DC SocialPulse: The Challenge USA - "Declarations of Independence"

*** 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

And so on this last weekend of July, welcome back... and needless to say, this has been the toughest time of my life as my family & I have been dealing both personally and privately with the passing one week ago today of my beloved father, Mariano Cueva. We have received an outpouring of sorrow and support that has helped us get through these past seven days... and on behalf of my family, yours truly would like to say thanks to everybody who has sent us their positive energy our way during this week of mourning. To our extended family and to my social followers, we appreciate all of you for being there for us as you have shared in our grief in this extraordinary and unprecedented time. But as life goes on amidst this sadness, we at DCBLOG are now ready to resume our MTV blog coverage. 

If we thought that The Challenge: USA was gonna be a different kind of spinoff series compared to what we have gotten to enjoy so much with the three All-Stars seasons, then it turns out the CBS show is really holding up its own half of the bargain through the first two weeks of this season. When we left Argentina at the end of Week 2, as is always the case we got a bit of clarity in where things stand in this game... but before that, TJ Lavin unleashed his latest Teej-bomb in revealing the Algorithm: the pairs that compete each week will not be the same from week to week -- at least, not now. The week 2 challenge saw the players tackle both the water and got to put their inner crossword expertise to work, which saw Tyson stamp his position as the early favorite, and saw Tiffany get blindsided as James & Shannon came away with the win in elimination.

As we return to the compound, the knocking out of one-third of The Cookout has left everyone both shook and unsettled... and that has also put into the conversation the question of who is loyal to one another --- and as some of the alliances that came here staying true to one another, others are going by the wayside. One powerful duo will find themselves beginning to open up their suspicions on where this game is headed, while a pair of imperfect challengers will have to tackle one flaw to the randomness of the teams being recoupled: lack of chemistry... all as they try to again utilize their puzzle skills: this time, in a staple of your family dinner time.

After the break, we return to our regularly scheduled programming as we bring you a back-tracked edition of the DCBLOG MTV 'Pulse as we cover Week 3 of The Challenge: USA.... and we're glad you're with us.

DC FORUM: 7/24/22 - A Note from Me...

A Note From The Editor...

A pleasant Sunday to all of you... if you are fine and okay, then good for you. You should be able to enjoy this summer's weekend, whether you're going out to enjoy the sun or just being at home and indoors when either the conditions of either a meteorological or health concern doesn't allow otherwise. But no matter what, we are all here... and be thankful for that.

Let's get the important thing out of the way: the content that DCBLOG had planned to feature this weekend -- including Week 3 of MTV's The Challenge: USA and a blog recap of my 2021 trip to Las Vegas -- will not be posted on here either today or the next few days. Sure, I will be working on those posts on here off-air but, posting it right now would be the farthest thing from my mind considering what has been happening over the past few days... and this site's regularly scheduled programming will return here hopefully next weekend or perhaps later at the appropriate time.

Instead, this will have to do... and it involves something that represents one of those things that always take priority in family, and one of the reasons why there has not been as much busy activity on this site this year as it has been in the previous ten years. And if you can indulge in what I'm about to discuss on here, then make sure to have a box of tissues next to you. This is going to be a tough one.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge USA - "Oh Say Can You See Tiffany"

*** 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

In a few hours, the best in Major League Baseball will take to the field for the 92nd renewal of the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Tomorrow night will mark that annual day on the sports calendar where none of the four major sports are in action... but other than for the ESPY Awards and Day 6 of the first-ever World Track & Field Championships to be held in the United States up in Tracktown -- Eugene, Oregon -- and just as it was during the pandemic-caused sporting shutdown of two years ago, the spotlight will belong to MTV's The Challenge, as the USA edition is underway on CBS.

Once the verdict was delivered on Season 3 of All-Stars back on July 6th following the long holiday weekend, the attention turned to a totally different version of the show as twenty-eight alums of the Eye network's reality programming stepped up to the plate to face TJ Lavin. In a field full of alumni from Big Brother, Survivor, Amazing Race and the CBS run of Love Island, it was a mixture of them that excelled down a rope and a skyscraper in the season's opening daily, including a Sole Survivor used to playing games like this and someone pegged for big success considering his NFL background. And just after we began what might be another one of those seasons on THAT show, it was one-third of The Cookout that took the season's first elimination in a familiar game to Challenge Nation, Knot So Fast.

