CAUTION: This story contains brief references to an adult entertainment enterprise that is not suitable to a younger readership, though with our utmost respect to sensitivity no imagery related to it is included in this article. Parental Guidance is Suggested.
BY DC CUEVA
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 24 mins.As we just had our first truly "normal" Thanksgiving weekend since 2019, something that's always prevalent whenever we all get together on November's fourth Thursday & its accompanying four-day weekend each fall is the importance of family. It's with that in mind that the story you're about to see bumps off what we'd normally offer on DCBLOG every weekend of covering the weekly episodes of The Challenge, and we'll feature the past couple episodes of Ride or Dies on here next week instead.
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| Twitter/IG @VictoriaLZito |
One of the most memorable moments of my decade following this Challenge beat came ten years ago this month during that first of what's now twenty-one seasons of this show in its many forms that I have watched during the past ten years: a fight between various castmates that had one of my late followers just feeling startled as to how my Twitter commentary on that solidified this newfound love affair. It came a year after one of those many involved in that fracas found himself in the heart of a scandal so big and so scandalicious that it actually put him on the cover of a supermarket tabloid magazine -- a status that was usually reserved for the likes of The Hills, Teen Mom and Jersey Shore.
And during this fall -- well after one of our co-subjects did his last Challenge and while you're busy watching this current season of Ride or Dies, the adage that good things just "run in the family" took on a whole new meaning: his sister was cast in another cable network's newest reality show taking place far away from where that story began in the capital of Sin. But thanks to one of the many themed hotels that sprung along the Las Vegas Strip during the boom decade of the '90s, it was only fitting that Paris would play host to the return to TV land of a fellow sibling. And now you can officially say that the Zito family can now lay claim to having two of their own on national TV... not many can boast that unique status. But to understand this story, it's worth rewinding the clock back a bit to more simpler times.
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Throughout the course of these thirty years' worth of MTV Reality memories, a place that has been a venue to some of its most memorable moments has been the city of Las Vegas: three seasons of the show that started it all have taken place here, plus a bunch of other things too. It also just happens to be the one very city that this blogger loves going to the most to have the time of his life -- just glancing over at the DC YouTube channel and all of the videos this part-time vlogger has posted there is proof of how much I love and adore that town.
As the city that has grown the most of any founded in the 20th Century having first been incorporated in 1905, there have been many allures that brings over 40 million people from around the world and across America to Las Vegas every year. Sure, there's the entertainment, the tourist attractions, the outdoor way of life the desert has to offer, and as of late the city's growing stature in the sports world. Those factors and many others have made Southern Nevada one of America's fastest-growing regions to both to live and to visit... and then there's the city's best-known nickname.
The one allure that brings adults to Vegas has been its intolerance in sin -- and hence its nickname of Sin City. Things that were considered no-no's in the rest of the U.S. were allowed by law -- gambling, adult pleasures and beyond -- have always been par for the course in this part of the country. For years Vegas was the ultimate haven for the mob as their bosses built and owned hotels on the Strip, until the authorities found out about their shady practices and dragged them out of town. But even with all of that, that distinctiveness that made the town famous in this category still remains... even as MTV finally decided two decades ago to bring the voyeuristic circus to town.
When The Real World first came to Las Vegas back in the fall of 2002, it was as if the city was made to let a show once seen as just a normal social experiment of a soap opera combined with a documentary had found the perfect city to let those wild oats out. But when the series returned to Southern Nevada in 2011 for its twenty-fifth anniversary season, a new group of strangers set about following the path that the Season 12 cast set just down the street at the Palms, and also off of the Las Vegas Strip at what's now considered the first incarnation of the Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas -- now bearing the name of $6 billion Brit Richard Branson's Virgin empire.
For Challenge fans, Real World 25 introduced us to one of the show's most beloved players in Leroy Garrett: his career was marked by numerous near-misses and constant disappointment that left him without a title to his credit, but whose status as a good guy who remained cool amidst the heat of any Challenge environment still made him a legend. We also had our first glimpse at Nany Gonzalez in Vegas, too: she first came to us from Buffalo but who first showed how much of an emotional firecracker she is in many ways -- from making out with a girl to crying when a lifelong search to reconnect with her biological dad came up short.
