DC ExtraTime: Inside the Murder of Vinnie Tamburello

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BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Over the almost three decade history of MTV Reality television, one of its most popular, influential and beloved figures has been Chris Tamburello, or C.T. for short. We first saw the Bostonian on The Real World Paris back in 2003, and instantly made his mark in the City of Lights with his accent and his feistiness, along with that hair. But that stay in France would only be a harbinger of what the next eighteen years would be when he went onto The Challenge.

In what is now eighteen regular Challenge appearances along with all three legs of the Champs vs. Stars spinoff, CT has been at the heart of some of the show's most memorable moments: a vicious fight he had with Paris roommate Adam King on The Duel II, being a backpack to Johnny Bananas on Cutthroat, and him being humbled when he won the first of his three titles when he took Rivals II in 2013, followed by Invasion of the Champions and War of the Worlds II in the ladder half of the decade, and all in the nation of Thailand. He even had his own wedding be featured as part of the series as well, which introduced us to his now divorced wife and his first kid.

But it is CT's relationship with Diem Brown that is no doubt the most significant part of his MTV journey, as that love affair fascinated so many fans from when they first met on The Duel in 2006, then rekindled things on the first Battle of the Exes. And we all had tears in our eyes when he went back home with her when she became ill on the second Exes Challenge... and was at her bedside when she passed away after her third battle against ovarian cancer in the autumn on 2014.

As he is now at the rightful age of 40 competing on yet another Challenge in Double Agents, CT has no doubt had quite a life over the past four decades - and that even includes a co-starring role in horror movie Habitual alongside lifelong friend Johnny Hickey. But something that is largely forgotten in his backstory is one that took place during the middle part of his MTV career: an traumatic event that, in part, is why he didn't compete on The Challenge in between that fight in New Zealand and him emerging from the background to take on Johnny Bananas as a mercenary on the Czech Republic.

The story of what happened over a decade ago is perhaps as heart-wrenching as you can possibly get: someone he grew up and considered so close getting his life taken away too soon. And it would only be a decade after the fact that his family finally earned the justice they so wanted.

DC ExtraTime: Karamo the Daytime Talk Host and Game Show Contestant

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Back in the summer of 2019, one of the most hilarious moments involving MTV Reality stars took place on the stage of The Maury Povich Show - and one that foreshadowed what would go down a year later on a Challenge season. It was on the set of the lone survivor of the '90s craze of tabloid talk shows that the former newsman and A Current Affair anchor brought together longtime enemies Johnny Bananas and Wes Bergmann, a year before the unlikely alliance that defined the Total Madness season, part of the first season of the former's other TV gig: host of NBC weekend lifestyle show 1st Look.

There was a time back then that the buzz in the television industry was of talk shows exploring content of a sensational nature, although the genre dates its beginnings to Phil Donohue when his show began in the late '60s. But tabloid talk really took off in the '90s when Geraldo Rivera, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake and Sally Jesse Raphael all strived to follow in the footsteps of Oprah Winfrey, along with two men a guy named Nelson Thomas knows well: Dr. Phil McGraw and Jerry Springer. The former continues to entertain audiences today in a reduced tabloid talk field (not counting celebrity-based interview shows with Ellen DeGeneres, Kelly Clarkson, Wendy Williams and Drew Barrymore), along with Maury.

As February winds down this weekend - and in turn, the so-called "sweeps" ratings period for networks and channels to try & win over your eyeballs, on Challenge Wednesday this week - and in giving a nod to Black History Month, Mr. Povich handed his hosting gig for a day to a friend of his. There, taking over his chair was one of the biggest alumni ever of The Real World and The Challenge, Karamo Brown of the Philadelphia season and of Netflix's Queer Eye.

A key part of what has kept The Maury Show on the air for as long as it has over the past three decades has been it bring to America's consciousness the once private aspects of trying to find out the truth into the open and into the daytime audience. Of course, it is those lie detector tests (like what happened with Bananas and Wes) and those paternity tests to find out the status of who the parents are to adorable young babies. By now, those like you who love your daytime talk know of when Maury announces that those paternity test results and the status of a guy that he doesn't have custody of the kid, the stage of his show almost becomes like a dance club.

In this case, Karamo brought together engaged couple Devin and Christina (pronounced "Chris-tana" than "-tina") where they had been planning together their first pregnancy, but he has been throwing a bit of shade of the mommy-elect. Below, the mom and dad join Mr. Brown to air it all out before he gives them the verdict of the DNA results... sadly due to the show being taped without an audience and the guests joining them via Zoom, we won't have the obligatory dance if he is "...not the father."

DC ExtraTime: A Challenge Girl Meets NASCAR's Newest Champ

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Six years ago, the cameras of Season 30 of The Real World briefly ventured from the hustle & bustle of Chicago -- and those from the roommates' past making temporary visits to the house -- to the outskirts of the third largest metropolitan region in this country. For one day, MTV Reality intersected with one of man's biggest confrontations: that against speed and machine, all played out on a large speedway and in a stadium with football-sized attendances.

   It was there that the cast of Real World Skeletons spent a Sunday at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL south of the city to take in the 2014 installment of NASCAR's annual stop in Chicago for the opening race of that season's NASCAR Cup Playoffs. Tony, Nicole, Sylvia and their fellow castmates took a day out for a day at the racetrack, getting that first feel for competition that would eventually bring bring them to multiple Challenge seasons afterwards... they even hung out with a few of the drivers before they received the famous four-word command, "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"

Motor Sports has been around for as long as there has been automobiles, and where competition ranges from motorcycles and monster trucks to rallying and drag racing. In the rest of the world, it's the Formula One World Championship that grabs the attention of fans everywhere with over 350 million tuning in during the season to follow several times' world champion Lewis Hamilton and others take to circuits around the globe. But it plays second fiddle in North America to its form of open-wheel racing, IndyCar, headlined by the Indianapolis 500.

   And yet, that too also doesn't have the kind of extensive year-round media attention that accompanies its stock-car counterparts: starting in the late 1940's, NASCAR has grown leaps and bounds from a regional happening throughout the Southeast to tremendous success across the country. Every weekend from its biggest race in Daytona in February through to the 10-race Playoffs in the fall, millions of fans follow the progress of what was, for a time, the most-watched sport in this country outside of the NFL. Though its growth has stalled somewhat, the top-tier Cup Series still remains strong, while the secondary national XFINITY Series and regional circuits showcase the next generation of drivers.