Who Are These Newbies? - The Challenge: Ride or Dies - The Ones Who We Do (& Don't) Know...

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

On this last day of October and on this Halloween night we bring you into this week's MTV coverage... (offered a bit later than planned due to my YouTube work and other things) and just ahead we'll be delving into Week 3 of Season 38 of The Challenge. This is just part of a busy fall season in the reality TV world which also includes the just-premiered new season of Siesta Key which has moved down to Miami, among other things on the packed docket. But first, we offer this tradition that dates back to the beginning of this very site.

A decade ago, DCBLOG launched with a premise to offer something different in MTV show coverage by fan-operated blogs like this and then in the podcast world. One of those is offering a primer to those who are making their debuts on a Challenge or other shows with an all-star cast... thus was born, "Who Are These Newbies?" Our feeling is that, even though you might be tilted more towards those who you have rooted for on this show for a long time, those who are suiting up that uniform for the first time should deserve to have your attention... and we have given each and every single rookie their proper introduction -- background, context and the like -- to this franchise on every Challenge season in its various iterations since we began this site back during the second Rivals in 2013.

This year in Challenge Nation, we have seen part of two seasons of All-Stars and the show's first trip into the world of network television when CBS aired The Challenge: USA. Now that we are back in the MTV sphere for this fall's regular season, Season 38 brings us Ride or Dies... and the theme brings us a slew of newbies that this would easily count as another Fresh Meat season but that is not exactly the case: a few of them got to spend their time on other reality shows including a couple familiar faces to those of us who get to enjoy the whole MTV circuit beyond this Challenge world. And it also has elements of Battle of the Bloodlines and Exes too: there are siblings, significant others and friends... even a couple exes.

After the break, we begin this Rides or Dies edition of Who Are These Challenge Newbies?, starting with the ones who we know from doing these shows: a duo who comes to us from the most controversial season ever of Big Brother, those partners who have the tall task of having to tame more well-known names as their Ride or Dies, and a few others too.

Inside MTV Reality: Siesta Key - On The Move to Miami

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Every few years or so, those of us who worship this world of guilty pleasure television are offered a timely barometer of what MTV Reality's next generation will be like. For Challenge fans, it's the addition of new rookies from around the world taking over for old-guard veterans in taking the fifth major pro sport by the throat. If you live across the pond in the jolly old United Kingdom, then it's fresh new blood joining up with those established stars of their English-accented take on our summer tradition born in Seaside Heights entitled Geordie Shore. And there are a bunch of other shows, stars and the like too many to mention that often gives us a good indication of what the future will bring.

Five years ago, we were first gifted with the sights, the sounds, the surf and the sun of Siesta Key... which was born out of the spirit of the greatest gift Southern California ever gave this part of the TV landscape when Laguna Beach and The Hills helped invent the reality sub-genre of reality soap. This show shares many of the same attributes as their West Coast cousins: blonde ladies being the star figure that shines above all else, the big drama that follows them and their clique everywhere they go, and both the visuals and musical soundtrack that truly makes it different than any non-scripted show... not to mention, the sunbaked locales that is the American sunbelt.

In this third generation of a recipe for success first hatched up by producing duo Mark Ford & Kevin Lopez almost two decades ago, the kids who we first met back in the summer of 2017 are now adults half a decade older, and a few of them have become parents and in the case of two of the OG's -- new wives after saying "I do" to their husbands, including our first-ever SK wedding. Now, the focus shifts to something totally different: for the first time, an entire season will take a cue from their crazy cousins in taking its act on the road outside of its titular city. Say hello to Siesta Key: Miami Moves.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Ride or Dies - "Friend or Faux"

*** 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. Enjoy... ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Right now, we are indulging in the 27th installment of the now-annual Sports Equinox with all four major sports in action and the second of these in a five-day stretch... and you now have exactly one week left to make your choice for what you'll be wearing on the first normal Halloween we've had this decade. But for a moment, let us at DCBLOG give you something else to think about here: Week 2 of this year's MTV season of The Challenge and Ride or Dies from down in soccer-mad Argentina as it counts down to next month's World Cup.