At night's end, the host duked out his latest Teej-bomb to what is undoubtedly the largest set of fresh meat he's ever had to welcome out of the gate: the pairs who are teamed up each week will not be the same from week to week... and an Algorithm will recouple the players at the end of each night in the arena. And as we return, the Americans will doubt be stung by this latest twist... but they have not much time to ponder that as they face a life-like game of Scrabble combined with everyone's favorite place to wipe out on a place like this: in the water. This week represents an opportunity for a legend of the island to put their stamp on this game two weeks in, while the looming shadow of a summer houseguest might be too much to handle -- including our favorite alternative word for getting backstabbed.

After the break, DCBLOG brings you the 'Pulse of Week 2 of The Challenge: USA... and welcome back.

The Look: The Life We Live - A Return to the Poconos

*** CAUTION: Videos Embedded Below Contain Adult Language and Content Intended for a Mature Audience. Viewer Discretion is Advised. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

As DCBLOG marks its tenth anniversary over the course of the next eighteen months, there's been one thing that we have covered just about as often as any other topic we have featured on here... perhaps, even more than most others. No, it's not anybody we've documented in the dozens of series and seasons we have covered Inside MTV Reality on this page... but something that was inspired by television's most unique reality programming, and which this site has followed every step of its journey since we first came across it back five years ago.

Instagram @Dre.Media

It was during this very same week in July 2017 that Andres Rodriguez from Secaucus, New Jersey got to go and meet the cast of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 when most of them were getting together in New York to launch the pioneering reality series' first $1 million season. Obviously, there was a lot of buzz going into the big season -- and for those of us who got to sit through all of that, we had to swallow a bitter pill at how it all ended. But other than getting to discover both Siesta Key and Floribama Shore along with Cory Wharton becoming a dad, maybe the best thing to come out of the second half of 2017 was the thing now affectionally referred to as Dre.Media.

The reason we were brought to Andres in the first place was that he was the creator, producer, editor, host, occasional competitor and main protagonist of a wide array of original YouTube content, including "live reality games" -- homemade versions of existing reality television shows. Dre has created twelve seasons of The Caucus Challenge, which began when he was a high school junior in this New York suburb best known for its many and countless connections to the sports world, and which has continued to entertain those in the YouTube community. And this site has covered every step of the Caucus journey here since, with a new season just now streaming.

However, there was a time during this tough time in our world that Dre couldn't get to put on a season of his beloved show... and he had to resort to doing something else -- such as, getting some of his friends and their friends together for a weekend excursion. So gave birth to The Life We Live... and for its eighth season, TLWL got to do something it had never done before: venture back to the scene of a crime.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge All-Stars 3 - And Down the Stretch They Come...

*** 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. ***

 SPECIAL EXPANDED EDITION 

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

We are officially into the dog days of summer, and we have past the logical halfway point of this 104-day period from Friday night of the Memorial Day weekend to that Labor Day Monday. But right around Mother's Day a couple months ago, twenty-four competitors whose lineage of their MTV legacies stretch back to the mid-'90s and to as recently as a few years ago took to Panama with something in common: they all had experience competing in the final stage of a season of The Challenge. And we have reached the stretch drive of Season 3 of The Challenge: All-Stars on Paramount+ in Panama.

During all this time, we have had plenty take place: newbies coming in to try & translate their playbook of success from a few years ago into a game full of vets, a surprise entry of one of our favorites strike a nerve among one of the most revered female champs ever, and some epic battles in the elimination arena - not to mention, plenty of drama both on and off the field and, of course, a few Teej-bombs. And if you are one of those who happens to be a regular visitor to DCBLOG and have glanced over at these Pulse journals, then you probably know why a lot of fans like yourselves have gravitated to this version of the show more than the others.

Because of the long task of having to put together the past few weeks' worth of posts to preview and then introduce the casts of the CBS challenge and All-Star Shore, it has a while since we here have been able to say "last time on The Challenge," and last we were here it was back in Episode 7. And there, we had the one time most every season where TJ Lavin transforms from a former BMX rider into a quizmaster: that meant trivia was on order, and it was Veronica and Brad who were the last ones standing. But the juicy moment came there in Week 6: the men's elimination battle pitted The Godfather Mark against three-time champ Jordan, and the former's experience came away with the win.

