The Look: Stranded with a Million Dollars

Excerpt from a DC BLOG post from earlier today, reposted in the interest of reality TV fans;
features updated material on two of the cast members of this season

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

The Trifecta remains my first love and top priority in the MTV world, but as you all know I have a long history of embracing other shows outside the ecosystem. Over 18 years, I've been watching a whole slew of shows spanning the whole spectrum of what it means to be young, and in my time in social land I've watched, followed and live tweeted some 20 shows south of my biggest passion. And though my primary dealings within the MTV community is with the Trifecta, I've also formed social friendships with those from other shows as well - proof of the welcoming nature I have with a channel I've watched for a long time.

   As we begin 2017 and as the channel and its parent company Viacom have been going through some changes of late, you can add to this list MTV's latest reality TV endeavor, which is actually the reason why there won't be After Shows for this upcoming Challenge season. But if you're someone who loves the competition shows of the Trifecta and other programs with a competitive feel on other networks, then the show that's the subject of this installment of The Look will be right up your alley. And in this instance, this may change the game of survival-style reality competition shows, just as The Challenge and AYTO have done with both reality competition and reality romance shows. It's called Stranded with A Million Dollars.

Imagine being dropped off on an island far away from civilization with just the clothes on your back and having to fend for yourself for 40 days, with challenges and journeys featured and where $1 million is on your mind. It's a familiar refrain for those of you who also watch Survivor, but MTV's newest series is taking it a step further as 10 young adventurers will go through this very premise, and unlike its 32-season counterparts - those who emerge out of this experience will share in the prize money that goes to them when they've outlasted this journey and will change their lives.

   But there is a catch to all of this: the players can buy all of the survival supplies and creature comforts they so desire to help them survive in the wilderness, provided that they sacrifice a good deal of the $1 million total to get something way more expensive than we can find in our department store, such as spending $30,000 for a tent. All decisions to make a purchase will need a simple majority of the group and the cost will take a cut out of the cash. And participants can leave the island at any time by shooting a flare gun to announce their surrender and leave pride and cash behind. So, it's up to everyone to toughen up and work together as they're all pushed to the limit, both physically and mentally, in this new series.
   Ten castmates from coast to coast: Alex, Alonzo, Ashley, Bria, Chris, Cody, Eilish, Gina, Michael and Makani -- will take to a remote island in Fiji and will be forced to endure a month-plus on this stranded oasis. Behind the scenes - and with the show's executive producer a Real World veteran, Stranded promises to also break ground from a production standpoint: retrofitted drones, robotic cameras and ultra-long lenses will be deployed to film this real-life Hunger Games without impeding on the cast's every move. It's as isolated as the cameras can be, just as you reality TV fans are familiar with watching Big Brother.

   It's so buzzed about a show among those in the media, that Stranded will earn the post-Challenge timeslot on Tuesdays starting in mid-February. But because of the Trifecta taking top priority, I won't actually live tweet episodes at the same time as it airs on TV as after Challenge episodes wrap, I'll go into compiling these Pulse diaries. But no worries, I'll be fitting time in my blog duties to buy episodes on iTunes and live tweet them on DCNOW on Fridays, around the time I post the first of the two Pulse diaries on here. Nonetheless, I do look forward to watching this show and perhaps, there is something fresh to find in this epic new series that could be MTV's next big hit.

MEET STRANDED'S CODY

Now, this Follow-Up: last week here in Pulse ExtraTime (and in its own mini post we reposted here after), we took a Look at MTV's bold new series Stranded with A Million Dollars. Two weeks from Wednesday, ten strangers will be marooned on an island in Fiji with that boat load of money and just the clothes on their backs as they're forced to survive 40 days on that island with nothing but each other to rely on. I'm adding that show to my slate of live tweets this spring, making it the 21st MTV show outside of the Trifecta that I've followed or live tweeted.

   One person who's eagerly anticipating his MTV debut is Cody Dunlap, who is on this cast but is also on a tour of duty serving the Texas chapter of the Army National Guard. He's described as "the ultimate alpha male and a natural leader" who believes in the adage that if you try hard, anything can be accomplished. He met his girlfriend Autumn on Tinder, who is running his social media sites most of the time while he is away on active duty, but he proudly boasts that he's "naturally hot."

