DC FORUM: 2020 - The Year of DC, The Content Creator

A Word from the Editor

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

And so, we have finally made it: three-hundred sixty-six days ago tonight, we were anticipating the start of the decade of the twenties in the twenty-first century. But then, reality set in... and obviously, you don't need to be reminded of the loads of depressing, negative and decisive headlines that have plagued this year of 2020. In the true spirit of the message that this person has been preaching since spring of this year in this bring "The Escape You Deserve," we will spare you the expense of making even one small mention of any of those.

   However in this brief retrospective of the year that will soon be history in a few hours from now here in the United States, if there is something that I can take away from this year it's that I have made great strides in my hobby of being one now considers himself a content creator. The almost nine months that I have spent at my own house has allowed me to take advantage of the ample amount of time of being in lockdown and in quarantine to further my standing in the social universe as not just a great blogger and writer, but now in being a part-time YouTuber too.

As I wrote here on New Year's Eve last year, I have worked tremendously hard over the course of what's now seven & a-half years of perfecting this very DCBLOG site. It is something I take a great deal of pride in having now posted over 1,300 posts and devoting the lions' share of that to going Inside MTV Reality... with occasional posts on my other passions of sports, music and the culture of Las Vegas. And this remains a big part of my identity to most of you, and my biggest contribution to the fandom of The Challenge and other aspects of TV's most-talked about reality programming.

   Despite two of the major series I cover not airing this year because of the ongoing pandemic, this is the fourth straight year that I have published over two-hundred blog posts in a single year, and I launched a Twitter promotion campaign to help bring more users to the outstanding content this site provides - the 'Pulse of the episodes, the stories behind the story that ExtraTime offers, and other things. Despite the expansion of internet coverage of the likes of the fifth major pro sport and Siesta Key to other blogs and to most especially the audio medium of podcasts, I continue to look at my baby as the gold standard... and we are looking forward to continuing this great tradition in the new year with new shows & seasons, compelling stories and much more.

But something that has also kept me from devoting the same amount of time and effort to putting this site together this year has been my progression in creating original videos for YouTube. When just relaxing, I have the pleasure of watching a lot of content on there not only encompassing my biggest passions in reality TV, sports, music and Vegas, but also many other things such as local newscasts, tours of million-dollar homes, theme park live streams, and slot play -- something I got to do before I won on the slots last year and for which now my parents have been obsessed with this year.

   It's from watching all of those that inspired me to post not one, but well over 1000 videos of eight of my travels to Las Vegas and from a 2008 trip I took to New York City. With just a few reposts of my own live streams from last year's trip to Sin City, most of my DC Vegas and DC Coast to Coast vlogs are all post-produced by me with broadcast-quality graphics, ambient audio and other enhancements to give it a different & distinctive feel compared to most other original YouTube content. And there are still plenty of good videos from the Big Apple and Disneyland that will be up very soon

As for what's next: as many of us have done most of our holiday shopping online, this month my parents were brave enough to go the traditional route and drive to the store to buy two awesome gifts that makes this Christmas a good one for yours truly. First, I got a much-needed upgrade to a new iPhone in retiring the first model SE I've been using for four years in favor of an iPhone 11 - a move that I can equate from going from the age of The Flintstones to flying with The Jetsons. And second, they gave me my very first laptop so I that I don't have to worry about queueing for the upstairs computer when my mom is checking her stocks or when my kids come over to play around with Minecraft.

   As much as we're ready to finally put 2020 out of its misery shortly, I'm most looking forward to 2021 like many of you, but not just for that we hope this year will bring us hope, health, happiness and humanity to this world. It's also that I'm looking forward to what the future brings with having those two toys along with the tablets and other gadgets I have. When we drive over to my sisters' for a weekend, instead of cramming all of those before we drive there the next day, I can now have some time to work on blog posts like these around quality family time and dealing with their new puppy.

   But I'm most especially anxious for the big one: when the time finally comes to go back to Sin City once it's safe to fly there and when things get back to a sense of normalcy, I plan on taking the DC Vegas YouTube experience to the next level. I'll be able to post new videos while I'm in town and on the same day instead of waiting to fly home & edit those later, just like Vegas vlogger Matt Bridger does when he flies in from the UK. I can offer better live streaming and cinema-quality videos of my walkthroughs on the Strip with my gimbal & vlogging camera in hand... and those are just a couple ideas.

But that's what the future brings... and we hope this will come sooner rather than later. But here in the final hours of this chaotic year, I can look at 2020 as the year that I became more than just a blogger, but now as a Content Creator on both the written and the visual side of things. And may we wish you all a safe, peaceful and a very Happy New Year.

