DC SocialPulse: The Challenge All-Stars 2 - "(You Drive Me) Crazy"

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. 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 back here on this Sunday, January 30th, which means we get to join Challenge Nation in saying Happy Birthday to Challenge legend Abram Boise on his 39th birthday. That manic who calls Montana home was born on the same day as a Super Bowl taking place back in 1983 when Washington defeated Miami in Los Angeles, and we've just witnessed the two combatants for this year's Lombardi Trophy being decided in the Rams and the Bengals -- also taking place in SoCal... and now we bring this night to an end with the 'Pulse of Week 8 of The Challenge: All-Stars 2.

Back on Friday on here, we resumed covering the Paramount+ spinoff with the game getting serious and key men on two alliances realizing that money is a bigger thing, as Nehemiah's Palace alliance and Brad's group are on opposite ends. They and the rest of the players took to the skies for a Mad Max mission that saw them tackle the same kind of challenge that we've been seeing on the main show itself. But a zoom conversation that she had back home with her fiancé in Texas revealed that life can be bigger - and Casey's prognosis of being pregnant forced her and Cohutta to head home.

Whenever the amount of players are getting down to just a handful in the house, then we know this is gonna get more testy... and the one sign that the final is nearing is when TJ Lavin gives the players a test worthy enough to determine who really is in it. As we return to Cancun, the Stars are embarking on a mini-final that will see the teams -- now paired up with one another for the rest of the season -- put their partnerships to the test... and whoever comes away with being power team will be in a strong position to perhaps pull off a power move. And if you thought you've seen everything on All-Stars, then a familiar scenario of an odd plate of food could prove to be fatal to one team's chances.

After the break, we bring this weekend to an end with the 'Pulse of Episode 8 of All-Stars 2, and we'll also delve into future plans for this coming month from yours truly. Thanks for joining us...

DC ExtraTime: Someone You Should Know - The Bad Boys of TikTok

*** NOTE: Due of the subjective nature of the subjects of this story -- and as part of an effort to promote a negativity-free zone across all of my social channels, DCBLOG has disabled the comments section at the bottom of this article. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Estimated Reading Time: 16 Mins.

Over the part of the ten years this DCBLOG site has been running, this ExtraTime series has afforded us the chance to introduce everyone to some amazing people who the stars of the MTV reality shows we cover here get to mingle with around this world of ours. And a frequent subject of this series has been of social media stars and influencers, including a pair of brothers who have been in the news quite a bit.

On several occasions on here we have focused our lens on the Paul brothers, who take on the status of being without any question the biggest and most scrutinized pair of siblings in all of YouTube. Logan got to take on Floyd Mayweather in the ring last year, and who recently admitted to having been forged out of $3.5 million for a shoebox which he thought were full of valuable Pokémon cards -- only to find that it was not the case. Not long ago, the older Paul brother was aboard the same L.A.-bound plane from London as the only one of The Challenge's British Invasion to take the crown back to the Isles when he shared that long flight to California with one-time exotic dancer Rogan O'Connor.

The younger half of this dynamic duo is Jake Paul, who a few years ago found himself on an MTV show -- but one that didn't air on the linear channel itself. In 2019, he had his big and much-publicized wedding night that crowned his now-infamous showmance with Tana Mongeau chronicled for the first generation of MTV's No Filter series on its YouTube channel. A year prior, Jake invited MTV king Cory Wharton's girlfriend -- Are You The One and Ex On The Beach alum Taylor Selfridge -- to play a viral YouTube challenge to be the last one standing in a frozen pool for $10,000, and she won. And shortly after, Jake scored his perfect match in another alum of an MTV reality dating show: Julia Rose of Season 4 during her battle for social media freedom from the World Series to the Hollywood sign.

Last month, the world of fight sports once again focused their eyes on the Paul brothers as the younger half took to the boxing ring for his latest battle as Julia watched from ringside. But as it turned out, the focus on that last December 18th night in Florida were on another pair of social media stars who found themselves center stage, and who are our focus of this latest installment of Someone You Should Know: The Bad Boys of TikTok.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge All-Stars 2 - "Save The Palace"

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. 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

Welcome back everyone... as this blogger has been concentrating his efforts on crafting my Vegas vlogs in the past month, it has been a long time since we have covered MTV's The Challenge All-Stars Season 2 on here. We do want to apologize to those who've been expecting blog coverage of it here, but the time I've put into videos and other things have diverted those plans... but the good news, we plan on wrapping up our Challenge cycle here this weekend.

