DC ExtraTime: Staying Relevant - The Ultimate House Party

This Post is Dedicated in Memory of Alexis Eddy, Who Passed Away in January 2020 - Two Years After Being on Season 1 of Staying Relevant.

 FOLLOW-UP  Rose City Reunion of Romance 
& All-Star Weekend of Love from Summer '18
BY DC CUEVA                            

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

For someone who blogs on the ebbs & flows of MTV Reality weekly, I have made room in the ample amount of my spare time to shoot & edit my own videos - which has also become a favorite hobby. My DC YouTube channel (YouTube.com/dc408dxtr) serves the site's original purpose when it launched years ago: showcase original videos shot, produced & edited by ordinary people, those with a passion for this field and now by influencers, not be a channel reposting videos from other people and sources as part of the world's largest video library.

Like what I have with DCBLOG, I put in all the time to make sure that the videos posted on my channel meets the same high levels of quality and detail as my blog posts... only here it's all about the visual part of the experience than the written version. It's best on display when I go on vacation and shoot video of my trips, then post produce them to make it available to everyone on the web. For my most recent Las Vegas trip last fall, I bought new editing software and gear to help serve my growing interest in this part of the digital world, including a gimbal which was the first thing I bought with the $2,000 I won in Reno last year.

Instagram @ayeejaee_

With the launch of live video outlets, MTV cast members have also found the video part of social media as a way to communicate to us... and when they go on Instagram Live the moment the episodes end, you know what it's like to see everyone spill the tea and garner thousands of viewers just before bedtime out east and before the episodes air out west. They have also found YouTube as another way for them to communicate with their fans through getting to discuss the episodes from their point of view, and do much more such as give make-up tips. It's become more common now as everyone is staying home to avoid the pandemic going on, as TikTok and Zoom have joined in on the fun.

In the spring of 2018 just as the channel was about to bring one of its biggest reality formats to our shores, a bold idea was hatched up by those who have experienced the feeling on love on MTV. One of those lucky few asked something like, "How about if we can bring those who have shared the same house, and have the chance to enjoy the feeling of living again?" A good handful of those who had this shared experience on Are You The One? and Ex On The Beach got to do it all over again, but this time under their own rules, their way and without MTV holding them back.

The result of all this became Staying Relevant, a unique YouTube reality series that continued the story of those who we loved watching in MTV's two entries into the now packed subgenre of romantic reality dating television, and what happened in their very own trilogy might be just as good as the shows they were on... maybe even better as they got to enjoy three installments of The Ultimate House Party.

When they were in New Orleans for the only AYTO season to take place outside of a tropical oasis three years ago, the twenty-two singles who comprised the so-called "Sexy Season 6" cast were misfits to start out, only to grow more closer like any new family, even as they were not winning much in the love department and in this game of high-stakes. It would take for the single biggest comeback in the show's history to turn them from becoming the series' second-straight bunch of losers to ascending into "eleventh heaven" and $1 million richer, but as the days were dwindling the group were already making plans for what to do once they would leave the Bayou.

In a harbinger of what would go down a year later on Season 1 of Ex On The Beach, Portlander and Oregon State water polo player Joe Torgerson had to endure seeing his well-known ex (and as of last week, the newest mom in the MTV family), Season 5 castmate Taylor Selfridge, lead the group of former girlfriends & boyfriends who descended upon the Big Easy for the annual cringeworthy trip of the exes to the AYTO house. But while just lounging around when there's not a getaway challenge, a date or a matchup ceremony going on, he held the upper hand in poolside basketball, among other summertime activities in the sultry heat of a Louisiana summer.

With the whole group having bonded so well in the house, Joe thought to himself that he didn't want the joy of the group being together to end once came time to leave the Big Easy. And he thought of the idea of wanting to send invitations for the cast to come up to the Rose City once filming ended, and eventually most of his entire cast jumped at that chance to book plane tickets to Portland.

And then came another twist as a friend of his decided to add something more juicy: how about having cameras around to document their reunion? And he also suggested to have it take place at a big mansion rather than at his house, replete with everything in the category of luxury a big weekend is worthy of. In an interview with a resident expert on all things relating to Love MTV Style, AfterBuzz TV's MTV after show host Lem Gonzales, Joe talked about how the idea of how Staying Relevant came about along with some of his fellow MTV alumni.

