By DC Cueva,
with Quantikia Mesonia & Jamie Soler
> @DC408dxtr, @Coutureluvtik, @s0ler559
We are five episodes through Real World Ex-Plosion, and what else can you say about this season? It's been fantastic and exciting. I have been enjoying it, as I usually do for any Real World, and there's still plenty more to come, now that the biggest twist we have ever seen on this reality TV pioneer has turned the house in San Francisco upside down. And while we dabble in this rare week off in between episodes (and me being very busy with having a dose of Olympic fever), I can safely say that this season is on its way to joining those that stand out to me as an all time favorite, and also concur with buddy Andrew Kirk that this should be the season that saves The Real World and it should be a matter of when MTV lets BMP know when to start thinking about how to celebrate the show's 30th season.
As for what's been happening so far, a month through and we've seen two pairs of roommates getting paired up: Jamie & Thomas, and Jenny & Cory; one is now a couple, the other has had a rocky relationship. There's Hurricane Ashley, who we saw a couple times before she was evicted by the roommates who had enough of her behavior. We also saw one of the most emotional moments we've ever seen on this show with laid-back fella Jay breaking down after his mom's sudden passing, and receiving a ton of twitter support. And of course, we have just witnessed the biggest bombshell to drop on The Real World since the Dustin scandal that rocked Las Vegas, maybe ever. And that, of course, would be of the roommates' ex-girlfriends & boyfriend flying into the City (except for one who just moved from down the street) and moving into the house to live with the roommates, which we saw on the last episode.
In all, we've had the highest rated RW episodes in three years and a lot of twitter interaction (especially the recent episode), which we have documented in our SocialPulse diaries. And after some initial skeptical reaction to the twist that became public on my birthday back in November, it seems everyone's negative first impressions have disappeared to the point that they are actually enjoying this Real World season (even with tweaks to the long RW formula). And judging from the super tease and sneak peeks we saw at the end of last week's episode & after show, there is sure to be plenty more fireworks still to come. And I have been enjoying this season in very much the same way I enjoyed watching the Portland season, perhaps maybe better.
So in this week off, to tide you over until the next Real World Wednesday rolls around in 7 days from tonight, it's time to let you, the fans, get involved on here.
Having enjoyed a great deal of blogging for Rivals II last year, I have been stepping things up for RW Ex-Plosion. Besides providing the same wall-to-wall coverage that we had last summer & fall, DCBLOG has been involving the fans more in the conversation this season. Alongside the regular dialogue I have with cast and fans on twitter @DC408dxtr, our weekly SocialPulse articles have also been highlighting tweets from some of my loyal fan followers & yours truly, alongside those from cast and fellow alumni. But most importantly, I'll be expanding my blog interviews with fans from just covering the Reunion at the end of the season to adding to that the After Shows that will take place at certain times during the season after selected episodes, including after last week's show.
Typically, reunions and after shows have sort of a spillover effect in having the same type of drama that we see in the house, especially with the cast getting together for the first time since wrapping filming. And aside from the Rivals II reunion which was broadcast live, the reunions and after shows are taped in advance, sometimes with things getting left on the cutting room floor after a longer, taped session that takes place anywhere from a few months to two weeks prior to when we see it on TV.
And this is where DC BLOG will help fill in the gap, in giving fans the opportunity to talk about all the events of this season, the after shows and provide us with all the gossip from there in the studio, including what we didn't get to see in the final product. These are the only interviews that I conduct on here, and it's about the reunion & the after shows. I leave the cast interviews to webcast hosts Brian Cohen, Andrew, Reality Radio, Shady Sykes and others, though I do sometimes ask some questions on their webcasts for which I make every effort to be in every cast chat whenever my schedule allows.
The "Reunion Revealed" posts for Real World Portland and Rivals II, for which three of my loyal followers, Kevin, Kaitlyn and Drew all went to, is among my favorite articles, received great feedback from all three, and both posts are among DCBLOG's top 10 in page views. As they're all based in New York and could only attend the end of season reunion, and with these After Shows being taped near BMP's Los Angeles headquarters, I had to look to fresh, new people from SoCal to provide us with their insight and, perhaps, even vent a little. Judging from all the footage we've seen so far through five episodes (and what we'll eventually see the rest of this season), everything is covered. Nothing is off limits here; I'd love to hear from people about what they think.
After scouring the social-verse, I found two fans: Quantikia & Jay Soler. They were in the audience for the first two After Shows, which were taped the day after the first episode aired, back on January 9th. Those two After Shows aired after that emotion-packed episode 3 and the most-recent one, episode 5; and it covered the roommates kicking Ashley out of the house, the passing of Jay's mom, the budding relationships in the house and, of course, the exes moving in.
Here now are their thoughts on the After Show, their experience, & some of the big storylines so far...