Last we left covering the Paramount+ spinoff on here -- which was back on Christmas Eve Eve before a bout with pinkeye took me out of commission for a bit, the second half of All-Stars kicked off with the one sign that things are getting serious: TJ Lavin deciding to throw a twist at the players to start the season's second half. A scary challenge that combined heights and sea became too tough for the most beloved of the All-Stars on its two seasons to handle when Kendal got injured... and it led to just a men-only arena elimination that saw Latterian take down Tyler.

Now as we finally get to rejoin things in Mexico, the game is about to get into the heads of the remaining Stars here, and that includes two friends who got to share a moment comparing their hair but who now find themselves on opposite alliances that has divided the house. To think that this game is just another spinoff with the daily challenges being truncated a bit is not the case as the Stars tackle an adrenaline-pumping mission that will see them harness their own Mad Max. But if what we saw to begin this season in what happened with Ayanna helping out Leah after winning that first arena was something, then get that tissue box ready for a secret that proves that things are bigger than this show.

After the break, DCBLOG resumes our coverage of The Challenge: All-Stars with the Pulse of Week 7 of Season 2 that takes place on Christmas... and there's something else here too. Welcome on back...

DC SocialPulse - The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies - The Reunion

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. 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

Instagram @KCSince1987

We at DCBLOG are in the last stretch of covering a year in the world of The MTV Challenge that started with an episode of Season 36 that gave us relief on a most surreal Wednesday. And here we are more than a full year later as we now get to wrap up covering 2021 in this world where, in between, we've seen two full regular seasons and two full spinoff seasons. The ladder of those will be the focus of the rest of this wave of posts, and we'll be covering all of that here a bit later on here.

For the first of this last wave of posts covering the fifth major pro sport, it was back in August that Season 37 of Spies, Lies & Allies began. Without getting to elaborate on all transpired between then and the holidays, it was quite a mish-mash. But the last time we talked to you on Challenge matters was on Christmas: that was when we covered the finale. The eight who made it to the end -- CT, Devin, Emy, Kaycee, Kyle, Nany, Nelson and Tori -- earned their way into the season's last act, and they were split into two teams for the first half of the two-day final before being paired up one more time as they were tested in every aspect of this game... but it was what happened at the start of day 2 that brought out the feels: the lovers were split up during a heartbreaking double elimination. In the end, it was Kaycee who won that battle and proved that you don't have to make a lot of noise and still be victorious: she won that final in the company of CT, who now becomes a five-time champion.

All that is left to do is for the champions, the runners-up and other members of this cast to join up one more time, both in-person and virtually, for the season-ending reunion. One who is a veteran of all of these discussions, Maria Menounos, is serving as our moderator once again as she will help to debrief everything that went down in Croatia -- from Nany & Kaycee's relationship to the game and everything else. And after the break, we bring you -- in an embedded style -- our final DCBLOG Challenge SocialPulse of Season 37: the reunion, along with the big news involving a reigning queen & king who are about to become parents. And welcome to the weekend... and welcome back Inside MTV Reality.

Inside MTV Reality: The Look Ahead - The Biggest MTV Crossover Event Ever

CAUTION: This Post Contains Potential Spoilers, Please Read with Caution Below. But No Worries, It's Only Small & Minor Ones with Just Cast Info. To Prevent Trolls from Spoiling Things Below, Comments In This Post Have Been Turned Off.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

As we're a few weeks into this new year, 2022 will mark two anniversaries when it comes to both this very site and the principal beat of this page. For the ladder - and after it turned 40 years old last summer, MTV is marking the thirtieth anniversary of when it invented the form of reality television as it is widely recognized when The Real World premiered for the first time in New York. For DCBLOG, this spring will see us enter our tenth year of going Inside MTV Reality on here, and we take a great deal of pride in what we've done to provide a different view of the most-talked about shows in this genre and covering this world as no one else does.

Last week, Season 2 of The Challenge: All-Stars crowned its winner and we'll be covering that and the season's homestretch ahead here... but those of us who cover the fifth major pro sport can finally take a breather after watching and covering that show for most of the past year -- and where it began as the only "pro sport" that was airing on TV when Double Agents began 13 months ago. But at the same time, a site like ours that covers the whole wide world of the MTV beat will shift its focus to other things that will keep us busy in this offseason until then. And that includes getting to feature The Real World with DCBLOG offering a series of posts on the Homecoming reunions on Paramount+ and its most recent chapter in Atlanta that streamed three years ago on Facebook.

When we began our MTV coverage in the summer of 2013, there were only two shows that we featured in that first cycle in those two aforementioned shows, when CT won the first of his four titles on the former and when a 3-time champion made his MTV debut on the ladder. But channeling a longstanding interest I've had in MTV matters over the years, the DCBLOG beat has expanded several-fold over the past decade to allow me to feature, in one way or another, many of the channel's reality offerings. Challenge or not, this year should offer plenty to look forward to. That includes a special Teen Mom spinoff as the one who represents the MTV Reality community in that sorority, Are You The One alum and Challenge finalist Cheyenne Floyd, joins her fellow moms on a winter vacation down in paradise.

