki Bar she works at where it turned from a time to celebrate her big night to a chaotic one that changed the group dynamic?
The mansion by the beach Alex and his family call home is known around Siesta, and now across the country, for lavish parties that they throw and which becomes the local equivalent of the Oscars: a happening that brings this community of 3,000 together. Those who watched the summer half of Season 1 last year may remember the Gatsby Gala: a black-tie affair that brought everyone back to the Roaring Twenties with vintage Rolls-Royce cars, gorgeous ladies and everything that made that decade great... inspired by the '20s novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
From: SK Cast Instagram Accounts
Just a few nights ago, the Kompo house was the venue for another blown-out extravaganza, and just as it was with the Gatsby gala - they teamed with local event design & rental boutique business So Staged and Sarasota-area child disability organization The Havens for their annual Autism Awareness night, as one of Alex's siblings lives with the developmental spectrum disorder and had recently graduated college. While it has not been announced publicly, cameras were inside shooting the event with the cast in black tie, which indicates that MTV did order a second season of Siesta Key for later this year, without any public fanfare.
The theme of this year's Autism Awareness night in Siesta brought those back even further in time to when pyramids were the greatest wonder on this earth and where you can find Spinx and tombs just about everywhere. Yes, the theme is ancient Egypt, much like the time where the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas with its famous light on the Strip opened with a similar theme before Britney Spears' first Vegas residency. And the stars of Egyptian Night in Siesta were not the castmates who've become pop stars in the past year, but a live camel and a snake that adorned all of the guests who came, just like what we saw with Britney at the 2001 VMA's.
Below are some photos from the cast on Instagram from Egyptian Night... something to whet the appetites for those who enjoyed Season 1 of Siesta Key, and to look forward to more big drama from our friends in Florida to come in the second half of 2018.
Last weekend, life-changing news was granted to several members of Team MTV, involving either a baby being born, the announcement that a baby is forthcoming, or in one's case - him being the latest in the MTV community to settle down as a newlywed. Two of them are alums of The Challenge, a third was part of the most-recent Real World season, and two more from a revolutionary show of years gone by, but whose influence is seen in its much-more popular spinoff series and a show that debuted last year to great interest in the channel's most-coveted slot.
VINCE
First: the two Challenge alumni with links to the man who's won six of these, and was part of the winning Champs squad that totally dominated Champs vs. Stars. But of course, he had to endure yet another setback on the regular show when Devin joined Wes, Darrell and Derrick K. in those who have beaten Johnny Bananas since he stole his partner's money and being given the dreaded curse by Jemmye. Strangely enough, the man who outsmarted him the last time he went to the final on the regular show was in the same Rivals III final as the one who happens to be his Bloodline.
Just after filming the upcoming Reunion of Vendettas in a New York City shut down by the latest blast of winter, this past weekend Bananas flew down to Florida to partake in the biggest day ever for his cousin. When we watched Battle of the Bloodlines two years ago, Vince Gilatta was a former college football player but whenever you get partnered with the winningest player in Challenge history you're expected to step up your game. What happened in Turkey became something that became a bit hard for us to comprehend in him not being able to live up to what his well-known partner has been able to accomplish. Vince not being able to compete nearly as well as Bananas was a big story to come out of Season 27, and not surprisingly the one who went on to taste victory, Cara Maria & Jamie, beat Bananas & Vince in elimination. Then Vince was paired with Jenna on Rivals III and they went on to the final, finished 2nd to his cousin and Sarah and became witness to that steal.
Before he joined Bananas to offer a consolation prize of a club night on Spring Break with two members of the losing AYTO Season 5 cast in ultimate heartbreaker Tyler and fellow South Floridian Michael, it was a year ago on a weekend's retreat to his state of birth of Ohio that Vince got on one knee, popped out an engagement ring to his girl Sam, got down on one knee and asked the magic question of whether he would want her to be his wife... and she replied, "About Time!" And this weekend, Bananas and family headed down to Florida to see him and her say their "I do's." Then and now, Vince and the new Mrs. Piggy (as he refers to her) received words of congrats from those who competed with him on his two Challenges, from friends and adversaries of his cousin and of course from those who know them best: family & friends.
Welcome to the weekend and to our trip Inside the MTV Trifecta. There was plenty of drama this week on The Challenge Vendettas, and we'll have that covered for you coming up later. But first…
The year 2001 is notable to most because of what happened that September morning, but there were some other things that happened in the second year of the 2000's. It was the year I got my high school diploma, when The Miz and Coral met on that boat en route to the The Real World Back to New York loft and Eminem took the stage with Elton John at the Grammys. The first year of the 21st century and the third millennium is the theme behind two of this weekend's ExtraTime stories, and we begin with some unlikely prospects.