Last week saw us kick off the thirty-eighth season of this show with plenty on the docket: a number of returning champions coming back into action among a field of a dozen or so pairs of friends, siblings, significant others and more starting their journey. There was also a love triangle that formed that included a rookie who's had her fair share of drama in love on her two MTV shows and the one who comes into this pressure cooker after a full warm-up season on All-Star Shore. And there was also some action on the field as well: an opener in the mud that saw Johnny & Ravyn beat everyone else, a surprise replacement coming in before the starting gun, and Devin proving his elimination mastery again.

When he & Tori came up victorious in sending back to Britain Kailah & Sam, at night's end there was one more Teej-bomb that TJ Lavin laid on everyone: a game with a history of many twists and turns -- and one that laid plenty of those even before the first elimination began delivered one more of those. And it's the surprise entrance of this show's winningest player ever & his partner from seven years ago on Exes 2 that has no doubt shook the entire house... and this week that is an alarm to everyone to not dwell on the arrival of Banany as they try to maneuver a balancing act above the water. The lone returning champion male in the field that stood at the starting line last week seems to be picking up where he left off when we last saw him three autumns ago, and it may put him into a place he's never been to before. And as one player opens up about the struggles she's had to put herself in the right frame of mind when it comes to her health, she may find that you really can't forget about the past even in this game.

After the break, DCBLOG brings you the 'Pulse of Week 2 of The Challenge: Ride or Dies, as this week the teams try to answer the question of whether they are siding with their friends or their foes... and we'll also get to the heart of the matter among one team who didn't even suit up to play at all. Welcome back Challenge Nation, and thanks for your spending part of your Sunday Funday Inside MTV Reality...

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Ride or Dies - The 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. Enjoy... ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

We're past October's halfway point, and we hope you've chosen your Halloween costume & stocking up on that candy to give out in a dozen days. We're also having a full diet of sporting pleasures which, tomorrow night, will have the bars being full for the first of possibly three sports equinoxes in five days with the ALCS, Thursday Night Football, NBA Opening Week, NHL action and the MLS Cup Playoffs. But to get you in the mood for that busy early start to the weekend, we have this to throw at you: the opening act of Season 38 of MTV's The Challenge, and Ride or Dies kicking off.

As we noted in our season preview, this is a totally new game with familiar characters and a handful of fresh faces, and hopefully a fresh start after what we have to put up with on the televised versions of this show the past few years... and also with overtones of past seasons sprinkled in. We have plenty of worthy players from around the world, including fifteen players with finals experience and twenty-one titles between those dozen-plus of the entire field (including those who won't be present at the starting line when we begin this)... and they're all partnered up with their ride or dies -- friends, lovers, family.

They have all in Argentina with their eye on the $1 million that awaits in a few months from now in '23. And as it all begins, these pairs are all hopeful that their bonds will endure as well as outlast the rest of the field... but before all that goes down there is, of all things, a romantic rendezvous that creates one of our favorite scenarios in the wide world of reality TV: a love triangle. There's also the return of a popular winner who is picking up where they left off in trying to make a huge impression in their cockiness. And there are plenty of -- what we here like at this site refer to alternatively as -- a Teej-bomb: and it all begins even before host TJ Lavin sounds the airhorn to start the opening daily challenge and after we find out who will have the unenviable role of having that first flight out of South America.

So, grab that Under Armour jersey, that empty glass for that sparkling bubbly and join us here after the break as DCBLOG proudly presents the SocialPulse of the first Challenge Wednesday of this fall and all the the action, reaction and interaction of the premiere of Ride or Dies. And all of what you see below is how the cast saw it on October 19th and specially curated for all of you to enjoy in its uncensored and raw nature - that includes explicit language if you're mature enough to proceed with discretion. Thanks for joining in Challenge Nation, and welcome back... we're so glad to have you with us again.

DC ExtraTime: A Challenger's Brother Takes to The Real Love Boat

CAUTION: This Post Contains Spoilers for Some Readers

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

If you're new to DCBLOG, a vision of going Inside MTV Reality here is that we more than just cover the weekly episodes of the shows you love... we also put a great deal of our efforts into in-depth storytelling -- and we've been doing that for the last ten years. ExtraTime gives us the chance to focus in on "The Stories Behind the Story" that go beyond what you see on TV, and to go deeper into exploring this world through the prism of reality TV's most talked about shows. It's no different for fall 2022's first story, but this is also the first of two bits involving not the stars of these shows, but actually their fellow siblings.

