Well, good summer to all of you as we enter the hottest time of the year and the steamiest season of all in the world of MTV Reality. And so far, 2019 has surely offered the good stuff spanning the entire reality spectrum.
In this first half, we've seen Lindsay Lohan have an eventful summer at her Greek
Beach Club, #Jalex become a thing of the past in
Siesta Key, and controversy finally see the end of a
Teen Mom. Another TM alum was a key figure of an eventful Season 2 of
Ex On The Beach, while there was also plenty of drama on
Floribama Shore. And
The Challenge got a much-needed shot in the arm when
War of the Worlds brought together familiar veterans with new reality talent from around the world, and produced a worthy & popular champion in a Turkish reality megastar.
Right now, we've just seen the remaining ladies of
A Double Shot at Love join DJ Pauly D. and Vinny on the road as
Jersey Shore's resident bachelors and bromance head towards determining who is their one. Tonight, Amber, Catelynn & Maci will mark ten years on MTV with a new season of
Teen Mom OG, which also sees Cheyenne & Cory roll along with their new lives as parents. And we've seen Kirk & Codi from
Floribama Shore go under the ink on
How Far is Tattoo Far? as did Kailah and Tony as they joined Snooki & Nico in that famous parlor.
And in two weeks, reality dating TV will enter uncharted territory when
Are You The One? welcomes those who are sexually fluid as they encounter the truth booth for the genre's first LGBT-themed season debuting during, of all things, Pride Month. That same week, we'll welcome back some old friends with the debut of 2019's big MTV reboot in
The Hills: New Beginnings, as Speidi, Audrina, Whitney and the rest of our Hollywood friends will bring us to their world yet again.
Following in the steps of both
The Hills and
Jersey Shore, another big MTV relaunch is one that is not airing on the MTV linear TV channel itself, but will be playing out on a different platform in the ever-increasing world that is streaming web TV, and whose new home is most fittingly the world's largest social media network. While
The Challenge is the show of immense interest for a lot of you who visit this site, the show that saw so many of the vets we've loved over the years, as well as some who have made their mark in the entertainment industry, get their start was with
The Real World.
This is the show that started the entire journey of MTV Reality twenty-seven years ago this summer when a formula combining co-creators Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jon Murray's passions for soap operas and documentaries first played out in New York City, and turned into the hybrid of reality TV now commonplace. A trend-setting cast of six diverse Tri-State area natives and a naive young girl from Alabama comprised that freshman class of seven strangers, and helped demonstrate the possibilities of what happens when seven strangers get together in a loft, to see what happens "when people stop being polite and start getting real."
Thirty-one succeeding seasons soon followed, which brought the show to America's greatest cities and to several locales outside the U.S. with enduring personalities, memorable moments and beyond. And when we last left this world two years ago, the show went through a rebranding phase to try and regain public interest in a crowded reality landscape, from a prequel of what would become
Ex On The Beach to plenty of
Bad Blood... even taking cues from
Road Rules. But while those twist seasons introduced us to Cory, Kailah, Tony and social media darling Kim (Tyara's counterpart on Bad Blood), the show at its best lies in the show's original formula first conceived three decades ago.
That's what will be happening as the show will return to its roots in embracing its past, taking full advantage of the present world we live in, and using the power of social media to bring this show to a whole new audience as well. This unique social experiment not only invented a whole genre, it blazed a trail in bringing culturally resonant stories and issues into TV like no other show had done before, as well as the unique experience of adulthood, people coming of age and diverse casts that helped to spark conversation among viewers long before social media.
The next generation of The Real World will begin next week in one of America's greatest cities of Atlanta, GA, host of this year's Super Bowl, a past Olympic host city, and home to a number of notable MTV'ers from the aforementioned Kirk to Nia from the Portland season and Simone of the original AYTO cast. The latest group of seven strangers who have been chosen to join this legacy perfectly fits the show's original premise that it will bring to life again during a most intense and divisive time in our country, just as it was when Season 1 premiered a month after the L.A. riots.
And there will sure be plenty of charged emotions to come during this summer in Hotlanta, as well as the drama and occasional fun and hilarity that we've come to expect from the MTV Reality brand. From sexuality and immigration to race, teen pregnancy and virginity, this is a Real World that bring together both fans of the old school seasons and the socially conscious millennial generation for an experience that, if you're one of the 2 billion-plus users who visit Facebook every day on desktops, mobile and beyond, you'll be glued to it just as it was for previous generations when it aired on TV.
So welcome to Atlanta, to summer 2019, and a new era of
The Real World... After the jump, an introduction to the cast who will join special company in the show that started it all.
