DC ExtraTime: A Team MTV Holidays 2020-21

Photos & Videos Courtesy Instagram

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Twitter @CoryWharton

Over a week ago - and it may seem long ago now considering this week's events, we got to do something just about all of us had been waiting to do for about the length of a whole school year or the period of an expecting mommy's pregnancy: just get the year over with. It's safe to say that 2020 was a tough year for all of us, and once again we will not remind you of the many things that went down in a year that could count as just a several parts' version of the Fyre Festival.

Traditionally, the holiday season are a time for families, friends and everyone to gather together to spend the year's last two weeks to enjoy the magic of Christmas, party it up for the last hours of the year, look back on the year that was and make those infamous new year's resolutions. But because of obvious reasons if you've been checking up on what's been going on, a lot of us couldn't get the chance to do so in person... and for those who did we hope that you all are extremely aware of our new reality.

For the community that we here at DCBLOG call Team MTV, the 2020 holiday season offered a range of things during the traditional winter break from the Friday of the pre-Christmas weekend to the Sunday after New Year's Day. The usually merry mood of the holidays with celebrations and gatherings that usually mark this fortnight were a bit muted, but in keeping with our vision to be "The Escape You Deserve" we'd like to share with you the positive moments of the holidays from the social sphere...

DC SocialPulse Extra: A Team MTV New Year's 2019

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language and objectionable content. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its long length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Hey there, hope this first weekend of the new year is going well. The big attraction of the MTV Reality week -- and for now, the winter -- is just to come with our Episode 3 Pulse of Ex On The Beach as the first Cut or Crush elimination looms ahead for our Season 2 friends.

Until that is posted later on tonight, indulge yourself in how Team MTV got to spend the final weekend of the year of 2018 that's just past and the first two days of 2019 as they rung in the new year. That includes the confirmation of a bittersweet breakup of an MTV fan favorite couple, Cory & Cheyenne on their first Teen Mom OG reunion, an emotional anniversary, a Challenger defending herself, a birthday for the Barbie Beast, and a first look at Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club. And of course, New Year's posts from the entire MTV crew including, if you can spot carefully, those who will be joining the membership not too long from now.

DC ExtraTime: A Team MTV Christmas 2018

Photos & Videos Embedded Below Courtesy of Instagram

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Very shortly, the year of 2018 will come to an end -- a year that, in an MTV sense, has seen the channel return to its glory days. More viewers are watching the channel than in recent times thanks to the channel doubling down on something it does just as well as doing music: reality TV. And we here at DCBLOG have been on top of every ebb and flow of the goings on of that world, with a specific focus on The Challenge, Are You The One, Floribama Shore and Ex On The Beach, and a few other shows to keep us busy in doing 272 blog posts... the most of any one year for our site.

The holidays are a time for everyone to come together to spend the last two weeks of the year to enjoy the magic of the Christmas holidays, party down the last hours of the year as what is taking place tonight, and look back on the year that was and plan ahead for the new year which begins in a matter of hours in the U.S. and has already begun in much of the world. For a handful, there's a lot of be happy about -- 23 people with 1,000,000 reasons, while for others they are just glad that they can finally put 2018 to rest.

For an MTV family that have had much to celebrate and so many headlines to create in the past 52 weeks, the Christmas week gave them the opportunity to open Christmas presents, spend time with family and even use the merriest day of all to reveal big life-changers. There have no doubt been a lot of news in the past week with the revelations of what happened to Paulie and Cara Maria, with Nelson's arrest, and Twitter drama in between. But instead of focusing on those, we'd thought about sharing with you the positive moments and those life-changers in this final ExtraTime of 2018.

DC SocialPulse Extra: Before Ex On The Beach II Episode 2

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language and objectionable content. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its long length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Welcome back Netizens.... we hope you're enjoying this last Saturday night of 2018. Tomorrow, we'll have the last SocialPulse diary of a record year for this DCBLOG site as we'll delve into Episode 2 of Ex On The Beach as a new single joins the house as well as another ex... and of course plenty of drama taking place with our singles and a few exes in Malibu.