- I AM DC

#DCBLOG

DC ExtraTime: The Caucus Challenge Goes to Camp and to Beantown

*** CAUTION: Certain Videos Embedded Below Contain Adult Language & Situations Not Intended for a Younger Audience. Parental Guidance is Suggested. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

IG @TheAndresRodriguez

As we are finally into the final 48 hours of 2020 and anxious to ring in 2021 tomorrow night, those who we've been thinking about right now and a lot during the holidays are our family and friends. For many of us, we have not spent much time in person with either or both of them this year because of the pandemic and whose only contact have been through virtual parties on Zoom or digitally. But for those of you who have been healthy and being extremely aware of this reality we are in now, then you have gotten to cherish that quality time... that includes the subjects of this year's last ExtraTime.

Ever since we first introduced them three years ago, Andres Rodriguez and his tight-knit group of friends from Secaucus, NJ have been regulars of this DCBLOG site. It's for that we have chronicled the entirety of his signature series for his YouTube channel, The Caucus Challenge, and its Real World-inspired spinoff The Life We Live. Yes, it's likely that you have been obsessed with watching those new MTV Challenge and Are You The One seasons that they have on Netflix and CBS All Access all this month, but this clique has also forged their own identity for great television in creating ten Caucus Challenges and three prior seasons of TLWL before this year.

In a perfect world, we would be enjoying watching the eleventh & twelfth seasons of Caucus by now... but of course there were other plans. So instead, what the franchise's creator & host had in mind earlier this summer was something different and something familiar. And on a night where Double Agents is taking this rare Challenge Wednesday off for the New Year's holiday, we'd thought we'd give you a suggestion for what to watch, and share you how Dre & Friends spent their Lost Summer of 2020.

Inside MTV Reality: A Big Brother Gets Catfished?

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Two years ago if you're lucky enough to follow the whole palette of what MTV has to offer, you may recall what happened during Final Reckoning when a guy who knows a couple Agents of this season got a surprise phone call from a surprise person on another MTV show. We're talking about the moment on Catfish in 2018 when Jay G. -- who was a roomie of Cory and Ashley's on his Real World season and who you remember for what happened on Exes 2 -- got a phone call from Max Joseph during his last investigation. It aired during the week of the ladder invading South Africa as a mercenary en route to becoming a millionaire and during that breakout year for the former as he got used to daddy life.

   This year marks the tenth anniversary of the original Catfish documentary film that inspired the TV series of the same name which, of course, centers around what happened to show host Nev Schulman. He has had quite a bit more attention of late thanks to having being one of those lucky handful chosen for this year's installment of Dancing with the Stars and narrowing missing winning the coveted Crystal Ball. Usually, he would crisscross America to meet those who've fallen in online love and has been witness to his fair share of memorable moments ever since. But as it has been doing this year of a pandemic, Nev & Max's replacement, Miss Teen USA 2010 Kamie Crawford, have been doing all their investigations at home and being connected to each other and their subjects through video-chat... same goes for their Ghosted counterparts Rachel Lindsay and Travis Mills.

   A year ago this month saw Viacom and CBS complete their re-merger and as it was during their first corporate marriage, there's been plenty of cross promotion in the expanded company with plenty of familiar names to Challenge Nation making appearances on shows across the entire company -- and that includes what goes down in daytime today on the Eye, which we will cover later this week. Also, there's Nickelodeon producing a kid-friendly simulcast of one of the Eye's upcoming slate of NFL playoff games in the run-up to the network airing Super Bowl LV.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Double Agents - "Enemy of the State"

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom... you do need those, after all. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Hello again everyone and Happy Holidays to you... we hope that you & yours are safe and healthy as the Christmas festivities continue on this last weekend of 2020 as we at DCBLOG bring you on into our final SocialPulse post of the year, and Week 3 of The Challenge: Double Agents.

The first two weeks of this Challenge season has seen plenty of twists being revealed that will set the tone for the rest of this winter, and last week saw the full nature of this cutthroat game be unveiled after the first paired mission, which saw players tackle the icy cold waters and saw politics get exposed. There was no change to who were the Double Agents as Aneesa & Fessy remained in the top position, but at night's end he would find himself in the line of fire as him deciding to not gamble to get a red skull may hurt him later on in this game, as he watched our last ExtraTime subject Joseph get beaten handily by Kyle after trying to go after Wes.

After the icy cold nature of last week's daily, this week the focus shifts to the wide open road for something much more different: going wresting on top of a speeding truck and through a line of explosives -- and without wearing harnesses. Thanks to the changes in teams at the end of last week, six challengers will be re-paired with new partners, which also sees consequences for Fessy in bringing the secrets of the secret vote out into the open. And an Agent who's has a tendency to be an emotional firecracker going back to when he was king of his original season is at it again when it comes to pushing the buttons of some of the other players.

After the break, it's the 'Pulse of Episode 3 of Double Agents, plus we begin with the reaction to the big news last week of the partner of this week's main subject from his first Challenge & co-parent of baby number 1 expecting #2. Thanks for joining along and wrapping your holiday weekend with us...