Now that homestretch run has arrived for the dozen players still in the running... which means that those who are desperate are trying to do whatever they can to secure a spot in the final, while the pressures of this game are getting to a few of them. In another's case, he's looking to someone who -- the last time we saw him on the big show, was not even on good terms going into the Czech Republic bunker... and it's what happens with the last week of the regular season that might fuel the flames of some simmer rivalries -- not to mention a little bit of controversy mixed in. But over the horizon is a private island that awaits those who make it all the way to the end: a few twists, some standards of these last acts of eating and puzzles, and everything else serve as the hurdles to $500,000.

So join us after the break, as we follow Brad, Derrick, Jonna, Kailah, KellyAnne, Mark, Nia, Nehemiah, Veronica and Wes all the way to the finish line on this special expanded edition of the DCBLOG MTV SocialPulse as we follow the stretch run of Season 3 of The Challenge: All-Stars... and thank you all for joining us on this Sunday night.

DC ExtraTime: An Attack on A Challenge "Star"

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

As all of us are getting to enjoy watching The Challenge as a year-round offering once again thanks to various versions of the show that are seen on all three possible forms of television made available to the consumer in this new age: MTV, Paramount+ and CBS, there is reason for us to be into this show just as much as you have for the past two decades. But the idea of a spinoff of the MTV show isn't all new.

While we running concurrently with the beginning of the third decade of seasons of this show, the first series-length spinoff of the fifth major pro sport gave professional athletes, and later stars from the entertainment industry, a chance to compete alongside your favorites. The trilogy of Champs vs. Pros & Stars saw the beginning of sorts of the decade-long feud of Bananas and Wes starting to thin out, while also seeing a memorable showdown between CT and Terrell Owens... and the painful end to the era of the Camilanator. But in addition to see former pros, musicians, movie stars and beyond compete in the name of charity, this spinoff also brought into focus the one part of the sports world that only gets the big time attention from most of us every couple of years.

Several members of Team USA who have competed at the Olympic Games were also part of the Champs vs. Stars trilogy: Lolo Jones, Gus Kenworthy, Olympic champs Shawn Johnson and Lindsay Jacobellis, and the biggest star of the Stars side on a competitive basis & one who competed for her native Britain, Louise Hazel on CVP & CVS II. But this past week, one who competed with these Stars in the second leg of this series made headlines for a different reason: having to battle for her life, quite literally, in the streets of the city she calls home.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge USA - The Season Premiere

*** 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

Good summer's weekend to all of you... and after a few weeks' delay due to the extraneous task of going in-depth on a bunch of new shows and new people in the world of these shows you love, we welcome you into the 2022 summer cycle Inside MTV Reality... and that includes the final act of a star-studded third All-Stars season which we'll have just ahead. But outside of THAT show, if there's one thing that might keeping you abuzz during the space of these couple months then it's a sure bet that it's this: The Challenge: USA on CBS.

Four years ago, the seeds for the eventual reformation of one of the media industry's earliest mega-conglomerates were planted when both The Challenge: Vendettas and the first U.S. season of Ex On The Beach that came on afterwards casted former houseguests from Big Brother onto those MTV shows... and like it or not, CBS' reality staples have had a bigger impact on this current generation of the fifth major pro sport and our summer lovefest than you might imagine at first thought. And ever since, we've had those from Survivor, Love Island and The Amazing Race join in on the fun... and now they have their own Challenge season to call their own.

Twenty-eight alumni from those four CBS shows are stepping into battle this summer for a brand new spinoff of the show you love. The roll call includes a few castaways who endured 39 days in the wild to become sole survivor, those Islanders who find themselves in the same position that those from Are You The One were in going into Battle of the Exes 2 seven years ago, and four houseguests who carry the weight of being the headliners of this year's crop after the historic summer that they had last year. And it all begins with a rude awakening: solving some math while being strapped in the air hundreds of feet above Argentina, all while navigating through the kind of game that they're getting initiated into for the first time -- with a half-million awaiting at summer's end.

