#DCBLOG: The Moments That Get You Talking. Original Storytelling and Perspective. And So Much More Than That, Too. Join Us as We Go Inside MTV Reality and Whatever You're Passionate About. Like, Comment, Share, Subscribe & Join In at @DC408Dxtr Wherever Social Media's At. Part of DC Social Network.
It is the last day of September, and as we experience this change in months this autumn's weekend, welcome again to DCBLOG's look Inside the MTV Trifecta, where we have a busy next few days of posts to share with you. And after yesterday looking at two AYTO alums making their way to Dr. Phil, we're now into the gist of this week's posts as we focus on Episode 11 of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30, the first of a Saturday SocialPulse doubleheader.
Last week, the Redemption House took center stage as its latest occupants -- Aneesa, Cory, Hunter, Marie and Nicole -- all competed for a chance to regain their spot in the Main House... not exactly - Marie bailed out early as Hunter regained his spot in the game, and Aneesa converted on her vow to come back after discovering the player had deemed her the devil. And Tony found out from his girlfriend back home Alyssa about his hookup with Camila through, of all things, the web.
This week as the game turns back to the main house, a call from back home in the States turns the game of one player upside down, as a surprise development sees them question whether or not to press on in the game. The week's challenge sees the players become their own Ninja Warrior (and of course lots of falls), while unresolved tension between two players escalates into words in the club. And one Challenger's morals get tested as things get tense in the Colombian day and night.
Coming up, all the action, reaction and interaction from this week's episode and the day before and after Challenge Tuesday. And after the diary, if there's one person who helped to trigger the trend of pranks in MTV reality show houses, ExtraTime will step back into the memory bank and ask, "Whatever happened to The Chosen One?"
Falling down, breaking up, a drunken punch and Pretty Boy... it's all ahead on the 'Pulse of The Challenge XXX, as we roll along on our weekend trip through the MTV world at DCBLOG.
Following is an excerpt from the DCBLOG Pulse diary from last week's Are You The One? Season 6 premiere, reposted in the interest of readers who don't want to scroll down, and has been updated to include new media including its trailer.
Earlier this year, ExtraTime went behind the scenes at a filming of an indie flick involving four generations of the MTV Trifecta: the movie first named Habit, then Blight, and now called Raving Lunatics by New England filmmaker Johnny Hickey. The film's premiere date has been pushed a bit and now slated to now drop during the ultimate time of celebrating all things scary: Halloween. In that film are two-time Challenge champ and Hickey's childhood friend CT, Kailah and Ammo's Real World Go Big or Go Home roommate Sabrina, RW Cancun and two-time Challenger Emilee, and Are You The One? original Brittany. Now, Brittany's fellow Season 1 castmate and one was also her roommate in SoCal is now entering the acting world himself.
If you watched saw AYTO Season 1 three years ago, you saw Ryan Malaty, who came to the house from Colorado in need of love and found himself in a love triangle with future local news journalist Kayla Lusby and funny guy Wes Buckles. Like other romances in the show's five seasons, this triangle was settled in the Truth Booth, with the lasers eventually favoring her and Wes.
Besides being a fan and webcast host for Game of Thrones and Teen Wolf (which concludes its MTV run tonight) and having just traveled up to Wyoming to witness the recent eclipse, he's best known for wearing an Aladdin outfit in what was the Originals' next to last Matchup before they won the $1 million. And earlier this year, we looked back at the time when he dusted off that outfit to go to the one place where it seems to be Halloween every day: the CBS daytime game show Let's Make A Deal.
We're bringing up Aladdin once again because of something that was just released in the past week, but sadly that famous outfit won't make its way to what he's doing next. But if you know of someone who loves to binge-watch -- even some of you perhaps, then it's likely that they do so on Netflix... and in addition to them offering more and more of the most unique original shows, offering an assortment of other shows from other networks and studios - and what began the service in the first place in offering movies, something that was recently released was an original Netflix film.