On Monday, a friend of the Trifecta in Teen Mom OG's Maci Bookout and her husband Taylor McKinney got to mark their one-year anniversary as man & wife, but then she made it public of her recent and heartbreaking miscarriage. Then, viewers stuck around as the kind of big-time drama synonymous with MTV reality series like The Challenge, Are You The One?, Real World and Jersey & Floribama Shore made its way to the sultry paradise that is Siesta Key, Florida. And just in case you're not in the loop, here you go…
Okay, so this person is one who loves what this site calls the MTV Trifecta, where The Challenge and the shows that feed into this fifth major pro sport are prominent in this one's social engagement with the MTV family. And of course, the shows are the principal focus for this very site and offers so much for me to watch, research and then write on for all of you to enjoy.
But can it also be known that I also have some sort of guilty pleasure that I'm even afraid of making it public on Twitter? It's something that when it began, there was some negative press surrounding it for certain reasons... but the drama, the intrigue, the characters and the backdrop of it makes it, along with another Florida-based series, a worthy successor, or least a filler of sorts, to The Real World. And like I did for a show which I watched back 14 years ago which inadvertently introduced social media to yours truly, I've loyally watched and live tweeted every episode.
When The Challenge XXX began last summer, another MTV series that debuted that same month of July helped reintroduced a sub genre that MTV invented back in 2004: reality drama, or a docu-soap. Channeling the chill vibes of Laguna Beach and The Hills which made Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari stars, Siesta Key became the slightly grown up version of both those shows taking place all the way out in Florida. Following in the footsteps of Catfish, Are You The One and just this winter with Floribama Shore in scoring the ever-coveted post-Teen Mom timeslot, Siesta clicked with fans as MTV's highest-rated new series in years, and returns after its winter break next week. Like its California predecessors, this show features all of what made Laguna and The Hills so addictive and popular for six years: an elite group of wealthy and relatable friends, big time drama, stunning filmography and a cool musical soundtrack. It has stayed true to that laid-back beachy feel that made those shows famous, while also giving these college-aged people more opportunities to explore what everyone their age goes through as adulthood began. And there was that unwelcome bad publicity when one found themselves in hot water due to shark videos that emerged before the premiere, though in the end they were wrongly accused and escaped unscathed by the mischief. But as they say, "haters gonna hate" -- that only helped fuel even more buzz where, luckily, the focus has been on the on-screen activities itself, and the drama it brought us last year.
We at DCBLOG hope you are enjoying this mid-summer's day as we're now into a new cycle of going Inside the MTV Trifecta. In a few days, we'll be covering last night's exciting premiere of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 in our unique and insightful way as we focus in on the first act from South America... a most interesting one, in fact. But first, if you were with me last night on Twitter after that episode aired on the West Coast, this fellow MTV fan revealed what's next in the near future.
As those of you who follow me know, I'm obviously a super fan of the Trifecta and who makes the ecosystem of The Challenge and the shows that feed cast members to there - Are You The One and Real World - the primary focus of this very site. But in the 18 years that I have tuned into that channel on a routine basis, those aren't the only shows that I watch on a spot on a dial I have watched since I was back in childhood and whose first memories was of watching that game show Remote Control.
There are over 20 shows that I have watched, live tweeted or followed since I joined Twitter five years ago, and have become friends with a lot of castmates from many of those shows. Without taking that long while of mentioning each and every single one of them, these people range from those willing to get down and dirty in West Virginia and the Dallas Metroplex and dreamers in the Big Apple, to traveling nurses, virgins, and a family whose patriarch found himself at the heart of a music festival that never really got off the ground. And the list goes on, all the way to MTV reviving a 2000's reality TV favorite for a new generation in Fear Factor.
Now, that number of MTV shows which I have gotten to live tweet, follow and or watch is about to increase by two, and that second one we will have a look at when their time arrives soon. As noted a few times before, if you think the first one is that summer guilty pleasure everyone seems to be watching in Big Brother or the one that had its season premiere last weekend in Game of Thrones, guess again - it's neither of those. The one I chose is something that might be a surprise to you at first, but when you get into what it's all about, you'll know why it was an easy choice to make it non-Trifecta show #23. That is the subject of this installment of The Look.