Both Leroy & Nany also happen to have a link to perhaps one of the least-liked Real World castmates ever: Adam Royer flew from Maine just years after spending time in a juvenile detention hall and came to town just ready to party. And in typical Vegas fashion, he not only came ready to party... he actually got wasted quite a bit: Adam got into it with Leroy for his obnoxious behavior, and hooked up with Nany a few times in Vegas... and things got so bad with him, he was kicked out of the Hard Rock and the show at midseason for things that the current Adam (an O.C.-based lawyer now going by his actual first name of Michael) would probably not approve of of how he acted like a 6-year-old in an adult playground.
But when Adam returned back home to New England, he did something that a lot of us in Challenge Nation get to do sometimes on the Internet and now in this social media world. There, he decided to become a sleuth to the world of online spoilers -- and get the opportunity to check out with his curiosity what it was all about. From Vevmo to forums and the like, it's that forbidden world where those who are in the know get to reveal who is being cast on these MTV shows all while filming of those seasons are taking place... something that was unheard of when the show first began airing when he was in school. It was when he was searching about what the cast that he would find out about something so big, it would become a scandal unlike any The Real World had seen before or afterwards.
But as his original MTV bio wrote of him, inside is a family background just about as checkered as any other memorable Real World'er: "Dustin grew up with a bi-polar, drug addicted mom and an abusive step-dad. Although he was constantly shuttled between parents, relatives and various friends’ houses, Dustin worked hard to maintain relationships with his family." In his casting video, he showed his mom and a psychological behavior called "racing" -- rapid thought patterns involving manic behavior, anxiety and bipolar disorder influenced by many things including drugs... something mama Zito was addicted to growing up and spent time in jail.
When he moved into the Hard Rock suite, Dustin wasted little time in getting to know everyone who moved out to Vegas for this silver anniversary Real World: Adam, Leroy, Nany, Naomi Defensor from the Bronx, Michael Ross of Maryland and Heather Marter from just outside Philadelphia. When the blonde bombshell first laid eyes on Dustin, it was love at first sight... something that was first confirmed for the first time when they landed the first hook-up of Season 25 in the club. But when she kissed Mike Mike the following week in that innocent game of Truth or Dare, it brazed the path for a huge riff between him and Dustin that lasted their entire stay, including a big blow-up on vacation when they got into it in the same ME Hotel suite in Cancun that hosted Real World 24 in Mexico.
But on that first night in Vegas when they all moved in together, it was at their first dinner night out in the Hard Rock where Dustin first gave subtle hints at what would become one of the biggest scandals to ever rock an MTV reality show. Another game that serves to break the ice whenever roommates are getting to know each other for the first time is Never Have I Ever, and wherever a player drops all their fingers for committing things that are asked they are ruled out of the game.
Three questions were posed in that late night game when everyone got done having their first munch together: "Did someone have a threesome?," "Did anyone have sex in a hot tub?," and "Did anyone kiss someone of the same sex?" When Adam asked question #3, Dustin dropped his third & last finger... and Leroy was left to wonder, "I don't think that Dustin's gay. But I do feel that that's kind of weird." And he confessed, "I am gonna have a tough time talking about my past."
When Dustin was cast for the show he told casting producers of his experience, "High school was over, and all of the people were going to college, and I was like, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I did this webcam thing. ... It was a job for me, it's strictly a job. What would these guys me think about me being on a webcam naked? To me, it's such a big deal to be judged. I'm scared at this point to open up."
But it wouldn't be until when Adam left Vegas and glanced over at his computer screen back home that he would find out the truth for himself... all while Dustin and Heather were getting closer. When he found out about Vevmo and other forums were buzzing about in regards to what was going on outside of their world, Adam rung up Nany back in the house to first inform her of what was the big buzz of that fall & autumn of 2010 (which was when this season was filmed) and he told her that, "I guess he, like, did porn." She replied back, "If I found out this guy that I've been having sex with for however long was a porn star?" And Naomi confessed to the camera, "Yo this is crazy. I think it's a joke. You know, why would he, out of all people, do that? This is something (Heather) deserves to know."