All Photos Courtesy Paramount Global

This past week saw the kickoff to a brand-new season of The Challenge with a totally new format but one that might be familiar in some ways... and the cast makeup might make it enough to make it a Fresh Meat season, although it's not exactly the case. Ride or Dies is bringing together friends, exes, siblings, significant others and familiar Challenge faces under one roof in Argentina for the passion and glory of $1 million at the very end. And though the format is fresh, it does have some traits of past formats that are sprinkled into this year's MTV Challenge show: Rivals, Exes and Battle of the Bloodlines.

There's only one pair in this fall's Challenge field who are blood-related: defending champion Kaycee & her brother Kenny... but in a way they aren't the only siblings to occupy hump day in the Paramount Global reality community. The week before Wednesday's premiere saw another bloodline with a link to Challenge Nation take to national television... but it came in a totally different environment in this world of reality competition shows than what his sister got to endure seven times in her career on the big show. For the root of this story, we have to rewind the tape all the way back to before the both of them were even born to some simpler times in TV land.

DC SocialPulse Extra: The Challenge Ride or Dies - Prelude to the 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. Enjoy. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Hello again everyone, we are at just about the halfway point of this month of October, which means we are a couple weeks from Halloween... and in my world, a month away from my birthday amidst the usual array of holidays in this last quarter of the calendar year. And after some time away from doing these posts all the time for much-needed family time after what has happened to us over the summer, we at DCBLOG are ready to get back into committing full-time to covering this ultimate feeling of escapism of covering the world Inside MTV Reality.

For the past decade, DCBLOG has proudly brought you what we think is the most unique and insightful blog coverage anywhere of TV's most-talked about reality programming... and when it comes to focusing in on the episodes themselves on here, we actually do things a bit differently. We'd like to both see and think of ourselves as the high-end supplement to the various array of podcasts, blogs, fantasy leagues and everything else in Challenge Nation... and one key aspect of the unique and differential nature of this fan site is something you're seeing right now: SocialPulse.

   Social media is a must-have nowadays when it comes to this show, and we assume that you were directed to us by one of my posts on social media by way of your phone apps. And whether you watch this live every Wednesday night or later on, you can only have your jaws drop at all the interaction taking place on your feed during the episodes and in between them... and that is where DCBLOG steps in to help sort it all out and provide you with this all of this interaction from Challenge Nation every step of the way since we started this site back in 2013 during Rivals II. Yes, that's every season of the show in its many forms for the past decade, where we have covered everything from CT's first title to the two times when Bananas and Ashley took all the money from their partners, and to the recent CBS final.

   We offer the 'Pulse as a public service to Challenge Nation -- cable subscribers, cord-cutters, avid fans and casual viewers alike -- in showing the other show that goes on concurrent to when the episodes air each week: the social interaction between challengers, fellow MTV & reality alumni and fans as viewed by them in the Twitter sphere. And these diaries are specially designed, curated & pieced together in its uncensored entirety (yes, explicit language included) 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. But in in making it fair on everyone who watches these shows get a chance to catch up on it all, we abstain from covering the episodes until we get to the biggest time of the week: the weekend. And once it's Friday, Saturday or Sunday we'll have it all covered, along with traditional recaps when necessary and stories from all around this wide world through the prism of ExtraTime.

Straight ahead here, we'll be delving into the first act of Season 38 of the fifth major pro sport, as Ride or Dies takes off down in Argentina. But before we bring you all of that, we got this to take care of: there's nothing like the countdown to a new Challenge season... and in this case, the ramp-up to Wednesday night took place back on September when the cast of this season was revealed during The Challenge USA... and there was also the matter of something special as well: a look back.

   After the break, we begin taking the Pulse of The Challenge: Ride or Dies with this special pre-diary covering the kickoff of the countdown to its opening act, which includes a special three-week look back at the 25-year evolution of the show through a special 30 for 30-style documentary miniseries, Untold Stories... and there's also the matter of letting you in on some tea involving a friend of a past competitor. Welcome back Challenge Nation, and welcome to our weekly coverage of Ride or Dies.

