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Showing posts with label #Paulie #PaulieCalafiore #PaulCalafiore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Paulie #PaulieCalafiore #PaulCalafiore. Show all posts
As Viacom and CBS are being busy aggressively pushing the newest player in the streaming world of Paramount+, it's worth noting of where this all began of the newest media powerhouse in our industry. And three years ago this winter & spring, one of the first seeds of that were first planted in the ground that would eventually blossom in this era of being at home all the time during this pandemic.
It was in 2018 that MTV's The Challenge decided to dramatically expand upon its list of probably competitors with which to choose. And the first inklings of what would eventually become the reunited ViacomCBS came when former houseguests of CBS' Big Brother came onto Vendettas and then to the first season of the U.S. version of Ex On The Beach. There, the show that defines summer for every reality TV fan in America has gotten to expand its reach beyond those 100 days in publicized quarantine life in having to made a huge impact on The Challenge, whether you like it or not.
There's little doubt that the ringleader of Big Brother's MTV invasion is Paulie Calafiore of Season 18, who arrived in Hawaii for EOTB USA and then flew over to South Africa where he made it all the way to the end on Final Reckoning, and then again to the War of the Worlds II final. It would've been three straight appearances in the two-day marathon for the cash had he not faltered in the last elimination on the first WOTW season just as he did getting hurt in the Thailand heat. And of course, he found something he didn't get in the EOTB mansion: true love with Cara Maria.
Last summer & fall he watched his older brother Cody win Big Brother All-Stars after being on Season 16 two years prior to him moving into the famed summer house... and now Paulie is eyeing something even bigger than going for $1 million on a reality game show. And last month, he began his quest to follow in the footsteps of a few of his contemporaries and the headlining rookie of Double Agents into uncharted waters for anyone who's been on The Challenge but something as grand: the Olympic world.
As part of the promotional blitz leading into this past week's premiere of The Challenge: Total Madness, a guy who's won more of these than any other stated to US Weekly the relief he has that this season has more of what fans like in the competition and less of what he calls "toxic, awful personalities" to make it more favorable to everyone. The subliminal shade Johnny Bananas gave on the magazine's TV podcast referred to two of the biggest notables no-shows to a season that began in grand fashion last week for a sporting nation hungry for some action in this time of uncertainty.
Those two people are Cara Maria Sorbello and Paulie Califiore, who met each other two years ago on The Challenge and have had such a public relationship that it has fascinated everyone who follows both MTV Reality and reality television in its totality. The way the relationship began for the both of them stemming from his split from Bachelor Nation alum Danielle Maltby has divided everyone in Challenge Nation, has seen the approval ratings of the two-time Challenge queen take a nose dive, and helped solidify Big Brother's impact as not just as CBS' summertime guilty pleasure, but now a year-round presence on its once-again cable sibling in the new ViacomCBS regime.
Paulie made his TV debut on the 2016 season of Big Brother, which two years later came to The Challenge starting on Vendettas. He himself moved into the Season 1 Ex On The Beach house just after that season aired, before making a huge impact himself on Final Reckoning as well as the two War of the Worlds seasons. Him being able to play the game relentlessly and fearlessly saw this brother of a past BB houseguest and a former soccer player make a name almost from the start, earning the ire of Johnny and everyone else in making two of his three finals, and narrowly missing the third when him going all in on the last purge on War of the Worlds I cost him dearly.
A member of this year's Challenge cast, "Swaggy C" from the Big Brother season two years after Paul's, BB20, knows what it's like to be the least-liked member of his cast and yet still have an enormous impact on the season. It's very much the same way for Paulie when you refer to not only his original BB18 season but also in what he got to do on Final Reckoning and last year's two WOTW seasons... but while he is taking this season off this time, this past week he took to Instagram to do, what his girlfriend did earlier in her Challenge career.
Back when she was a young up-and-comer who was continuing to earn her stripes, Cara Maria did a YouTube video where she got to do impersonations of fellow Challengers. Those who respected her then who might as well not be on her side now like Jemmye, Nany and Camila, and even Cara were impersonated in that eight-minute video released during Battle of the Seasons 2, where she was part of that infamous Fresh Meat group.
With that video in mind, Paulie decided to do his own impersonations of fellow Challengers which he posted on Instagram TV (the longer version of videos posted on the social app that's longer than 60 seconds). There, he decided to take his chance to act as CT, Wes, Ashley, Rogan, Kam and Jenny. And thus, it includes sights of a wig & bra, a Red Sox hat, and yes, a ginger beard.
When it was posted on premiere night last Wednesday, it might've been just as good as the actual premiere episode itself and over 123,000 of you have seen the video ever since of him doing these spot-on imitations of those he's competed with, and where now he's observing them as just us, armchair fans.
And just about everyone in Challenge Nation, as well as the biggest star of Champs vs. Pros and his fellow Big Brother alumni, had their say in the Instagram comments on the biggest absentee becoming them for a few moments - starting with his #1 fan...
