We have the unique distinction of having covered the entire MTV journeys of those four people above from the very beginning: they all began as those looking for love on Are You The One? -- and where three of those four above also went onto Ex On The Beach. We have seen through the entire journey of MTV's first foray into the current romantic reality craze both here at home and abroad, and when we get settled in the new year we'll be dusting off that matchup chart as the first season of AYTO since 2019 heads to Paramount+. And Season 9 will see new pairs of lovers try to find love inside the Truth Booth, and with a familiar face in Catfish's Kamie Crawford taking over as host when it debuts on January 18th.
Back on Christmas Day two years ago tomorrow, we took a look back at where it all began for AYTO when alumni of the first two seasons got together virtually on Instagram Live and Zoom to reminisce on that memorable experience of coming in single, coming out of it with a share of $1 million, and giving us so many memorable moments -- which became possible when their seasons joined the Netflix lineup. But one person was too busy to join them for that holiday party... and as it turns out, our subject was busy with another tradition of this year's last two months -- and it's one that's everywhere right now.
As soon as we turned the page from Halloween night to November 1st over a month ago, with it began in turn the most exciting season of then all of the winter holiday season. The one sign of this change of seasons came when the one that they call the Queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey, went to social media to play her signature track "All I Want for Christmas is You," just as the first of the dozens of radio stations across the country flipped its music formats to over 50 days' worth of non-stop holiday music.
The trend of all-day Christmas music on local radio stations -- which began in 2001 as to help boost America's post-9/11 morale -- is all part of the phenomenon of Christmas creep: a way for marketers and stores to get a head start on the holiday season before it traditionally begins once Santa Claus & his squad of reindeer march in last at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York. Another sign that the holidays are coming our way also comes from our television screens... but it isn't just specials featuring Rudolph, the Peanuts gang or the Yule Log fireplace.
Christmas-themed movies have always been part of the lexicon of the holiday season, from the many adaptations of A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker to the 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart... and to those our age, Home Alone and Die Hard. Outside of the summer blockbuster season, the yuletide period is the most lucrative of the box office season... and it is also become the case for which was once its bitter rival for entertainment options back in its inception.
The advent of TV had a hand in the motion picture industry eventually pivoting their strategy to fit the new reality, but the 1960's came the idea of made-for-TV movies produced by independent producers: films with a fraction of their Hollywood counterparts' budgets but which still made a huge impact on fans. The advent of cable networks and streaming have now seen a renaissance in the telefilm genre which has seen every media company pitch their hat into this world again... and nowhere is this more prevalent than at this time of year.
Christmas has become the buzz word within those who specialize in making films that bypass the theaters, and they can thank those like Freeform, the Hallmark Channel and other cable channels that go all-in on around-the-clock holiday fare and producing many made-for-TV Christmas movies for popularizing the holiday movie genre. Because of this trend, just about every network & streamer you can think of has at least one original film planned for debut during this season, including Kailah's beach club boss Lindsay Lohan in Falling on Christmas on Netflix and hundreds of others.
The Paramount Global outlets spanning the CBS network, its many cable channels and its streaming services aren't holding back when it comes to holiday fare... even a small trip to the Pluto TV platform with movies, music & a fireplace will suffice those too cheap to afford a Paramount + subscription. But those who pony up some money to get a subscription to BET+ will be delighted to know that they, too, are also into the mood... and that would need a flashback by some eight years.
Eight years ago, Season 2 gave us the twist of the eleventh girl entering a house that already had ten single women and ten single men to begin with... and thus was born the legend of Christina LeBlanc. It was her spell as Team 11 that got to Vegas poker player Brandon Tindel and emotional Michiganite Nate Siebenmark (which continued to Rivals III and we know what happened to the former there), as well as to the entire house in Puerto Rico. But on the last night, it was left to Layton Jones to pick between her and our other subject... he opted for Ms. 11, and down came the confetti & $1 million.
That other person that was with Layton in the last matchup was Tyler Abron from Boston, who has gone on to, perhaps, the most successful post-AYTO resume of her entire Season 2 draft class... but she didn't follow Christina, Brandon, Nate and the others to Challenge land. Instead, Tyler has quietly become a popular and rapidly growing figure in Hollywood in making cameos in music videos -- including with Jason Derulo last year -- and most especially in the motion picture biz.
Its synopsis fits the description of the stereotypical holiday telefilm that usually tucks at our heartstrings when it comes to the emotions that come with this special time of year. Here, it describes the lead character London (played by Aaron D. Spears) as this movie's Scrooge who, "...previously lived an unscrupulous lifestyle, by divorcing his wife, barely seeing his children, and dumping a woman a month before Christmas to be with somebody else. Suddenly, London becomes faced with a diagnosis of prostate cancer which forces him to rethink his total outlook on life during the Christmas holiday."
Last year came Tyler's second holiday flick, which saw a familiar face to MTV viewers of a previous generation star in a film that premiered on BET's direct-to-consumer offering BET+. A Rich Christmas featured Yo! MTV Raps alum Bill Bellamy, the great Vanessa Williams and P-Valley's Brandee Evans, but where Tyler had the unenviable task of playing the leading role as the movie followed her character, socialite Valerie Rich -- one who has quite the spoiled and ungrateful life. But here, she tastes a dose of hard reality that a lot of people can relate to when her mega-rich dad convinces her to take a less-than-desirable chore: working at a family homeless center.
It's only part of a resume that has seen her amass over 550,000 Instagram followers and join that elite who have excelled after going through that experience of enduring that ten-week quest for love in the truth booth, and where she's proven that you don't have to extend those 15 minutes just by being on another MTV show or gaining celeb clout... sometimes hard work pays off without the noise.
- I AM DC
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