The Look Ahead: Who Wants To Be on The Real World?

Caution: Contains Potential Spoilers Below

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Right about now, the year in MTV Reality is heading into full steam: we're a month into Season 33 of The Challenge, and War of the Worlds has already offered the kind of season that the trilogy will only envy, and it continues in less than 24 hours. Ex On The Beach is heading towards the end of its sophomore with a notable ex to return into the life of the U.S. show's first two-time castaway... so is Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club. And if you've seen their two cover stories on the magazine shelves, then this year's big reboot is not that far off in the return of The Hills, as Miesha Barton joins the original cast.

As our focus is on what's going on right at this minute, soon enough the focus will shift to the show that begat the entire history of MTV singlehandedly creating an entire TV genre. This month sees filming begin of another show entering its 33rd season, and the one that launched the modern-day reality TV genre and changed the game for the whole industry: The Real World. This time, the show shifts from a longtime linear television spot on the MTV dial to the world of digital land, and in the most ideal and fitting of all social media platforms out there: Facebook Watch, the video offering of the world's largest digital community, Facebook.

Last week here, DCBLOG looked at where the revival of this ultimate OG of MTV Reality will take place... but you can't have a reality show without a cast. Who will be part of television & social media history as a big question will soon be answered: "Who Wants To Be On The Real World?" After the jump, we'll meet the three candidates vying for a spot in the most coveted entry-level spot into one of the most exclusive -- albeit rapidly-growing -- clubs in all of television.


Contrary to what its Facebook page says, three times previously The Real World's casting directors have turned to the internet in having a direct impact on who gets cast onto a season, and in the case of the first one - the finals of the casting process. That first one came in 2001 when MTV.com users chose Lori for a spot in the last stage of the selection process, and was chosen to go to the Back to New York season with The Miz and Coral, although she's remembered as the one who got rejected at the club by future sportscaster Kevin Dunn.
   In 2008 for the show's 20th season, Real World again turned to the web for a say in the process, this time for a spot in the house. In the end, it was "Pretty Boy" Greg who demolished the field in the quest to go to the Hollywood season... but of course, he found himself on the outside from the start and eventually his experience didn't quite work out. And a year later, it was Ayiiia who sent onto the Cancun season and made a bigger mark than Greg in being part of a threesome, Mexico's most shocking hookup and a fight that led her to cut herself... and she went on a Challenge, too.

While the show is returning to its original roots -- that is, before Ex-Plosion, MTV recognizes how social media has changed the game for its reality programming, and along with the usual suspects it offers to engage fans and the cast with the show, they took a cue from that experience of going online to determine who goes in to help with their transition to Facebook. Here, there are three candidates who are vying to be one of the seven strangers to take up residency in The Real World 33 house which -- if you didn't check out our post on it a week or two ago -- will be taking place in Atlanta, GA, and for which filming begins this coming weekend.
   They represent three parts of the diverse nation we are and know what it's like to be a millennial: one is an African-American looking to make that flight her hometown Saints didn't take to the ATL, a second is a farm boy who shares a favorite hobby as the guy who just got his revenge, and a third as an Asian-American from the West Coast who's had no ordinary prelude to the final three. Below are our profiles of them as well as their casting tapes and their final interviews, which also double as a pitch to the millions in the Facebook community to vote for them.

● JOANNA - 25, New Orleans, LA

IG @joannaducre

Joanna from New Orleans takes pride in her Southern roots in the crawfish she tastes and everything the Bayou has to offer, and could literally go from celebrating Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street to partying in Atlanta just a few days later. She takes pride in having a nice big butt and she adds, "You have to be confident the way you are because I can't change my curves and I can't lose that, so I just own it and accept it."

   By day, Joanna is an elementary school teacher who works in a low-income area of a city still rebuilding post Katrina, and the kids she works with have went through hardships that she hasn't gone through much. But she has also gone through her own struggles: her mom went through a 2-year fight with breast cancer, while Mr. Decre battled alcohol abuse. And Jo had to become an adult much early: "Circumstances forced me to grow up so fast. I ended up having to be the one to help them all the time, even though I was trying to figure out who I was. They needed my help, and if they didn't make it, then nobody was going to be able to help me."
   Knowing well that RW history suggests any back-home relationship may find itself in jeopardy, Jo says she's not tied to one man but might not have a problem picking the wrong men, especially with her family history. But as she thinks about going Real World, she believes she can reverse the usual stereotype associated with ladies like her: "Black women don't get a piece of what they put into the world. I always get put as the angry black woman and I'm like, 'No, I'm just passionate. I just really believe in something. I really want things to change. I'm already kind of hype, and you know what my trigger word is? Chill. Once you tell me to chill or relax, Oop, that just set me off even more."

