*** CAUTION: Video embedded in this post contains content that may not be suitable for a younger audience. Viewer Discretion is Advised. ***
BY DC CUEVA
In 2014, the world of MTV Reality changed quite a bit, all starting in the year's first month that helped set the tone for the years to come in between the two stints of Jersey Shore and The Hills. The first week of the new year saw
The Real World toss out all conventions of the previous twenty-eight seasons of the OG of reality television for twisted seasons of the franchise when
Ex-Plosion brought the exes of the seven strangers under one roof in San Francisco - and it marked the debut of a future "MTV Slut" in Cory Wharton and a Challenge sweetheart in Jenna Compono.
Meanwhile, two weeks later across the Pacific in what's the most coveted launchpad for any new MTV series of airing after the
Teen Mom franchise,
Are You The One? debuted its first season in Hawaii, combining that time-tested MTV formula for success with a world previously untouched for years by the channel but has since become commonplace: the romantic reality dating genre. That memorable maiden voyage gave us the franchise's only perfect match that are both happily married with kids, and made the terms "Truth Booth" and "Boom Boom Room" part of the dictionary.
Just after the season finales of both those shows aired that April, across the pond MTV UK launched the first series of what would become the one MTV-originated format that has gone on the biggest wide-ranging journey, which began in Great Britain. It was when
Geordie Shore was becoming a worldwide hit while the original U.S. Jersey version was, as it turned out to be on a six-year hiatus, that the channel began to explore an expansion of its own original programming produced in Britain and seen around the world. But it was only after it was introduced last year by two MTV franchises that those here in America first got to notice this totally twisted reality format.
A leading UK production company in what those in UK TV circles call "factual entertainment,"
Whizz Kid Productions, pitched MTV an idea of getting redemption in love based on what would eventually become
Real World Ex-Plosion. But there was a catch to this format: instead of it being held in a major metropolis, the backdrop would be a beach, sun, sand and water. Producers looked to a phrase Paul Hogan coined in the Australian Tourism Commission's TV commercials during the height of his Crocodile Dundee success to come up with the show's title:
Ex On The Beach.
Since that first series of the original British version debuted five years ago,
Ex On The Beach has become the MTV show that's been adapted in more countries than any other. The United Kingdom and America are among fifteen countries with a localized EOTB airing, which also includes Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. By the time we enter 2020, about 600 episodes and 40+ seasons of Ex will have aired, with both the British and U.S. editions being seen worldwide, and those from the U.K. version now appearing on The Challenge starting with Vendettas which coincided with the franchise's U.S. debut.
Regardless of where it airs anywhere, the show's premise brings single guys and girls together for a vacation (or a "holiday" in British slang) and for the typical reality dating series. But instead, cameras are there to chronicle not just what happens in the house, but for when the ex-girlfriends and boyfriends of the singles arriving surprisingly on the beach and in the house with, as the show's saying goes that no one knows exactly "Whose Ex is Next?" Each of those exes who arrive in paradise will have different motives for deciding to surprise their former flames, from going for revenge after breaking up or trying to win them back.
Ex On The Beach has been an unqualified success ever since. When the series debuted in the U.K. in late April 2014 - which is the focus of this story, it attracted a larger audience of the core 16-34 demo than the very first episode of Geordie Shore three years earlier, rated only behind the news on BBC One during its 10 PM time period (where the BBC and rival ITV air their late news at the same time) and was a trending Twitter topic in Britain the same day Manchester United sacked manager David Moyes (the man who succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson). And the U.S. series debuted to big ratings on the back on
Jersey Shore Family Vacation, as did fellow MTV global format
Just Tattoo of Us.
According to insiders site
World Screen,
Ex On The Beach isn't exactly the same in any particular locale: episodes air either weekly (in the case of the UK and US shows) or stripped 5 days a week (a'la Love Island); a cougar showing up in the Nordic region's iteration; and EOTB USA tweaking the original format a bit with Romeo being host, the Shack of Secrets and the Cut or Crush. And the success of the American show's all-celeb casts will see a Celebrity version of EOTB arrive in the new year to Britain and Brazil.
The first series of
Ex On The Beach U.K. brought eight singles from across the Isles to a popular European tourist destination, the southern Spanish city of Marbella along the Mediterranean Sea. Unlike Ex U.S. and most like what we've seen with
Are You The One and
Real World here, the cast who were chosen for this first holiday were chosen randomly and were mostly relative unknowns to the British public, though one of them was a familiar face to fans of English football.
But just as they would do for future seasons of the British show and would be the case for the U.S. version later on, casting directors made sure to have some familiar faces to MTV UK viewers on the cast to bring them into the door: for Series 1, nine season Geordie stalwart and reality TV vet,
Vicky Pattison, headlined the group when they came to Spain. Also with her was that footballer,
Ashley Cain from Warwickshire in the Midlands who we saw on War of the Worlds; and joining them were
Chloe Goodman from East Essex,
Emily Gillard and
Liam Lewis from the North East of England, Londoner
Farah Sattaur, Nottingham's
Jack Lomax, and
Marco Alexandre of Sheffield.
The exes, of course, would soon join them in the villa, with Chloe's ex
Ross Worswick from Manchester being among the first two exes to join in, followed shortly after by Ashley's ex
Talitha Minnis of Norwich and Sydneysider
Dann Conn, an ex Vicky met when Geordie went down under to Australia in 2013. The season's most anticipated ex arrival came when Vicky's ex, four season Geordie staple
Ricci Guarnaccio, came to the house and instantly made waves with the girl he was once engaged to. And it was midway through the season that Manchester heartthrob
Joss Mooney came down to Spain as an ex of Talitha, and you can see that for this future Challenger he was very much different with having that blond hair but he's certain proven to be more than that ever since.
Through scouring the web to look for those videos that we embed into our seasonal introduction of every new competitor before a season of The Challenge begins and similarly for new reality vets who come onto EOTB USA, we happened to find videos that those who work for MTV UK and Whizz Kid get to work on when they edit the episodes. And below are raw, rough drafts of portions of four episodes of that first season: two 22-minute long episodes, a full segment and what is known in the industry as an opening tease - those two minutes that appear at the beginning of the episodes.
Among what is embedded below for your enjoyment: if you're a longtime viewer of The Maury Povich Show going back to the '90s, a staple of its earlier seasons was when its host brought on a hypnotist to hypnotize some audience members being chosen at random. You will certainly get a kick out of that, among many things which are staples of the original UK show... and you may notice some differences between it and the US version: there's no host, there's more raunchy behavior than what we get to see here, and the Tablet of Terror is used more often than just in the SOS. Enjoy...
