DC ExtraTime: Survivor in Buckeye Country

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

This summer, MTV's Are You The One? made plenty of history along the way for its eighth season, coming five years after it began as one of the many new shows to come along on the channel and who benefited from the launchpad of debuting out of its biggest shows. For Season 8, the casting of this season's set of romantic singles were made up entirely of sexually-fluid singles from the LGBTQ+ community... the first reality dating show on U.S. television to explore this new world where the hashtag "Love Wins" takes on greater meaning. And after its season finale this past week, it serves as the basis to this story that offers the bridge to the next chapter in 2019 in reality TV.

Two years ago this month, this website stumbled upon a fan who met the cast of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 when it launched its first $1 million season and found that he had gathered his friends in the backyard of his house for several seasons of a home-made reality series. The result was one of our most-viewed posts and a recurring subject of this ExtraTime series: The Caucus Challenge franchise hosted, edited and sometimes competed in by Andres Rodriguez - himself also one who takes pride in being out & proud himself, and who has done three additional seasons of that show, and two seasons of a spin-off series, since that original post in September 2017.

Facebook.com/SurvivorTimeChange

As it turns out, Caucus is one of many of a slew of series that are made for YouTube that are inspired by reality television and beamed into desktops, mobile devices and connected TV's for enjoyment by the viewing public that's just as good as you'd find on the broadcast and cable networks. Ordinary people with a decent internet connection and budget are able to their own version of the shows they love, and so many of the most talked-about people of the moment in pop culture are internet stars who take this world seriously, who have millions of subscribers and followers, and who have snazzy budgets to offer YouTube videos of the network television-level of quality.

The most common of reality show imitations involves the series that might not have been the first reality competition show as that title belongs to The Challenge. But it was the show that made a genre that had previously been the domain of U.S. cable TV and broadcast networks outside America, and whose arrival to the States nineteen years ago this summer changed the game for both reality TV and the television industry of the biggest exporters and importers of entertainment in the universe. And one of those who competed on there got a chance at love on a revolutionary season of the MTV reality dating show that brought love and money together, and had a prime role in this AYTO season in being one half of arguably one of this franchise's biggest romances.

Cast of Survivor: Island of the Idols (CBS)

In the same year that The Real World debuted on MTV - across the pond in 1992, British TV producer Charlie Parsons devised an idea inspired by his tough and demanding time in his childhood going to boarding school. His format would become the show that, five years later, began airing in Sweden on public broadcaster SVT and later on its commercial rivals under the title Expedition Robinson -- its name referencing the tales of people who were marooned by shipwrecks in Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson.
   His bold, new concept called for contestants to be put into situations where they would have to survive on an island or in the wilderness, and where they would were eliminated one by one in every episode until a winner is decided at the end. The Swedish show was the first of those to make it to air, and the production company Parsons and Live Aid concert promoter Bob Geldof founded, Castaway Productions, would later rename this concept as Survivor in 1999, when networks from other countries bought rights to air their own version of the format which has been seen in almost 50 countries worldwide.

   In May 2000 -- just after MTV parent Viacom took control of it from former owners Westinghouse, CBS decided to take a gamble by acquiring the U.S. rights to Survivor and air it in the summer of 2000 when the broadcast networks preferred reruns in the summer and didn't even bother producing original shows when the least amount of TV sets were tuned in. This was the move that, along with regaining NFL rights two years earlier, ignited the turnaround of a then-struggling & older-skewing third-place network to regain the traditional ratings leadership it had when network founder William S. Paley was still roaming the network's Black Rock headquarters in New York. It was also that same summer that CBS brought to America the European reality powerhouse Big Brother, which had a rough start compared to its outdoor counterpart but eventually grew to become a summer TV staple.

