DC ExtraTime: The Barbie Beast & Thor Are Challenge Parents! And So is a Vet, Too...

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Jenna & Zach: A Challenge Love Story

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Over the past few years, something that has been keeping those who follow MTV's The Challenge talking from Wednesday to Wednesday has been what's been going on with your favorite competitors when the cameras aren't rolling. Just browsing the social media platforms of these players, both regulars of this series or those who've done any of the thirty-six seasons of this, and you are treated to what their lives are like when we're not scrutinizing their moves in the bubble of that Challenge house.

A popular item for all of us to buzz about over the years -- and also give us plenty to send our congrats to them for -- has been of when the people we know and love either get engaged or married, or when they celebrate the impending and eventual arrival of the newest member of their family: a baby. And despite having to go through an ordeal of having to go through so much bad news in what will soon be a full year since the announcement of COVID becoming a pandemic - and it coming shortly after the cast was revealed for the fittingly titled Total Madness, there has been a lot of positive stories involving pregnancies and engagements with those who we know and love in the fifth major pro sport.

And last Sunday on Valentine's Day as we are in the midst of the ongoing lockdown as well as the current season of Double Agents airing, we had the biggest profile reveal of an all-Challenge baby as not one, but two new parents to be made it official on top of them planning to get married. We also can't forget that there is someone else in Challenge Nation also expecting, and one who also knows what it's like to be part of a high-profile couple in the public limelight of this show we love. And two of them competed on the very same (and last rare non-Bananas) season on Battle of the Seasons II.

DC ExtraTime: The 8th Sin

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

Facebook: The 8th Sin

For the man who again fell short on The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars, Wes does have a consolation prize of what happened a month ago at this time along with some other good news too. Last month saw news that The Real World will be relaunched this coming year as part of a slate of new shows to be produced by MTV Studios as it embraces SVOD along with its traditional linear platform. Think, the show that launched reality TV may share the same Netflix space with 13 Reasons Why, Stranger Things, Fuller House and Karamo Brown's Queer Eye. That comes as good news for MTV fans who hold nostalgia in their hearts as it offers the backdrop to this bit...
   In our In-Depth look at The Epic MTV Super Weekend before spring finale week, one of the stories featured covering the weekend of June 1st-3rd for MTV reality alumni was of Wes' big day donning a wedding ring in front of some of those who got to live with him in The Real World Austin house, who later competed with him on several of his thirteen Challenges and one who's been mentored by the Ginger, Devin. One of those who saw him say "I do" to fiance Amanda Hornick and enjoyed their company during that weekend in Kansas City now happens to have a gig others in her MTV alumni family have: podcast host... but unlike Derrick or Sarah, she doesn't discuss what happens on The Challenge or talks with fellow castmates.
   We first met Melinda Stolp-Collins as that girl from Wisconsin who, as her bio wrote of her, "has lived the classic tale of ugly duckling turned swan... a down-home kind of girl with thick roots and a kind heart." Those who've watched her know that she was one of MTV's most memorable romances: her and Bostonian Danny Jamieson, which started when he picked her up upon their arrival in Texas. Then, she was at his bedside after the vicious street fight that left him hospitalized, and grew closer after that - including a planned Valentine's Day date being was cut short when he got word of his mom's untimely death. After they left Austin, they became a couple and shortly they became a married one too... but the pressure of the limelight eventually saw them split, and it was just a year ago that Melinda had donned a wedding ring for the second time to a different husband.

Since DCBLOG's posts covering the week's MTV episodes always begins as early as Friday to assure fans ample time to catch up before they're posted, this site shares the same spot on the weekends with TV newsmagazines. Once airing as often as Big Brother multiple times a week, save for 60 Minutes they've now become a place to gather around and hear some true crime stories: Dateline NBC is the most notable, ABC's 20/20, and CBS' 48 Hours. And there are many other programs on TV that feature those mesmerizing stories about those hometown crimes that suddenly become national sensations thanks to the attention of news organizations shifting their magazine focus from hard-hitting investigations and interviews to crime stories.
   In that spirit, Melinda and her friend, Sara Holzem, recently launched a podcast called The 8th Sin, and like other forms of media that cover these creepy stories, they get all the time they have to discuss them in the always juicy land of audio media... but with a twist. The synopsis reads, "The 8th Sin is a true crime podcast with a comedic twist. Co-hosts Sara Holzem & MTVs The Real World and Challenges alum, Melinda Collins will share peculiar stories that involve the 7 deadly sins while exploring the motivation that makes a person commit such heinous crimes."
   If hearing true crime stories from one of our grandpas in the TV universe (and one a fellow MTV original got to meet years ago) - Dateline's Keith Morrison - is an institution in itself, then Melinda and Sara get to discuss these same stories in a more humorous manner than what we're used to for those who decide that staying in on a weekend night is more enjoyable than going out to the club. The first three episodes are embedded below, and one iTunes user writes to them, "You kept me laughing the whole time! Hilarious and interesting!"









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