Last year, Ryan landed a supporting role in the movie #RealityHigh, which many media outlets are calling a modern-day, Instagram-influenced take on the classic 2004 teen comedy flick Mean Girls which turned Lindsey Lohan into a household name. In Reality High (its official title includes the hash symbol), the movie focuses on the mere reality of going to high school with someone with millions of social media followers. And considering those like Rachel Levin, Jake Paul and other social media influencers with a strong presence on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and other social platforms while they are in their teens, this brings this idea to when it comes to the hometown high school in your area.
The main characters of the film are of protagonist Dani Barnes, played by Nesta Cooper, and Alexa Medina, played by Alicia Sanz. The former in this case is in control in school and has very little support, and that leads her to gett a makeover to make herself more attractive to the social media crowd and Alexa's 9 million followers of Alexa. This, in turn, ignites a huge rivalry between the two where Dani finds herself in the battle for internet popularity and likes, which distracts her from volunteering and getting into college. This even involves Alex's ex, who also happens to be Keith Powers of Famous In Love fame, and whose character is a swimmer, student and finds himself in the middle of the war. This also leads to when a potential friendship Dani has with closest ally may falter when this is done, all as Dani tries to realize that maybe being truly yourself is likely better than asking someone else to alter her image for the sake of Insta-attention.
Ryan has a supporting role in the film, which brings into focus the ever-present dangers of bullying, social media and how being truly authentic one can be and being true to yourself to everyone is better than someone else to drastically alter their image, most especially taking place in the always intriguing battle for high school popularity. It also, in a way, reflects the times we are living in with a diverse cast and it taking into account interracial couples and gay couples as well.
It also caught the attention of my fellow MTV fan Andrew Kirk (@CSUGradAKirk): "Saw @ryanmalaty was in a movie on @blacuesta ig story had to see this! #realityhigh great movie one of the actors @ryanmalaty made a cameo on one of my podcasts with @brittany_baldi two years back."
Reality High was released on Netflix more than a week ago, and if you're into social media and big time teenage drama, do check it out when you can.
Welcome to the weekend, and to this week's look Inside the MTV Trifecta at DCBLOG. Coming up, we'll be covering this week's episodes of Are You The One? Season 6 and The Challenge XXX, along with the incredible backstory of a Dirty 30 competitor. But first as an appetizer to all those, we'd thought you might like to enjoy an updated version of an ExtraTime story from earlier this year.
This story involves not a high profile romance that took place inside the six houses that have hosted television's guiltiest guilty pleasure or the bevy of hookups that we have seen in the first two episodes of our new season in New Orleans, but two members of the same cast and America's most well-known psychologist, Dr. Phil. And it seems that he's become as well-known in AYTO circles as the 120 or so castmates who are now part of the show's alumni circles, host of the show's first five seasons Ryan Devlin, and his successor in new host Terrence J.
Since we first posted this bit during the Second Chances spinoff earlier this year featuring an alum from the Season 2 cast being spotted in the audience of the popular nationally syndicated daytime talk show, this past week in a rather strange twist, his fellow cast member from that sophomore class was also seen in the audience of the one who got his TV start by way of the queen of daytime. And ironically, those two castmates have a common history of sorts, though not as well-known as the ones he had on that season, which debuted three years ago this coming first week of October.
What follows after the jump is our original story from back in May, followed by a new follow-up in showcasing a second member of that very same cast being featured on an episode of Dr. Phil which aired earlier this week, and the common link between our two subjects. Enjoy this bonus installment of DC ExtraTime… we know you're gonna get a kick out of this.
Following is an excerpt from a DCBLOG Pulse diary during The Challenge: Invasion from earlier this year, reposted in the interest of readers who don't want to scroll down, and in relation to our subject being a key figure on this week's episode of Dirty 30, which we will cover on here this weekend.