   The result of the Tiffany Network dipping its feet into reality TV came in over 50 million viewers tuning in for its season 1 finale in August when the name of famously naked Richard Hatch came out of the winner's cylinder in the final tribunal council, proceeded by a mic-drop "snakes and rats" speech by castaway Sue Hawk in support of runner-up Kelly Wiglesworth. Survivor became the first reality show to garner an enormous following in the United States as the genre's first network hit and became America's most-watched show, giving networks an extra option for scheduling these shows to a point where reality TV dominates TV - both during the summer and on cable. It also turned a host of an early FX viewer response show, Jeff Probst, into a God among its fans, and executive producer Mark Burnett into one of the most in-demand people in the non-scripted universe.
   And the series continues to fascinate its legion of fans after all these years, with its 39th season, Island of the Idols, to premiere next Wednesday night, just as the controversial 21st season of Big Brother crowns its winner... and in spring of next year Survivor will hit the 40 season milestone, two decades after that historic first one. It takes place in a summer that's seen global hit Love Island join them and The Amazing Race on the CBS schedule, and where the network and MTV parent Viacom have just announced their corporate re-alliance after over a decade as separate entities, setting up the media world's next mega conglomerate. Hints of this reunion came in Jay Starrett from Millennials vs. Gen X going onto Ex On The Beach along with his Big Brother friends, and Survivor Turkey stalwart Turabi "Turbo" Camkiran, who won the War of The Worlds Challenge the same night South Carolinian sales manager Chris Underwood won Edge of Extinction.

So many college students have spent Wednesday nights in the fall and spring watching Survivor  religiously that on-campus clubs were formed inspired by the show. The purpose of these clubs were not necessarily to conduct discussions of what happened on the episodes and gossip on all the castaways' gameplay, but to do something much bigger. And if you and us here thought the Caucus Challenge was the most unique made-for-internet reality competition show there is... then think again. There are, in fact, so many others out there.

Cast of Survivor Maryland (Inside Survivor)

   This story begins out in College Park, Maryland, where in 2011 Survivor fanatic and University of Maryland student Austin Trupp became fascinated not just with the show and its many complicated aspects, but also became fascinated with his new college and its surroundings. He thought to himself about a homemade version of the show he loved, by doing what might be considered unparalleled for the time, but has become commonplace years later: his own smaller version of Survivor without the big budgets of the CBS original, but still challenging those who sign up for it to give it 110% and staying true to Charlie Parson's idea.
   Survivor Maryland has played out over six seasons, as Trupp became a cult figure on the Terrapins campus and in the online world after graduating and landing a governmental job. His idea of doing college-based seasons of this revolutionary franchise soon spread to other universities across the country. Outlets such as The Washington Post, National Public Radio and, of course the many show blog sites that cover the Survivor beat, have found the college versions of their show to be just as good as the actual one, despite its low-budget nature.

Cast of Survivor Time & Change: Buckeye Battles,
with Max seated at far left (Facebook)

One of the many Survivor college series that take place across our country takes place on the campus of one of Maryland's newest rivals upon them joining the expanded Big Ten during the chaos of college sports' ever-changing conference realignment. The Ohio State University is known, of course, for their football team, their band and them going to great lengths to make the proper pronunciation "THE" a part of their identity. And it was in 2016 that OSU began to make plans to follow the leads of other colleges in bringing their own version of Survivor to Columbus.
   The mission statement on the about tab of its YouTube page reads, "We aim to strategically create, develop, and facilitate a campus-scale, semester-long competition based on the CBS reality television competition known as SURVIVOR at The Ohio State University. We aim to challenge students to test themselves both physically and mentally in a uniquely innovative and competitive environment, while at the same time developing and maintaining a community of fellow students with similar interests and passions."
   As noted by student news outlet The Lantern, Junior neuroscience major Greg Friedberg led the student organization that helped bring low-budget Survivor to Buckeye Country, which unlike the TV version, would allow students to be able to compete in weekly challenges around their busy class schedule, and of course relax in more spacious living conditions outside of the game than what those castaways who spend 39 days being marooned from everything else. Of course, being at a college is as social as it gets during the school week.

