Due to the heavy presence of graphics and video, "Who Are These Newbies?" is best experienced on desktops and fast-performing mobile devices. Some videos embedded contain adult language & situations, parental guidance is suggested.
With this blogger now settled back in his writing chair after taking a break to edit YouTube Vegas vlogs and to watch the Winter Olympics, something DCBLOG has in common with the networks that aired the Games is a tradition of ours of getting to know the people who may not be well-known to most viewers, but who are worthy of getting the proper recognition and respect they deserve before they become big. "Who Are These Newbies?" gives us the chance to introduce those who are joining the MTV Reality family for the first time -- whether it's a new Challenge season or in this case, Ex U.S. And it has been a staple of every season of our coverage of both shows and more since this site began in 2013, giving background, insight and visuals to nearly two-hundred personalities, with many more to be added to that list over the course of the coming months with new shows waiting in the wings.
While our take on MTV's global entry into the red-hot romantic reality genre has seen a veteran of at least one show on the channel be present in every season (The Challenge, Real World, Are You The One, even Teen Mom), a show like this is one that brings different fandoms from across the reality landscape together, just as it has been in recent seasons of the fifth major pro sport -- for which UK alums from this show coming onto Vendettas helped set the table for our version. From when it began, Ex U.S. has had alums from Big Brother, Bachelor Nation and other reality franchises converge on a villa for a moment they would rather forget: getting to see their ex invade their vacation to paradise. While it is not fun for those who are in the house, it has made for some compelling television... only part of the MTV franchise which has been customized for dozens of countries -- its most widely seen format.
This year's cast has three familiar faces to the MTV audience: Da'Vonne Rogers made a memorable mark on two Challenges after her first two visits to the Big Brother house, while Mike Mulderrig returns to the channel after being one of the many VIP's to Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club back in 2019... and Derynn Paige is getting a third chance at romance after being on the first two seasons of Jersey Shore's entry to the field, A Double Shot at Love. And if you count other MTV-produced offerings, last spring Kyra Green from Love Island was cast into a special Pepsi-sponsored series for its YouTube channel, Match Me If You Can, also featuring an all-star reality cast similar to this show.
Those four faces aside, the saying that "there's something for everyone" is again ringing true for EOTB USA, as we get to put some leis around the necks of a stellar group of reality alumni who are about to come to grips with a rather rude awakening once they head onto the beach -- from three guys who have been in the ringer of a romantic reality show before (and in one's case, having been well rested from being on another reality show on his original CBS network), to trendsetters in both the world of fashion and dancing. Plus in taking a cue from the first EOTB cast of four years ago, there's also people who have no reality experience being cast for Season 5 -- and one of them has the most intriguing backstory of anyone coming into the villa.
After the break, we begin our deep dive at the newbies of Season 5 of Ex On The Beach, as the "Beach of Doom" finally reopens as we profile the ones who come here single and ready to mingle -- and a couple of their exes.
RAY GANTT
& CARO VIEE
● Love Island & The Amazing Race
One of those who came to the start line of TAR 33 when it all began a long time ago was Ray Gantt, a biology student by day and promoter by weekend from Lakewood, NJ who first made waves on Love Island USA when the global hit came to our shores in summer 2019. According to his bio, Ray is "an adventurous daredevil" who loves to cliff-dive, travel, make music & photos and playing flag football -- but who also had to get 15 stitches when he got hurt on spring break in Miami. Love wise, Ray had went through a lot since his last relationship which made things hard on him, but who's determined to find both his perfect match and best friend -- and whose preference includes being strong, supporting her whatever they want to pursue in life, and having a sense of humor to flash that million dollar grin.
Ray was a latecomer to the Fiji Love Island house three summers back, but that didn't stop him from landing his perfect match, Caro Viee, who was an original who came into the villa when the show made its American debut. The marketing student resides in Los Angeles but who's actually has lived in many more places than that, as her passport has stamps from Brazil, Canada, Germany, South Africa and Sweden, and learned the languages of German and Portuguese along the way. Caro's bio adds that her preference when it comes to her man is one who's funny, friendly, hardworking, intelligent and loving... while she sees herself as "very honest, straight forward, open minded, loving, and fun!"
When they first met after she had two different partners in her first two weeks there, Ray and Caro hit it off on the Island... and they ultimately finished third when America voted who was their favorite couple at summer's end. And their relationship would continue for a bit in the months after their stay in Fiji, but it was a long-distance one due to them being on different coasts. When they went on Amazing Race, the couple didn't know how they would react to the stress that comes with actually being together: their seemingly perfect relationship showed serious flaws during that brief UK trip when problems navigating a Roadblock and driving proved to be their downfall.