● CLINT - 28, Potterville, MI

IG @eastwood100

Michigan farm boy Clint comes from a small town of 1,000 outside Lansing, and one who loves to go hunting. But there's more to this 28-year-old than just looks alone, as someone who's also a welder in addition to keeping alive a 100-year legacy of the Wrightt family farm in a Midwest town he calls "old-school." He is a definition of the small-town grind: "It's real hard work: long days. We're obviously out on the fields all the time, busting ass on the equipment. But at the same time, it's a free life. I'm working for my own family, so there's a lot of pride and love that goes into it."
   As Potterville is as small a town as you can get, the choices for girls are fairly limited in his neck of the woods and must rely on going out of town to land his lady, though he likes pretty girls too. But Clint knows drama may come along with those girls, as two past girlfriends of his cheated on him, including one he thought would be his only to find she had cheated on him regularly behind his back. He was so hurt by this betrayal, he couldn't leave his house for three months and his family & friends had to comfort him as he tried to get over the toughest time of his life. He holds out hope that he can find his one: "Every single day, I want just to be in love. That's honestly been my fantasy, like, my whole life and in Michigan. I just don't know if my type of girl is there."
   Like any other resident of mid-America, Clint knows respect is key: "For a long time in my life, I felt like it was almost pressured on me to be what I am. I don't care if you're gay, I don't care if you're Mexican, black, whatever... doesn't matter. You treat me with respect, I'm always gonna treat you with respect, hands down." And should he win the public's vote, he'll follow in those who've gone on Real World for the opportunity to branch out into new territory: "Man, I'm just excited to see how normal people live. I'm, like, pretty much Amish. My blood, sweat and tears are on this farm. I was raised on it, I plan on raising my family on it. I just want to experience something new, see how other cultures are... maybe even meet a girl, right?"  A fellow Michigan native did it, maybe he can here.

● MICHELLE - 26, Los Angeles, CA

IG @chellietbby

Michelle is a college student from Los Angeles majoring in international studies, and for someone who sees herself as a "hybrid, like all good things on earth," she has mixed heritage: her dad is of Thai descent, while her mom is Mexican -- though it's the former that she no doubt resembles. She says, "Growing up, it's different. It's always, like, this feeling of other. I struggled with identity issues, and now I'm just trying to be myself."
   It's being in from one of the world's most diverse cities that Michelle has compiled quite a passport traveling the world and its different cultures. Given what's transpired in the Trump White House, she's been frustrated with how immigrants have been portrayed and joins the countless millions who side with them in helping to make America the cultural melting pot it is. But like other past Real World'ers, Michelle has dealt with some personal demons in drug and alcohol abuse, which included a night where she overdosed. She remembers of an ordeal she feels she'll never want to go through again, "I just took it a step too far. I definitely went down the rabbit hole."
   With her habit of pushing people away, she hopes she can improve relations with those who know her, knowing well what goes on in any RW house. And Michelle adds, "I feel like the whole point of us being on this Earth is to grow as people. I've been trying to work on being more vulnerable. There's so much negativity. But this experience, I think, would be really a good one to open up to, because I'm really into helping heal the world."

Joanna, Clint and Michelle have all made solid pitches and strong cases for why they should be chosen to be on The Real World... it's now a matter of the public to make their selection, and for all three of them to wait for the call that will change their lives in many ways. Filming of this season begins in less than a week, and it's of whoever comes away victorious in this popularity contest and of who has the appealing personality and the compelling backstory that will make the difference.
   To the winner goes the spoils and all the perks: a big social media following (one of them already has a leg up notching 100K+ followers on their Instagram), a possibility that they could join Bananas, Cara and friends on The Challenge if the opportunity was given to them - along with hanging with the rest of the larger MTV family, and the love and hate they'll eventually have to deal with once this airs to a new platform in a few months' time.
   But most importantly, they will be part of an experience like no other: a social experiment tackling issues head-on, living with totally new people in a new city, and go through a coming-of-age journey that will see them enter the house as normal young adults but will become new versions of themselves once they leave the loft. And of course, they get a line in helping recite the most famous seven-line creed in all of television: the words that historically accompany the opening title sequence to The Real World.

To vote for either Joanne, Clint or Michelle for the last spot in the Atlanta house, visit The Real World's Facebook page at Facebook.com/RealWorld, where they are also offering polls on various past seasons of the show, which will eventually be made available on Facebook in the lead-up to the new season. DCBLOG will be covering The Real World Atlanta when the countdown to that season begins when the cast & related footage is released in the spring.

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