DC FORUM: Just Been Busy Doing What I Love...

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

BY DC CUEVA 

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Hello, it's been some time since we last spoke to you here... and we hope that you and yours are fine, healthy and alright in your part of the world wherever you are reading this little blog entry. I am okay on my part -- nothing's wrong with me... but this blogger here wants to come on to let you in on what I have been working on -- something I've been counting a whole summer & early autumn for. And as this one returns from blog hibernation this October's weekend, I am also getting prepared for another installment of the one thing I have looked forward to most every year for almost two decades.

DCBLOG is something that I take great pride in during my evolution into becoming a well-rounded and now full-time content creator -- it's been thirteen years since the very first post here. But me transitioning into doing this gig on a self-employed basis was made possible in part by what's transpired in the Cueva household the past few years: me taking on the role of man of the house after we lost our patriarch back in 2022. Those in the house I call my casa still continues to feel the absence of my late dad as we reach what would have been his 75th birthday come next month. And it's me being the dad of our family that has been the reason for me taking a step back from the blogger's chair... though we do look forward to getting to resume offering more of these here with lots of posts already in draft mode.

However, that hasn't dampened my passion for doing what I love being able to do best: create content and putting forth my very best work whatever the platform may be. Take for example what I got to do over the winter and during the summer, all leading to an autumn tradition known as #DCVegas.

The Look: The Caucus Challenge - Heir to the Throne

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

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Pics Courtesy: IG @dmp.series

Tonight, the forty-first season of MTV's The Challenge - Vets & New Threats got officially underway in the world's southernmost nation of Chile and its capital city of Santiago. And amidst what has been a merry time for those who avidly follow the world of reality television wherever platform you may choose -- love, a house show or whatever that's out there... there is another tradition of sorts that has lasted almost an entire decade. And it's something that doesn't even have to do anything to do with that show that kicked off anew tonight... but it's most definitely one that was inspired by it.

At this time in the dog days of summer of 2017, the first million-dollar season of the MTV series took place... and before that high-stakes battle began the cast got together in New York City for a launch party and a gym session. There, it came to the attention of this blogger that one of the attendees at the ladder and his fellow friends who got to work out with the cat had done something else on the side that wasn't quite so sketchy... but something just as fun as the MTV show itself. It was several seasons of The Caucus Challenge -- a scaled down, homemade version of reality competition shows that took place in the surrounding Secaucus, NJ neighborhood of Andres Rodriguez and co.

What started as a fun weekend activity in Dre's house backyard has grown quite a bit over the eight years that have followed afterwards... and this DCBLOG site was the first media outlet anywhere to feast our eyes on The Caucus Challenge. We have followed every step of the Dre.Media Productions YouTube empire ever since... and after you got to enjoy Act 1 down in South America and are in the mood for something over than binge-watching the live feeds, here's something more action-packed: a battle to become the Heir to the Throne.

Inside MTV Reality - Welcome to The Challenge: New Vets and Threats

BY DC CUEVA 

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We are in the dog days of the summer... and for those of us who look to the world of reality television for a sense of escape from that other reality going on outside our living room, this has already been quite the last few months. We are a couple weeks into that summer tradition that is a new season of Big Brother, coming on the heels of a Love Island U.S. season that garnered plenty of buzz in and out of the villa. Bachelor in Paradise is back with a whole new look, while a new hit has emerged in the global journey around the globe that is Destination X. And one of those who took occupancy in that airplane is BB champ Josh Martinez, whose reality story has expanded to include a series en español on Telemundo.

Credit: Paramount Global/MTV

And then, there's one of those stops the Miamian has made in conquering the reality world: earlier this year, MTV's The Challenge wrapped up its milestone 40th regular season with the confirmation of a legend in Jordan Wiseley, who can now can boast of five title rings on his fingers. But for the women, an unprecedented result in a tie for the crown: Jenny West and Rachel Robinson finished in a dead heat at the top of the leaderboard. Straight after, the fifth season of All-Stars brought about its first themed season in the fourth overall iteration of Rivals... and on the 30th anniversary of their original show debuting, Road Rules 10's Steve Mineke and Adam Larson came away with the W... and the ladder celebrated it with a ring on it as Adam got engaged to Jordan's fellow Portland'er Averey Tressler.

Battle of the Eras last year marked the first regular Challenge season in some time to not have any first-time competitors in the field. But to make up for that shortcoming, this year's MTV season is giving both them and the veterans a level playing field this time... and it's not just a small set of rookies who are just lucky to be here. From those aforementioned Casa Amor and summer house to a number of newbies from abroad -- and even two from the world of fight sport, they have intentions on challenging the establishment with over twenty titles to their credit... but also having to fight father time against those much younger and eager to take their throne.

Now... the next forty seasons of America's fifth major pro sport is about to begin down under in South America, in the world's southernmost inhabited nation at the foot of the Andes mountain range. And for this last few days of July at least, DCBLOG is back for this first look at The Challenge: New Vets and Threats. And welcome back, Challenge Nation...