 SEASON 1 

CONNECTICUT & PORTLAND

That idea eventually came to realization, and just after Season 1 of Ex On The Beach wrapped up airing, Joe brought together many of his MTV friends to Portland around the 4th of July for the first weekend of their new project which became Staying Relevant. They had so good a time there in the Pacific Northwest, that they decided to do it again: this time in Connecticut and at a bigger mansion as well as partying at nearby Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Those who joined Joe for one or both of those two of these epic weekends included those who they lived with in New Orleans, including the resident love triangle of Diandra Delgado, Malcolm Drummer & Nurys Mateo -- and where this summer doubleheader came before they had to settle the score in on EOTB Season 2 Malibu beach house. Also with them were Alexis Eddy, Alivia Hunter, Anthony Martin, Audrey Diaz, Clinton Moxam, Ethan Cohen, Kareem Fathella, Keith Klebacher, Geles Rodriguez, Jada Simone, Nicole Spiller and Uche Nowsu -- sixteen members of that cast if you're counting at home.

Joe knew that it wouldn't be just a Season 6 reunion, so he also sent out invitations to those who he lived with in the Ex On The Beach house in Hawaii: dating show king Derrick Henry, Season 5'er Andre Siemers, exes Marco Delvecchio and Chelsko Thompson (both of which we featured them collaborating with Camila Cabello and being on Disney's Encore) and a Big Brother alum by the name of Paulie Califiore, who was right on the edge of becoming a Challenge superstar. Rounding out the alumni list were Season 4'ers Giovanni Rivera, Prosper Muna and Mikala Thomas -- for which Joe chose the Connecticut weekend to announce that he & her are now officially a couple, which they still are.

And as the premiere of Season 7 of Are You The One took place the same week as the Connecticut trip, they also invited a few of that year's cast to celebrate premiere week in Andrew Colture, Brett Ferri, Daniel Vilk, Jasmine Rodriguez, Kwasi Opoku, Tevin Grant and Zak Jones. And below, the first season of Staying Relevant for your (and our) entertainment...

EPISODE 0 ● THE PILOT

EPISODE 1 ● CONNECTICUT PART 1

EPISODE 2 ● CONNECTICUT PART 2

EPISODE 3 ● PORTLAND

EPISODE 4 ● A RECAP

One user wrote in the YouTube comments, "Great job on the filming and the editing!  My bros in the film industry and it took him YEARS to get into the union.  I absolutely love how social media has given people an outlet to create without having to go through studio execs.  I heard Joe talk about doing this on Afterbuzz a while ago and I really appreciated the concept and idea.  Looking forward to seeing what you put together, and I just have so much support for what you’re making happen here!  Well done!! 👏👏👏👏👏"

 SEASON 2 

LOS ANGELES

As expected for anything that involves MTV personalities, the first season of Staying Relevant had over 400,000 YouTube views (even accounting for that small Portland video), and that left a big task for everyone involved to step it up big time for their third gathering. This time, it was where some of them have moved out there permanently that made Los Angeles the ideal venue for them to throw a good old New Year's Eve party to bid adieu to 2018 and ring in 2019.

Most of the usual suspects from Season 1 returned for Season 2, coming around the same time that Season 2 of Ex On The Beach had debuted - and of what would happen to Malcolm in the romance he had with fellow single Maya Benberry in the Malibu house. They would be joined by Anthony's girl Shannon Duffy, Season 6 mates Dave Shad, Keyana Land & Tyler Colon, Season 4's Cameron Kolbo (Mikala's ex), Janelle's ex Darian Vandermark, and two friends of the group, Zach and Davey.

EPISODE 0 ● PRE-PLANNING

EPISODE 1 ● LOS ANGELES PART 1

EPISODE 2 ● LOS ANGELES PART 2

SEASON 2 BONUS FOOTAGE

However, there was one snag that left us with perhaps the biggest cliffhanger of all: as it turns out, the footage from that New Year's Eve party may have been lost. The lone hard drive that contained all the video they shot from that weekend somehow crashed, and there's no word as of yet if the party to all end parties will ever see the light of day on YouTube -- at least, the Staying Relevant version of it. At least, you got Tyler's own video of the big event and him talking to Joe about this project to make up for it, at least for now...

Another YouTube user wrote of this series, "Loved this! ❤ not only because I'm a big fan of AYTO but because theres people from different seasons and from ex on the beach all in one house & its very entertaining to see how you all interact with one another."
   Staying Relevant is a bold concept that really allows us to get to know more about the around 50-or-so people who we got to know so well on MTV who've starred in the videos above but on a more intimate level than the edited version on TV, and we hope there will be more of these once the panic going on around us finally subsides. From certain aspects of the production process, it may not always be as perfect a product as the well-polished machines MTV gives us, but when future editions of this comes around it should be as big as Joe and his team will have envisioned.
   But we've also learned since then how much we should really cherish these times with those who you've suddenly become family with: as we all know now, it was a year after that New Year's bash that the Season 6 cast coped with the sudden death of Alexis Eddy, and their entire AYTO family joined them to grieve in that tremendous loss... and just seeing Lexi one more time in the SRTV series really put this statement into full focus. It's just part of a concept that, one day, will become as must-watch a series as the big show itself of MTV Reality.

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