The Challenge Vendettas - Who Are These Newbies?: British Invasion

Following is an excerpt from DCBLOG's "Who Are These Newbies?" post for The Challenge Vendettas posted earlier today, reposted in the interest of our mobile-first users.

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

🇬🇧  THE BRITISH INVASION 

IG @ChallengeMTV, photo enhanced

In the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and a truly historic 2012 for British sport marked by the London Olympics, a group of five lads from England and Ireland known as One Direction performed for the first time in America to 15,000 screaming girls in New York, and it became the second coming of The Beatles. Now as the United Kingdom enters its last full year in the European Union, another quintet from across the pond are about to take their first step towards becoming true global stars by conquering the United States through competing on The Challenge and as almost complete unknowns to most Americans.
   Earlier this summer, a standout of the Pros side on Champs vs. Pros was Olympian and celebrity competition vet Louise Hazel, who made her mark by choosing a lime with Lolo Jones' name on it and initiated the American's stellar season. While you were busy watching Dirty 30 and AYTO Season 6, some of your MTV faves spent an early holiday vacation filming a new U.S. version of the U.K. series Ex on the Beach, which we discussed about here in November, for which you can it describe as a cross between AYTO and Cory's Real World Ex-Plosion season, and where a few of the EOTB-US cast hung out in New York to ring in 2018 last night. And the Shore franchise made its return this winter with Floribama Shore ahead of the original Jersey Shore cast returning for a vacation miniseries later this year.
   All of these events offer the backdrop to our last group of newbies, and this latest British invasion: four members of Ex on the Beach from two seasons (or series as UK TV fans refer to them) of that show will join with a member of Geordie Shore to make their American television debuts. Below is their introductions to their Stateside cousins, and some of the videos below contain adult language.

🇬🇧 JOSS: Joss is by day a fitness instructor, and by night and weekend is a model in Manchester, England. This nice charmer first appeared on the first series of Ex on the Beach in 2014 and who came to the house with golden blonde hair in being linked to three exes -- one of which, Emma, he still had feelings for after that relationship ended. The "heart chart" of hookups and connections that took place there links Joss and his exes to Geordie Shore's Vicky Pattison and her fiance Ricci Guarnaccio, and when he appeared on Series 5 - "All Stars", that extended to 2016 Celebrity Big Brother winner Stephen Bear, which in turn links him to Kayleigh. And like what we have seen with AYTO/Real World alum Magic Mike, Joss likes to take pictures of him being shirtless, and he is also a fitness guy, who also makes him close friends with another of his British friends who've made the trip here to Spain, Rogan, along with his ex...

🇬🇧 KAYLEIGH: Kayleigh is a clothing manager in the Swansea area of Wales and like Joss appeared on two series of EOTB. As Allan Aguirre wrote in his Medium preview, she channels what we saw with Jenna when we saw her on Exes 2: "She is more or less known for being a smoke show. In all of her shows, her boobs become a character in the edit and she showcases them. Kayleigh using her body will be a key to the season as getting in good with the veteran guys can get you far in the game." Kay will sure stir some drama in Spain the same way she did on EOTB All-Stars where she called castmate Jemma "a used condom" in reference to a famous ex of hers and led to a fight between them; Kay also was the ex of EOTB staple Stephen Bear. And in a sneak peek of what U.S. fans should expect this winter, she also made her way to the U.K. Big Brother Season 18 house and got into it with a houseguest, which led to her being sent home for aggressive behavior, a'la Tony & Camila on Rivals III.

🇬🇧 KYLE: Kyle comes from where Geordie Shore originated: the Northwest of England and the town of Newcastle most series of the show have taken place in Tyneside. He first appeared on Series 8 in 2014 as a laid-back club promoter who joined the cast through the help of series regular and local friend Marnie Simpson, and who eventually scored a relationship with housemate Holly Hagan, who also helped to spur the vendetta he brings with him to southern Europe. Always the one who love to laugh and smile amidst all the madness, Kyle's castmates share that their favorite memories of him is of taking his hair and looks very seriously... so seriously that he got paid to get hair transplants, even getting his beard an overhaul. He took a break from the Shore to tend to his dying grandpa and broke things off with Holly but tried once more, and if you got to see both the trailers and that Chicago charity event, he might find himself in love with a Challenger... stay tuned to see who that might be.

