Friday, July 31, 2020

DC ExtraTime: A Real World OG Gets "Married at First Sight"

BY DC CUEVA                        
■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Back in May, we focused in on the only time that Challenge Nation made an appearance on one of MTV's biggest hits of the 2000's. It was in 2003 in the midst of the single most scandalicious season ever of The Real World that Trishelle Cannatella of the original Las Vegas season was invited to come to a meeting at MTV's west coast offices only to be stopped at the gate by security guards and was stuck behind a metal detector. It's only when Ashton Kutcher came by as did her castmate (and fellow occupant of the 28th floor Palms hot tub) Steven Hill that she got Punk'd.

Her being part of that memorable first season of the prank series that escalated the stock of the former That 70's Show star to all-time highs came during in the midst of the season that changed it all for the show that taught everyone in the entire industry how to do reality television. Sex, drama and everything wild from the capital of adult freedom saw this MTV original truly come of age as reality television as the channel saw it before it came to Sin City was never the same again. Thanks to what went down in Vegas, Trishelle started to show up on many other TV shows afterwards from Celebrity Fear Factor with a well-known Real World alum to hanging out with Steve-O and George Takei.

And now, you can add another show to that list, and thus the many shows that various MTV Reality alumni of young and old have appeared on. And it just so happens to be in the now ubiquitous world of romantic reality television, and one of the biggest hits in this sub-genre.

Credit above & below: Lifetime
In the early part of the 2010's, the nation of Denmark came up with its most-significant contribution to the TV landscape when the public broadcaster, DR, premiered the show Gift Ved Første Blik. The concept was franchised to other countries before it made its way to where it has had the most success when it given its English name of Married at First Sight. Since its 2015 debut on the Australian Nine Network, the series has regularly ranked among the most-watched shows down under, with its most recent 7th season garnering strong ratings there, and is now airing in America after the fact.
   Our Americanized Married at First Sight premiered a year earlier on A&E and later moved to its natural home at female-oriented sister network Lifetime, and has also become a viewership and social sensation. Wherever the show is held in the fifteen countries where the show is localized, the concept of the show sees cameras follow a group of single people who want to get married right on the spot, rather than go through the usual matchmaking process we're accustomed to on other reality dating shows. A series of interviews and tests await those lucky few who are chosen, and experts are utilized to match them with the person who they feel are their soulmates.
   But as in other shows in the genre, there is a twist: the couples are married without ever getting a chance to meet beforehand - similar to what's the case on Love is Blind (also produced by MAFS' U.S. production outlet Kinetic Content) where these couples get to walk down the aisle rather than have some time to get to know each other beforehand. Then, cameras stay with them from when they leave on their honeymoon until they have lived together for two months. It's there that they will have to decide at the end of whether they have fell in love so much that they should keep having those wedding rings on their fingers or head down to Splitsville with a divorce notice.
   Married at First Sight USA has aired for ten overall seasons, and thirty-four couples have had their marriages be documented on the series, which has crisscrossed the country in major cities. Just twenty-one of those couples chose to keep being hitched after the end of their seasons, but only nine of them are still married. Only one of them are parents in New York area natives Jamie Otis-Hehner & Doug Hehner being mom & dad to two young kids. And like the Bachelor Nation franchise, MAFS has also expanded to numerous spinoffs, as it has continued to dominate the social media buzz.

The eleventh season of Married at First Sight sees the show heads down to New Orleans, where five pairs of complete strangers are finding themselves walking down the aisle and saying their "I do's," and everything that comes with being part of a relationship being formed right on the spot. And there's no better place to celebrate getting married than in the town where they celebrate just about everything and who no doubt love throwing a party.
   The five couples who have been chosen are: New Jersey theater director Bennett & Virginia medical professional Amelia; NOLA teacher Woody & Chicago college student Amani; Louisiana natives Olivia & Brett, who respectively work in IT and the medical field; fellow lifelong residents of New Orleans Christina & Henry, who are respectively a clinical recruiter and a flight attendant; and South Carolina teacher Miles & Baton Rouge consultant Miles.
   After Amani & Woody, Karen & Miles and Olivia & Brett had their big moment last week, this week's third episode on Wednesday night saw the big night for the remaining two couples, Amelia & Bennett and Christina & Henry. As always, family and friends of the total strangers turned forced lovers attended the big bash, and saw the quirky couple of the former find out that they have a mutual friend before introducing him to a unique family tradition of catching eggs with a stick & string attached to their mouths.
   Christina & Henry have the home-field advantage of celebrating their wedding right at home and with those they have known for a long time. As it is always the case for these blind dates turned blind wedding days, the two feel the nerves with everything that's associated with a big wedding day but those were calmed by support from their family. Christina gets so caught up in all the madness that her veil is caught in the door as she walks down the aisle, but eventually they do get to say yes and kiss. But she still feels puzzled by who the matchmakers chose and tells the cameras that he's not her type despite the atmosphere, and she also forgets Henry's name too.



One of those in attendance just happens to be Trishelle, who's been a close friend of his and who briefly dated each other a long time ago but faded out to where they just became friends and before she herself got to tie the knot to a. It's after he & Christina tied the knot that, at the reception that the Real World'er also shows her skepticism of the bride, just as the handful of viewers who've joined the #WeWantOGs movement spotted her while likely zapping through the Total Madness virtual reunion. And she is not alone: another friend of his, Kristin, also gets a chance to grill the bride during the reception just after she popped up at his bachelor party just before, and also shares her concerns which channels that of everyone else that they may not perfect matches.
   Once she sifted through all the reactions - both positive on Twitter but negative on Reddit, Trishelle cleared the air on her relationship with Henry: "To be clear. Henry has been my friend for 7 plus years. Also he is a friend of my husband. We are all close friends. It’s ridiculous that people can’t understand platonic friendships in 2020." When she looked at the web's front page to say about her she was left to say, "Woah. I never was a part of Reddit until tonight. I saw what people said about me. I have had a lot of hate but wow. This is next level. Really? I'm not a bad person. The things I have seen are horrible."  And one who came to her side was Big Brother alum Dick Donato who wrote to her, "You know who you are and don't need approval from anyone but the people you love and respect, not random f___ who are way more fucked up than you or I. I love you Trishelle."



And... guess who got a subliminal shout-out in People Magazine's recap of this episode: yes, thanks in part to them embedded Trishelle's response of "Always messy at a Nola wedding" above my tweet, I have now officially made it at last. It's just part of what is, as we always say around here, "quite a night."













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