Back in January, we looked back at the time when two fairly recent MTV alums: Trey from Real World St. Thomas and two Challenges, and Ryan from Are You The One? Season 1, tried their hand at winning themselves some more money after winning some money on MTV when the two went on CBS game shows The Price is Right and Let's Make A Deal. There, Trey went to TPIR under his actual name of Walter and won a surfboard, and Ryan went to LMAD wearing the same, signature Aladdin outfit he wore to one of the matchup ceremonies from that original AYTO season.
Well, you can add a third person from the Trifecta to that list, which also brings us to a piece of 90's nostalgia that's still with us today, and worthy for us to share with you in this first piece of ExtraTime this weekend and this latest edition of Before They Were MTV Stars. And if you're into daytime television, then you know that there are a lot of talk shows that air each and every day, and one of them is our co-subject.
Jerry Springer may have been born in London to two Jewish refugees who escaped from Poland to Germany, but it's safe to say he is one of America's greatest treasures. After serving as a campaign adviser to Robert Kennedy before his assassination and being a lawyer, Jerry turned to politics and in 1971 was elected to Cincinnati's city council. He was forced out three years later when he admitted to have hired a prostitute, but won back his seat the following year, which then turned into him becoming mayor in 1977, then running for governor of Ohio and two times for a U.S. Senate seat.
In the '80s, local NBC affiliate WLWT hired Springer as first a political reporter and commentator, but then became its main news anchor. During his tenure, he occupied a spot once held by Cincinnati's best-known newscaster Al Schottelkotte and then by George Clooney's dad Nick: #1 in the ratings. Much in the same manner as it is today, the final segment in each newscast gave Jerry a chance to do commentary which would morph into his "Final Thought." And it ended with the same phrase at the end of each newscast and show since: "Take care of yourself, and each other."
In 1991 came another bold venture: The Jerry Springer Show. WLWT developed the show and format to match that of the iconic talk show Donahue...both of which were produced by the station's then-parent company, Multimedia, Inc. It began in much the same manner as the show of the longtime talk veteran in being more focused on politics and current issues, playing off the subject matter of Jerry's commentaries... and where Jesse Jackson, gun politics and family reunions were the norm. They even shared both the hair style and glasses, too.
A year after Springer left the anchor desk to focus on his talk show, in 1994 new executive producer Richard Dominick shifted the format to more tabloid topics and sensationalism. Out went serious topics and highbrow issues... in came controversial subjects like prostitution, adultery, homosexuality, being a cross-dresser and being part of a hate group, all featuring everyday people like you and I. Being a '90s guy, I remember watching Jerry's show every day during those summer school breaks off and seeing highlights of it on E!'s Talk Soup, and couldn't get enough watching all this unfold.
Also in were the kind of stuff that's par for the course in reality TV nowadays: plenty of screaming and on-stage violence, plus sights of the bald head of security guard Steve Wilkos, and the audience chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!" The result: enormous viewership that rivaled (and in some cities, out-rated) Oprah, and substantial attention that even led to a short-lived commentary gig in Chicago. There was even a musical on London and the U.K. based on the talk show itself, with Jerry's role played by Harvey Keitel.
Around doing a show still around some 26 years and 3,900 episodes later and as he's into his 70's, Jerry also served as one of the many who have hosted the summer sensation America's Got Talent over the course of that NBC show's past decade on-air. He's also done some talk show work for the jolly old folks over in Britain, and yes, he's also one of the hundreds who have also competed on one of that country's great TV exports: Dancing with the Stars when he appeared in 2006. He even hosts a show on WWE Network, and even recorded an album of country covers (if you can believe that).
This brings us to why we brought up Jerry in this bit: for five years, Jerry hosted a show on the Game Show Network called Baggage. Like AYTO, it was a dating game show and was one the highest-rated original show in its five seasons on the air on a niche network that has shown just about every TV game show since it went on the air more than two decades ago. Baggage gave three contestants an opportunity to win a date, much like the show that gave the world these romantic game shows, The Dating Game. There was a catch to all this: the contestants brought on set three suitcases: small, medium and large cases with a proposition that is either unique, weird, gross or embarrassing depending upon the story. This necessary piece of travel gear came to represent the "baggage" they had to confess and to defend, and the bigger the case was meant the bigger of these secrets, and likely the most hilarious or shocking the revelation. The three players were then played down to a single one, and the date would then have to reveal something if they wanted the date.