After the break - and in serving the public interest of fans just yourselves, DCBLOG brings you all the action, reaction and interaction of the premiere of the season premiere of The Challenge: USA -- all as it unfolded on Twitter before & during that premiere back on July 6th... specially curated for all of you to enjoy in its uncensored and raw nature, and includes adult language. Thanks for joining us... and welcome on in, Challenge Nation.

Who Are These Newbies? - The Challenge USA: Love Island

Due to the heavy presence of graphics and video, "Who Are These Newbies?" is best experienced on desktops and fast-performing mobile devices.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

If you have been with DCBLOG from the very beginning back in 2013, a tradition of ours that's been in our coverage of every season of The Challenge since Rivals II has been "Who Are These Newbies?" -- our obligatory introduction to first-time competitors and other MTV Reality show newcomers since then. This past week saw both the premiere of The Challenge: USA and the season 3 finale of All-Stars... but before we begin our weekly episode coverage here which usually appears on the weekend but pushed back for this reason, there's this fourth & final installment of this Newbies series for the former -- which you are finally finished reading this, you will have gotten to know all of the competitors.

For the past two decades on these shores, one show has been synonymous with the reality dating show genre... make that a whole franchise in what is known to its fans as Bachelor Nation, and where last night its latest chapter kicked off in Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia starting their dual journeys as co-leads on The Bachelorette after Clayton Echard turned them away earlier this year. Since then, just about every network and streamer have put their entries into that dating hat: MTV with Are You The One? and Ex On The Beach, USA Network with Temptation Island and The Courtship, Netflix with Too Hot To Handle and Love is Blind, and this fall CBS will reimagine 70's favorite The Love Boat through a new reality dating series bearing its name.

Outside of the U.S., since the mid-2010's there is simply one show that has become the big thing when it comes to reality love: Love Island first came to British tellies back in 2005 with a celebrity version that had Jack@$$ star Steve-O among its entrants. But it was when it was relaunched a decade later that the Love Island everyone knows it began: every series begins with a group of single Islanders walking into the villa on Day 1, and must be coupled with another fellow contestant for love, money or friendship. Singles can re-couple by swapping partners or choosing someone from the secondary house on the property known as Casa Amor, or risk getting dumped if they decide to remain single... and when the final week comes, the public votes for their favorite and that couple wins a cash prize.

Love Island has become to Britain what Big Brother is to us here in America: the one TV show that dominates the morning-after water-cooler buzz when we are all in need to chill out in the summer sun. It has become the highest-rated TV show in the UK among the specialty digital channels of its public service broadcasters and across all of TV among young adults... not to mention it dominating the trending topics on social media there. And broadcaster ITV and its studios arm have franchised the format out to over twenty countries where, after being disrupted in 2020 by the pandemic, Love Island UK is currently in its eighth series across the pond, with two more seasons planned for next year -- both in its traditional summer spot and this coming winter... and right now it's streaming on Hulu.

The massive success of Love Island ignited a bidding war among the networks for an American version of it, and CBS won that battle in airing three seasons of the show. But next week, Love Island USA will perform its own recoupling of sorts, as a spiritual trade among the two media companies who share joint custody of Johnny Bananas will see the show shift from CBS & linear TV to NBCUniversal's streaming outlet Peacock. Sarah Hyland will translate her love for reality dating shows as Bachelor in Paradise bartender Wells Adams' girlfriend in taking over as host, while U.K. narrator Iain Stirling will join her in Southern California as off-camera co-host once Series 8 concludes matters in its iconic villa in Mallorca, Spain... and just now, the Season 4 cast for Love Island USA is being revealed on its social channels.

Just as it was a year earlier when The Challenge helped usher in Ex On The Beach here, the show got to herald the pending arrival of Love Island in America with two competitors from the same 3rd series of the UK show competing on War of the Worlds in 2019... and both made it to what's called the toughest Challenge final ever. Former sprinter and Team GB Olympic hopeful Theo Campbell hung in there in that tough final in Nambia to finish 2nd, while Georgia Harrison couldn't survive day 1 in the heat. They were followed in by fellow UK alumni Gabby Allen, Idris Virgo and Priscilla Anyabu, and Jeremiah White and Lauren Coogan of our version... not to mention many others on our Ex On The Beach.