   Well, it seems I've found someone to root for on this cast as Cody tries to go the distance and win the share of the cash that will be split among those who go all the way. Cody has been a fan of the Trifecta for a long time, and as proof of all this he even went to the fundraising site Go Fund Me to plead for the public to send money to poor Sarah in the wake of Bananas' blindside on the Rivals III final last summer, which has seen $540 of its $275,000 goal raised since it was started after all that.
   After he gave me a follow this past week in anticipation of the Feb. 21 premiere - and in one of those instances where Cody, and not his girl, is on his social media platforms when not doing his job defending the freedoms we enjoy - below is our Twitter chat from back on Wednesday...

● @CodyDunlap: How long have you been watching the challenge man? This is Cody btw.
● @DC408Dxtr: Hey. I've been following it in some capacity since it began in '99, but it was only 5 years ago that I began watching it intently. You?
● @CodyDunlap: Since 6th grade.. So 2004. Real world Philadelphia. I wrote a paper on the challenge in 7th grade. Made it my goal to get on MTV when I was 18 in college. Then finally broke through recently of course.  Do you write articles and do podcasts? Also what shows do you cover?
● @DC408Dxtr: I'm a blogger... That show and its related cousins are actually the primary beat of my site, Btw I also wrote a brief post on your show, check it out: (link)
● @CodyDunlap: That's great man! Just read and tried to comment but my LTE is going super slow. I won't be around when the show airs but I'll checkout your content after and share it on my page. I enjoy talking to people who are as big of fans of MTV as I am.

Well, if the show becomes successful, don't be surprised if the folks at BMP call up those who produce Stranded - including executive producer and Real World production alum Kevin Lee, about seeing if they can bring on those from that season to the next Challenge. Hey, anything's possible ;-)

MEET STRANDED's ALEX

A few weeks ago, The Look focused its lens of MTV's boldest reality TV project yet, Stranded with A Million Dollars, which premieres this Tuesday after The Challenge and the Champions moving in. And continuing with this link between MTV reality TV and broadcast journalism, someone who has experience in the ladder is about to dive into the former as one of those ten about to live 40 days on that Fijian island, just as we saw with Kayla after her AYTO experience.
   On Friday during a lunch break from all of this blog work, I decided to give a second cast member of Stranded a Twitter follow. Here's our dialogue...

● @dc408dxtr: @AlexApple_ thanks for the follow Alex, looking forward to #Stranded next week.
● @AlexApple_: @dc408dxtr thank you for the follow! Gonna be wildddd! Hope you love it. check out my website http://alexapplemtv.strikingly.com  if you get a chance. Bunch of photos and interviews loaded up there!

The man who's our focus here is Alex Apple, who is a Nashville native and has a knack for being persuasive and being as fiercely competitive as those we see on the Trifecta. If you've seen those like Dustin, Cory, Hunter and other fellow Challengers over the past few years, Alex has an eye on utilizing that competitive fire during this ultimate life's challenge of sharing an island with nine other strangers, $1 million in possession and 40 days with which to navigate themselves through. And his plans to any winnings to build a financial foundation towards a career in real estate.
   Alex enjoys being able to talk about himself and reminding those around him of the high IQ he has. And the social skills he plans to use with the group has been acquired over time from his experience being a journalist: both at Texas Christian University where he went to college (he anchored the college's newscasts with a co-anchor who went on to be on The Bachelor), and up in Vermont where he served as a reporter & anchor for market leader WCAX. There, he reported on events large and small in the 98th largest TV market and earning a regional Emmy nomination, as well as doing work for Politico, the Dallas Morning News and the AP. And as Vermont is also the home state of 2016 Presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders, Alex was there every step of the way from the campaign trail, taking him to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Washington, D.C. and across the border to Montreal, Canada too.
   For proof of his work, check out Alex's reporter reel of his work from out in the field and his feature storytelling compilation, as well as his hub for all of his Stranded material on Strikingly at alexapplemtv.strikingly.com. And again, thanks for the follow Alex.


- I AM DC