DC ExtraTime Flashback: Are You The One? - Reflection from the Originals

This Post is Dedicated in Memory of One of AYTO's Beloved Castmates, Alexis Eddy, Who Died Back in January of This Year.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

The story of MTV Reality represents the history of the non-scripted genre as it is recognized by fans and the industry, encompassing almost three decades of some of TV's most unique programming. During these coming months in addition to weekly coverage of The Challenge: Double Agents, DCBLOG ExtraTime is proud to offer a special Flashback series as we look back at some of the most memorable moments, greatest shows and incredible personalities that has shaped this entire genre.

During a year we will finally put to rest in less than a week from now, a recent trend in the land of social media has been of users on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the like to compare themselves from when they started doing something and how it's evolved greatly to this moment in their lives. In the case of yours truly, my "How It Began, How It's Going" moment doesn't really apply to being posted on those apps, but on this page you're viewing right now.

   In my first cycle of blogging on MTV matters on this DCBLOG site in the summer of 2013, that first summer consisted of less than twenty posts covering just the season-ending reunion of Season 28 of The Real World in Portland and the entirety of the ensuing Rivals II Challenge, with a few supplementary posts on the side which ultimately evolved these posts known as the ExtraTime series. What I didn't know going into the next wave of programming the following winter was that my beat would begin to gradually expand to the point where it's now a year-round activity that doesn't just cover the fifth major pro sport and the show that began reality TV.

   I've been a lifelong MTV fan going back over two decades well before I decided to take my fandom into social media in joining Twitter in the summer of 2012 and then to the blogosphere a year later. As one who has a lot of memories of watching a wide range of shows reflecting the joy of being young, in what this very post is the 1300th on this site I not only covered those two aforementioned shows, but also everything from the fun and drama of two different sets of cliques who call Florida home, to tabloid-friendly series, one-hit wonders and the list goes on.

But, there's one show that helped pave the way for helping expanding my horizons in this world: seven years ago next month, that show came along in combining the elements of what MTV does best in this genre of the big-time drama we come to expect from reality TV, the high-stakes of The Challenge and incredibly young & hot people... with a thing my parents have been fans of for a long time: Bachelor Nation and romantic reality dating shows. The show was given the gymnastic name of Perfect 10 to begin with, but it evolved into Are You The One? -- known just by the acronym AYTO.

   It's safe to say that I was hooked from the very beginning, and I can also be one of the small handful who can lay claim to being a Day-1'er. I have followed this ride from the start and from even before the buzz began to take shape: someone from that original group liking my pictures on Instagram helped break the ice. And it has continued through the Season 3 cast and the incredible resume they've chalked up since, the ultimate heartbreak that Season 5 had to go through in the Caribbean, the comeback of the decade Season 6 pulled off in New Orleans, and its most recent chapter in giving the LGBT community their chance to look for love.

   And we at this site have gotten to follow the entire journey of these eight seasons: we've taken the 'Pulse of every episode, told the backstories of many of those who've gone for love on AYTO, and done our best to sort things out when it comes to cracking the code of the perfect matches like what NBC's Steve Kornacki has done in becoming an icon and making his khaki pants a hot Christmas gift in sorting out the Path to the White House through analytics during this year's election and now, the NFL playoffs.

It may not be MTV's first foray into this genre after its 90s hit Singled Out and its first collaboration with Jersey Shore executive producer Sally-Ann Salsano in A Shot at Love... but this is by far its most unique and successful when it comes to the many facets of what the game is about, and how it has brought that recipe for success into a genre that's now the hottest trend in the non-scripted space. But in a year that had no new season of it airing this year due to the pandemic, as we began cuffing season we got the next best thing that's just as good: so many flashbacks... thanks to it joining the biggest player in the battle for streaming supremacy.

   Earlier this month, MTV's Are You The One? joined Netflix when the first two seasons of the show was made available on the platform, and by week's end it was in the top 10 list of most viewed shows there. And this gave reason for the series' first two casts to get together to do something they didn't get to do much when it aired back in 2014 but is something recent casts have gotten to enjoy: spilling the tea on social media and on YouTube. We're sure you're gonna have the feels and the flashbacks going back down memory lane as you check this out on this Christmas Day...

DC ExtraTime: Another One for Chey Not Shy...

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Instagram @CheyNotShy

Three years ago on the pre-Christmas weekend in mid-December, the tight-knit MTV Reality family was sent for a tailspin by one stunning announcement from a man who had just came back from filming two back to back seasons in two different locales. Then two-time Challenger and Real World alum Cory Wharton returned from a social media hiatus of filming Vendettas in Europe and flying straight to Hawaii for the first American season of Ex On The Beach to announce that a paternity test taken in fall 2017 revealed that he is a father much to everyone's surprise. And exactly two years later, it was deja vu all over again: before going out to compete on Total Madness, he and the girl he met on that first Ex season there in Hawaii revealed that were expecting, and he would become a father to two kids.