But Naomi was beaten to the scoop by Heather's mom, who emailed her with the headline "Important, Please Read" on top while Dustin was in the shower. The letter wrote in part, "I didn't know if you would want to talk to me on the phone about some stuff... Dustin is on porn sites going by the name 'Spencer.' I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this. Hopefully, I am not the first to let you know this." And once he toweled up, Heather got to the heart of it all...
Anyone who graduates high school is always faced with a huge dilemma on their minds of what to do next and where to go. Dustin was one of those uncertain with what his future laid next on the radar, but at age 19 he opted to go out west to Los Angeles to take part in Frat Men: part-reality show, part-adult pleasure. He took on the role of a different kind of "Spencer" than the one much more well known in the Hills, and where in two videos he was caught masturbating and engaging in oral sex. Similar scenes also occurred in sister series Frat Pad, where he got in sexual contact and engaged in anal sex with other men in a pay-per-view site ahead of its time and years away from the modern-day craze that is OnlyFans.
A more-detailed deep dive by Reality Blurred editor-in-chief Andy Dehnart on The Daily Beast and that US Weekly bit after the eighth episode of RW Back to Vegas points out the many facets of Dustin's Frat Show experiences -- and where it will help explain things more in-depth than this site will. But for the gist of all this: he was a young adult straight out of college when he made that fateful choice to join Frat Pad... one of five guys chose from across America to live together but swore to not drink or do drugs, but where quickly they got to enjoy plenty of time having fun in a more risque way, shall we say.
Dustin spent almost a year away from home being part of the Frat Pad experience... even going across the Pacific to Australia for a vacation, where he got into the shower with a guy... and we pretty much know where that story went from there. This which caused a bit of uneasiness with his roommates and disgust from Heather. Something also was brought up among fans about Dustin's homophobia both within the house and among those who he met up with online and in Vegas, even as he finally admitted about this experience to the roommates -- one which he gave up a college scholarship for almost a year after he moved out from California.
When the season was filming months prior to it airing on MTV (actually, the cast moved in just after this blogger went to Vegas with his cousins), message boards were quick to point this all out, followed by many internet searches including by Heather's mom and Adam. It was after it premiered in March that Frat Pad's producer, John Marsh, who went all over the internet to purge out whatever he can of any visual evidence he can find of Dustin getting it on, partly because one unidentified castmate was actually underage... though some viewers thought that MTV or Bunim-Murray tried to erase any evidence which could harm Dustin & Heather's relationship but both companies denied that this was the case.
From when he heard about the story in the casting process, Real World co-creator Jon Murray had an interest in Frat-gate because, "...whether it's that particular story, having done one of those voyeuristic websites, or some other mistake someone's made in life, how to move on is a really important story for our audience." And it's an experience that Dustin never regrets at all, something that he is certainly most well-known for than being on several Challenges later on -- and the proof in all that is that he was on the front page of US Weekly just after that eighth episode aired... telling the entertainment tabloid, "I make my own decisions. If I could go back, I probably would have done the same thing."
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Fast forward a decade, and seven years have passed since Dustin's last Challenge on Battle of the Exes 2... and over the summer he got on one knee, popped open an engagement ring, and popped the question -- in the new year, he will become husband to girlfriend named Tova up in New York City. And shortly after that big moment in his life, it became the turn of his sister to take over the reigns of the Zitos on reality television... and on a different spot on the dial than that of her brother.