Meantime, if you are part of the Twitter sphere then you know that this past week has been no ordinary one in a time where we would be enjoying this time off from the weekend before Christmas to right now on this last weekend of the soon-to-be old year that will soon past us by. For reasons that will be explained below in the thousands of posts to come before you here this late night, not only did Team MTV mark Christmas 2018 with family, friends and announcements of new chapters in their lives, it was also a week where drama exploded like the fireworks that will usher in the year 2019 in less than 50 hours.
   Of course, the Christmas weekend began with an MTV veteran turning himself into Austin Police for a robbery he committed years before he went onto his first MTV series. But what went down with Nelson in taking care of paying his dues for a crime he committed in 2013 would eventually become a footprint to the bombshell that dropped on Christmas Eve when it was reported that the latest MTV lovebirds, Cara Maria and Paulie, split up after his ex from The Bachelor revealed sensitive info about the Big Brother alum turned two-time MTV'er this year before he split with her and went with the two-time Challenge champ on Final Reckoning. Needless to say, this has been quite a week.

After the jump, a very special Pulse Extra covering the Twitter drama of the holiday week, and our traditional Christmas Eve & Christmas Day diary featuring the entire MTV family.

DC SocialPulse Extra: Prelude to Ex On The Beach Season 2

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language and objectionable content. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its long length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Hello again, hope you're enjoying your Saturday night. Our view of the premiere of Season 2 of Ex On The Beach is still to come here, as a new group of singles invade Malibu to be followed by the first wave of exes from their past. Before that though, a Pulse Extra.
   Often times the lead-up to any episode - most especially the premiere - is so big, that we have to split the timeline journal up into multiple parts, with the main one covering the episode to be featured later in its own post - and to save space and logistics. To that end, this Pulse Extra will feature the week-long buildup to it, along with in this case the 2018 finale of The Challenge in both parts of CT's wedding special, as well as the launches of new seasons & shows in the next MTV cycle... we'll explain two of them following the diary which, in turn, follows the jump break.

DC ExtraTime: A Team MTV Halloween - 2018 Edition

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Over a week ago, those who are still with us in not being away on what might be called an early winter vacation got to celebrate the year's spookiest night. Halloween once again gave reason for Team MTV to dress up in the most outrageous costumes and party down both on the big night of October 31st and the weekend proceeding it. This includes the many of those on The Challenge and beyond who have become parents in dressing up their kids to go trick or treating around the neighborhoods that they call home.
   From budding families looking to the year's biggest movies to a pair of BFF's who met on Ex On The Beach who took a cue from Cardi B. for their costume, and just about anything outfit you can think of, Halloween 2018 was no exception as once again those from The Challenge/Real World franchise, Are You The One?, the Shore franchise, Siesta Key and, of course, Teen Mom got to dress up. Below, in no particular order, 25 random selections of the MTV family taking advantage of the year's craziest holiday to dust off or buy a new outfit to party and get candy, starting with the one who recently got engaged.