The second time around was no surprise when it was announced in October of last year, but Cory and Taylor Selfridge had to adjust to having to give birth to and raise their new kid Mila Mae during the midst of this unprecedented pandemic, just as so many others both in the MTV inner circle and out have had to grapple with during this crazy time. But we never forget that first one, which brought into focus the brief relationship he had with Are You The One Season 3's Cheyenne Floyd on The Challenge: Rivals III in 2016, and helped to bring the flag of Challenge Nation into uncharted waters: joining the Teen Mom OG sorority when Ryder K. was still a 1-year-old. Of course, this gave reason for the MTV King to be given have a channel logo as a tattoo for being on four different series.

In seeing Chey's Instagram photos in the last few months gave her followers and the Teen Mom fans some idea or hints of what might be happening, but last week saw it be confirmed in a social post. And last Thursday and almost three years to the day of Cory's daddy reveal, she posted the following:

DC ExtraTime: Before They Were MTV Stars - Joseph's Golden Moment

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

   ESTIMATED READING TIME: 16 Mins.

The year that will soon pass us by of 2020 has been quite a memorable one in the one section of our American society that sees people like you be the stars of their own TV show. But earlier this summer while you were probably busy following the serious business of the last MTV Challenge season of Total Madness, if you happen to be an overall reality TV fan besides just watching this show you might've spotted someone familiar on one of the biggest shows in the non-scripted universe.

All AGT Photos Courtesy
Trae Patton/NBCUniversal

Kaycee Clark was perhaps nowhere to be seen outside of competing under the radar in the Czech Republic, getting into that huge blow-up with Bayleigh Dayton in the bunker last season, or briefly flirting with Nany Gonzalez in that Prague club. But thanks to some alert viewers who always keep an eye out for whenever people from Team MTV invade other networks' shows -- something we feature a lot on here, the Big Brother 20 champion was spotted in the audience of a show that airs on a different network not related to their newly expanded company. But Kaycee would have absolutely no idea that her sophomore Challenge season that she is on right now would feature someone from that very show that's so much different from being put into that ringer of competing against houseguests in the summer house, or being trapped with other challengers in a war-style bunker... and where that show she was on is all about performing in front of a large audience, and where it's been a launchpad to some incredible careers and a venue for some amazing & inspiring moments.

Last week, we saw a second representative of a series airing on a competing traditional TV outlet outside of the ViacomCBS walls be the first rookie to bite the dust on The Challenge: Double Agents. But while it's the manner of which he was sent home that had us talking at night's end, the latest person to make the ride from the Peacock at 30 Rock down to this cable TV icon based in Times Square from is one who, a year ago this summer, provided viewers with a great performance that proved that you can inspire anyone to follow their dreams and become an overnight sensation. And that golden moment Joseph Allen went though is the focus of this edition of Before They Were MTV Stars.

DC ExtraTime: Idris in the Ring

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

For fans of the sweet science, 2020 in boxing has largely been devoid of the big-name competitive fights featuring those in their prime that they've come to expect. But in a sport that HBO's Larry Merchant refers to as "the theatre of the unexpected," there have been a couple notable headlines this year from the weird file: the emergence of the Paul brothers - Logan and Jake as legit boxers in addition to being YouTube's most notorious siblings, and the big fight between legends Mike Tyson and Roy Jones.

To salvage whatever was left of this lost year, this pre-Christmas weekend has some weekend for boxing fans: last night saw Kazakhstan's Gennady "GGG" Golovkin score a TKO win over Poland's Kamil Szeremeta to retain his IBF middleweight belt, and his 36th victory by knockout. And tonight, the man who beat him two years ago in a rematch of their disputed drawn first fight, Mexico's Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, will takes to the ring to face Britain's Callum Smith in defense of his two 168 lbs. titles.

Those in Challenge Nation who have been following this franchise over the past two decades know that Darrell Taylor was an amateur boxer prior to going onto Road Rules Campus Crawl and then winning his first Challenges. And another fighter who has made his way from the ring into the fifth major pro sport is one who comes from the current epicenter of the heavyweight division: Idris Virgo was part of last year's War of the Worlds 2 rookie class two years after he was a latecomer on the 2018 season of Love Island UK, and made it to the halfway point in what became a weekly British elimination festival until the very end.

When we profiled Idris in the WOTW2 edition of our Who Are These Newbies? series in fall 2019, some notable tidbits about the man from Birmingham in the West Midlands of England included choosing over eventual Winter Ex On The Beach single Georgia Steel for his first date after arriving midway through the season, winning a challenge while wearing a fireman's outfit, and a Twitter user sharing some of his cringy pick-up lines. But outside of reality TV, Idris is a boxer having begun fighting professionally just months before going the Love Island casa. He won his first three bouts, drew the fourth just before going onto The Challenge, and after our post went to press on fight #5 he beat a journeyman club fighter with 100+ losses, followed by another unanimous decision.

