DC ExtraTime: The Portland Princess Has A Ring To It...

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Last week, we saw Jordan Wiseley suffer just his second elimination defeat on Total Madness just days after his small guest-starring gig on NBC's The Blacklist... and on top of him winning title #3 and proposing to fiance Tori Deal on War of the Worlds 2. Before all this, we saw his Rivals II partner Marlon Williams be among The Challenge's four representatives on Ex On The Beach: Peak of Love. And seeing them has offered those of us who've been following MTV Reality in the digital sphere for the past decade with a good reminder of where it all began for them and for us, going back by seven years.

The pair who finished 3rd in a packed final full of Hall of Fame talent in Thailand -- Bananas, C.T., Wes, Paula, Emily, Cara Maria & Camila, plus Marlon's ex Jemmye -- started their journey on The Real World Portland. It's best remembered for Hurricane Nia landing ashore and the infamous moment of her fighting the resident couple Averey & Johnny. And it was with that season that Brian Cohen started seven years & counting of podcasts in interviewing the cast before becoming Ali Lasher's partner on the MTV Reality RHAP, while Andrew Kirk got to chat with those figures, along with Anastasia, Joi and our subject who chose Memorial Day Weekend for some new jewelry.

Jessica McCain came to the Pacific Northwest from the Triangle area of North Carolina, looking to spread her wings beyond where she grew up. She also got to do four Challenges in Rivals II, Free Agents, Battle of the Exes 2 and Rivals 3 -- and we won't forget the time she braved her fear of heights and grabbed the flag in the opening challenge on Free Agents. And in both Portland and in a few challenges, she was at odds with Jordan including him doing his Tom Cruise impersonation standing on a chair... and she even had a guest spot on one of J-Deezy's rap tracks.

For someone who wore a tiara when she left the Portland house, Jess now has something that will join that crown: an engagement ring. On Memorial Day weekend and as his day/night job is still in a holding pattern for his season to start on the diamond, she & her boyfriend, minor league baseball pitcher JP France of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (a single-A farm team affiliated with the Houston Astros), came to Nashville for a visit with relatives there as the quarantine continues. But in the same city Floribama Shore & Siesta Key invaded this winter, there would more awaiting the princess once they came to the same bridge Juliette & Alex came to after their cuddle session during their weekend in Music City.

Twitter @MTVJess

Jessica wrote on Instagram @TheJessMcCain, "Last night became the best night of my life my BEST FRIEND got down on one knee and asked me to be his Wife!! I said “YES!” 💍 @thefrenchman28 I love you more than anything in this world. You are my best friend, my confidant I can’t wait to spend forever with you!!!!!! #engaged #love #happy #isaidyes". And France added @TheFrenchman28, "Last night I was lucky enough to ask my best friend to spend forever together! I will never forget what happened on May 23rd! You are my everything and my whole world! I can’t wait to see what the future has in store but I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else! Here’s to forever! ❤️143! @thejessmccain #proposal #nashvilleproposal #forever".

Below, the video of Jess & JP becoming official at golden hour in Music City, and we send our congrats to them, as does the rest of her MTV family - which we'll have on the SocialPulse of this week's episode of Total Madness coming up this weekend. And also, check out one of our first MTV posts on here, a FORUM look at the reunion special for RW Portland at this link, too.

View this post on Instagram

On a whim, or so I thought, we decided to come visit my brother and his gf in Nashville for the holiday weekend. After dinner my brother suggested we go downtown since @thefrenchman28 had never been before. So we park in free parking because who wants to pay to park and then we took the walking bridge over to the city, nothing strange about that. As we’re walking I notice how beautiful the sunset is and insist we get a photo on the overlook, similar to a photo we have @titans stadium. Here’s the FUNNY Part 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ I turn around pre-maturely and see people with cameras (there were tons of professionals taking photos off that bridge) in my head I was like “oh sh*t” we’re in their way, I turn to JP to tell him we have to move and he pulls me in for a kiss and BAM 💥 it all hits me at once. THIS, ALL OF IT, was planned. He’s going to ask me to marry him!!! I legit held on to the railing of the bridge because my knees went weak and my eyes filled with tears of joy as he said “I told you I was going to surprise you.” He got down on one knee and asked me to be his WIFE! I’m getting MARRIED y’all 💍!! @fireandbrilliance

A post shared by JESS MCCAIN (@thejessmccain) on May 25, 2020 at 6:56am PDT

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG

DC ExtraTime: J-Deezy

 #DCBLOG's BEST OF 2017 

From Week 12 of The Challenge Invasion

BY DC CUEVA                     
■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

For a third of the Invasion final six, they have achieved something that's been historically difficult to do but has happened many times over the years on The Challenge. That would be of being a rookie competing on this show for the very first time, survive not only the first week where they would usually go into elimination and be the first ones out, and making it all the way to the end, to the final and the race for the cash.

   Nicole is competing on a Challenge for the first time and has made it to the end in her first go, and Cory made it to the final as a rookie on Bloodlines last year after a late charge at season's end to finish second. It has been a recent trend in the past few years -- Jenna, Zach, Devyn and Devin to name a few who've been in this spot before, and that offers the backdrop for this latest installment of "Catching Up With…".