Now, a handful of those who also got to enjoy time with the last two in that above list -- along with Ray Gantt, Caro Vie, Emily Salch and Sher on EOTB -- are making the transition from being in the Villa to being in a totally different game: a physical and mental competition rather than just looking for love. And just head, we shine the spotlight on Cashay, Cashel, Cely, Cinco, Javonny, Justine, Shannon and Kyra on the forth & last installment of The Challenge: USA series of "Who Are These Newbies?".

Who Are These Newbies? - The Challenge USA: Survivor

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.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

DCBLOG has long maintained a vision that those who watch these MTV's The Challenge shouldn't meet any rookies for the first time on the premiere itself. To this end, "Who Are These Newbies?" has allowed us to profile each & every first-time competitor on here since we began covering this show back in 2013. As The Challenge: USA is now underway, the most extensive series of rookie primers continues with part 3 of a 4-part series covering the franchise's first-ever foray into network television.

Over two decades ago, the summertime was the part of the television calendar that the three, and now-four, major networks didn't even bother to pay attention to... other than in those years when either the Summer Olympic Games, national political conventions or, most recently, the FIFA Men's or Women's World Cup is taking place. But the year 2000 changed all that when a CBS network mired in last place but having had a change in ownership made a last-ditch gamble to air two reality shows whose formats were imported from Europe, and it helped ignite a turnaround that eventually saw it return to a familiar spot it enjoyed in the first three decades of the medium: #1 in the television ratings.

Survivor debuted on American television screens back in May of 2000, and it instantly clicked with a mainstream viewing public that, until then, had their network schedules filled with comedies, dramas, movies, miniseries, newsmagazines and the occasional special or sports event. From that first season onwards, Survivor became appointment television to so many of us, and the many twists and turns that's been offered in its forty-plus seasons have entertained three generations of viewers. Above all, it was the show that introduced the reality genre to the most coveted aspect of the world's most lucrative television market: American broadcast network television. And nothing is more soothing to fans of this show than getting to spend Wednesday nights with a bunch of castaways, host Jeff Probst and its theme.

Four years ago, the first inkling of thinking about the endless possibilities of Survivor castaways going on The Challenge began when two alumni of the show — Turbo from the Turkish version and Jay from the U.S. iteration — went onto MTV shows airing at the same time. The former won War of the Worlds in 2019 to add to his illustrious resume that's included being on several Survivor seasons, while the ladder who was on Millennials vs. Gen X would make his debut on Total Madness the following year after beginning as an ex on Season 2 of Ex On The Beach USA. Last year, three U.S. Sole Survivors took part in Michele, Natalie and Tommy, along with Jay's counterpart Michaela and Logan of Survivor Spain… but only Turbo and Jay have had considerable success on this totally different game.

Now, this show welcomes eight new competitors trying to follow in what those seven people have gotten to do on the big show, and this time the stage is just theirs. And  ahead, we profile Survivor castaways turned Challenge USA rookies Ben, Danny, Desi, Domenick, Sarah, Shan, Tasha and Tyson on part 3 of "Who Are These Newbies?" of The Challenge's network television debut.

Who Are These Newbies? - The Challenge USA: Big Brother

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.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Staying true to a longstanding tradition of ours, DCBLOG's "Who Are These Newbies?" offers fans & readers our chance to introduce unfamiliar faces you're seeing for the first time on these MTV Reality shows -- over 200 of them have been featured here dating back to our start in 2013. As we count down to what should be a packed Wednesday for reality fans, we continue our most extensive series of rookie primer posts yet with the second part of this four-part deep dive at this summer's rookie field.

For anyone who loves reality television, this Wednesday has been quite the adventure. The day began with the final act of Season 3 of The Challenge: All-Stars on Paramount+ as the deepest field yet of finals veterans played it out for $500,000. If some of you felt lucky, then there's also week 2 of All-Star Shore as the global franchise's first worldwide entry to the streamer is getting started. But it's on what took place on MTV's broadcast network cousin CBS: the premiere of Season 24 of Big Brother, and then the series debut on network television of MTV's The Challenge in a new USA spinoff.