For one of those five seasons Baggage was on GSN, the show went on the road to colleges across the U.S., and in one of those episodes of Baggage on the Road it went to Austin, Texas. It also happened to be home base for Nelson, and he auditioned to be one of those contestants to try their luck on going on a date, just as it was for fellow AYTO alums Brittany and Scali on The Choice.
In another Instagram post, Nelly captioned, "Everybody tune in to the show called "Baggage on the Road", featuring Jerry Springer as the Host and me as one of the contestants. It's a Blessing and I thank him everyday for each opportunity that I have received to reach my Dreams🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏✈️✈️✈️🎬🎬🎬🎬🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥📺📺📺 #GGG #Family #PhotoOfTheDay #Dreams #Love #Selfie" This also happened to be one of his few TV appearances before he made it onto Are You The One: years before that, he also appeared on a drama called The Lying Game, and took a selfie from the set of ABC's American Crime.
We do not have a video of Nelson's actual appearance on the show, but embedded below is one of those promos for Baggage on the Road, which still airs on Game Show Network in reruns (the channel is, by the way, a favorite of my younger brother), and beneath that is a screen cap from the show's Twitter account which shows the actual answer inside his suitcase in which he admits that, "I'm a sex addict." Quite fitting for someone we saw in Hawaii and then here on Invasion seeing him go under covers with Latoya in the Shelter.
Following is an excerpt from last week's DCBLOG WRAP for Week 10 of Challenge XXX and Week 1 of AYTO Season 6, reposted in the interest of readers who don't want to scroll down.
It was about at this time two years ago that Kailah was one of those finalists for one of those seven spots in the Real World Go Big suite in Downtown Las Vegas' Gold Spike, and the experience of having been on that Road Rules-inspired season has surely helped her in her first two Challenge seasons. And since she first made waves on The Challenge last season on Invasion, she has rapidly become one of the key figures in the house... whether she follows in Ashley's lead and walk away with the crown is still a long way out.
Two previous times, we have showcased her meeting two who've made a name the past 12 months: her musical idol Halsey before The Chainsmokers came a calling, and perhaps the most jealous of all celebrity meetings we've chronicled here - being invited to Floyd Mayweather's 40th birthday all thanks to her boyfriend Mikey P. being friends with the man who just became 50-0. Now, you can add a few more to those joining Team Jailah to the mix...
Twitter @IamMikeyP
Last month, those in the reality TV world were buzzing about a reunion of the cast of the most successful series in MTV history. Eight years ago, eight people from New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island traveled down to Seaside Heights and things were never the same, as Jersey Shore became a massive cable hit, replaced The Osbournes as the channel's highest-ever rated show and turned its cast members into household names. The show began as just a mere reality series documenting its castmates partying at night, doing "Gym, Tan, Laundry" during the day, hanging out by the beach and everything in between in their iconic timeshare house and the Shore Store. But it was a punch of all things that brought the show short-term outrage but long-term success as Snooki, Mike the Situation, J-Woww, Pauly D, Ronnie, Sammi, Vinny, Angelina and Deena (the ladder two meeting Bruno's skeleton Briah before RW Skeletons) became pop culture icons.
