DC ExtraTime: Survivor in Buckeye Country

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

This summer, MTV's Are You The One? made plenty of history along the way for its eighth season, coming five years after it began as one of the many new shows to come along on the channel and who benefited from the launchpad of debuting out of its biggest shows. For Season 8, the casting of this season's set of romantic singles were made up entirely of sexually-fluid singles from the LGBTQ+ community... the first reality dating show on U.S. television to explore this new world where the hashtag "Love Wins" takes on greater meaning. And after its season finale this past week, it serves as the basis to this story that offers the bridge to the next chapter in 2019 in reality TV.

Two years ago this month, this website stumbled upon a fan who met the cast of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 when it launched its first $1 million season and found that he had gathered his friends in the backyard of his house for several seasons of a home-made reality series. The result was one of our most-viewed posts and a recurring subject of this ExtraTime series: The Caucus Challenge franchise hosted, edited and sometimes competed in by Andres Rodriguez - himself also one who takes pride in being out & proud himself, and who has done three additional seasons of that show, and two seasons of a spin-off series, since that original post in September 2017.

Facebook.com/SurvivorTimeChange

As it turns out, Caucus is one of many of a slew of series that are made for YouTube that are inspired by reality television and beamed into desktops, mobile devices and connected TV's for enjoyment by the viewing public that's just as good as you'd find on the broadcast and cable networks. Ordinary people with a decent internet connection and budget are able to their own version of the shows they love, and so many of the most talked-about people of the moment in pop culture are internet stars who take this world seriously, who have millions of subscribers and followers, and who have snazzy budgets to offer YouTube videos of the network television-level of quality.

The most common of reality show imitations involves the series that might not have been the first reality competition show as that title belongs to The Challenge. But it was the show that made a genre that had previously been the domain of U.S. cable TV and broadcast networks outside America, and whose arrival to the States nineteen years ago this summer changed the game for both reality TV and the television industry of the biggest exporters and importers of entertainment in the universe. And one of those who competed on there got a chance at love on a revolutionary season of the MTV reality dating show that brought love and money together, and had a prime role in this AYTO season in being one half of arguably one of this franchise's biggest romances.