In July 2020 after filming of Amazing Race 33 was put on hold by the pandemic, Caro responded to fans questions in confirming that she and Ray had indeed called it quits, and that the case of her breakup was he was not fully committed to making their relationship work long-term as she was. It was for that reason that they did not return to Europe to complete their Amazing Race journey, and instead they will have to settle things instead on the beach.
❤️ 💔 ❤️ 💔
BRYCE HIRSCHBERG
& NICOLE O'BRIEN
● Too Hot To Handle
Prior to stepping foot in that Mexican villa, Bryce had already become a busy man when it comes to his passion of film: the San Diego area native first explored the movies when he directed two films while attending Loyola-Marymount University. Upon getting his diploma, his film debut Counterfeiters saw him write, direct, produce, edit and star in the story of his character who used phony money to help his family, and it became a hit at various film festivals in garnering several awards and even being screened at the biggest one of all: the Cannes gala by the French Rivera.
A then 29-year-old Bryce was chosen for THTH, where with Netflix's global reach he was in a house that had representation from four other countries under one roof. One of them was Nicole O'Brien, a 23-year-old from Cork, Ireland (its 2nd largest city outside Dublin) who now lives in London, and who came to Mexico with a rather amazing gig. In a perfect world, she enjoys getting to travel the globe working on yachts with a client list that includes Kanye, Justin and Jay-Z. By the luck of the draw, Bryce also happens to be one who lives on a yacht and regularly hosts parties on party boats.
So, it was with no surprise that with their love of the sea that Bryce and Nicole clicked... but only AFTER they left the THTH villa. After not having as much interaction during the season, the two revealed that they had made it official on the postseason reunion special, but it was in July 2020 -- three months after the season was made available on Netflix -- that they had broken up, with the long-distance nature of their relationship and being separated by the pandemic being the cause.
❤️ 💔 ❤️ 💔
DAVID BARTA
● Paradise Hotel
When the reality dating genre was starting to heat up in that summer of 2019, that year saw the one-time return of a show that marked an early entry into the subgenre for the matriarch of the Shore series: before Jersey Shore and the original A Shot at Love, Sally-Ann Salsano's 495 Productions created the reality series Paradise Hotel, which mixed love, temptation and money amidst a tropical resort. It's a much-bigger hit overseas -- where it gave us Scandinavia's first Challenger, Bettina Buchanan last year.
And for the second U.S. season of the show that aired on FOX three years ago hosted by Hills queen Kristin Cavallari, David Barta checked in as "Mr. California," for that he was chosen to represent the United States at the Mr. International Pageant. But beneath the good looks and muscles of this medical student is a deep devotion to something bigger: his faith -- a Christian background and his dad being a Baptist minister -- puts a limit on how much he can have fun while making sure to be at those Sunday church services. It was spurred on by an career-ending baseball injury a year earlier that derailed David's hopes of making the major leagues, which helped to deepen his relationship with God.
Inside the Hotel, David became attracted to fellow Southern Californian Kendall, a model who hit it off with him after she got it on with three other guys during a early season session of everyone's favorite game on these dating shows of spin the bottle. The couple quickly became the fan-favorite power couple on the island and had eyes on being the last ones standing at the end... but a vote by the others prevented them from checking out of the hotel with the winners' briefcase in hand. However, their focuses on their respective futures prevented them from pursuing love after the island... but while we will not be seeing that rekindle in this paradise, David has hinted that this EOTB season will be more than just a season of love but also something bigger as well.
❤️ 💔 ❤️ 💔
ARISCE WANZER
● STRUT (Oxygen)
Arisce Wanzer grew up in Woodbridge, VA outside the nation's capital, but saw herself on a different platform than most people there: a modeling runway. When she went to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at age 14, she realized that she wanted to be able to strut up and down the aisle wearing those six-figure designer outfits, and a few years later she moved down to Miami to attend its Art Institute. There was one catch to all this: while roaming through the gay and lesbian clubs she realized that she was not like anyone else: she was trans. She came out to her mom at age 19 with her support, and three years later she moved to New York City to continue furthering her modeling career.