Last month, there were two reasons for Jersey Shore fans to get nostalgic: first, the entire cast (sans Angelina) filmed a Burger King commercial, and then E! aired a short but sweet regathering of most but not all of the cast who turned the seaside town into heaven for several of the show's six seasons, along with trips to Miami and Italy too. Since Kailah moved to Las Vegas, she has been a beneficiary of Mikey's contact list in getting to meet The Money Man and those in the entertainment world thanks to having done some side work in the Vegas clubs when not busy with promoting his music, for which she has a cameo in his latest music video. And earlier this summer, she got to meet Pauly D, who we first saw in Seaside as that party DJ and was cast on the show not because of his music but his blowout look after receiving a MySpace message. Pauly now has a permanent gig in Sin City along with traveling across the country to do DJ gigs too. And he was also one of the stars who was up for a date on the summer 2012 show The Choice, which we covered here last year, as was the E! show Famously Single where he had a brief relationship with Danity Kane's Aubrey O'Day.
Twitter @IamMikeyP
And on Labor Day weekend at one of the hottest pool parties on earth, the photo to the left describes this in one word from Mikey: "Squad!" Kailah got to meet Pauly's roommate in the Shore house, Ronnie - who we best know for his on-again, off-again relationship with Sammi Sweetheart and was one of the key stories that reverberated throughout the show's six-season run. He didn't make it to the filming of either reunion not because of being around his ex, but because of him following in Pauly's lead and being part of the cast of season 2 of Famously Single which also includes Tiffany "New York" Pollard of VH1 fame and Hayden of AYTO's new famous friend Chad Johnson.
Also at that pool party is someone who's not only famous but famous on another level: Kevin Hart spent his childhood with a single mom and a dad who spent much of his time in jail on cocaine charges, but who would then find a refuge in stand-up comedy in his hometown of Philadelphia. It took time and hard work, and even getting run off the stage at local gigs, but eventually Kevin would develop his style inspired by Chris Tucker and delving into his life struggles. Nationwide comedy tours would follow for him, which translated into two of them making it into movie theaters and his own iTunes game. On the movie front, he first made his mark as part of the Scary Movie franchise, then, among others, Soul Plane, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, This Is The End (for which Averey and Joi from Real World Portland did a commercial parody of), Ride Along with Ice Cube, The Wedding Ringer and Get Hard with Will Farrell.
And then came TV: VH1's Real Husbands of Hollywood, a guys' take on the Real Housewives franchise, along with the 2011 BET Awards, the 2012 VMA's and the 2016 Movie Awards for which Kailah attended along with her Real World cast. We can't forget about his musical alias Chocolate Droppa and his collaborations with Trey Songz, Migos and T.I., not to mention he is about to become a dad later this year.
It's not only Halsey, Floyd, Pauly, Ronnie and Kevin who are on Team Jailah: they have also crossed paths with (either alone or together): Dolphins QB (and Laguna Beach's Kristin's ex) Jay Cutler, Farrah from Teen Mom, MMA fighters Rampage Johnson and Cris Cyborg, boy band After Romeo, and a girl who we'll be seeing in that Voice chair tonight, Miley Cyrus.
Tonight, the game gets back on again on The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30, and tomorrow sees the first matchup on Are You The One? Season 6. But before we head into those all new episodes starting tonight and after Sunday's series finale of Teen Wolf, MTV heads into this fall slate off of a summer of increased viewership thanks to a number of hit shows including the sultry summer soap Siesta Key, and ahead of next week's return of a true MTV Icon: Total Request Live - TRL. And things are about to heat up with not just new seasons but also new shows, and this past weekend I revealed two of them which will join what I call the Trifecta in my viewing schedule.
For one of those two shows, it'll come later... after their shortcomings against Bananas, Leroy, Aneesa & Laurel last week on Fear Factor, there's a consolation prize for Alessandra, Brewer, Carissa & Marc in one of those two spots. Shredders will document them and four other young friends who will travel up to a ski resort in New York's Catskill Mountains for the time of their life. During this long winter break, they'll be snowboarding and skiing during the day, and at night they'll party it up like they're Olympic gold medalists. Think, Jersey Shore and Real World being combined with one of the other shows I enjoyed in my MTV run of Slednecks, and you have the recipe for Shredders, and we'll be looking more into it when their time comes when winter rolls around.
