DC ExtraTime: It's A Small (MTV) World After All

From after Episode 8 of Are You The One? Season 6,

and while Ex On The Beach USA was filming

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

On the very day The Challenge XXX was revealed at the Austin TV Festival back on June 10th, I was at Disneyland celebrating my niece's 9th birthday with Mickey Mouse and friends. A must for everyone who visits The Happiest Place on Earth is taking for a ride through the lands of the world, with a cast of 300 audio-animatronic kids in costumes from nations and cultures around the world that reminds everyone of global unity and peace. By the time you get off that ride, one song will no doubt stay in your head for days in "It's A Small World," and that offers the bridge to this story...
   If you are part of Team MTV -- whether you're part of what we call the Trifecta or any other show outside of the ecosystem, you are part of a broader family. Those who are part of the casts of any MTV show get the perks: membership, promotion, chances to do events (even shows) with alums, attending the channel's biggest events, and the list goes on. So many times, we have brought you those instances when those from shows from across the MTV spectrum meet, from the Trifecta meeting Farrah from Teen Mom, to recently at the VMA's. And other times, there are those times where all of these people cross paths, sometimes in the most random of circumstances.

IG @PrinceOfNorway

The latest instance of these odd connections among the hundreds who have done these shows over the last 25 years came on Are You The One? this past week: Joe and Taylor dated for some time before breaking up, which led her to AYTO Season 5 earlier this year and was in that romance with Andre as well as flirting with Bostonian Tyler.  And those who watched them together and both talking to the rest of the roommates, we saw a different side to Taylor than the one we saw earlier this year... and no doubt they've made a play to get on Battle of the Exes 3.
   It's the first time that someone came to this season with ties to a previous AYTO castmate, and her stepping foot inside the Season 6 house brought us back to earlier this year. And it was at this time of the first week of November last year that the cast had went through the ringer of that 10th and last Matchup when they filmed that in the Dominican Republic, and swung and missed the night after Gianna's hometown Indians fell in Game 7 of the World Series.
   But as much as seeing them together was both awkward and awesome for us, strangely enough Taylor and Joe aren't the only ones with a Season 6 and past season connection. Before being cast on this season and as late as this past spring just as she was waiting for that call, Nicole had done several projects with AYTO Season 1 original and a member of the Exes 2 cast, fellow Bostonian Brittany. They did several web videos together for a New England video site, as well as a TV show airing on regional cable in the Boston area, a region that's produced so many MTV alumni.

These are the latest in a line of stories that link the many people of this community, something we have showcased a lot here since we began blogging in summer 2013. In a post he did for the defunct Real World Dailies site, longtime executive producer Jim Johnston - who took over for the late Mary Ellis-Bunim as production co-pilot along with Jon Murray, discussed the many links among the MTV/BMP ecosystem, for which he offered two examples of something that has occurred a few times in that show's history: roommates casted on the OG of reality TV who knew each other before entering the house.
   First, it was nineteen years ago that the first such odd occurrence of this MTV world being as small as it is came when two students at the Virginia Military Institute applied to be on the same season of The Real World Seattle. It came as a coincidence that Bostonian David Burns (who later became known with his forbidden romance with a casting director and his meltdown upon breaking up) and fellow Cadet Nathan Blackburn had not applied to be on the cast but were casted together, and both entered the house by the Pier together. Who can forget the joy they had unlocking the doors to the house as if they were entering Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory?

   More than a decade later, the same thing happened on Real World Cancun: Jonna and Derek were waiters at the same bar in Tempe, AZ, near Arizona State University. Neither had any idea that they auditioned for Season 22, and it was only at the final casting interviews that they realized about this strange coincidence. The both were chosen to head down to Mexico, and eventually made it all the way to the last elimination battle on Battle of the Seasons II. And there are many stories of castmates from various seasons being friends or social media buddies before going on Real World.
   Romances among those from different seasons of the Trifecta are common, most recently that of Dario and Ashley K., who met on The Challenge Invasion and are still together. But the most notable of which is one that began on what's now seen as be the very first season of The Challenge. When Real World Boston's Sean Duffy and RW San Francisco's Rachel Campos went onto that RV for a special trip across the country among Real World alums, it was love at first sight, and eventually they got married, became parents, and he became a Congressman. And getting married and also having kids is also the case for Challenge alums Tori and Brad, who we last saw winning Cutthroat.

Being part of what we here at DCBLOG refer to as Team MTV is something that is afforded to only a tiny percentage of the American population. Those who've been on AYTO, Real World, The Challenge or shows outside of the Trifecta and spanning shows still airing or were one & done shows number in the hundreds, and it doesn't include those who do series on its international channels. Yes, the chances of getting cast and having those millennials who watch MTV are about as remote as winning the lottery, which explains how small this world of the MTV community really is.


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