DC ExtraTime: The Challenge Takes Over a Super Bowl Commercial

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

   ESTIMATED READING TIME: 18 MINS.

In over a week from now, the focus for many fans of the MTV Reality world will be fixated on the first offering in 2022 of the fifth major pro sport of The Challenge. But once matters settled on Season 2 of All-Stars back in January, this blogger who loves his MTV shows took a break from covering them on here to follow another of his biggest passions: sports - and the two biggest events of them all... and it's one of the reasons why I've not been posting as much on this DCBLOG site in these first five months.

February gave me reason to join everyone else in the sports world and be both a fan and a viewer in enjoying the nineteen days of the Winter Olympics... and if you saw my Twitter feed during that eventful fortnight in Beijing, then you know how much of an Olympic super fanatic I am as I do any MTV show. But along with seeing Champs vs. Pros competitors Lindsay Jacobellis, Gus Kenworthy and Louie Vito, as well as Chloe Kim, Shaun White and Team USA, one other thing took place in the sports universe in the middle of the Games in a past and future host city an ocean away.

A year ago, the National Football League chose to take advantage of the massive popularity of America's favorite sport by adding a seventeenth regular season game to its schedule. As a result, the 2021 NFL campaign was expanded by one week to eighteen weeks of regular season play, a three-week preseason beforehand, and a thirteen-act play in January & February that was perhaps the most dramatic series of playoff games in league history. It also pushed back the season's last game, Super Bowl LVI, by a week to Sunday. February 13th -- the middle Sunday of the XXIV Winter Olympiad... and it made for what the network of both those events, NBC, to call it a "Once in a Lifetime" Super Gold Sunday.

And while we were caught up in the Los Angeles Rams' dramatic championship win as they nipped the Cincinnati Bengals by a late touchdown in their spectacular home of SoFi Stadium — plus hip-hop's finest hour in its biggest stars headlining a legendary halftime show and before the postgame bombshell of the ladies figure skating fiasco, there was an appearance by one who once appeared on a few seasons of The Challenge and got her start as part of a renowned Real World class. That person also just so happens to most notably be the ex-girlfriend of one of the All-Star competitors competing next month, as she took part in of the most unique aspects to every Super Sunday.

DC ExtraTime: Catching Up with... Real World Austin's Johanna

From during The Challenge XXX in 2017, and reposted after her appearance on this week's Challenge Mania podcast, for which her ex is on the cast of War of the Worlds

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

With the always fascinating sight of a Kansas City entrepreneur and dog's dad with ginger hair about to take over The Challenge once again, seeing Wes on Champs vs. Stars in a few days along with a meeting that took place on Instagram this past week brings us to this "Catching Up With…". And this takes us across the pond to an unlikely place, and that's where we find.... the ex.

   The United Kingdom is a union of four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is the epicenter of the British Commonwealth whose leader has been around before so many of us were born, as Queen Elizabeth's crowning moment came 65 years ago next summer. And Americans have always had a strong fascinating with the Brits: the Premier League, One Direction, Downton Abbey, and the Royal Family. And its capital is a city rooted in the past but whose feet are planted in the present and whose eyes are on the future in the vibrant city of London.
   And it was there eighty years ago that Edward R. Murrow moved from New York to London as head of CBS News' European operations. He traveled across the continent to gather a team of reporters called "Murrow's Boys" who helped to establish the tradition and standards of broadcast journalism, all during World War II. Though he never anchored the CBS Evening News, Murrow has had a greater impact than any other newsman of his time, and a highly sought-after TV and radio news award bears his namesake. And it leads us to another American living in jolly old England, and someone who those there refer to as a "presenter" rather than a TV broadcaster.

When we first saw Johanna Botta twelve years ago on The Real World Austin, she was a stunning and fiery Peruvian who had moved to the U.S. when she was 11. Along with her looks, her intellect, motivation and her manner of being opinionated and augmentative made her ready to enter that warehouse that hosted that memorable season. When she moved in, she was first attracted to Bostonian Danny, but ultimately she would become attracted to that ginger man.

   The relationship of Jo and Wes had us glued to that season, but it wasn't the only person she got to see: a local guy named Leo was also in her sights in Texas too, but ultimately settled for Wes in the end. Plus, there was that time when she was on a night out and she stole a rose from a homeless man, and they get a call that she was cuffed up for public intoxication… one of two scenarios of the Austin cast having run-ins with the law.

   Jo and Wes were still a couple when they made it to their first Challenge: Fresh Meat I in Australia and she then went to The Gauntlet III by herself, as part of that Rookie team that made it to the end they were, of course, gifted with the ultimate stunner: the title of champions in that Big Easy final along with castmates Nehemiah and Rachel. In fact, she & Wes were engaged, but when she went to The Island, Jo went there single after breaking up with him.

   And it didn't take long for her to get cozy with the one who would become his arch enemy. Yes, that would be Kenny, and their hookup in Panama was one of the big stories that emerged out of Mr. Beautiful winning that season with Bananas, Derrick and Evelyn. And though Kenny and Jo didn't really work out in the end, it more than fueled that now famous rivalry between him and Wes. That turned out to be the last time we would see her on these shows, and a career in the real real world awaited Jo.

   That career has seen her stay on camera, but in a different capacity than just competing or just making out on camera: Johanna has become a TV broadcaster, or as the Brits call her, a "presenter," much like what they would refer to someone like NBC Premier League host Rebecca Lowe. She has gone on to a career that has seen her handle anything from news reporting to lifestyle hosting and presenting like a pro. Below are some of her work from her YouTube channel.

Last year, Johanna became a new mom, and just this past week while he was in Europe handling songwriting duties - and in the same country that gave the world one of those he got to interview before stardom in Ellie Goulding, Davis Mallory from Real World Denver ran into Johanna in the streets, and we've embedded their meeting below here too.

View this post on Instagram

Hanging out in London today with my @MTV Real World co-star @johannabotta (go follow her), she's done super cool things since the show: she's now a mommy and has a thriving career as a host and actress in Europe #Goals

A post shared by baby d (@davismallory) on Nov 14, 2017 at 4:26am PST

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG