DC VEGAS XIII: And The Countdown Begins Again...

BY DC CUEVA 

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A little short but sweet reveal here: as I return to active duty on this website, not much has changed in my world. Two years have now past since my dad's passing and funeral, and that has forced me to take a sabbatical from regular blogging and video work to tend to being the big man in my family... and we continue to feel his absence every day since, even as my kids, sister & bro-in-law are with us along with my cousin & her hubby from L.A. for this long weekend.

As this summer concludes today with that first Monday of September known as Labor Day, it was just another 104 days of sorts. I spent nineteen of them watching the world's best, and the Paris Olympics represented a chance for all of us to take our minds of everything going on in our world to watch what became one of the most memorable Games ever. The time before all of that with all the division and everything else going on made wanting to escape all that much more worthwhile... and if you know what the slogan I got to preach during that awful time we just got out of is one thing, then there is that time where the need to escape out of that shell of being at home is very much needed. That's the basis of this.

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Thirty years ago came the year when OJ became a murder suspect, soccer and skating creeped into our consciousness just as baseball was going on strike, and I got a first glimpse into what the internet would be like as I was about to enter 6th grade. But 1994 was also when the first opportunity for me came by to visit Las Vegas, when it was a city that was still on the outskirts of sorts of not being in the big leagues just yet. The city had gone through a slump of sorts during the eighties as the lure of Atlantic City and new forms of gambling became commonplace... but thanks to the opening of The Mirage, Excalibur and MGM Grand which brought the tourists back to town, things began to turn the corner towards this town becoming a major player.

My very first Vegas trip was during that summer of '94 when my family, cousins and relatives flew to the Desert... and when you have a lot of kids too young to roam the casinos, you pretty much are resigned to having to stay at Circus Circus, which we did for one long weekend. And it was in that playhouse of a resort complex where I actually got lost, and was separated from my party for a couple tense hours before we reunited in our hotel room. But that was just an inauspicious prelude to a relationship with a city what would ultimately join music, sports and reality TV as a major passion of mine by the time I returned to Vegas, not as a wide-eyed kid but a 25-year-old adult in 2007.

So began what has become an annual to biannual tradition of coming to Las Vegas that has now lasted for more than half of the last thirty years -- twelve trips in all during that time, and eleven in this current era. My trips to this city have become just as anticipated for me personally as waiting anxiously for the Olympic flame to be lit, and where every one of the twelve trips in the twenty-nine previous years have been memorable in producing many stories worth telling and documenting. And just about everyone in my whole family have come with us at one time or another for the best time of our lives, which is almost always the case when you take a 90-minute flight or nine-hour drive to the desert.

The past few Vegas trips have brought me a better appreciation of how important Vegas is to me and what it is also to my family: the tenth in 2019 came months before both the world and Vegas shut down by the pandemic, while the eleventh in 2021 came months before my world came crashing down by my dad's cancer battle... and the twelfth last year was the first Vegas trip I ever took without him at our side with me and mom. There was also some drama with momma and our third member of our traveling party that led to a falling out afterwards... but that's not of anything else to elaborate much more here.

Earlier last year, I officially severed the last contractual tie I had before the lockdown where I officially transitioned into becoming a full-time and self-employed content creator... and I have always seen my Vegas trips as a playground for me to put those video and camera work to great use. Just a glance over at DC YouTube and the hundreds of videos I've posted there in the eight years, and it is perhaps a major reason in why Sin City has grown in stature on a personal level -- and it doesn't put into account the thousands of hours of Vegas content I've watched from various YouTubers just about every day in the past several years as our family's daily escape.

It was obviously no surprise that a few of my favorite moments of the last trip came when I met not one, but four Vegas YouTubers in Jaycation, Norma Geli, The Other Me and Sin City Angel. The first two came as it happened live on his YouTube channel as he celebrated reaching 100,000 subscribers, and the other two came during what has to be the single most memorable of the forty-four days of my Vegas experiences: Freakmont Friday on Halloween weekend in downtown at the Fremont Street Experience. And even now, because of my inactivity the past several months the entire YouTube vlog series from last year has still remained stuck on that Friday... but need not worry, work will resume on getting new videos from that trip prepared to be produced for the next couple months ahead.

That is because, by the time that the season finale of that series covering DC VEGAS XII is finally published, that will be just at when I will be COMING BACK to Las Vegas for trip #13. The dates on which that trip will go down are now set in stone as far as the hotel is concerned (that place we're staying in shall remain a secret until before we leave), and all that's left is to just book plane tickets... then, the countdown will officially begin for the week of NOVEMBER 11th, just after everything from that thing the week before should finally die down. It will be the second time that I will have celebrated a birthday in Vegas: the last came in 2009 when Manny Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto, and where I went by myself to the MGM Grand to soak in the fight night atmosphere... and also, when my late dad came back to our hotel room completely wasted after seeing the Pac-Man win.

As the promo video that proceeded my 2021 trip can attest (and unfortunately, there is no such clip to accompany this reveal), Vegas represents that ultimate of all escapes from both the world and our lives. And as I get to work on both the blog (recaps on the first elimination and team challenge on Battle of the Eras are forthcoming here, among other things) and the DC Vegas XII vlogs, the preparation for this 2024 trip will get underway. I have started mapping out the best laid plans for this year's extravaganza which will only begin once I walk through the terminal towards the baggage area at Reid International - from putting together my arsenal of technology (six cameras & other gadgets) and fashion, to the playlist and possibilities for the many experiences there... don't be mad if I get behind on the content schedule -- it's likely I'll be busy getting set for four days in the desert again.

And there is a reason I why come to see these trips as, what I always allude to, my very own Super Bowl. And as we are a few days from the start of the pro season as far as football is concerned, now Vegas is on the clock: it's now seventy days until #DCVegas XIII... may the countdown begin again.

- I AM DC

@DC408DXTR

DCBLOG ExtraTime: A Big Brother Looks for The Anonymous... with a Survivor and a Meme King

BY DC CUEVA 

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The Cookout with Big Brother show host
Julie Chen-Moonves on BB23 finale night (IG)

Of the group that comprises this year's MTV Battle of the Eras Challenge cast, three-fourth's of the field had their start as MTV'ers on The Real World, Road Rules, or were initiated on the two Fresh Meat seasons. The entire Fourth Era group comprises of only one native MTV castmate, while everyone else came to us from either Survivor, overseas shows, Love Island U.S. prior to its breakthrough on Peacock, or in this case a summer tradition in Big Brother as it rages on with its twenty-sixth season.

Season 22 three years ago came during a pandemic, tense times in this country, and in a new era for the show: the events of the prior year and of previous seasons beforehand saw CBS make a pledge to make their reality show casts be inclusive and reflective of our diverse society. And it was almost right out of the gate that Big Brother made history: six houseguests - all of whom black -- all secretly worked together as a team to make it to the end together... thus, The Cookout made reality history by the time they partied away at the wrap parties and at Todrick Hall's house after that Fall 2021 finale.

The past couple years have seen four members of that group compete again on the CBS iteration of The Challenge USA, and only one of them in Kyland Young graduated onto the MTV version... and after debuting on Battle for a New Champion he is now on Season 40 alongside two champions in Kaycee Clark and Josh Martinez, and the posterboy of this crossover in Paulie Calafiore. But they are not alone when it comes to Big Brother alumni extending these 15 minutes beyond summer: a fellow member of the Cookout also returned to TV a week ago... this time somewhere else on the cable dial.

The DCBLOG Challenge WRAP: Battle of the Eras - The Premiere Part 1

BY DC CUEVA 

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Photo: Instagram @TheChallenge

Hello and we have sadly arrived at the last week of these dog days of summer '24, and for many of you -- we hope you are going through things just fine after summer vacation from your hometown school or college. And after this blogger got to enjoy the world's best in Paris, the focus for those who love competition have turned their attention to many other things -- football of the oval & sphere varieties, baseball (and its overseas cousin of cricket), The W, and the fifth major pro sport of MTV's The Challenge, and the fittingly titled Season 40 of Battle of the Eras.

This year marks a quarter-century since the very first proper edition of this Real World and Road Rules spinoff series began when alumni of those two pioneering shows faced off while traveling the country, and things have changed quite a bit since. This year's MTV Challenge is marking its fortieth iteration as those from that first era of the series are joining those from other generations for this ultimate version of the show... a true all-star cast where the most recent rookies of this group - Nurys, Horacio and Olivia - were so young back then when the likes of Mark, Katie and Darrell first competed.

And as they and the rest of the forty competitors come to Vietnam for this historic season, they are about to embark on a journey that has the largest cast in Challenge history with $1 million going to the victor once the winter comes around. But first up, they have to navigate their way through something that has been a rarity throughout this series but for the first time it's a night challenge that kicks off this season - a paired challenge taking place on the lake. Whoever comes away not with power will face the ultimate prospect of being sent home first -- and this time, there will be a handful that will ultimately fly home.

Though it's later than planned due to my high priorities away from here, DCBLOG is properly marking our tenth anniversary season of Inside MTV Reality with this fortieth Challenge. And we are entering a new era here as we are reimagining the way we cover the episodes every week: yes, you'll still see the best of the reax from the former Twitter to the episodes and big moments... but we're combining that with looking in at the week's top moments and other things as we present this first proper edition of The DCBLOG Challenge WRAP. Well make that, the first two weeks of this season -- see you after the break as we kick things off with part 1 of a two-parter as we kick things off.

The Look: The Caucus Challenge - Double Trouble

 CAUTION:  Videos Embedded Below Contain Adult Language and Content Intended for a Mature Audience. Viewer Discretion is Advised. 

BY DC CUEVA 

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Though it's coming later than planned for reasons not to be elaborated here, this fall DCBLOG is finally getting this chance to properly mark our 10th anniversary season... and we're expanding our horizons to feature not just MTV coverage, but other pop culture content too. But some things just never change in the course of the past decade on this beat, including getting to add more to covering our most recurring subjects from the YouTube world, of all things.

Pics Courtesy: IG @Dre.Media

As the milestone fortieth season of MTV's The Challenge takes place in the current Battle of the Eras, it's worth noting that it was only seven years ago that we commemorated the thirtieth season... and had things not turn out the way they did then it could have been better for how it turned out. But even with that controversial summer & fall, we at this site can still thank the Dirty 30 Challenge for letting this blogger be introduced to one of the most loyal friends I have never met in person, but one I'm good friends with in the social media world -- and he can thank the internet for that fame too.

That would be Andres Rodriguez, who we first met not just when he that Challenge XXX cast back in 2017, but for what he got to do in his spare time before premiere week: create a homemade YouTube franchise where he serves as creator, host, producer, editor, sometimes competitor and the figure which this world revolves around. The Caucus Challenge began all the way back in his high school days, and which has continued well after he got that diploma in his New Jersey hometown. It is only part of an empire that also includes docuseries The Life We Live and a pandemic-stricken summer with his six best friends, but the original project is one that we featured a blog review for each season that's come on since that first post.

And as this summer winds away, it was back during the pre-Super Bowl week earlier this year that Dre once again invited everyone back to Secaucus for the latest chapter in his magnum opus: this time, for something totally different. Here, it's his show's own take on that Challenge of two years ago that introduced us to new power players in a game that he likes to call, Double Trouble.

Summer of Sports '24: An Appreciation for the Best in the Biz

BY DC CUEVA 

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All Photos: My Own, from both Thanksgiving 2014 and DC Snapchat

For most of the time on here over the past ten years, DCBLOG has dedicated time, resources and effort to cover the world of MTV Reality TV, and becoming a gold standard in covering The Challenge and so many other shows that I watch as both an avid fan as well as one who's covered it for the passion project that you're seeing here. But one of the key aspects of how I've gotten to cover this world for this long is actually something that comes from a surprise source... so much so, it is actually one of the small handful of content I am most comfortable in along with those guilty pleasures -- one that was been on my mind for two weeks we got to experience this summer, and for which gave us that good feeling inside of watching the world's very best.

Sports represents one of my four biggest passions (along with music, Las Vegas and our primary beat - for which a new season of it just began), and one that's been embedded in my blood since I was a kid growing up as a '90s kid. In this case, the facet of how things operate on this site doesn't come from a particular favorite pro team -- not even the Bay Area teams that I passionately follow, but from of all things -- a company that covers the action at the venues as both an observer and as a giant in its field. And here, they also happen to share the same vision and philosophy that I have with these posts: creating quality work and telling great stories like those they got to tell from that event.

And for one who would only read a book provided that it would fall into any of the big four subjects above, last year I discovered that I could buy those same books I love to read in an eBook form and not have to worry about filling up the library in my room as much. There, the first digital book I've ever purchased was from the man who helped create a dynasty in sports media... and where his influence was felt on the only time in my life that I spent at least part of the one holiday every year where the feeling of family is most prevalent. And that's only the start to an appreciation for the best in the sports media biz -- one that's taken a full decade for this story to marinate until its publication ten years later.

Summer of Sports '24 - Inside The Biggest TV Event of All

BY DC CUEVA 

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If you know me personally or through social media, it's no secret that for these two weeks or so you'll have to get used to me being crazy about that one event I look forward to more than any other in the sports world. For 17 days every two years, fans, viewers and an entire world come together to watch the excitement, human drama and the spectacle that is the Olympic Games... and we are at the halfway point of its latest version in Paris, France amidst so much anticipation for what could be the most memorable Olympiad ever -- one that has had the world buzzing since it began even before the Opening Ceremony.

A tweet years ago by longtime TV medical correspondent, Bay Area native Dr. Nancy Schneiderman sums it up: "More people watch The Olympics in the US than the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL combined. Amazing." From a broader standpoint, it's the only sports event with an equal viewership ratio split of 50-50 among both genders, and both the Summer & Winter Games are one of three major sporting events on U.S. television (the Kentucky Derby the other) to regularly have a larger ratio of viewers among women than men. And considering the enormous interest in women's sports in the past year being coupled with so many storylines coming in, a record viewing audience is anticipated for Paris 2024.

Like many other sporting properties - unlike most other TV programming, The Olympics is one that brings families & friends together: both those who are avid sports fans like myself, and those casual viewers who might not know everything about sports but are suddenly thrust into it all just by the pure spectacle. This includes those who might not be into football & historically preferred Downton Abbey or the Puppy Bowl than the game (but who were drawn in by the romance of the world's biggest pop star and a tight end), but are into gymnastics, figure skating and the athletes' most inspiring stories. In fact, the Olympics typically is the only event that come close to the NFL as far as TV ratings & viewership go in the fragmented television landscape... and no matter the country, Olympic broadcast rights are among the most-coveted anywhere in the media world.

But when you go inside the broadcast operations either inside the International Broadcast Center or at the respective venues, there's so much more to what viewers see on television, on radio, on their computer and on their mobile device. It's the finished product to as much as seven years' worth of planning, four years of preparation and hard work by thousands of people working for both the host broadcaster, Olympic Broadcasting Services, and the respective rights holding broadcasters from countries around the world. Their mission: capture the power, strength, speed, skill and spirit of competition at its best; tell the stories of athletes who most might not know but out of nowhere become the most well-known people in the world; and to provide viewers the best seat in the house, thanks to the most complex and dynamic broadcast operation anywhere.

Inside MTV Reality: Welcome to The Challenge 40 - Battle of the Eras

BY DC CUEVA 

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And so on this summer's Sunday night, we say Bonjour to all of you... away from this site -- and I have been away for most of this past year-plus, this blogger has just enjoyed his biannual sojourn into enjoying his absolute favorite event, and the only one that I truly binge watch. And just as it was as the world gathered together again after all that time apart three years ago, yours truly is not easing up a bit from the Closing Ceremony of the just-concluded Summer Olympics as he now makes that transition from Paris and the non-stop Games viewing marathon that just ended, straight into his favorite TV show whose newest season is taking place half a world away from the City of Light and love. Most fittingly, the subject of this post just marked the conclusion of these wonderful two weeks by hosting its premiere party at where the Summer Games flame will next be lit in four years from right now.

