Disclaimer: Contains Potential Spoilers Below
BY DC CUEVA
When this fan signed onto social media and eventually into a hobby of blogging on the shows he loves, there was one show right at the outset back in summer 2012: The Real World. While I have branched out into many other shows since then including the show that supplanted that as the one of most interest in The Challenge, the show that started it all still takes on being my first love in reality television: the show that recognizes my passion for storytelling, MTV's commitment to social activism, and launched a genre along the way.
For the past couple years, The Real World has taken a back seat to all of what's gone down during The Challenge's trilogy... but now with all the rage in TV land being shows that are being rebooted and revived, the show that started the journey of MTV mastering a genre is about to not only return, but land at a whole new place: Facebook, and its FB Watch platform. And before it begins filming a season that will see the show return to its roots, we now have an idea of where it will go down. After the jump, we'll tell you where it will all go down. Gather around...
Since the late 1960's, production of most television programming that airs to a national audience across America has generally been the domain of the two largest metropolis in this country: New York City and Los Angeles. Most entertainment programming emulated from within sight of Hollywood, while news and sports programming was based in the Big Apple. During that time, high profile productions that took place outside those two markets were sparse: Oprah in Chicago, American Bandstand and The Mike Douglas Show in Philadelphia, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood in Pittsburgh, and Sunday public affairs shows in Washington, D.C.
As time has grew on, states, cities and the neighbors up north in Canada offered tax credits to producers to make films and TV shows in their part of the world instead of in NYC or LA. But it was reality television that helped to reunite production of nationally-televised shows and spotlight those cities to those viewers that would otherwise not be featured in its pure form on primetime TV instead of just being a backdrop. For this instance, Bravo's Real Housewives franchise has taken place in just about every big city imaginable, and dozens of other reality productions on every network imaginable take place all across the country.
In the realm of MTV's eyes, reality television is its domain in the modern era, and the hundreds of shows that have aired on the channel have taken place in virtually every region in the U.S. Jersey Shore and its Floribama spinoff have made Seaside Heights, NJ and Panama City Beach, FL hotbeds of national interest that helped spur tourism in the former and bring back interest to the spring break destination. Are You The One and Ex On The Beach has seen love have a backdrop in Hawaii, the Caribbean and Europe for its overseas cousins, and The Challenge has brought its competitors with T.J. Lavin on a semi-annual trek around the world, much like the Olympics do every two years.
But perhaps the most prestigious spot for any city to host an MTV Reality series comes with being host to the show that started this whole genre in the first place. During its thirty-two seasons on MTV, The Real World has taken place not only in New York and Los Angeles, but also San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Denver, San Diego, Texas, South Florida and Las Vegas. It has also ventured outside the mainland six times to London, Hawaii, Paris, Sydney, Cancun and the Virgin Islands.
The show's late creator, Mary-Ellis Bunim, once commented that the city itself becomes the eighth roommate in it being playing a supporting role to the main stars of the seven (sometimes more) strangers. This has seen the cast take advantage of unique local experiences like riding the New York subways, catch a fish at the Pike Place Market, go inside the White House, ride a Mardi Gras float, dodge hurricanes in the Atlantic, and work Austin's SXSW festival and Spring Break in Mexico.
The list of America's ten largest television markets as measured by the country's arbiter of next-day & delayed TV ratings data, Nielsen Media Research, has seven of them having hosted a Real World season... the only ones that have yet to host MTV's original reality series among these major metropolis are Dallas, Houston, and a city in the South which has been a hotbed for film & TV production but has never hosted a show rich in history than this.
As Atlanta continues to ride that high, the city and its surrounding region has continued to grow into America's ninth largest metropolitan area at just south of 6 million people, and which has gone through a time of revitalization in the past three decades. This was once the terminus of a major railroad line that went through the city and became the inspiration for the city's name and nestled in the middle of hills and trees that makes it a city located in a forest. Atlanta has since become the capital of the New American South, epicenter of the civil rights movement, and now home to an economy now ranked inside the world's top 20 cities at $385 billion.
