DC SocialPulse - The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies - Top Gun Takeover

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Welcome to something that's much more than just Saturday of this second weekend of November 2021... this is the one day that yours truly likes to refer to as #DCBDay. Today the 13th is my birthday, and this year it kicks off a week that, in about 48 hours from now, will see me get up from this blogger's chair and indulge in "The Ultimate Escape," as I'll be making my eagerly anticipated return to my favorite city on this planet. But before the eleventh edition of #DCVegas commences and on this second pandemic birthday, we start this festive week with the business at hand of going Inside MTV Reality on DCBLOG and the first of a weekly Challenge doubleheader over the next month or so on here.

Spies, Lies & Allies is just about two-thirds of the way through in Croatia, which has seen plenty go down including the marking of the series' 500th episode. Last week saw the teams take on the water, and where a nurse from the Rockies was taking a break from keeping us all safe during this time in our world was putting some worry into the most turbulent team here. Past history, loyalty and a game still being controlled by the same team who has won every mission following the merge led up to Cory and Logan facing off in the Lair, and the Spaniard took off with the win and... as it turns out, leading the King of this channel to take a break from doing this show to tend to being just a dad for the time being.

As many of us feel confident enough to resume our usual pre-pandemic routines of weekend relaxation (including in this one's case, going traveling a week ahead of Thanksgiving), this week sees an ode being paid to a movie the film biz is banking on when 2022's summer blockbuster season comes around next Memorial Day weekend. Maverick, the long-anticipated sequel to Top Gun, plays a presenting role in the week's daily challenge that sees the agents don that famous uniform for a crash landing into the water to solve a puzzle, as the Ruby and Sapphire teams have their eyes on derailing the green team's inevitable victory run. And two players who were partnered up on War of the Worlds two years ago -- and who weren't even born when Tom Cruise's signature film came out back in 1986 -- may find themselves in the hot seat as we speed towards the run to the final.

So, don that Top Gun outfit, grab a birthday hat, perhaps even some Vegas poker chips, and join us after the jump as we bring you this special MTV Challenge SocialPulse -- and a week that will sure make us jump on our seats like Tommy himself. And welcome to the weekend, to #DCBDay and to #DCVegas week everybody...

Inside MTV Reality: Welcome Back to The Challenge All-Stars - Season 2

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

It is the month of November in the ever-evolving universe that is American television... and it has always been a month of big things. To those in the industry, this is one of the four "sweeps" survey periods that see networks duke it out in the ultimate game of one-up-man-ship for our eyeballs with events ranging from the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade to the American Music Awards and more taking over our screens. As far as the MTV front goes, we're into half #2 of Season 37 of The Challenge as Spies, Lies & Allies has changed things up quite considerably, while Floribama Shore rages on with the second half of Season 4 and its residency in Athens, Georgia outside of Atlanta.

During the past few years -- and most especially while we have been confined to being at home during this pandemic, all the rage in the entertainment world has been of streaming services. Virtually every media company at the international, national and local level have a slice of the pie when it comes to having to fork over a few dollars to get to watch television programming through your home internet connection. And earlier this year, MTV's parent company ViacomCBS put its name into the hat in the streaming wars as it transformed the established CBS All-Access service into Paramount+, bringing together everything from Paw Patrol and movies to the UEFA Champions League and beyond.

As part of the launch of Paramount+ earlier this year, MTV produced two series for this streaming upstart -- and giving a nod to its incredible reality legacy: first, when the service bowed on March 4th, Real World Homecoming brought back the cast of the first season in New York of 1992 to the same house in Soho where it all began. The following month came the main course: The Challenge All-Stars brought back into our screens and into our lives some of the franchise's most-notable names for one more shot at pride and glory and $500,000. Over twenty past alumni of the shows that began MTV's reality television history thirty years ago next spring -- Real World and Road Rules with a few Fresh Meat alums, went down to Argentina, and it certainly brought back all the memories and the feels.

Now comes the much-anticipated sequel, as the focus shifts closer to home to Mexico, as a handful who have not competed on here since the early stages of a franchise that just crossed the 500-episode mark, along with some familiar names to both those who've been watching it for a long time and those who we have followed during our run going Inside MTV Reality on here. And just ahead, we at DCBLOG take our first look at Season 2 of The Challenge All-Stars, and welcome back Challenge Nation...

DC SocialPulse: Floribama Shore - We're Going to Camp!

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

As we speak to you here on Sunday, November 7th, the music world is still in a state of mourning after the events of what went down Friday night at the AstroWorld music festival in Houston. DCBLOG chose to withhold posting links to yesterday's Challenge Pulse on my Twitter account until today out of respect for the victims, and our thoughts are with all who have been affected by this tragedy.

We are now well into fall and the month of November is just underway... and if you are in Northern Georgia then this has been quite the week with the Braves bringing a championship back to Atlanta, the Bulldogs continuing to keep their hold on #1 in college football, and the Falcons just getting by the Saints on a last-second field goal. The region is also the home this fall to MTV's Floribama Shore as stop #3 of the Season 4 road trip outside of the show's traditional home of Florida takes place in Athens.

Just like those in the Atlanta area, the Bam have been in a party mood even before the World Series title returned to town -- Jeremiah got to celebrate his birthday a couple weeks back and things fared much better than it did the first time he blew out the candles in front of them. Last week, things got much better in Athens: Candace's friend Bethaney returned to the company of the Bam, and it was as if she never left Montana. It was all just in time for Gus to celebrate his birthday where the playboy was feted with his very own cake... but not everyone was there in the backyard: Nilsa was feeling under the weather and instead couldn't make it out of bed as she awaits the first Floribama baby.

Within my inner circle, something that my sister, brother-in-law and my niece & nephew get to enjoy doing every summer has been to go camping on a hot summer weekend... they've done plenty of those including this past one during this pandemic. Well this week, the Bam is headed off on their own camping excursion on the outskirts of Northern GA... and guess who will take on the task of being camp counselors as they plan a wellness retreat from the whole group as they take a break from the grind of being confined to home for the joy of being outdoors again. But not everyone may make the trek to Camp Peach: the one who is expecting may pull a fast one on the counselors...

After the break, you are invited to tag along with the Floribama Shore Bam as they are going to camp on this DCBLOG MTV Reality 'Pulse. Thanks for wrapping your weekend with us...

DC SocialPulse - The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies - Looking for a Titanic Treasure

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

It's the first weekend of November 2021, and today sees the first installment this season of the biggest club match in English football in the Manchester Derby between United and City, plus UFC 268 as Usman and Covington vie for the welterweight belt, and Canelo Alvarez facing Caleb Plant in the boxing ring. And as far as the fifth major pro sport is concerned, we're into week 13 of MTV's The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies.

Last week marked a major milestone for the show that gave birth to the competitive subgenre of reality television: it was episode 500. The players took on a physically draining mission of transferring money bags into an end zone, and a team that has gelled since the teams were merged into three, the Emerald cell, took away their third straight win. But the real drama surrounded something that is always a big gamble: trying to make the selectors' task an easy one by volunteering into elimination, which Bettina tried to do... but eventually she went up against Emy to see who would be the last remaining rookie girl in Croatia, and the Romanian joined elite company of winning three eliminations in their first season.

If you follow me on social media, then you know I'm now preparing for a return trip to my favorite city come the end of next week... and something that I'd like to have on the flight back to California after DC Vegas XI is to have some sort of treasure. Well this week, the teams will dive in to look for those under the water as they try whatever they can to foil the perfect second half of the team in charge. For the one who comes in as a nurse taking a break from keeping us safe and being a new mom, having to fit into her team make be as hard as it seems... but it's just as much the case for another who is also a parent who might have a loyalty being tested in this house.

After the jump, DCBLOG brings you the agents trying to look for a treasure in a titanic on the MTV Reality SocialPulse of Spies, Lies & Allies... and we'll have a follow-up on the revelation that unfolded just after last week's episode aired. Welcome to the weekend, Challenge Nation.

DC SocialPulse: Floribama Shore - It's Gus' Birthday & Bethaney's Return!

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Well, we are now into the month of November around here... that means that the local market has a 50% off sale of that Halloween candy and we're onto the countdown to the biggest holiday of all -- and that would be the mega-holiday season that comes at the end of the month (not to mention, something big coming up for this blogger). But if you happen to be in and around where the Floribama Shore bam are calling home this fall of Northern Georgia, then the holiday cheer has certainly come around a little early by way of a World Series title.

As for our MTV fam here, they have been celebrating as well... but it's also of that personal holiday known as a birthday for one of them. Jeremiah got to mark his birthday with them as he did on Season 2, and he and the boys also got to do something epic: bring a goat from their large backyard and into the girls' bedroom. And they also got to do something that we've all be longing for during this time of going to the local bowling alley before Gus' birthday and going for a ride in a boat... though the ladder flirted with disaster when that vehicle lost power and they had to rely on a kayak to get things back to safety. We even got to learn more about what ended Aimee and Dillon's relationship in his fight with addiction.

That aforementioned birthday night on Season 2 with Jeremiah was also celebrated with Gus back in those good ole days, and as we head back to Athens they get to celebrate his b'day as well. And they are joined once again by Candace's friend Bethaney, and we know what happened the last time she came to the Bam house... we can never forget her bringing some light to that eventful stay in Montana, all as her friend and Gus have it out over the upcoming visit of another one close to the group: his sister. There's also some serious matters to tend to: something fun leads to something serious when race takes over the attention, all while Nilsa is in bed as she awaits the arrival of her new baby.

Join us here after the break as we bring you Gus' birthday and Bethaney's return on the 'Pulse of Floribama Shore... and we'll also let you in on what's ahead here.

DC Vegas: Welcome to the Ultimate Escape

A Word from the Editor...

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

If you are a loyal visitor to this DCBLOG site, you probably know that I take great care and pride in the outstanding work that I do, whether it's covering the weekly episodes of the MTV reality shows that you love, or the many stories that take time to compile and compose to put the very best product out there. But in the past few weeks, you might have noticed that our posts have been coming either days after episodes of The Challenge or Floribama Shore have aired, or that posts that had been planned to be posted on here have either been published later or have not been as of yet.

That is all because of a few things: I have a life that exists outside of this world of being a self-employed blogger. Yes, I've been keeping it all together during this time that we are in... there's no need to ask me what my mental state is, or what my health has been like -- I got what I like to call my flu shot this summer and have not gotten sick at all during this pandemic. But as we enter the month of November today, I have been working on something very good that I've been hard at work on over the course of the past couple weeks that got off the ground after the long mid-October weekend. That includes starting my Black Friday shopping a month early, but not necessarily to get those early Christmas presents.

If you follow me on my social media, then you know that there are four passions that I have and follow everyday: the MTV beat is one of them. Another is my love affair with sports as proof in my family's NBA obsession and my dad watching sports almost every day, and me being a fanatic of the Olympics which this past week marked 100 days to the Beijing Winter Games three months after the Tokyo Olympiad. The third is the world of music, which I channel the diversity of the Olympic sports program to having thousands of songs from all types of artists and genres in my playlist. And the fourth was the focus of the big news that I got to share on all of my social media outlets on Halloween night.

DC ExtraTime: Someone You Should Know - Big Brother's The Cookout

*** CAUTION: The following article contains spoilers for some readers. As the featured subjects are subjective to some, this post's comment section is disabled. ***

 FOLLOW-UP  to The Challenge

 Invades Big Brother All-Stars

.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

   ESTIMATED READING TIME: 20 Mins.

While it is an internal policy of DCBLOG's to not make mention of anything on here at all in regards to what's known to those in the business of covering television & the media world as the game of numbers, it's safe to say that there's fewer people watching the current season of MTV's The Challenge than past seasons, and there's various reasons for it too complicated for us to elaborate on here. But one of those is that the timeslot that it is in -- 8 o'clock on a Wednesday night, 7PM in the central states and 9PM in the Rocky Mountains -- is jam-packed: some of the biggest buzz hits in a genre MTV has pioneered airs at the same time as Spies, Lies & Allies. So has a rival wrestling promotion that now has two former Challengers under their wing.... and the former includes a show that is the focus of this next story.