🇬🇧 MELISSA: Liverpool native Melissa is a former pageant queen turned international professional DJ where while she has been gifted with a passion to entertain and perhaps follow Pauly D. to DJ stardom, drama has seemed to have followed her in her MTV stints. She has been on two seasons of EOTB where she came to Series 2 as the ex of Geordie Shore's Gary/"Gaz" Beadle, who also dated fellow GS castmate and Celeb Big Brother winner Charlotte Crosby. There, Mel has eased into the role a lot of reality TV fans love: that perfect villain who will make fans either love or hate her, much like what we've seen recently with Cara Maria. In her video bio below, she's sexually open and has no care in the world for what the ramifications might be and cares about just herself. Because of that, others have consistently fallen into Mel's trap and have been burned in the process... including a Kam/Alicia-like violation of Girl Code that happened on not only Series 2 but also the All Stars series with the other girl who's made the trip here. More on that shortly...

🇬🇧 ROGAN: If Floribama Shore has Gus & Jeremiah, then Vendettas and Ex on the Beach has Joss and the last of the Brit invasion in Rogan, a native of the Stratford district of East London where the 2012 Olympics were mainly based. As one of EOTB's first big stars, he first made waves on Series 2 as an ex to three ladies of that season and in its first episode he became quite the ladies man when multiple girls sat in his lap (on different occasions, of course). It's his charm that wins them over, and when a guy got into his face he would stand tall and not overreact while also getting to flex his muscles... plenty of them, in fact. Rogan also made his way to the very next series, the third one, where came in as an ex to Jemma - the same one who later got into Kayleigh's face on EOTB All-Stars. He also has something in common of sorts with Magic Mike: he toured the UK as part of a male stripping show, and has been romantically linked to the daughter of England footballing legend Paul Gascoigne, Bianca.

 TEAM GB's VENDETTA MOMENTS 

There are not one, but three Vendettas moments for Team GB encompassing all three forms in a frenemies rivalry, a Twitter beef and an exes affair. And all three of them are worthy of being covered in that always scandalous way by the "red top" British tabloids and that renowned paparazzi...

● First, the ladies: On their season of EOTB 2 and mirroring what Kam and Alicia had, both Kay and Mel became close friends when they moved into the house. Then, Mel's former flame and Geordie's "Gaz" arrived, followed shortly by another of Rogan's exes Emily in former footballer Ashley Cain. There, Ashley immediately hit it off with Kay which left her smitten... but the next day he turned his attention to Mel and the girls scrapped over them having mutual feelings for Ashley... suddenly, this friendship turned into a feud. And when Mel arrived late in Series 5, her and Kay's row (British slang for argument) once again heated up in the summer sun when the former decided to get her revenge by stealing and kissing Ashley and leaving Kay in waterworks. If you thought that Cara & Kailah's feud was something, wait until you see how Kayleigh & Melissa's rivalry might possibly get in their third time in the same house, or see if they have to put aside their reputation of being the Amanda of EOTB (that is, the resident popoff girls) for game's sake.

● Kay's beef with Mel isn't the only item on her mind as she enters this Challenge: while her Mel feud had no resolution, she also had to deal with one more thing on that All-Stars season. Outside the show, Kay dated Joss, and he was the last ex to arrive in Thailand as not only Kay's ex but also the ex of another Series 5 castmate, Olivia. The story with Kay & Joss is that she once told her ex that she killed his cat after going on a holiday (British for vacation) and didn't call her back. And she also slept with Stephen as revenge on Vicky after she got under the sheets with Joss. Obviously, this is a twisted story, and below is when Kay, Mel and Joss were last in the same house.

● And the gentlemen also have a Vendetta moment too: Earlier this year after Kyle once again split from Holly Hegan, Rogan was spotted with her at a charity event in London and then took to Twitter to ask Rogan about that night. Kyle wrote, "Wow hang on, let's get serious for a second......... what number bus is it?", and Rogan replied "Number 69" with an emoji of a winking face. Kyle then asked him a question which Rogan responded a bit on his night with Holly. All of this came after Holly was photographed planting a kiss on Rogan on their ride home from the bash where Geordie's Vicky Patterson was in the same room as was Rogan's ex, Bianca Gascoigne, after she had gone out on dates with him shortly after her CBB eviction. Kyle and Holly also did MTV UK's Just Tattoo of Us earlier this year and... you guessed it -- she had his photo emblazoned in ink which was then removed after they broke up again.


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