In Britain, the pandemic forced matches in the Premier League and other action across the English football pyramid to being played behind closed doors without fans in the grounds. But like its UFC counterparts, boxing was one of the first sports to pick back up following the sports shutdown, and once he was able to compete again Virgo signed with independent promoter Hennessey Sports - who helped launch the career of world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. And since the promoter has a deal with ViacomCBS sibling Channel 5, it has meant that his bouts are shown free-to-air in all of the UK instead of on pay-per-view or a streaming platform along the lines of DAZN.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Double Agents - "Dive Another Day"

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom... you do need those, after all. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Seasons Greetings friends & welcome to the pre-Christmas weekend -- and for many of you, this is the start of the fortnight-long winter break. And as you conclude your holiday shopping and wrap those gifts under the tree - or if you're just chillin' right now on this Saturday, we bring you into a week Inside MTV Reality that has yet another member of its family expecting... we'll join that lucky mom for her big moment just ahead. But aside from Angelina invading a Jersey Shore vacation and Teen Mom's Kailyn Lowry talking to her ex Jo on her podcast, this week's main event is taking place all the way out in Iceland.

Last week, the competition America needs right now kicked off as The Challenge Double Agents began with plenty to digest, if it was only just a harbinger of things to come. The players went all in for their first challenge of a memory game before being handed the first of what will be many Teej-bombs to come: after that individual challenge, the players got matched off into fifteen teams of two... and we had a split decision: this show's longest-reigning veteran female Aneesa won out for the ladies, and Total Madness finalist in second-season rookie Fessy for the men. And in our first elimination Natalie took out Ashley, but that was anticlimactic compared to a ploy to try and put in them and their champion partners into the Crater, only to find that elimination weeks will alternate by gender.

If any premiere of a new Challenge season (or in this case, the first two if you count the preseason special) sets the tone for what we can expect, than week 2 typically serves as the icebreaker. Well that's the case this week: first comes what goes to Natalie after winning that first skull of whether to stay the course with Wes or pair up with CT. Then, the competitors will find out what they are really playing for the rest of the winter as the full rules and nature of Double Agents are revealed. And it comes before a freezing challenge taking place in the water, which when it is thawed out will find out who is aligned with who in the first mission with all the teams being paired up. And dissent grows among one of the fourteen teams: one of them plots against the other, and that other decides to take aim at a veteran.

After the jump, all the action, reaction and interaction of Week 2 of Double Agents on the DCBLOG Challenge SocialPulse. Thanks for joining us, and welcome on in... get cozy with us, will you?

DC ExtraTime: Asaf + Boy George - Rainbow in the Dark

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

As we count down the final days of this trying year, something that has kept our spirits up in times like this has been the power of music, whether it's the big chart-topping hits that will make up the 2020 soundtrack, or the holiday songs that's playing everywhere right now as inch towards Christmas come next week. It's in that spirit that this weekend, DCBLOG proudly presents this ExtraTime Music Doubleheader featuring two rookies from the two seasons of MTV's The Challenge that have aired this year to give us something to think about for an hour & half other than the panic in this crazy world.

Ask anyone who has done the fifth major pro sport over the years and perhaps there is no feeling that is humbling than being the one who is chosen to go into the season's first elimination -- or in a few cases of late, the opening purge -- and falling short in that first one knowing you really didn't get a chance to prove yourself. It's most especially true when this happens to those who are competing for the first time on the show, knowing that the vets often have the upper hand and want to take care of the newbies first before they after each other when the business gets serious and the number of players thin out.

Season 35 of Total Madness earlier this spring provided us with the latest example of this hard reality: Asaf Goren added The Challenge to a solid reality TV resume that included Are You The One? Season 4 and its Second Chances spinoff, So You Think You Can Dance and Worst Cooks in America here in the U.S., and local versions of Big Brother and Ninja Warrior in his native Israel. But as is always the case, he was put into that first battle to face former Survivor castaway and Ex On The Beach alum Jay Starrett in the first elimination, and so began Mr. Loco's phenomenal rookie season.

Still, Asaf is a true jack of all trades who, as we wrote on here a few years ago, is more than just a global reality star: he's not only a son who loves his family so much, but also a dancer, a model and a musician. It's in the ladder that brings us to another chapter in his broadening CV: as MTV prepares to mark 40 years since "Video Killed The Radio Star" signed on the channel in the new year, earlier this month Asaf got to collaborate with one of pop's biggest icons in the MTV era... and it dates back to before he was even born.

Inside MTV Reality: The Look Ahead - Back to the Sunshine State...

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Right now along with dealing with the different world that we are living in, most of us are now getting used to the frigid temperatures that come with when the calendar turns to the month of December and when winter starts to kick in. But as this site made reference to back at the very beginning of this year, there is one place in the entire continental United States where the word "escape" rings so true.

The state of Florida has been a popular place within those in the community of those who do an MTV Reality show ever since it first went down here to film a series a quarter-century ago when Season 5 of The Real World documented that year's class having difficulty putting together a startup and saw a threesome in the shower we never saw behind those blinds. And along with seeing the first appearance of a seven-time Challenge champ, Florida and MTV Reality have become prominent the past few years.