Links among MTV reality stars to the similar but totally different world of Bravo reality isn't anything totally new. For many years 'till recently, Real World San Diego alum Cameran Eubanks was in an elite collective in her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina: the cast of the first generation of Southern Charm. One who returned to The Challenge this year on Season 3 of All-Stars and then with husband & Ex On The Beach alum Sam Bird on Ride or Dies, Kailah Casillas, spent many Vegas nights hanging out with Vanderpump Rules queen bee Scheana Shay, who last summer tied the knot with Brock Davies in the company of their one-year son Summer. And of course, Real World Philly alum turned daytime talk show host Karamo Brown is part of the second Fab Five on Queer Eye, which is the show's second incarnation after it began on Bravo two decades ago before going to Netflix.
The franchise that vaulted the one-time arts-oriented cable channel into elite status in the reality world is The Real Housewives, which has taken place in eleven American cities since it began as the channel's attempt to replicate the success of Laguna Beach and The Hills with The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2006. The global franchise also includes twenty international installments, over twenty spin-offs including the aforementioned Pump Rules, and all have followed the personal & professional lives of various cliques of rich women in the biggest cities... and eventually those who work with them.
The idea of various shows and movies getting to follow groups of women of various types and all ages from being affluent to beautiful is one that is broad: The Hills, Sex in the City, even The Golden Girls. Another show which has joined that list is the romantic comedy Emily in Paris, which follows the journey across the Atlantic of aspiring marketing exec Emily Cooper (portrayed by Lily Collins) as she goes from living in the Midwest to providing an American perspective to a French marketing firm, and the struggles she has looking for love and the culture shock she encounters living in France. It's almost the same exact scenario that faced Lauren Conrad and then Juliette Porter when they spent time on work assignments on The Hills and Siesta Key, respectively.
When the series was first conceived by 90210 creator Darren Star and ordered for production back in fall 2018, it was slated to be part of a newly-rebranded Spike TV channel renamed Paramount Network as a pre-CBS merger Viacom stated its ambitions on adding FX-style premium-quality content. But when the network that began its life as The Nashville Network got an offer it couldn't refuse from Kevin Costner that turned into Yellowstone, Emily was shifted over to Netflix... and the series made its debut on the streamer in October of two years ago to positive reviews in America but the opposite in France for portraying Parisians and the French negatively. But the show still became popular enough that it has endured the Netflix turmoil to be given a second & third season... the ladder premieres this Christmas.
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| RGIP Pics Courtesy Bravo |
A show that was influenced by both Emily and Housewives is Real Girlfriends in Paris: a group of six young women who are spending time away from family, friends and the familiarity of American accents as expats living abroad having to maneuver the same Parisian streets that CT and company once roamed two decades ago. Here, the series follows the ladies as they find each other and take on the best several months' vacation ever experiencing the world's most beautiful city while living their best lives, chasing their dreams and looking for love in the capital of romance and the next city to host the Olympics.
Among the Real Girlfriends there's actually an Emily in the cast, as New Jersey native Emily Gorelik first fell in love with Paris while attending New York University as she pursues luxury design. Fellow New Yorker Margaux Lignel has gone back and forth across the Atlantic between her various studies, and who just returned to town... as has Cornell grad and beauty school student Adja Torue. Anya Firestone has lived in town the longest to the point where she has immersed herself in the French culture as a hostess to weekly Shabbat dinners. And Kacey Margo from L.A. caught the Parisian bug while on a college semester's break, and who took a temporary teaching gig helping the French learn her English.
Bravo's bio on her added, "Victoria was always encouraged by her mother to stay close to home and stick to what she knows. With a burning passion for fashion, though, Victoria moved to Paris in 2017 with a scholarship to Parsons and is currently the head designer at nascent fashion brand Chloe Colette. Recently divorced, Victoria is ready to start a new chapter and focus on herself and explore all the romantic opportunities Paris has to offer."
That failed romance to her ex-husband while finishing up fashion school in France not only cost her the engagement ring on her finger when she found out that he was unfaithful to her... it also gave her a chance to explore something some else not related to pursuing that fashion career. And it is also some sort of strange coincidence to what happened to her brother over a decade ago: getting to embrace what it's like to engage yourself with someone of the same sex... and be in a relationship with a woman.