Inside MTV Reality: Welcome Back Again to The Challenge All-Stars -- and Something Twisty

BY DC CUEVA 

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Greetings to all in the blogosphere... and if we have not spoken on here as of yet, a belated Happy New Year to you and we hope you are safe and sound after a holiday break that we hope was nice and merry. As you can imagine, things have been light on the blog as new priorities have taken precedent as is my new passion of doing video work including the new DC Vegas XIII series on YouTube... but this one hasn't forgotten about DCBLOG as we enter our site's fourteenth year of serving all of you on here.

As we return to this site, let's sort out where things are in the world of competitive athletics: we know now it's yet another rematch in the Super Bowl that's just to come with the Chiefs and Eagles set to renew acquaintances for the second time in twenty-four months. It's exactly half of that time's length that separates me from another 19-day binge-watch of the Olympics as the 2026 Winter Games in Italy approach... and the week after the Big Game comes a new format coming to the NBA All-Star Game taking place in my Bay Area neck of the woods, among other things. And then, there's this.

Photos: MTV/Jonne Roriz

A tweet by our longtime friend and a fellow colleague on this beat of covering this little thing we have covered for well over a decade, Brian Cohen, brings up an interesting statistic that makes us scratch our heads and wonder how time has flown by. When rare holiday weeks off are tossed aside, MTV's The Challenge and its various spinoff iterations have been on our TV's and our streaming devices for almost three consecutive years... or 151 of the 191 weeks since August of 2021. And after everything that transpired in a milestone 40th season over the fall and winter, the party goes on after the crowning of a now five-time winner and an unprecedented tie for the gold for the women on Battle of the Eras.

Both Mr. Bus Drivers Route, myself and everyone else in this community have been through a lot watching the fifth major pro sport... and it has also given reason for a lot of us to subscribe to the Paramount+ service. And while this one here stays loyal to all the streamers I'm part of when others decide it's not enough to stay on, it also gave us a mouth-watering addition to the Challenge franchise when All-Stars debuted with its rebrand from CBS All-Access also back four years ago. There, we were mystified by seeing competitors we haven't seen on the show in years compete once again... and it made an instant impact to the point where a lot of fans like you would forget to think it's a spinoff.

The fourth and most recent installment of All-Stars was actually taped in the spring of 2023, but because of the standoff that shut down Hollywood it wasn't until almost a year later that we saw another stacked group take to South Africa and saw a deserved champion in the end. But this time around, the focus shifts drastically like night and day to something totally different: for the first time, an element of the flagship will be thrust upon this series as this time it's a themed installment... but one that we are all familiar with from the '10s -- and it's one format that Brian made his podcast debut a dozen years ago.

With another crop of familiar and fresh faces... and with so many interesting dynamics, once again the question is this: Who can overcome the past for the sake of winning the cash? Welcome back, Challenge Nation... as we at DCBLOG offer our first look at the fifth edition of our main subject's longest-running spinoff: The Challenge All-Stars: Rivals before it premieres tonight.

The Look: The Caucus Challenge Goes Wintertime

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

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

We have just had the merriest time of year to end the year that just past us, and for many of you the vibes of the coldest of the four seasons just continues on after the holidays. That includes the nor'easter that blasted through much of the East Coast that extended many school kids' winter break and saw a snowball fight outside the U.S. Capitol building... a far different cry from what happened in that very same place four years earlier. And for this blogger here who had a ball binge-watching last year's action in Paris, he is already feeling anxious and anticipatory for the yuletide blockbuster that is the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan & Cortina, Italy that begins in just over a year from now.

Pics Courtesy: Dre Media

Though activity around here at DCBLOG have been light in the course of the last couple years (man of the house duties, Vegas vlogs on YouTube and the like), there is one thing that has brought this site back to life to begin the new year and this first post of '25. And it is of the one thing that we have followed throughout the course of our now thirteen years' worth of posts that have gone Inside MTV Reality and beyond... and it has nothing to do with The Challenge or anything else. Rather, it's one inspired by the fifth major pro sport... and one who we first met back eight long years ago at a launch event for the controversial thirtieth season of a now 40-season old reality pioneer: Secaucus, New Jersey YouTuber Andres Rodriguez and the world surrounding his Dre.Media empire.

The long holiday weekend we are currently in -- and the time that all of us in Challenge Nation have on our side ahead of the next chapter in All-Stars Season 5 at month's end -- will perhaps give a lot of you a chance to sample one esteemed All-Star as he extends his reach to not one, but two shows on two totally different television platforms. But for those seeking something more competitive and more of our liking rather than just people having to play one of those social games inside of a medieval castle (and him also following in the footsteps of three of his distinguished colleagues who made us go wild last year), there's the latest thing from Dre: a first-ever wintertime version of The Caucus Challenge.