But the relationship I have had with MTV that stretches back to my childhood and then wall-to-wall in my adulthood goes beyond just watching Challenges and Real World, which brought me into this world into the first place starting with Hawaii over two decades ago. I am one who has an affection for just about any show that airs on the channel during this time, and it's with that in mind that I've been able to expand this site's coverage from covering just those two shows in that first summer of 2013, to now watching and covering the entire spectrum: dating shows, global franchises, tabloid-friendly series, and other things on the side. There's six major series I'm covering now with traditional recaps, the episodes as seen from the social verse, and the hundreds of stories we've told through ExtraTime.
Since the story of this journey began twenty-seven years ago in a posh apartment in New York City, MTV's focus has shifted from wall-to-wall music videos to helping to showcase a genre it pioneered to provide it with some much-needed original programming, but has wrote the playbook on reality television that others go by to this day. It has given us so many memorable moments, unforgettable people, series that have become cultural landmarks and so much more across the entire spectrum of youth, that everyone in the industry can say thanks to giving MTV more definitions than music TV.
If you happen to work on a reality series, then you have one of the best jobs out there of helping to make the magic happen. Whether it's working behind the cameras shooting and editing this content, or just having a hand in contributing music or time to build the sets, they're just as important to any show as those who are the real stars: the cast members and talent on camera. But nothing is as vital behind the scenes than those in the higher hierarchy who coordinates these shows for the production companies that produce these shows and then presents them on our screens.
In the summer of 2017, four of the reality TV industry's top power players and masters of this genre gathered in one of America's most vibrant cities to discuss the evolution and history of MTV Reality. The combined experience of the panel gathered on that stage comprise some of the most-successful programming in the genre, just before the start of the channel's resurgence that summer. And with the next chapter about to begin in a couple weeks of a new Challenge, it's worth a trip to take a look at where we've been before we take the next step...
In the same city that hosts the annual Olympics of pop culture and live music of South by Southwest, for four days every June the city of Austin, Texas brings notable names from the TV world to "The Live Music Capital of the World" for a celebration of the small screen at the end of the traditional September to May broadcast season. The ATX Television Festival holds panel discussions, events and screenings that brings the past, present and future of the industry together, covering everything from previewing new fall shows to reuniting casts of shows past during the reboot craze.
As this post takes place in "Summer Seventeen," both MTV and its parent company Viacom were going through rough times as the phenomenon of streaming made viewers think twice about whether to go traditional to cable & satellite or go light and rely on just the internet and their WiFi for their entertainment. This is taking place two years before its leaders were given from lead shareholders, the family of Sumner Redstone, an offer they couldn't refuse: a reunion with CBS Corporation after over a decade of operating as separate entities... and as this post is being released now, they're into their first year as the new ViacomCBS, as the media industry continues to evolve.
On the first weekend of June 2017 (the same weekend that this blogger was with his niece to celebrate her birthday at Disneyland), ATX-TV brought together three figures seminal to MTV's transition into becoming the pioneer of the reality television craze and the genre in its totality, along with a fourth who had just returned to the Viacom fold from a brief stint at A&E. They joined panel moderator and life-long MTV fan, Jarett Wieselman, who covers television for BuzzFeed and who authored for that site an extensive and definitive long-form oral history of The Challenge shortly after perhaps its most controversial moment ever: the Bananas steal on Rivals III.
The program's synopsis on the ATX TV YouTube video description reads:
"Whether you see reality TV as an intriguing, ever-evolving art form, or a never-ending disrupter, there is simply no denying MTV’s legacy as the birthplace of the modern genre. From the early days of The Real World and Road Rules, which set the stage for conflict resolution and drama queens; to the highly stylized worlds of Laguna Beach and The Hills; to current staples like Teen Mom and The Challenge, this network has been at the forefront of the evolution of reality programming. Join the pioneers of this highly addictive genre as they reflect on the ongoing journey of reality television, and discuss the art of capturing explosive moments that bring audiences back, week after week."
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| Clockwise: Murray, Neumeyer, Freeman (with Teen Mom cast), Salsano (with Jersey Shore cast) |
Sally Ann Salsano began her career interning for Howard Stern's radio show, then made her way cross town in the Big Apple to Sally Jesse Raphael's talk show first as an intern and then became a producer for the one with the famous red glasses. A relocation to the West Coast put Sally in a prized position leading production on the first several seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, working alongside another reality big shot in executive producer Scott Jeffress, who produced not only Jersey and Floribama Shore under her wing, but also Are You The One and last year's reboot of reality dating pioneer Temptation Island. Sally's 495 Productions company also produces talk show The Real, Snoop Dogg & Martha Stewart's Potluck Party, and Shore sister Party Down South.