More Fortune 500 companies call Atlanta home than every other city outside the Trifecta of New York, LA and Chicago, with Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, UPS, AT&T, Delta Airlines and Chick-fil-A calling the town its home. For media enthusiasts, Turner Broadcasting (and in turn, CNN) is based here, as does The Weather Channel, the Cox Corporation and the Tyler Perry empire. Aside from the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the defending MLS Cup champs, Atlanta is home to the Falcons, the Hawks and the Braves - who moved to a new ballpark over a year ago. And of course, this town is the epicenter of the South when it comes to hip-hop with too many artists to mention in this post.
Considering the stature of this town, it's remarkable to think that it has never hosted a show as notable in the annals of modern day television as Real World... but it will change. It was first reported earlier this month by the city's only major daily newspaper - the Atlanta Journal-Constitution - that it will be hosting the 33rd season of Real World and the first to take place on a non-MTV linear platform in Facebook. As the twisted era of the show had repeat visits to past cities, Atlanta will be the first new city to host a Real World season since Portland in 2013, and the first to be filmed on the East Coast since Washington, D.C. almost a decade ago.
While reality franchises like Bad Girls Club, The Real Housewives and VH1's Love & Hip Hop, and scripted fare like Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries and The CW's revival of 80's soap Dynasty are shot in Atlanta, many of those in this part of the country had wondered why this town had been overlooked by Bunim-Murray Productions and MTV in scouting prospective future host cities. Rumors once went around that the three people who sat in the Atlanta Mayor's office - Bill Campbell, Shirley Franklin and Kasim Reed - turned away Real World because of the show's negative depiction of African-Americans. Coincidentally, Nia from the Portland season & two Challenges, Simone from Are You The One and Kirk from Floribama Shore are natives of Atlanta, among other notables.
Right about now, the final phase of the casting process is taking place with those ever crucial interviews with prospective roommates, and those who'll be on this season will be notified of their fates very soon. Reality Blurred reports that the cast who will be picked to go on this new journey will be older than the usual MTV Reality cast, with casting directors broadening their choices to 21-34 than 21-25 years old. And they have been eyeing on casting diverse people from different and varying backgrounds like the old school seasons of the show's first generation, including political and sexual orientation themes to take advantage of the turbulent times of the America we are living in.
Filming is slated to begin the third week of March and will wrap around the time we mark the start of summer on the Memorial Day weekend... and obviously, there will be plenty of those who will be stalking on filming of this season, most especially in the social media age as it has become prevalent for those watching The Challenge. And with a usual daily high temperature in the 70's & 80's, the weather will be more comfortable to take in for the seven strangers than would be if this was filmed during the sweltering summer or even in the winter (it snowed in town the last time Atlanta hosted the Super Bowl in 2000).
Those who will be watching The Real World Atlanta this summer will be introduced to what this great city has to offer in the 7th most-visited city in the country. The heat of the moment in the times we are living in should give the castmates time to check out historical landmarks and museums related to the civil rights movement, and how those who proceeded them dealt with issues similar to what we have now. No doubt, the cast will have plenty to do in Centennial Olympic Park and hiking in the daytime, and partying like their rap stars after dark, And perhaps, they might spend time at the Georgia Aquarium and maybe go scuba diving with that place's best-known employee, AYTO alum and Challenger Chuck.
When MTV and Facebook announced the reboot of this television icon last fall, they promised that The Real World would return to its roots: focusing more on friendship and interpersonal relations, exploring the cultural and social environment of the time and place, and staying true to the spirit of being young. It coming to the world's largest social network is an ideal place to continue a legacy of a show that began a whole TV genre, ignited dialogue on the most important issues of the past quarter-century, and introduce viewers to memorable young adults from all walks of life going through their own coming-of-age story as one of those seven strangers picked to live in a loft. And with Atlanta as the backdrop this will be an ideal place, as they say, "to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real." See you in Atlanta...
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
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