●@misscaramaria: "This is the paulie i know. 🤣♥️" ●@roguesnaps: "Hahahahahahahahahaha mate I’m in tears 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 p.s. BEER ME" ●@mtvashleybrooke: "Oh my god your ct is fucking perfect you made my day I love you Soooooo much 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😍🔥"
●@darrell_taylor_lb4lb: "CT was on point 😂"
●@jenniferwestofficial: "Oh my god I'm dying!!! C.T and Rogan were spot on!! 😂😂😂😂😂 In this case Paulie you weren't shit you were actually good 😉"
●@lolojones: "Acting skills on point"
●@deenguyen: "I’m mad u didn’t do me. U have the best Australian accent 😂"
●@natalienegrotti: "LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIOO This is incredible now text me back biatch"
●@mrashleycain: "I actually watched the whole thing. I'm cracking up man. You should deffo do some more! 🤣👏🏾"
●@bradfiorenza: "OMG bro 😂😂😂😂😂"
●@stevie_bear: "😂😂😂😂"
●@jossmooney: "😂😂😂😂 @_famous4nothing"
●@fessyfitness: "Bruhhhhh this is to good 😂😂😂😂😂"
●@kcsince1987: "Lmaoooo 😂😂😂😂"
●@iamkamiam_: "You are hilarious 😭😭😭"
●@eastwood100 Clint/Real World Atlanta: "Hilarious bro 👍🙌"
●@zackass Zach Holmes/Too Stupid to Die: "😂😂😂"
●@ginamariez Gina Zimmerman/Big Brother: "Yo the man brother. Without y’all the Challenge is shit. They scared"
●@daniellealexism Danielle Murphree/Big Brother: "I told you!! I’m so glad that you did this 😂😭 the ones with the accents kill me .... Ashley and Rogan 🤣🤣🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥🔥 I miss y’all!! @misscaramaria"
Last year, the MTV Reality family got bigger by quite a bit when the 2018 end of The Challenge's now much-maligned series trilogy, Vendettas and Final Reckoning, got to invite those from shows outside of both the U.S. channel to its draft pool of potential competitors. It was also the case for the show that Vendettas also helped to introduce to the American audience in between it and Final Reckoning when the U.S. adaption on MTV's global reality franchise Ex On The Beach debuted just after Cara Maria Sorbello came away victorious as the first solo winner of a final challenge in series history.
Someone who is on everyone's list of the Top 20, 50 or 100 of the reality stars who defined the twelve months is Paulie Calafiore, who joined this MTV family a year ago from a network that was, once upon a time, a corporate sibling when CBS and MTV were under the same Viacom ownership as part of what Disney, Comcast and AT&T's WarnerMedia are now -- a media super conglomerate. And the show he comes from is one that defines summer to both die-hard reality fans and to casual viewers during the broadcast networks' offseason... and come next month, we'll again hear those familiar terms "veto," "head of household" and "evicted" when Season 21 of that show debuts.
Paulie first burst onto the scene on Season 18 of Big Brother in 2016 as part of a twist that offered keys to America's most famous summer share to siblings of past houseguests, as he is brother of Season 16 runner up Cody Calafiore. Two years later, he found himself on MTV in eventually becoming one of The Challenge's biggest names in making the Final Reckoning final as a rookie and just falling short of a second straight trip to the dash for the cash on War of the Worlds when he got eliminated in the regular season finale Purge. But months before, he gained his MTV membership card by being one of the ten singles who formed the first cast of Ex On The Beach USA.
Along the way, Paulie has certainly become one of those figures in reality TV that viewers would love to love, or love to hate. Those who saw BB18 know about his showmance with Zakiyah Everette, his bromance with two-time runner-up Paul Abrahamian, his questionable treatment of the female houseguests including future Challenger Natalie Negrotti and Da'Vonne Rogers, and all that took place that summer. Those who watched EOTB last year saw him click with Lexi Marsella, but that came crashing down like many other romances in the Shack of Secrets. And of course, there's The Challenge and his much-publicized relationship with Cara Maria, which was sealed with tattoos for each other on the first season of How Far is Tattoo Far. And everyone has heard of the news that unraveled with them and Bachelor alum Danielle Maltby in the run-up to the past two seasons, which saw Cara and Paulie break up and then get back together amidst much public attention.
It would be easy for you to either support him or to root against him, and those who saw him struggle in the sea in the semifinal of War of the Worlds had reason to cheer either way or feel for him when he came away empty. But to better understand who the real Paul Calafiore is, you have to know more than just this divisive reality TV personality: there is a side of him who actually is well-spoken even with his Jersey accent, well-versed and has an understanding of the whole world around him, and not just of what goes on in the new section of the reality world he has entered. The title of this post brings to mind the animal which he has used to offer a platform for which he can discuss the things he wants to talk about in great detail: the lion.