What began twenty-two years ago with humble beginnings has turned into one of the many rites of an American summertime, and THE one thing on everyone's mind within the reality television community once you feel the heat of those dog days of summer outside. Big Brother has been a global phenomenon since it began back in 1999 when Dutch TV producer John de Mol Jr. first conceived the format for his co-owned Veronica network in the Netherlands, and a year later the series debuted in the United Kingdom to enormous buzz and later that summer here to America. It has been franchised to over 60 countries and over 500 seasons of the franchise have aired throughout the world.

We have this show to thank, or to blame, for many reasons: from the fascinating characters who get chosen every summer for this social experiment, to us armchair quarterbacking every move while watching those live feeds and the episodes. And most especially, we have Big Brother to either praise or point the finger for them igniting this crossover of the whole wide world of reality television into The Challenge... but then again you have another reason to hold onto your Paramount+ subscription once All-Stars wraps up for what begins almost immediately after the epic Wednesday that awaits us.

It all began with Natalie & Victor on Vendettas, then Paulie, Da'Vonne and Jozea the next season, Josh and the Nolan Twins on War of the Worlds, Fessy & Kaycee the following year, and Amber and Lolo most recently. And now, Big Brother has a Challenge season to call their own without having to worry about the hate coming their way from MTV fans... we'll introduce you to this season's crop of former houseguests coming into Challenge Nation, just ahead on Part 2 of "Who Are These Newbies?".

Who Are These Newbies? - The Challenge USA: The Amazing Race

Due to the heavy presence of graphics and video, "Who Are These Newbies?" is best experienced on desktops and fast-performing mobile devices.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

DCBLOG has a longstanding tradition of introducing those unfamiliar faces you're getting to see for the first time with what we call, "Who Are These Newbies?" -- our primer on first-time entrants to MTV Reality shows. We have focused on around 200 personalities since this site began in 2013... and in the past week we've introduced to newcomers from the Shore franchise and other reality shows to the just-premiered All-Star Shore on Paramount+. Now, we begin our most extensive series of rookie posts yet, covering our most widely covered show on here as it begins yet another brand new era.

On this Fourth of July Monday, this week is a big one in what this site likes to refer to as "Challenge Nation" -- this thing that revolves around the world of MTV's The Challenge. Come Wednesday, the season finale of Season 3 of All-Stars will be streaming on Paramount+, while later that night comes the debut of the reality franchise's first foray into network television entitled The Challenge: USA, as CBS reality show alumni get to compete in a brand new iteration of the show you love, being made available to anyone with an antenna along with streaming on Paramount+ and the CBS app.

It's hard to fathom what network television would've been like had CBS decided to pass on trying to regain lost viewers by gambling on a genre that, until the year 2000, was the domain of the competition and networks that had a younger median age than someone half the age of Bob Barker. But that summer proved to be the start of CBS' renaissance in no small part due to adding two reality shows that would eventually become the cornerstone of not only their network, but also of an entire company when it and MTV went under the same corporate umbrella not just once, but now twice.

The additions of Big Brother and Survivor -- coupled with regaining NFL rights and the change of ownership of Viacom -- helped to turn around the fortunes of the Eye network. And the year after the debut of those shows -- the ladder becoming America's #1 show and the former being retooled after a disasterous first season, CBS strived to build upon those successes with adding a third reality show to its schedule. They asked CSI boss Jerry Bruckheimer and producers Elise Doganieri and Bertram van Munster to conceive a show that was different in many ways from those two shows above.

The concept was simply this: a dozen teams go on a race around the world to big cities and small nations to decode clues, navigate unfamiliar foreign areas and do all sorts of tasks all while taking any form of transportation they could find to get from one leg to another. The concept became The Amazing Race, which debuted in September 2001, and whose host is one who's used to notching all those frequent flier miles as Phil Keoghan was a "road warrior" on a morning show of an FX channel many years away from American Horror Story, Sons of Anarchy and Nip/Tuck.

It may not have the kind of big number of viewers that once tuned into a Survivor episode in its early years, or the enormous social media buzz that will soon accompany Season 24 of Big Brother when it debuts this week. But even with it being juggled around the CBS schedule all these years, The Amazing Race does have something prestigious: the love of the members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The voting members of the organization that hands out the Primetime Emmy Awards every fall have, ten times, given TAR its Outstanding Reality Competition Series statuette.