When the reality TV genre truly came of age in America back in the summer of 2000, it marked the game-changer for entertainment in this country for which non-scripted series are now firmly part of the schedules of every network & streaming service. It also helped chart a path for the next two decades of a network that was mired in last place in the ratings. but which had just reenergized by a recent change of ownership and the optimism that comes with new people taking over the steering wheel. That year, CBS placed its bets on U.S. versions of a pair of European reality phenomena that would become as big a juggernaut as the other reality franchises it and its ViacomCBS stablemates would nurture in their two times being under the same corporate umbrella, and for it has become a company cornerstone.

(L-R) Hannah, Azah, Xavier, Derek F., Tiffany
and Kyland, with host Julie Chen-Moonves
(center) on Big Brother 23 finale night
(IG/@juliechenmoonves)

Big Brother premiered on the Eye network more than a month after Survivor came onto our shores twenty-one years ago, but it experienced some humble beginnings as Season 1 did not match the immense, out of the box success as the ladder. But CBS' strong belief in the show and widespread changes to the format in all facets of it would ultimately turn the American version of Dutch TV executive John de Mol Jr.'s magnum opus into, far and away, the most successful of the over sixty local versions of the global franchise. And coupled with embracing the series' interactive, real-time nature and the digital age that came along afterwards, Big Brother has become part of American summertime and which dominate not only three nights of network television, but also streaming & social too.

Despite its immense success over its two decades, our iteration of Big Brother has also gone through its fair share of controversy and criticism during the past twenty-two regular seasons and the occasional spinoff. Of most troubling of these unwelcome pleasantries in recent years has been of discrimination and racism that has put the show and its houseguests under the kind of large microscope that only comes when there are over 100 cameras and just as many microphones to capture every move and word, and fans intently watching those on both television and the live feeds. And what happened the past two seasons with Season 21 getting put into the ringer for such behavior, and last year's All-Stars debuting while the Black Lives Matter protests pressed on just outside their door served as a reality check.

In the end, the events that put Big Brother U.S. in the headlines for the wrong reasons proved to be a blessing in disguise that the series most desperately needed. And it helped to set the table for the biggest story to come out of the first summer of reality normalcy in two years, and this latest edition of Someone You Should Know: the Big Brother alliance known simply as "The Cookout."

DC SocialPulse - The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies - The 500th Episode

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Well, good weekend to all of you out there wherever you are -- but most importantly, Happy Halloween from this fella right here who has a lot of memories dressing up as a kid but who's today passes out the candy in my neighborhood. And what does this blogger have up his sleeve on this Saturday night before the ultimate Sunday Scaries that lies ahead? Well, we have for you the MTV Reality SocialPulse of The Challenge, as we are deep into half #2 of Spies, Lies and Allies.

The past couple weeks have seen things change just like the leaves that fall outside your window this time of year, and last week saw the players head back into the water to tackle a slippery wheel above the sea... that meant players wiping out and TJ Lavin laughing like that madman who created Frankenstein. There was also a moment where one team thought they had gotten by early difficulties to win last week's daily, but Kyle not knowing the rules saw him cost an apparent win... and he paid the price by being chosen to go into elimination against Ed, but him being a veteran of Pole Wrestle saw him take the win.

This week's episode is not only just an ordinary one in Challenge Nation, it also doubles as the 500th of this series -- the first of its kind show that gave birth to the sub-genre of reality competition shows. The week's mission will see the players tackle a physically demanding test of having to transfer bags of what they'll ultimately encounter of all of this of money and having to make their way into an end zone. A place many of you are spending tonight at is a venue for the latest blow-up among two players as the focus shifts to the women elimination-wise, as one of them is feeling the pressure to make this week an easier one on everyone else by trying to volunteer her way into the Lair.

Welcome on in as, after the break, DCBLOG brings you the 'Pulse of Episode 500 of The Challenge, and Week 12 of Spies, Lies & Allies... and we'll also let you in on what's to come for this blogger too. And wherever you are, thanks for joining us in these early hours of Halloween 2021.