The reason for this has been not just where the Jersey Shore originals made their grand return for their vacation, but also for the emergence of the younger siblings of two of MTV's legacy series at the start of the last decade who both call this state home. One of them knows what it's like to have a whole lot of fun like their neighbors to the north... the other are those cool kids who are rich and who have drama follow them all over town. And last winter, they warmed our winters in one moving to within an hour's drive of the other when we last heard from them when things were just normal. 

Of course, we are talking about Floribama Shore and Siesta Key... and as we await Season 4 of both of those shows in the new year, there is some news surrounding something that has never happened in Jersey's southern cousins, among other things in a Look Ahead to a return to the Sunshine State.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Double Agents - The Premiere

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom... you do need those, after all. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

This coming week, we commence the Twelve Days of Christmas at the end of, in the vast consensus of most of us, a year that we'd rather put in the trash or put up into the attic never to be heard from again. But as we're in the midst of a never-ending pandemic, an uneasy transition in the presidency, continuing protests and just sheer panic going on right now despite the joy of the holidays, one thing has helped bring this divided America together this second week in December. That would the thrill of seeing some badass competitors from around the world of reality television go for $1 million in what is called The Fifth Major Pro Sport. And it's in that spirit that we at DCBLOG kick off our coverage of the 36th season of MTV's The Challenge, and the spy thriller known as Double Agents.

Earlier this year amidst so much attention from the general public and a media both starving for something fresh and competitive during the unprecedented shutdown of virtually all spectator sports in America & overseas, Total Madness became comfort food for everybody and not just for Challenge Nation. We were offered the perfect respite from the chaos going on outside our windows to see the many things we love about the show: amazing action from a stacked group of veterans and rookies, big-time drama going down among that cast which characterizes the unique brand of reality TV that MTV just loves doing, and the never-ending twists that the show's 15-year host, BMX rider TJ Lavin, just loves to unleash as he has just turned the big 4-O with keys to the city of his Las Vegas hometown.

Now just nearly five months after Johnny Bananas & Jenny West reigned victorious at the summit, it's with winter settling in in the Northern Hemisphere that the page turns to its newest volume, and faces old and new getting together once again. Double Agents will see these players get paired up into two-player teams, and where there will be plenty of twists awaiting them including the one lone ticket to the dash for the cash: a skull for the big bucks. And on Monday night - last night as we documented it on here, there was a special icebreaker in an hour-long preview as the competitors got acquainted with each other and their surroundings, which is fortunately in an actual house and not a bunker.

And for every opening act, there is always the main event: after their first night at the new house in the middle of nowhere, the competitors are en route to the venue of the season's first challenge... and just as it was to begin the post-trilogy era it's a game of memory to decode a combination and to see who will have first dibs at controlling the game... and getting to watch everyone else getting paired up AYTO-style for the teams. And after all the politicking and more of the get-to-know-you phase, then comes our first trip into the winter's elimination chamber known as the Crater -- and it's what happens there with how things play out and how things will function that will set the tone for what Double Agents is about.

After the jump, all the action, reaction and interaction of the first Challenge Wednesday since back during the heat of the summer... all as the cast saw it on Hump Day and specially curated for all of you to enjoy in its uncensored and raw nature - and that includes explicit language and if you're mature enough then read with discretion. Plus after the diary, the man whose pre All-Star plans went viral in the MTV circles last year makes it clear who he's rooting for. Thanks for joining in Challenge Nation, and welcome... it's so good to have you with us.

DC SocialPulse Extra: Prelude to The Challenge Double Agents Premiere

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language and objectionable content. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

We welcome you on back to Challenge Week in the world of MTV Reality and though it feels so far away, only four & a half short months have past since Johnny Bananas claimed his seventh Challenge title and Jenny became the most recent new champion by way of them reaching the summit of Total Madness. But thanks to the benefit of enhanced production guidelines spurred by the pandemic, we are not only lucky to have Season 36 of the fifth major pro sport be filmed, but also be fast-tracked from the beginning of the new year to kicking off our winter stuck at home.

The DCBLOG SocialPulse of the Premiere of The Challenge: Double Agents is coming your way in just a bit. But before we bring you the main event of a jaw-dropping first act from the northern reaches of this planet just beneath the Arctic Circle, we have more of the prelude to Wednesday's premiere. After the jump, the seven days before the first episode in this second pre-premiere diary, which includes Monday's special preview episode introducing us to this season, its players and its rookies. Also, there's the joy of Are You The One? alumni having to relive their season all over again. Enjoy...

DC ExtraTime: Someone You Should Know - That Too Hot to Handle Couple

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Every so often, I take a few days' break from doing all this hard work on blog posts like this and my YouTube vlogs, and drive with my family over for a weekend with my sister, brother-in-law and their kids. There, we get to spend some quality time in the peacefulness of their gorgeous house replete with an amazing backyard, a nearby wine vineyard and a local golf course as this blogger/vlogger unwinds from working my tail off and just relaxing. That is, even if I have to deal with their newest family member - an adorable little puppy.