When the call came out to prospective competitors who wanted to take on their own challenge with this first-ever season of Survivor Time & Change, Max Gentile was about to enter his last year on the OSU campus as a 23-year-old, 5th year senior. The native of Pickerton west of the Ohio capital city was an only child, an intern for a logistics company, loved working out at the OSU gym, and having a passion for the Steelers.
   But it was during this time of getting set for his senior year in college that Max began to figure out who he truly is. When he was age 10, Max began to realize that he did not identify himself as straight, but growing up in a small conservative suburb in this swing state that being anything but straight was frowned upon. And it was around this time of him being on this Survivor season that he came out, not publicly but to only a small handful of people of his parents and best friends.
   In his bio, Max described himself as "the most quick witted, laser-focused, and fiercely competitive contestant ever," and who used "Focused, Competitive and Fortuitous" as the three words that defined him. Max looked forward to getting to compete in the same type of competitive environment of the show he'd grown up watching, and in the lead-up to this season, he lost 50 lbs. in the gym to get down to under 170 pounds. He says in his preseason confessional video, "It's definitely something that shows the competitive edge, and it's something that I know that I can really do well in."

Max is one of sixteen students who were chosen from the entire student body that auditioned for the show, and were good enough to be selected for Time & Change: Buckeye Battles. But the one competitor who had the biggest notoriety going in was a castaway on the big show itself: 18-year-old freshman Will Wahl from Long Valley, NJ (best known as the hometown of The Dolan Twns), who had just come to OSU having made history as the first high schooler to ever appear on Survivor when he competed on Jay Starrett's Millennials vs. Gen X season and finished inside the top ten in Fiji.
   Both Will and Max have their hands full in a season that will take a semester for them to complete - 83 days in all compared to 39 the former went through... and there are also plenty of twists along the way too, along with those aspects of the game Survivor fans are used to. The reward for being the sole survivor on this season is not $1 million, but a month's membership to the local Yoga Six in town, and every contestant will get a free class there to spend quality time relaxing after a grueling challenge day.
   Below, see how Max, Will and the rest of the field of castaways fare in the first installment of Survivor: Time and Change... a second season of the show is also available for fans to check out on its YouTube channel along with exit interviews from all of the competitors.

 EPISODE 1 

 EPISODE 2 

 EPISODE 3 

 EPISODE 4 

 EPISODE 5 

 EPISODE 6 

 EPISODE 7 

 EPISODE 8 

 EPISODE 9 

 EPISODE 10 

 EPISODE 11 

 EPISODE 12 - The Finale 

Max (right), w/ Justin. (IG/AYTO)

Just after that season of Survivor: Time & Change aired on YouTube, Max graduated from Ohio State and fulfilled one of his goals of moving out west to Los Angeles... and it being a hub of the LGBT community it was there that Max finally fully embraced his bisexuality. Of course, we've just seen him on Are You The One? where he had that romance with military vet Justin Palm that, like so many others in seasons past, did not result in true love when they were heartbroken in the eighth matchup that told them that they were not one of those eight matches.
   Before the season began, Max told the Columbus Dispatch that he had wanted to get out of his comfort zone when going onto the show, and how not being comfortable hindered his chances at love. Later in talking with Ask Men, he reminded readers that the people who watched his journey were "just like everybody else," and that he got to tell those struggling with their sexuality to "come out when you're comfortable and you accept yourself... I hope that they find the power within because I know they have it."
   As one-half of arguably the season's biggest story in what is the most socially meaningful of the eight seasons of Are You The One?, Max Gentile brought us on a ride that saw so much hope for the ship known as #Jax that ended in heartbreak, but gave us a memorable castmate in the end. Chances are very good that we will see him again -- maybe on a Challenge, but most especially on a the show that - thanks to what he got to do at Ohio State - he envisions to be on one day, even making a Survivor audition tape after we saw his whole experience on Buckeye Battles played out. We know there will be plenty of calls going to casting for next season for Max... let's get those fingers crossed.

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