DC ExtraTime: An MTV All-Star Weekend of Love

A Follow-Up to
A Rose City Reunion of Romance

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Earlier this summer - and in between this year's two festivals of love on MTV, we featured a reunion of those who appeared on in the channel's two entries into modern-day romantic reality TV. They may share the same pedigree of all of what we're used to from its reality brand as well as a tropical setting, but are different in many ways: one has a Truth Booth and its house is full of newbies going for $1 million and a Perfect Match; the other has a Shack of Secrets, stars reality personalities and sees their exes invade their vacation. And both have been given the invaluable spot of being launched out of the channel's most-watched shows.
   Are You The One and Ex On The Beach have been on the air since 2014 -- the former was launched in the U.S. on the heels of Teen Mom (for which an alum joins the family next week), while the ladder debuted on MTV's international fleet overseas and premiered in America this past spring on the back of Jersey Shore Family Vacation. And there, alums from both these series gathered together for a weekend reunion that brought together friends, frenemies and alumni together to relive that experience of living in the same house for a few days.
   The first one took place in Portland, Oregon - hometown of one of those who was part of MTV Reality's biggest Cinderella underdog story in years after the first U.S. version of what's described as "the ultimate relations*** show." That reunion was so successful that they thought about doing it once again... this time with those who are now part of the family of this love experiment of trying to see if they can find their perfect match in paradise in the newbies of AYTO Season 7.
   This is the story of its sequel: the MTV All-Star Weekend of Love, this time going down out east in the state of Connecticut.

DC SocialPulse Extra: Before Final Reckoning EP11 & AYTO7 EP's 6-7

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language and objectionable content. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its long length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Happy Friday... hope you all are in a good mood to finally usher in the autumn. Ahead of us here, the juicy stuff of the Pulse diaries covering this week's two explosive episodes of The Challenge and Are You The One?... hope you all are ready to see how your favorites saw the three hours' worth of TV that we'll be bringing you all the action, reaction and interaction coming your way this weekend.
   But until that begins here tomorrow, enjoy and indulge in the in-between interactions of our cast leading up to this week's episodes, plus they reacted to last week's even more explosive event of Eminem dealing a "Kill Shot" at Machine Gun Kelly, as well as more love for Cheyenne & Cory ahead of their jump into Teen Mom land.

The Look Ahead: Lohan Beach House

DISCLAIMER: Contains Potential Spoilers, Please Read with Caution Below.

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Last week was an ultra-busy one at MTV: the VMA's, Kam's boss move and the invasion of Ashley & Hunter to The Challenge, Floribama Shore beating the Jersey OG's on Fear Factor, the debut of Too Stupid to Die, Are You The One? continuing along with its season and the return of Jersey Shore. But for a moment, let's take a look into the crystal ball and peek into the future...

   As this DCBLOG site is one that likes to keep our feet set in the present, normally the focus is on covering the series that are airing now: here, it's The Challenge, AYTO and proceeding coverage of both - Floribama Shore. And it's only on occasion that do we get to do what fans on Vevmo and on social media do a lot: discuss matters pertaining to future seasons in the Trifecta and any new series that we might consider to be of particular interest.
   The two previous times we got to enact this proposition came last fall when we looked into the expansion of non-MTV US shows into The Challenge when Big Brother and a member of Geordie Shore invaded Vendettas as did four British alumni from Ex On The Beach. And it was after that post in October that we did one for the American version of EOTB, for which it occupied the spot that this week will go to the ladies of Pretty Little Mamas: the post-Jersey Shore slot on Thursdays.

So, Bristol Palin is coming to Teen Mom (and maybe more), The Hills is joining Jersey Shore in making its return, Real World will return to its roots in subscription land, and the search is now on for Nev Schulman's new Catfish sidekick. Now, what's next?
   A month ago, MTV announced something that wasn't a spinoff of a old show or a reboot, but a new series looking to capitalize on the channel's renewed focus on reality TV and revitalized interest. At first glance, this might be MTV's own take on a series on Bravo that introduced reality fans to now Challenge rookie & Ex On The Beach alum Faith Stowers. But the person at the heart of this new venture is certainly much more well known to millennials than Lisa Vanderpump, and it's someone who's been a tabloid favorite since she was a childhood star. And those of you moaning that the summer is about to end, soon you'll again be inundated with sights of summer to come while we are getting through the fall and winter, just as we did with Siesta Key and Floribama Shore.
   After the jump, we take a Look Ahead at the Lohan Beach Club starring Lindsay Lohan... and featuring someone that fans of the Trifecta might be familiar with who may make a crossover into MTV's first foray in many years into modern-day celeb-reality television. As we like to say, you'll want to join us for a nice round of tea...