Victoria first revealed that she was bisexual in the premiere of Real Girlfriends, but it wasn't until her mom flew over to Paris that she would disclose her sexuality to her... and she also kept her status the secret to other members of the Zito family until the show aired this fall since they were described as conservative. As she prepared for her time to take over the spotlight, Victoria received advice on how to handle both the fame that comes with being on a reality show and her situation being bi from Real Housewives Dallas alum Kary Brittingham and Beverly Hills Lisa Rinna's daughter Amelia Hamlin.
Victoria told Entertainment Tonight, "This season is a very emotional journey for me. When I signed up for this, I decided I am going into this as a complete, open book in regards to my career, to my family, to my friendships and my love life, and I deal with a lot of ups and downs in all four of these categories." And as seen in the clips below, the show got to follow her whole time abroad... from going on dates with both men and women to any rite of passage in this world of guilty pleasures: throwing a wine glass.
And it was after a week after Real Girlfriends premiered over the Labor Day weekend that Victoria had not only her moment to hang out in the WWHL clubhouse... it also represented full circle again for the Zito family. When BOTS II was airing a decade ago at this time, her brother Dustin and one who beat him in that season's final, Zach Nichols, were tending bar... and ten years ago to just around the exact date of that, it was Victoria's turn with her sibling watching in the audience.
She wrote in the IG caption of the pic below, "Had a heartfelt full-circle moment with my older brother @dustinjzito last night 🥹🥹🥹 Exactly 10 years ago, one week after the premiere of his first (of many) reality shows he appeared as a bartender with his castmate on @bravowwhl!! ✨ It was so, so special having him in the audience last night with my soon-to-be sister-in-law @tovatots 💘🫶 We’ve come a long way from our small towns in Louisiana/Texas bubba! 💕 Thanks for always showing up for me and taking me under your big-brother-wing when you never had to & being the DREAM big brother that I always wanted 🥹✨ It’s pretty surreal getting to walk in your footsteps and having someone I can run to for anything. ✨(For newcomers, we’re not related by blood and our parents were married before I was born. We met after I was 15yo & have been inseparable since)✨ I love you forever bubbs 💘💕"
FULL CIRCLE MOMENT LAST NIGHT!!!! 10 years later!!!! @dustinzito 🥹💘🫶 #brothersistermoment @BravoWWHL pic.twitter.com/D9t0VXpz8E
— Victoria Zito (@VictoriaLZito) September 13, 2022
When you think of this reality world and its famous families, then you would probably think first of those like the Kardashians... but no way that a family from Louisiana might possibly make that list. But now thanks to Victoria and Dustin making it onto what is now their fourth different reality television show (Dustin was on VH1's Couples Therapy with Heather while they were together) the Zito family is now the latest family to have two siblings on different shows... and the latest one with MTV ties after one who Dustin competed with on Battle of the Exes 2, Theresa Gonzalez-Jones' brother Michael was chosen to go onto The Real Love Boat on Paramount+ also this autumn.
The Zito family odyssey on national television (not withstanding all that took place in their family beforehand) has seen the southern gentleman take the private trip out west for pure pleasure that turned into a tabloid-making scandal, followed by a checkered stint in The Challenge that saw him sprain his ankle as a rookie and make the final the next season. And then, it was his sister carrying on his legacy in the city of light pursuing her passion in style while also exploring something considered taboo in her family but being brave enough to come out.
And the big brother wrote in the comments below that picture, "Aww Kiddo! I be lovin you!! This was a Full Circle Moment for Me!! But a Huge Leap into Life for You!! I remember the visits to Nola when you would Tell Me….nah Manifest To Me that You we’re Going to Be Here Right Here Where Your At Right NOW!! You Young Lady Deserve All the Praise for you Dedication and Hard Work!!!" Yes, it has gone full circle for the Zitos.
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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 content -- and we've been doing that for the past ten years. ExtraTime gives us the chance to focus in on "The Stories Behind the Story" that go beyond what you see on MTV, and to go deeper into exploring this world through the prism of reality TV's most talked about shows and our tradition of original storytelling... including this one above.
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