In many of these visits, I've had the fortune of getting an entire family room to myself to sleep on the couch and enjoy the over 160+ videos I've posted on YouTube of my Vegas adventures. And in one of those this summer with everyone fast asleep, I decided to use my sister's Netflix account to briefly sample the kinds of shows that you all are obsessed with, but those that feel foreign in my own house because my parents mainly watch slot videos, news, sports and The Bachelor franchise, and of course me with being into MTV Reality shows, sports, music and everything related to Las Vegas.

All Pictures Courtesy Netflix

You might remember back earlier this summer we made a mention about this King Kong of streaming platforms making a deeper dive into its own original reality programming even with having just added the first two seasons of Are You The One? and about to add two each seasons of The Challenge and Teen Mom to a couple Survivor seasons to their lineup - and the first one now being a top ten series on the platform. And while we discussed a star of Love Is Blind who is now both engaged and expecting, another one of those Netflix shows is this post's subject, and not long ago he joined with the most visible alum of the same AYTO season that gave us the Real Deal.

Back last spring, Too Hot to Handle premiered on Netflix and unlike Love is Blind and The Circle which were released on a week-by-week basis, the entire first season was made available all at once like most other series on the platform. When the fourteen singles that comprised the show's cast from all over the world moved into a beach-side resort in Mexico, they thought that they would be going onto that standard run-of-the-mill dating show to try and look for love. And on the first night, they were led to believe that this was just gonna be another one of those shows... but after a night of kisses and hookups, they got a mix of both good and bad news.

DC SocialPulse Extra: Road to The Challenge Double Agents

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language and objectionable content. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

We have reached the weekend at last, and welcome to the week Inside MTV Reality, as we at DCBLOG kick off our weekly coverage of The Challenge: Double Agents. It's likely that you have gotten to check out our season preview over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, followed by our traditional introduction to the players competing for the first time on Who Are These Newbies?. And just ahead, our coverage of the first act of Season 36 of the Fifth Major Pro Sport, and once again it is the only game in town when it comes to professional sports that take place at midweek - not counting the Thursday night NFL games like that played last night in Los Angeles.

It's very likely that, as you are checking us out, you were directed to this page by one of my posts on social media, and maybe you have a Twitter app on your phone. And whether you watch this live every Wednesday night or catch up later on, you can only have your jaws drop at all the interaction taking place during these episodes and before and after it airs. That's what those of you who are part of Challenge Nation and of the MTV Reality fandom do as part of your obsession with the most-talked about shows in the reality TV genre, and we at DCBLOG have been your tour guide through all of this interaction surrounding The Challenge and a few other shows since we started covering this world almost eight years ago, and it has now become a vital component to the MTV Reality experience.

Our SocialPulse franchise is both a signature component to our MTV Reality experience, and a public service to all fans - cable subscribers, cord-cutters, avid fans and casual viewers alike. Here, this gives us the chance to present to you the other show taking place concurrent to when the episodes air each week: the social interaction among challengers, fellow MTV & reality alumni and fans as viewed by them in the Twitter sphere, part of the communal experience watching the show as it airs on TV, and the leadup and aftermath too. We have been taking the Pulse of these shows ever since we started weekly coverage during Rivals 2 in 2013 when CT won his first Challenge crown, and we've chronicled every big moment from that show and a few others since then.

   These exclusive running diaries are specially designed, curated & pieced together in its uncensored entirety (yes, it includes explicit language to retain the heat of the moment) to bring the competition, drama, hookups, jaw-dropping moments and more to you here as it took place in its original airings on Wednesday nights as a service to all fans each weekend. Whether you're reliving it all over again on your DVR or on-demand, or if you don't have cable, satellite or streaming & have just caught up, we have you covered... and staying true to that ladder audience, we abstain offering our episode coverage until the weekend. And we'll be here each week to bring you how the cast, alumni and fans see each episode from their POV, and the buzz before and after the 90-minute episodes of this series.

   And along with those, we also offer our take on the traditional weekly episode recaps with opinions & analysis on the WRAP, and through the lens of ExtraTime we spotlight the people and stories of MTV Reality, both on- and off-camera, and in and outside the bubble... all with the outstanding content you come to expect from this site. And if this is your first time visiting us, welcome and get comfortable.

But before we bring you the 'Pulse of Double Agents and this week's premiere which we will be covering on here tomorrow night, we have this to take care of: there's nothing like that day when the buzz officially starts to a new season of The Challenge (or to us, any new season or show that we feel is of interest). In this case, the ramp-up to Wednesday night took place back on November 12th when a teaser video of TJ Lavin flying in on a helicopter was posted on social media, followed the next day by the cast being revealed for the first time. That also happens to coincide with this blogger's birthday of a Friday the 13th no less in this crazy year of 2020.

   After the jump, we begin taking the Pulse of The Challenge: Double Agents with this special pre-diary covering the kickoff of the countdown to its opening act. And welcome to the weekend...