The other is a show that will celebrate the joys and the nostalgia of a decade none of us will ever forget and one that a New York Times columnist calls "The Best Decade Ever," and that is our focus of this installment of The Look: MTV's 90's House.
This is a short but sweet post here, but this is a very special one for yours truly here. This is the 500th overall post this DCBLOG site has published since this ride began on May 11, 2013 with the same two words that started my Twitter account five years ago: "I'm Here." What was first intended to be just a place for me to write about my passions and my experiences is still the case in a way, but over time it has become the site a lot of you who follow a passion of mine in MTV's reality TV ecosystem known as the Trifecta go to each week.
I have discussed this in the past before the last two Trifecta cycles and it would be a bit ridiculous to rehash things in this post, but for the gist of it: During the past four years, this hobby on the side has turned into my primary focus whenever there's free time available to me -- and the amount of time I have devoted to blog work each week has seen me lose hours of sleep and sometimes spend long days binge-working on my computer, all to offer you this unique and in-depth coverage. Along the way, I have nurtured this site, made it better and expanded my focus a bit, yet continue to devote the same level of passion and energy and a commitment to excellence I have into offering the exceptional posts you get each week.
Yes, this site offers a public service to everyone with all the 'Pulse play by play of every episode and recapping them too, but also realized an untapped market and a need of wanting to get to know the people you're watching on these shows a bit better through a unique manner of storytelling that's entertaining and engaging. Those three aspects all come together at this intersection to make the formula by which this site goes by, and helps to distinguish this site from others that cover The Challenge/Real World franchise and Are You The One too. I always like to think that this site sets the standard for blog coverage of this MTV world, and from the feedback you all have left me is proof of that notion and this passion.
This past week - as I approached this important milestone for DCBLOG, we showcased two fans who share the same passion for the fifth major pro sport as me and who got to meet the Dirty 30 cast when they were in New York. There, we saw one of them meet his idol while the other worked out with the cast and showcased his web series inspired by The Challenge. ● @Clarence_Pryor: "Thanks so very much! I'll keep this article!" ● @obey_andrezz: "Wow! Thank you so much! This is great! I really appreciate this article, you have no idea! 😍😭 "
Those words from Clarence and Andres are the latest in a long line of acclaim and appreciation a lot of you, both from fans and castmates, have shown to me in my time writing on the Trifecta. This helps to drive me in being able to continue to offer the high-quality content synonymous with this site, offering an all-encompassing blog experience that you can't find anywhere else. And there's still a lot to come with stories, social reaction and much more coming up.
Again, thank you for your continued support as we continue to glide along in our journey of taking you around the world of The Challenge and Real World, Are You The One? and whatever next big reality show MTV brings to us. And as a treat to all of you, below after jump are the See For Yourself advertisements which have been posted on social media the past year in promotion of this site -- all designed in-house. See you for the next 500.
As you go about your Monday, back we are at DCBLOG to recap last week's activities in the MTV Trifecta before we go into all new episodes coming tomorrow night.
Last week, there was something for everyone for Challenge fans as those in the Redemption House were given another chance to win their way back into the Dirty 30 and saw a veteran lady and a Young Buck win and a girl with Statitude falter badly. Meanwhile, MTV summer hit Fear Factor returned for a one-off special as the Challengers showed who's boss in a battle between Bananas, Leroy, Aneesa and Laurel faced off against the cast of the upcoming series Shredders. And in New Orleans, Are You The One? Season 6 debuted and saw a good number of hookups and love aplenty among our new group of 22 singles as Terrence J. took over as host.
Coming up, we'll look at the key moments of this past week on the three episodes, and head into the Strategy Room to look at what's next for a Dirty 30 season that seems to not come to an end anytime soon but is heading into the middle innings... along with a look at what the magic number is on AYTO... and it's not the two-digit numbers you think they are. After our poll results, who is the latest big name to jump onto the Team Jailah bandwagon? Find out with us next.