DC ExtraTime: Before They Were MTV Stars - Havana

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

This week is a busy one for MTV Reality fans: Monday has two episodes of Floribama Shore and Part 1 of the Teen Mom 2 reunion after last week's eventful behind the scenes special. The Challenge Final Reckoning rolls along on Tuesday, and Wednesday is the premiere of Are You The One? Season 7. And it is the start to what will be a busy fall season ahead for MTV fans, as it will be followed by the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall, the return of Jersey Shore Family Vacation, and the premieres of Zach Holmes' Too Stupid to Die, Pretty Little Mamas with moms who call San Diego home, the U.S. version of Just Tattoo of Us, and Made in Staten Island.
   The ladder series, executive produced by Karen Gravano of VH1's Mob Wives and featuring her daughter Karina as a cast member, is among the latest new series to be given a promotional launchpad of being part of cable's highest-rated reality network, which features its biggest series in those Jersey originals. This spring, the precious spot of following Jersey Shore was given to the first U.S. version of another MTV show that originated overseas in Ex On The Beach, where Challenge newcomers Kayleigh, Joss and Melissa got their starts before they made their American debuts on Vendettas this year.

Twitter @MarcoDelvec

Amidst seeing Angela, Faith, Paulie and Derrick -- all of whom are continuing their runs into this summer & fall with The Challenge Final Reckoning -- as well as longtime staple Cory and others from in and outside the MTV family, it was the exes (including Mr. Chocolate) that invaded the same islands of Hawaii who'll host our 22 newest members of the MTV family this coming week. But instead of going for a perfect match or money, they went for getting to rekindle love, get much-needed revenge or simply settle their own final reckoning all in the midst of massive drama that took place this spring. It enthralled everybody who watched, the same way those overseas have since the MTV international franchise began airing a few years ago.
   But, you may not know that there is a link between one of those fourteen exes who invaded Hawaii to one of the nominees for the most coveted piece of silverware MTV can give out and one of the biggest artists of the past year. There, she started with America's biggest girl group since Destiny's Child and then stepped out on her own and has become a big name herself, including collaborating with Shawn Mendes and Machine Gun Kelly before she became a solo artist. And he was an ex of one of the two representatives of Bachelor Nation who popped up in Hawaii as he and the exes were part of the "ultimate relationsh** show" that brought new fans to this channel.
   In this installment of Before They Were MTV Stars, we take a look at Havana, starring Camila Cabello and Marco Delvecchio from Ex On The Beach USA... now up for 5 Video Music Awards.

DC WRAP Double Shot: Final Reckoning's 1st 3 Weeks and Floribama Madness

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Welcome back everyone on this Monday... a week with the last two days of July and the start of August is just beginning, but there is still a lot of buzz over what was a busy week for MTV Reality fans - and it has even more juicer in Lindsay Lohan having her own show now. Our focus here is on what happened in South Africa with the first elimination battle and the unveiling of new twists to the game that promises to make this season of The Challenge much more exciting. And also, there was the drama that occurred on Floribama Shore where a man got handcuffed as well as an argument breaking out.
   In a preview of what we'll be having come this time next month, DCBLOG will ultimately have Double Shot WRAP posts to round out our weekly posts: our recap portion of our episode coverage starting in late August and continuing through the fall will feature not just recaps, opinion and analysis on Final Reckoning, but also Are You The One? Season of Fate with its accompanying tidbits for our analytics nerds. But for now here, we'll be looking at the key moments of the first three episodes of Final Reckoning, and take another trip to the Strategy Room to discuss the possibilities the two twists we saw this week might have on this season.
   Then, we'll have more on the latest drama to go down in Panama City Beach: we'll hear from the two who got into an argument on the street, and the man who we got cuffed. And we'll round it off with a musical delight from the duo who just nipped a pair of champions in an all-Challenge Celebrity Fear Factor. All that awaits you here before new episodes begin shortly.