DC ExtraTime: An AYTO Girl Makes "Love Not War" with Jason Derulo

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

As the calendar turned to the month of December over a week ago, it marked not only the start of the run-up to tonight's premiere of The Challenge: Double Agents, but also the start of a depressing time for those who have Netflix. This is the last month that the platform's most streamed show, The Office, will be available for those to binge, as the show's distributor NBC Universal will bring the series to its fledging rival Peacock come January 1st, joining fellow Must See TV hit Friends in leaving the biggest player in the world of streaming video on demand for an in-house startup in the streaming wars.

But on the upside of things, December also saw the start of something magical for those who follow MTV Reality in the first of several shows from the channel's vast library being made available to Netflix. Unlike its rivals in the field (including where Friends went with HBO Max), the vision ViacomCBS has when it comes to making its shows available on streaming is that it doesn't make it exclusive to its own platform -- in this case, it's CBS All Access (soon Paramount+). Case in point: reboots of Singled Out and Punk'd were available on the now-shuttered Quibi service, and Facebook Watch was the home to the most recent season of The Real World in Atlanta.

In this case, two seasons each of The Challenge, Survivor and Teen Mom are being made available on Netflix, while Catfish and Jersey Shore are available on Hulu. And on December 1st as that time of year known as cuffing season began, it also got to welcome the first two seasons of MTV's Are You The One? to its lineup much to the delight of those who have followed the entire series from day 1 - which includes this blogger. By week's end, the show vaulted to the top 10 of Netflix's most-viewed TV shows list, and that has given reason for some of the show's alumni to do something that they didn't get to do when it aired back in 2014: do live sessions on Instagram with fellow castmates just like those from later seasons have been able to do to spill the tea... we'll share you some of those flashbacks from those as we get deeper into this winter.

But this has also brought to light the many accomplishments the many AYTO alumni have achieved since they were on the show, including the handful of those who've made their way to The Challenge including Amber M. of Season 8, Devin & Nelson of the legendary Season 3 cast, and part of the next generation of female challengers Tori and Kam who are among the group of Double Agents. There are so many other things that has happened to their fellow alumni since they left that last matchup, but this time we'd rather save the time and space for that... which leads us to the latest instance of AYTO making a mark on the mainstream.

Who Are These Newbies? - The Challenge: Double Agents

Due to the heavy presence of graphics and video, "Who Are These Newbies?" is best experienced on desktops and advanced mobile devices. Some videos embedded contain adult language & situations, parental guidance is suggested.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

   ESTIMATED READING TIME: 22 Mins. 

Tonight, the message will be made loud and clear in the base of the Icelandic mountains: "Let the Games Begin." As fans of reality TV, sports and television in general are once again trapped at home for the holidays and for the winter to contain the spread, they will once again have some unmissable viewing in MTV's The Challenge: Double Agents, the thirty-sixth season of the fifth major pro sport, TV's oldest reality competition series, and a jewel in the crown of MTV Reality. And in just a few short hours from right now, thirty competitors familiar to both MTV viewers and fresh newcomers from around the world of reality TV and beyond will team up together to once again compete for $1 million.

In a tradition that spans what next year will be nine years on this ride, every time a new season of a few of the shows we cover kicks off we at DCBLOG give ourselves a tall task to go around the internet and social media to answer a burning question on the minds of most of you who visit us: "Who Are These Newbies?" This refers to first-time participants making their rookie debuts on The Challenge, or when big names from around the reality TV world come walking into the Ex On The Beach house. In a world where you prefer the OG's more than anyone else in Challenge Nation, we make sure to give these newcomers the proper welcome and respect they deserve to help you, the readers of this site, know them a bit more in us offering background, insight, perspective and context on who they are. To that end, over 140 people have been profiled on here spanning every new Challenger since Rivals II.

Double Agents marks the second Challenge season under the reunited ViacomCBS corporate umbrella since the merger between MTV's parent company and that of the CBS network completed a year ago this month. As reflective of both entities coming together once again for the second time in two decades, as it was on Total Madness the Season 36 rookie field will include those who come from shows that air across the expanded company's realm of reality favorites encompassing both the Eye and MTV two decades after the reality genre first made waves on free-to-air network television. And as was on War of the Worlds I, there is also representatives from outside the VCBS bubble in reflecting The Challenge's growth into the mainstream the past year, especially in offering fresh competitive content in this time.

As is always the case, we'll have this opportunity to take a deep dive at the newbies with how they were introduced into the reality TV world -- original bios, synopsis's of their season with video included, and any additional info on them that might be of interest to Challenge Nation and the broader reality TV public. But while there are ten rookies making their debut in Double Agents, we will only profile nine of them on here: that one sole exception is Mechie Harris from Devin's Ex On The Beach season. And since we profiled him when Season 3 aired back last year - and to save us time and space, he's exempt from being featured on this Who Are These Newbies installment, and you can check out his bio here.

But after the jump, we begin with the one that a good number of you are familiar with: she was part of television history last year when those who believe in loving anyone on a romantic level got their chance to shine. Get out that name tag and join us...