Inside MTV Reality: Welcome to The Challenge - Ride or Dies

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

We have now officially turned the page to the month of October... and unless if you live in California, Vegas or Florida despite that recent hurricane, then it's probably a sure bet that you are feeling the fall chill on this long weekend. It is also the start of the perfect storm for those who love competition: the annual rite of autumn of baseball's postseason is now underway, and we are well into football season at the high school, collegiate and pro levels. Soon, new seasons will begin in both the NBA and NHL... and it should include at least one holding of the now annual "Sports Equinox." And next month comes a later than usual holding of soccer's biggest event: a FIFA World Cup at the outset of the holiday season will begin over in Qatar, outside of its traditional spot in the summer as Team USA returns to the show.

Meanwhile, there is something else going on in the competition sphere this fall: 2022 in The Challenge has seen us enjoy more or less of what we love -- and don't love -- about the fifth major pro sport. We had the tail end of Season 2 of the All-Stars to begin this year, followed a few months later by the third leg of that Paramount+ trilogy which ended the same way in one way: one who started her reality TV journey as a teenager on a Discovery reality show and after a few Challenges finally stood atop the victory podium in Jonna, joined by MJ on Season 2 and Wes on Season 3. And of course, we got to witness The Challenge's network TV debut this summer with a CBS version of the show that was fresh in many ways, but which ended in controversial fashion with a much-talked-about final with Sole Survivor Sarah winning, but the blow being softened a bit by the feel-good story of Danny & Kiki.

Now we are anxiously awaiting the next act of this Challenge journey, and it will take us back to where it is all based in: the cable sphere and the MTV world. Season 38 of this show will see the game change up quite a bit once again, as the focus turns back to both familiar characters and a handful of fresh faces... all playing a totally different game but one that takes a few cues from past seasons. Embedded in this group are plenty of worthy reality competitors from both here at home and abroad who have their eye set on the $1 million, and where cutthroat challenges, brutal eliminations and the like which await them as well as the environment of a show like no other. But all our competitors have something in common: some are family, some are friends, some are lovers, and some are more than those or belong in another category... and the strength of their bonds will be tested in the same Argentinian backdrop that Tyson, Alyssa and co. occupied over the summertime.

Join us here after the break as, with just five days to go until it premieres, DCBLOG kicks off our coverage of Season 38 of MTV's The Challenge, as it's time for the action and drama to go off on Ride or Dies. Thanks for joining us, Challenge Nation... and we are so glad that you're with us.

The Look: MTV's Love at First Lie

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

This weekend, we officially enter the last quarter of this year... it's hard to believe that we are into the last three months, or about 100 days, of 2022. The fall television schedule is now officially underway, which means the assortment of new and returning shows on the broadcast networks are in full swing... same goes in both the cable and streaming worlds, too. And in over a week from now, we'll be kicking off a newest season of MTV's The Challenge, as following the chaos of what took place on the finale of its CBS network debut and the third All-Stars extravaganza that came before that, we flicker anew on the MTV front when Ride or Dies will premiere.

Something that we have always stressed on here is that we are not one that will put our full focus on covering just one show or a single franchise. The beauty of this blogger being a fan of the MTV Reality experience for over two decades (even before launching this DCBLOG site) is that I have always embraced watching a whole slew of shows -- both those that are on the schedule and have aired for years, and those that have had a short shelf life. To this end, just about every MTV show you can think of over the years has been featured in our blog coverage in some way or shape over the past ten years... and outside of The Challenge and Real World one genre seems to stick out the most.

The romantic reality genre has become the hot ticket in the non-scripted sphere over the past few years as a genre that's long been the domain of Bachelor Nation has gotten more diverse to the point that it's on practically every network and streamer nowadays. On this site on the MTV front, we have covered the entire run of its two entries into this modern-day field of shows that match up lovers in the comfort of our couches in both Are You The One? and Ex On The Beach. Those two shows alone have brought us memorable moments and castmates, from the romance of Bad Girl Angela & Challenger Nelson to many trips to the Boom Boom Room... and also introducing us to the musical talent that is Tai Verdes.

Now, there's a new entry into Love, MTV Style... and it's something that, if you live across the pond, then you have seen what it's like to see a different kind of reality dating show that is very much different than seeing getting to see love being made in the Truth Booth or in the Shack of Secrets. This time, there is an element of another MTV hit poured into this new show: it's trying to figure out who are actually those who are in love, and those who are just playing it up for the camera. It's Love at First Lie.