A Word from the Blogger
BY DC CUEVA
This week officially kicks off the tenth anniversary season of Inside MTV Reality on DCBLOG -- something that's a little belated but still something that we have been looking forward to for some time. It is a celebration of sorts that, like what we had to go through just a few years ago at this time, was something we had to put off for various reasons. One is for matters that affected the showbiz industry when Hollywood was shut down during the dual writers' and actors strikes last year... but the most important one, for this one at least, was of gaining a better appreciation of what I have and for the people around me when family time has been needed after our ultimate of heartaches.
I might have been late to the party somewhat, considering that this fan has been watching these shows since 1998 -- and who has a vault of memories of watching over this world even before I join the social platform formerly known as Twitter. But the advice I got from a fellow fan and NorCal'er in Andrew Kirk gave birth to this very site back in 2013 (yes, this celebration is later than we had planned and now during the first full year of blogs)... and there was no better time to get ourselves initiated in this world than in the midst of what had to be one of the greatest times that any fan of these drama-filled, trash TV has ever had the pleasure of enjoying.
That time in the first quarter of 2014 provided a glimpse of what the next generation of MTV Reality would offer over the rest of the decade and in the Twenties: the first-ever major alteration of the longest standing format in the reality genre and the channel's first entry into the modern reality dating show subgenre both here in the U.S. and overseas. There was Season 25 of a first of its kind reality competition series, more tabloid-friendly drama among the most scrutinized group of young moms, a pair who roamed the country to expose online love, and other samplers of the life of being young. And all of this took place while most of the OG's of the biggest MTV series ever were on their first hiatus.
What took place both that year and the one before that in the last half of 2013 in the last pre-twist Real World in Portland and the Rivals II Challenge helped set the stage for our amazing run that followed of covering the shows, the people, the moments and the stories that turned this person from just a fan who watches these shows like you, into going on a path of fulfilling a lifelong dream of being in the journalism and media worlds -- albeit for a fan blog like this and later my own YouTube channel documenting my annual trips to Las Vegas. Those two shows above would be joined by the aforementioned Are You The One, a few years later here by the U.S. version of Ex On The Beach, and by a few other shows that expanded my MTV horizons even further in this wild and wacky world.
Even before joining social media in the public form of it (this one had a MySpace to start out and joined Facebook for just his inner circle in the '00s) I've already enjoyed a wide variety of MTV content, which made getting into the sultry drama of the Florida version of The Hills and Laguna Beach of Siesta Key outside Tampa Bay more easier. The same held true for their wild party-hard counterparts in Floribama Shore up in Panama City Beach, which got me into the door of the global Shore franchise marked by the Jersey originals when their bromance of Pauly and Vinny went for love... and where anyone who has a P+ subscription can see its international versions too. And there's many other shows that might not have reached their level of being on multiple seasons, but we have covered them too in and around those.
It was only fitting that I signed on my presence on the social platform formerly known as Twitter on the night of a Real World season premiere a year before DCBLOG began in 2012. And in addition to getting to directly interact with cast members (which I did a lot of in the early years), it became the platform to see how everyone -- they, you and the fellow MTV fandom -- saw the shows take place online, and our Social-Pulse presentations in well over hundreds of them became a signature of this site. And we have seen a lot of memorable moments go down over the past decade: from two steals of the entire money Challenge prize purse, and the controversial final night of the only AYTO season to go broke, to when we comforted a Bronx ladies' man when he lost a parent half a continent away... and so many others that made our jaws drop, got us talking on social media, and made the next-day water cooler talk.
The people who we've met in the MTV world over the past decade have been many by the hundreds: there's the 7-time champ whose theft on the Rivals III finale cemented his legend status that's taken him beyond The Challenge the past few years. There's a leading lady of that show's new generation who was part of an AYTO cast who overcame the mightiest odds to the money, and made friends of the music world en route to her debut. And there's a man whose imprint is on virtually every MTV Reality show we've followed the past ten years, which has taken him from the Bay to Hawaii, to many Challenges and even the Teen Mom franchise. And Bananas, Nurys and Cory are a few of the plethora of personalities who we've followed over these ten years, both on these shows and crossovers into the mainstream that's helped to keep MTV relevant in a way even today.
The approaching of this summer's Paris Olympics sees not only my favorite sporting event and binge-worthy guilty pleasure, but also an aspect DCBLOG takes part of our inspiration from: the many human stories among the thousands of athletes competing told during the Games by the world's networks using a decades' old playbook by one of sports television's greatest icons of going "up close and personal." And the ExtraTime series has told so many of those stories over the years as we've gone beyond the shows to cover this world at large through the MTV Reality prism: from Cory's perfect match going for a dip with the world's most notorious "problem child", to an alum of a forgotten winter version of Jersey Shore and his quest to reconnect with his perfect match half a world away during the pandemic... and hundreds of others that have taken them to other shows, pop culture, and those stories sometimes that will make you laugh out loud, shed a tear, make you feel pressured to go after someone perhaps.
That first full year of our blog coverage ten years ago was also when we tearfully lost two Challengers in a span of just two weeks after they competed together on Exes 2. It's that same feeling that we all went through together saying farewell to Diem Brown and Ryan Knight that November of 2014 is one I also went lived through myself eight years later... and that has had a reason with me taking that hiatus. But if he can talk to me in my dreams, then my dad will obviously tell me to keep doing what I love doing... and I feel refreshed and ready to return to this hobby, which we are proud to do here this spring a decade after we started this thing.
For the last year & a half, I've enjoyed this relatively limited slate of the MTV schedule as just a fan and interested viewer before the idea of becoming a content creator came about... as well as broadening my viewing options by doubling the number of streaming services I've subscribed to compared to a year ago. But when we get this all restarted all over again, it will be as if we never left... but going forward as our original intent was to provide, it's the role we've embraced as storytellers that will become more of a focus on this site, while still offering timely and traditional episode recaps. We'll also expand our focus to my other passions of sports, music, other shows, Vegas and other things... and in every instance, we will maintain the high level of standards and quality commitment that this site has set forth over this run, even if I might be a bit too rusty getting back in the groove -- but just leave me some slack.
Ten years -- it has been quite the time in our world since early 2014 when the journey we've taken inside this fascinating world of reality television and its pioneer began to take full shape during that amazing time. When we all needed that escape from the chaos of everything going on in this world especially the past few years, watching this timeless genre has represented that ideal respite. And while there's a lot that has changed, others have weathered that storm to still be here... and we are, after some time away. And what does the next decade have in store? We'll find out when we preview The Challenge: All-Stars Season 4 in a few days... and Welcome Back as we once again go Inside MTV Reality on the BLOG.
- I AM DC
@DC408DXTR