Photos Courtesy: Jonne Roriz/Paramount

A dozen years ago after years on MySpace and my private Facebook page for family and friends, I began my public social media life signing on my presence on the former Twitter platform the same week of the U.S. Olympic trials and of the most chill Real World season ever. It was after all that that I decided to take a risk and get myself into watching MTV's The Challenge... and like anyone curious as to what he was getting into, the fifth major pro sport and I almost immediately clicked. Here we are twenty-seasons later -- main MTV show and many spinoffs, and now we have arrived on the verge of perhaps the most-anticipated season yet of the reality television world's original & longest-running competition series.

Over the time that I have been following this show since that 2012 Battle of the Seasons, the abundance of competitors who have come onto the scene have been many: big-name legends who were there at the start of this show back in 1999 and the early 2000's, right up to those from all around the world who have come onto this franchise in the past few years... and plenty who I have followed the entirety of their eras. With that deep a well of talent, it was perhaps only a matter of time before a season like this was conceived to mark this milestone season: players from different eras of the show coming together for a season that is surely a can't miss this fall -- and worth it to buy a conventional TV package just to watch it all live.

Imagine... a season that has all (if not, most or many) of your favorites all in one place: one who's won this seven times, another with five but who comes here having placed Challenge Nation's flag atop the house of The Traitors, and those from an earlier time who got their start riding in a recreational vehicle across America. There's also several Challengers who are well-rested from their springtime battle down in South Africa -- from two frenemy rivals to one still in search for title #1. And we even got those who we have followed the entirety of their MTV runs since this site began: a video vixen who came close to winning it all last time out, a master manipulator & his much-derived partner who've come in to defend their titles, and one playboy who made headlines even before the buzz for this season began.

You've enjoyed a good deal over the past two weeks of the world's very best... now, get yourself set for the dessert and the fourth meal. After the break DCBLOG takes our first look at Season 40 of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras... but first, this little teaser of what's ahead over this fall and winter.

Summer of Sports '24: That Other Bat N' Ball Game

BY DC CUEVA 

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Many years back, someone who's established himself as a leading podcaster on this site's primary beat of the MTV Challenge over the past decade, Brian Cohen posted a phone screenshot of an alert from one of his sports apps that read, "Sri Lanka beats India by 6 wickets with 13 balls remaining to win ICC World Twenty20 cricket title." In the caption Brian wondered, "I don't know what any of these words mean...", and this one responded in the comments on the former Twitter platform, "I know more than you about the sport of cricket," and gave the fellow Yankees fan a brief primer of what the sport is about...a sport that some fans here would like to refer to as "That Other Bat N' Ball Game."

All Photos Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

When the International Olympic Committee gave the green light to the sport program for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles last fall, so much attention was deservedly given to the inclusion in the Games' return to America of flag football. There, a number of NFL players stated their intention to go for gold... same went for the return of baseball and softball to the Games and the inclusion of lacrosse and squash for the first time. But lost in the hoopla of that announcement was that the changes to the slate that will be included on sports' greatest stage will have a greater benefit outside of the United States. It's most especially the case in the British Commonwealth countries, and particular one nation that hosted the latest edition of its biggest championship event in a sport most of us don't follow at all.

As one of the world's most-followed sports, cricket is a sport that's totally different than the one we take for granted here in America. Unlike the World Series and baseball, cricket is a true world game that is played in all six continents instead of just primarily the Americas and Asia. The premise is the same in both cricket and baseball: hit a ball with a wooden bat on a grassy field, fielders and those tossing the ball to those batters, and score more runs than your opposition. But when one looks at the game much more closely, there are many differences between these two games... which is why the international game is so much different in many ways than our national pastime.

In addition to its upcoming Olympic appearance in L.A., this past month it hosted by far the biggest event that's ever been held on the North American continent -- and a preview of coming attractions in four years: a bite-sized version of the game that once again revolutionized this once genteel game played by privileged British gentlemen. And all it took for this sport to finally gain at least a footstep in the biggest sports market on earth: a team against the odds taking down a Goliath of the game that made sporting headlines everywhere with shades of what happened in upstate New York a generation ago.