BY DC CUEVA
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 27 Mins.
The story of MTV Reality represents the history of the non-scripted genre as it is recognized by fans and the industry, encompassing three decades of some of TV's most unique programming. As MTV marks its 40th anniversary this year, during 2021 DCBLOG's ExtraTime franchise is proud to offer this special Flashback series as we look back at some of the most memorable moments, greatest shows, incredible personalities and unique backstories that has shaped this entire genre.
And due to this story's poignant nature, the reflective mood this country is in now on the anniversary of the events of what happened twenty years ago and the date that this is being posted -- as well as the time that was needed to put this detailed & in-depth story together, DCBLOG's normal weekly coverage will not be presented this weekend. As a result, our content covering this week's fifth episode of MTV's The Challenge will instead be offered on here during next week's series of posts.
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| Photo: Getty Images |
Right now, we are living through some extraordinary moments in our lifetime here in the first two years of the 2020's. We've had to endure such a divisive and intense time in this country spurred on by last year's game-changing election, sandwiched in between a tumultuous prelude and stunning aftermath that came along with a change of occupancy at the White House. A year ago, a post-Memorial Day weekend shooting in Minneapolis set off a coast-to-coast firestorm of riots and racial tension that reignited the Black Lives Matter movement. And there have been many other events -- disasters, deaths and the like -- that has seen plenty of bad news dominate our headlines & our social feeds... and then, there's this.
On March 8, 2020, just four days after the cast & trailer was revealed for season 35 of MTV's The Challenge: Total Madness, a startling announcement by the World Health Organization jolted the planet as the spread of the coronavirus from the nation of China to all around the world would have a lasting effect on our way of life. COVID sent just about everything we take for granted and our plans for both last and this year into a state of panic and perhaps being either postponed or put aside altogether... and it still is affecting all of us as the Delta variant and vaccination has been on most people's minds of late, and where it has continued to be a hot-button topic on the road back to pre-pandemic normalcy.
All of these events have joined those days and moments where, every so often, you'll know exactly where you were when it took place, and you'll tell your kids about it once you get up there in age. If you have a grandparent in your family who's still alive, they'll probably tell you where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed, when JFK was assassinated, when man stepped foot on the moon and when Nixon resigned. For your parents, it's likely they remember when Challenger exploded, when the Miracle on Ice happened, when the Berlin Wall fell and when O.J. Simpson was found not guilty.
And for us in this generation, there's the times when Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma and Ida hit, when Michael Jackson, Prince, Muhammad Ali and Kobe Bryant died, when same-sex marriage became law of the land, when the Red Sox and Cubs won the World Series, and when the last three Presidents were elected, among so many other things that have happened in the first two decades of this third millennium. And there are personal events and tragedies near and dear to us that didn't make national or global headlines but became days we would never forget... that includes the deaths of Challenge alums Diem Brown and Ryan Knight, and Are You The One's Alexis Eddy last year.
Living through such ordeals like what we're in now above is something that we all have gone through in the course of the last twenty-one months. But there's one person in the MTV Reality family who has gone through the surreal experience of the one moment scarred in the memories of most of us in these last two decades that was captured by the cameras of The Real World twenty years ago on this very day stuck in our collective memories. It's the person who takes on the role of being the senior competitor of this fall's Challenge season who has had the enigma of having her birthday on September 11 being scarred by the memories of that unforgettable Tuesday that changed this world.
And for us in this generation, there's the times when Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma and Ida hit, when Michael Jackson, Prince, Muhammad Ali and Kobe Bryant died, when same-sex marriage became law of the land, when the Red Sox and Cubs won the World Series, and when the last three Presidents were elected, among so many other things that have happened in the first two decades of this third millennium. And there are personal events and tragedies near and dear to us that didn't make national or global headlines but became days we would never forget... that includes the deaths of Challenge alums Diem Brown and Ryan Knight, and Are You The One's Alexis Eddy last year.
Living through such ordeals like what we're in now above is something that we all have gone through in the course of the last twenty-one months. But there's one person in the MTV Reality family who has gone through the surreal experience of the one moment scarred in the memories of most of us in these last two decades that was captured by the cameras of The Real World twenty years ago on this very day stuck in our collective memories. It's the person who takes on the role of being the senior competitor of this fall's Challenge season who has had the enigma of having her birthday on September 11 being scarred by the memories of that unforgettable Tuesday that changed this world.