He may boast the namesake of a world-famous actor, but Morgan J. Freeman has made his own mark in producing his own brand of provocative content. He founded his own independent film company 24 years ago churning out acclaimed, Sundance Festival-winning documentaries before he discovered TV. The producing duo of Mark Ford & Kevin Lopez hired Morgan to help produce Laguna Beach, which gave the world the bigger spinoff The Hills (and thus, LC and Kristin) and its East Coast cousin, Siesta Key. And after directing a 2008 film starring an O.C. alum turned Hills girl Mischa Barton, Morgan joined with fellow indie filmmaker Dia Sokol Savage to produce 16 & Pregnant, which then turned into ten years of the Teen Mom franchise in its various iterations.
And it was the idea of Lily Neumeyer to scour the country to find the most elaborate celebrations of young teenagers making their transition from being kids to being adults when she and fellow MTV exec Nina Diaz created My Super Sweet 16, among a slew of notable projects that Lily did for the channel on both the news/docs side and in the entertainment department. Last year, her role expanded to Executive Vice President of Development to cover not only MTV, but also VH1, CMT and MTV Studios - which includes the Love & Hip-Hop franchise, RuPaul's Drag Race and last year's relaunch of The Real World on Facebook Watch. And between her stays at Viacom, Lily served as non-scripted VP at A&E where she oversaw mega hit, Duck Dynasty and launched weekend staple Live P.D.
The body of work these four accomplished producers have accumulated encompass escapist entertainment featuring young adults just living it up, to those same people being older, wiser and taking on the responsibilities of adulthood, with even some competition on the side. And they joined Jarrett to discuss the evolution of MTV Reality since Jon helped create Real World twenty-five years earlier... both on screen and behind the scenes.
A blog site that caters its coverage of major television series to the cord-cutting and streaming-only audience (similarly to what this site does in deferring our weekly episode coverage to the weekends rather than right after the episodes air on television), Really Late Reviews, and one of its writers was in the audience for that panel discussion and a more detailed look is posted here.
It was since this panel took place almost three years ago in Texas that the three guests of honor have presumably kept in close contact with each other and Lily at MTV over the always present possibility that cast members from their original shows could cross over into their territory if the chance was provided. And MTV executives' Rolodex has also expanded to include other producers who partner with the channel to bring us the reality shows you love, and who have helped MTV to shun industry trends and have seen ratings increase thanks to both legacy series and them launching new ones too.
This panel took place at the same time that Sally and her 495 team were preparing to head across the Sunbelt to film a series featuring young adults from around the American South ready to enjoy the summer down in Panama City Beach, which evolved into Floribama Shore. It was there that we saw Gus Symrios - who just celebrated a birthday yesterday and who we then saw on The Challenge War of the Worlds last year.
Before that, 495 had an unrelated but near distant cousin of Floribama in Party Down South on CMT - and one of its roommates was Mattie Lynn Breaux, who joined Gus at the Shore for Season 3 this winter and flirted with Gus' now frenemy, Jeremiah Buoni. Mattie returned to TV for, yes, Gus' lone Challenge season... and she will return to the big show in less than two weeks for another shot.
The Challenge has made so many big names over the years in turning those who started on Real World and Road Rules into regular staples, and has progressed to welcome those from outside two shows into its fold - including those from Big Brother preceding the eventual Viacom/CBS merger.
One of them is Cory Wharton, who began on the first of the twist seasons of Ex-Plosion six years ago, competed on his first Challenge nearly two years later and who recently had a tattoo given to him with the MTV logo and a tongue licking it. His history of having hooked with many girls on his shows led Lily and colleague, Nina Diaz, as well as Purveyors of Pop to have him cast on the first U.S. season of Ex On The Beach, which led Cory to his now-girlfriend Taylor Selfridge, who appeared on Are You The One a year earlier.
And when he returned from filming that EOTB season and The Challenge Vendettas back to back, Cory returned to social media on December 2017 with a game-changing bombshell: he found out during this time that he was the biological dad to the daughter of his Rivals III crush Cheyenne Floyd... which then brought them to the attention of Morgan and his Teen Mom producers who were looking for a mom or two to replace the now-fired Farrah Abraham. And now Cory will be on MTV two nights a week come two weeks from now with Teen Mom OG and Total Madness.
Jon, Sally, Morgan and Lily are only part of an accomplished group of producers who create some of the biggest and most buzzworthy programming in the non-scripted field, and everyone in the genre can owe some thanks to them, Survivor creator Mark Burnett and a whole host of others who've made some two decades' worth of memories possible. And the latest chapter of this MTV Reality story is about to unfold in The Challenge: Total Madness... a preview of that comes up here this weekend.
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