For us Challenge fans, we all remember what happened to its first contestant to cross over to our world with Jenn Lee on Total Madness... a mention of UFO's will have to do there. But this time around, three alumni who've also been in that experience of going traveling around the world will try to do much better than her as they take on the big task of playing with America's best. And after the break, "Who Are These Newbies?" introduces the trio coming to The Challenge: USA from The Amazing Race.

Inside MTV Reality: It's an All-American Challenge

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Pic: Laura Barisonzi/Paramount

Today, the United States turns two-hundred forty-six years old since a group of men gathered in a hall in Philadelphia to sign a Declaration of Independence. But as we speak to you on this Monday, July 4th, 2022, this nation stands divided just as it has since we turned the page to the 2020's... you don't really need to be reminded of what has happened in these last thirty months, especially the past month and today just outside in Chicago. But if there's one thing that can unite all of us, it's getting to watch what is called "America's fifth major pro sport," and Wednesday night sees a brand new chapter in the long history of MTV's The Challenge as it boldly goes where it hasn't gone before in this journey.

Four years ago, an unprecedented move both changed things once again for the show, and helped set the stage for two companies which divorced from each other years earlier to get together again in the battle for eyeballs in our new entertainment reality. The choice to bring houseguests not only to The Challenge with Big Brother 18's Natalie and Victor going onto Vendettas and Jozea to Champs vs. Stars, but also their fellow houseguest Paulie going onto the ensuing first season of Ex On The Beach, provided a glimpse into the future for both MTV and what was then Viacom... for which over a year later they merged once again with the show's network, CBS. It's because of that and a few other things that we have Paramount+, and in turn the All-Stars spinoff which this week heads towards its conclusion.

But as soon as the final verdict is rendered in Panama, the focus will shift instantly down to the nation of Argentina, which hosted perhaps the most notable season of The Challenge during the 2010's of the original Rivals season. It's here that the next phase of this show's evolution further into the mainstream will play out as a totally different crop of players will get initiated into this world for the very first time... those who come from the network that made reality television cool when it brought the genre into the world of the big four broadcast networks. And it will be seen on the one platform where everybody who can plug in a television set and an antenna can watch for free, in addition to streaming it on Paramount+ or on their pay provider.

The Challenge: USA will begin just a few days from now just after the 4th of July fireworks smoke has cleared away, as those from Big Brother, Survivor, The Amazing Race and the three CBS seasons of Love Island USA will all gather in South America for a new game unlike any other. And just ahead, DCBLOG offers our very first look at this truly and uniquely All-American Challenge.

Who Are These Newbies? - All-Star Shore: The Brits, the Mexicans & the Brazilians

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.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Right now, summer 2022 in MTV Reality is going into overdrive as not one, but three all new series are debuting within the space of a couple weeks: Buckhead Shore was first to debut over a week ago, while this coming week sees The Challenge come to primetime network TV for the first time when CBS hosts a new spinoff featuring its reality show alumni just as All-Stars 3 is drawing to its end on Paramount+. And on that streamer, All-Star Shore is premiering as an all-new competition show featuring reality TV's finest... and we at DCBLOG now enter half #2 of this edition of "Who Are These Newbies?," as we turn from the ones who we know from watching American reality TV to those outside of our borders.

For this interesting tidbit: the MTV Shore series was a concept originally conceived by 495 Productions founder Sally-Ann Salsano and intended to be a VH1 competition show... but when she saw the cast that she put together was so good that summer of 2009, she decided to keep them all together for a Real World-like docu-series... and the rest is history: the show and its Seaside Heights location are American cultural landmarks. It's also grown into a franchise that has spanned eleven different regional variations including a German/Swiss series that aired last year in Europe in addition to four in Europe, three in the U.S., and two in Latin & South America. And here in the U.S., we'll have the pleasure of enjoying three different Shore shows at midweek this summer, as its Wednesday episode drops mean All-Star Shore will actually serve as the appetizer to Thursday night in both Family Vacation and Buckhead Shore.

After the break, we will turn the focus to those from outside the U.S. in six of those who come from Shore shows that, until now, were relative outsiders to those of us on this side of the Atlantic... so do two others who have gained enough fame outside of the MTV ecosystem to earn their way to the Canaries.