At some point this year, we will head back to paradise of a different kind as one of the new shows that we've covered from the start reopens for business when the American iteration of Ex On The Beach returns for its fifth season on our shores. That show is, like Challenge seasons of late, has become a gathering of reality TV's finest... but there is one coming attraction that might be just as anticipated in 2022 as any big summer blockbuster movie. And in this installment of "The Look Ahead," we will take a look ahead at what might be the biggest MTV crossover event ever.

DC SocialPulse: Floribama Shore - The Season 4 Fall Finale

*** Advisory: #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. 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

Well, welcome on into 2022 and if we haven't spoken to each other as of yet, a belated -- but better late than never -- Happy New Year to you. And after a couple week's break from this hobby due to a case of the pinkeye and focusing on the new DC Vegas vlogs, Mr. DC is back on here on DCBLOG to bring you the last few episodes of this fall 2021-22 cycle that began back in August... but in some ways it began all the way at this time last year -- February to be exact. That was when Season 4 of Floribama Shore began -- eleven months ago if you can believe that, and the world as it is forced the show to flee from where the first three visits with our favorite Southerners took place in Florida.

The first set of episodes took place west of the Mississippi River with the Bam spending some time in the snow up in Montana before flying down south to more comfortable weather in Arizona. That trip to the desert ended abruptly when members of the behind-the-scenes production crew returned positive tests, forcing the cast to quarantine in the hotel and filming ended... but the gang didn't want to end their trip to end on that note, and this fall they got back together: this time back down in the Southeast in Athens, Georgia just east of Atlanta -- now the home of not only the World Series champion but also as of last night the National Champions in college football as well.

When we were last with the Bam on here -- and that is actually a month ago tomorrow hard to think, the Bam got to celebrate one of those times that we are, in fact, getting up there in age: the impending arrival of a new mini-me. The families of a few of the housemates came to Georgia to fete the mommy-elect, Nilsa, with a baby shower... and no one has seen a baby shower quite like what this group does in it being an alcohol-free one -- but thanks to a speakeasy in the house that was not exactly the case. But as we finally rejoin them one more time, the endless summer of sorts that this bunch has gotten to enjoy over the past year is about to come to an end, and that means a nighttime dinner on the town, a final farewell to their animal neighbors and one more request from the newlywed... as well as a foot lick.

After the break, DCBLOG brings you the 'Pulse of the Season 4 finale of Floribama Shore... and again a Happy New Year to you..

DC ExtraTime: More Pranks with That Florida Man & His Florida Friends

 FOLLOW-UP  Someone You Should Know:

YouTube Prankster RossCreations (May '21)

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BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

This past weekend, all of us got to put 2021 in the same category as 2020 and the thousands of other years that came before it: giving it a proper send-off on the year's last day and a night of partying that lasted last well into the first hours of New Year's Day (and in the case of this year, the long New Year's weekend). The year's final seven days gave every journalistic organization a chance to look back on the year's biggest news and some of their most memorable stories of the last twelve months... and while we aren't a big operation by any means we at DCBLOG still have our own collection of outstanding work from the 365 days that just past. But one that seems to stand out in many ways has to do with something that brings together a reality soap opera with comedy and stranger things that will want you to forget for a moment how bad the past twenty-four months have been in this world.

By way of the hundreds of those who've entertained you on a cable channel that's been around since your parents were your age, the ExtraTime series has afforded us many opportunities to introduce you to some incredible people in the ten years of our coverage of the world Inside MTV Reality television. We have featured other reality stars from outside the channel, musicians, athletes and beyond whenever they meet the personalities of the most-talked about reality shows there are... but our most profiled people on here outside our primary beat over the years have been social media influencers and personalities from YouTube, TikTok, SnapChat and Instagram who dominate the timelines on their respective apps, and whose videos on those platforms are just about everywhere you go.

And while we have featured that guy from Ohio who's burst onto the scene through his much-hyped boxing fights and him bringing two girls from the same MTV show to his pool and into his heart, there is another YouTuber who has made his mark in the world of viral videos without all of the hype that surrounds Jake Paul or his older brother Logan. And provided that things have not spiraled out of control where you live -- and as many of us report back to work and to school on this Monday after the 2-week long winter break for Christmas and New Year's, the man known as RossCreations and his troupe of pranksters have given us reason to look forward to the start of the week, including this first weekday.