Arisce has walked the runway at the fashion weeks in the Big Apple, South Florida and in L.A., and took part for a few years in a drag troupe while also becoming a trendsetter in the fashion industry where the idea of being trans while modeling was often frowned upon. But she landed spots of modeling in Elle and Vogue magazines as well as the Spiegel catalog -- the first trans model to appear on the cover of that now-defunct modeling line. It was with this burgeoning resume that gave Oxygen reason to follow her career for the mid-2010's series Strut (for which clips of it are below), and where she has also added comedic and acting gigs to her CV.
❤️ 💔 ❤️ 💔
JONATHAN TRONCOSO
● World of Dance
World of Dance is an L.A.-based dance-based entertainment brand that is the largest of its kind with live events, fashion, music and an industry-leading digital network that boasts millions of subscribers to celebrate dance in its many forms from the streets to the clubs. It is also the name of an NBC show executive produced by Jennifer Lopez that aired for four seasons, and was where a relatively-unknown Josh Beauchamp made his global debut as a contestant in 2017 before going onto much greater fame as representative of his native Canada in global teen pop supergroup Now United.
A year after Josh's moment on WOD, it was the turn of Jonathan Troncoso from Orlando to not only dazzle J-Lo and fellow judges Ne-Yo and Derek Hough on Season 3, but also making history in the process. Jonathan was part of a same-gender salsa duo with fellow partner Jorge Valcarcel from Peru, the show's second such pairing, and whose hope was to help spread awareness of same-gender dance teams and to prove that they can be just as impactful and strong as the traditional mixed pairs. Going into the show, they had won consolation medals at two major competitions despite getting paired on short notice via an internet search, and with Jon only taking up dancing while attending college.
Sporting matching fishnet shirts, Jonathan y Jorge showed off their acrobatic choreography in front of the global icon in dancing to her own track "El Anillo," easily winning over J-Lo and the judges as they progressed into the Duels elimination phase, though they were cut. Afterwards Jonathan told Instinct magazine, "The responses to our performances on the show have been amazing. People have been extremely supportive and are constantly telling us how much they loved our show which we truly appreciate!"
❤️ 💔 ❤️ 💔
RANIN KARIM
● Fashion & Jewelry Designer
TV SERIES DEBUT
In the 80's and 90's, a slew of scandals brought down many a televangelist... but in the past several years, a similar soap opera has surrounded an Australian-based network of worship that has become more than just a charismatic Christian megachurch but has also evolved into a corporate brand. Hillsong Church has become world-renowned thanks to the word it preaches and the music that's dominated the Christian music scene. But recent scandals have dented their image: this month, founder and senior pastor Brian Houston resigned after an internal investigation found that he engaged in naughty behavior with two women, several months after a scathing report by 60 Minutes Australia that also revealed more damaging accusations of misconduct by other members of the ministry.
Just last week, lead pastors of Hillsong's affiliates in Atlanta and Dallas also turned in their pink slips for similar reasons... but those are just afterthoughts compared to the scandal that engulfed its first U.S. installation. In 2010, pastor Carl Lentz was named to the post in New York City and developed a cult following of a different kind as his church expanded its American horizons, but some in the clergy believed that the word they were spreading was not exactly all religious. As one put it, it became "a money machine" as an actual place of worship that's supposed to put its community first turned into a mix of that and servicing its clientele of celebrity churchgoers -- including close friend Justin Bieber.
The last straw came in late 2020, when Hillsong's hierarchy found that Lentz had been involved in multiple extramarital affairs during his tenure including one at that moment... and it was more than enough for them to determine that they have had enough. Eventually, the one at the heart of that affair was named in 34-year-old Ranin Karim, a Muslim who immigrated from Palestine a decade earlier and became a fashion & jewelry designer. Though she had a two-year marriage with her ex husband, it's the affair she had with the pastor that cast a shadow over her life... and she opened up about it in an interview below with ABC News.
And in another interview with Vanity Fair, Ranin admitted to knowing what she was getting herself in and had many chances to walk on out, and it was only after his wife found out about it that Lentz was at a point of no return. When asked about what that affair cost the man at the heart of this embarrassment she added, "I think he is a victim of his own church. He gave his life to this church, and that's how they played him."
❤️ 💔 ❤️ 💔
Coming up later in this Ex On The Beach season, Part 2 of Who Are These Newbies? will shine a light on the other notable exes of Season 5, including Kyra's Love Island ex, the first MTV entry for Big Brother's most controversial cast, and two houseguests from a overseas season of the summer guilty pleasure that was cut short by the pandemic. We'll join you here this weekend for coverage of tonight's premiere and plenty of drama down in Siesta Key, among other things.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
All Photos Courtesy: MTV, CBS, FOX, NBCUniversal Cable, Netflix
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