Four years ago at this time, Season 28 of The Real World was airing, which took place in Portland, OR. It turned out to be the last RW season in its original format of just seven strangers living in a house with no surprise to worry about. Just like the St. Thomas cast before them, I gained a solid rapport with all the cast on social media, and a couple fellow MTV insiders, Andrew Kirk talked to all of them on his podcast, and Brian Cohen got his podcast start interviewing some of them and went to the reunion -- which was also one of the first Trifecta posts we got to do here at DCBLOG.
   As it also turned out, from a Challenge standpoint all but one of that group of eight would appear on at least one Challenge after encountering romance, drama and yes, the now-infamous fight we saw in the finale: Jordan competed on three of them and won his most recent - Exes 2 with Sarah; Johnny rode a wave of luck in the Draw to make it to the Free Agents final and finish second to Bananas, and four of the five girls -- Jessica, Averey, Nia and Anastasia -- have all appeared on The Challenge too (only the one who left early, Joi, hasn't appeared yet).

And then, there's Marlon Williams. In Oregon, he made a stunning admission to the housemates on the patio that while he had a depression a few years earlier, he told them that he had actually engaged in casual sex with a guy. He also reluctantly hooked up with local girls in the club, which caught the ire of his dad, which then forced him to go to church to confess his sins. He also got confrontational as well when he had become tired and despised of the actions, personality, brash behavior and insecurity of Jordan and got into a fight in the house kitchen. That got them paired up on that Challenge, and in allowing everyone else to take over the spotlight in Thailand, the guys flew under the radar and won two jungle eliminations. In the first in a double Hall Brawl matchup, they knocked off Leroy and Ty; and in the second they defeated Knight and Preston to make the final. In that final, their boat capsized in the Thailand sea in the first part of the final and did not make it the second half and got a $10,000 3rd place consolation prize.

As a young Texan, Marlon got to do what others aspire to do here in this land of Friday Night Lights: play high school football, and in the same Austin-area stadium in Pflugerville High School which served as the site for that renowned football film's TV series adaptation. He went on to Texas Tech University and became a nationally-ranked linebacker, making it to the All-Big XII team two times as well as celebrity status in Lubbock. You can check out a YouTube highlights reel of him here.
   Through having done some research on him, we happened to stumble upon the team picture from Marlon's 2009 senior year at Texas Tech. Marlon is kneeling down in about left center in the front row, right below head coach Mike Leach, who after becoming the school's winningest coach, was suspended and then fired for his role in inappropriate treatment of former football player and analyst Craig James' son Adam after he had suffered a concussion during practices for Tech's appearance in the 2010 Alamo Bowl.

Post-football and post-MTV, Marlon has become better known as "J-Deezy" -- a hip-hop artist who we saw him do his work in the recording studio during that season in Portland, which included inviting his Portland roommates to do cameo spots on a couple of his tracks. One of them is located below in "Lay Down" with Nia and Anastasia.

After his two MTV shows, J-Deezy has furthered his musical resume in releasing several tracks, mixtapes and albums... around a slate that also has his own clothing line and fitness program, in case he happens to get that call.  Below are some of his tracks, and at the end is his latest album, The Rebirth, which you can also get on iTunes.

- I AM DC

DC ExtraTime Revisited: Nia and Jake

The following contains excerpts from DCBLOG posts during Real World seasons 31 and 32 from last year, reposted in the interest of our readers and updated to include additional media.

BY DC CUEVA                     
■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

As you celebrate Thanksgiving with your loved ones, DCBLOG is marking this holiday by today offering you a selection of the best stories from DC ExtraTime, this site's distinctive storytelling franchise offering a different look at the people of the MTV Trifecta of The Challenge & Real World franchise and Are You The One?.
   Some of the stories we have offered you here offer a sense of inspiration, and on Thanksgiving last year, we shared with you the special bond forged between six-time Challenge champion Johnny Bananas and #1 fan and cancer survivor Kasey Harvey. Meanwhile, another fascinating and inspiring bond involving a Real World and Challenge alum also took place last year that is worthy for us to share with you again while all of you are enjoying this day and night with family and friends and the inspiration that comes with this time of the holiday season arriving.
   Here, this is the story of the unlikely bond between Nia Moore of Real World Portland and a two-time Challenge participant, and a homeless man she found on the streets of Atlanta last year that had been stricken with AIDS and leukemia and had lost it all including his job and house, only for the help of crowd-funding sites and God's goodwill to quite literally save his life.

Enjoy this special ExtraTime Revisited looking back at this special bond of Nia and Jake.

DC ExtraTime: "Rivals" No More

 EDITORS' NOTE: 

Excerpt from DC SocialPulse: Battle of the Exes 2 EP 2 in Jan. 2015, re-posted in the interest of fans during Rivals III, prior to Portland castmate Jordan winning the final with Sarah, and a day after the outcome of last night's episode - more to come in this weekend's DCBLOG posts.

BY DC CUEVA                     

> @DC408Dxtr / @DC408DxNow

As I tweeted in my commentary, for the 2nd straight week it was Team Portland's night: winning the Dome, winning the first Exile, and Jordan winning great respect from Twitter. But something that's lost in what they've been able to do these first two weeks is what happened to two of the girls represented here in Panama, and for which a handful of tweets above is really what you need to know about it. This harks back to a side story we told you about during our Are You The One? Season 2 coverage, where when they joined Leroy & Cooke to see their RW Vegas XXV roommate Mike get married in Laguna Beach last fall, Nany made amends with that bad boy who had played her in Vegas and got a ton of heat for that but has mellowed out considerably since then, Adam.

For me, my favorite memory of Real World Portland is having had this front-row seat to following the cast's entire journey from the beginning: first when they returned from filming in Nov. 2012 during my first Challenge, to becoming great social friends with all of them before & during a season that stood out to me as a favorite, then their great impact on The Challenge, and now to this, Exes 2. And it was also the focus of my first Fan's View post that covered their reunion, for which one of my two subjects, Kaitlyn, celebrated her birthday just a few days ago. But for those who watched RWPDX, the moment that's no doubt burned in your head from that last regular "7 strangers" season prior to last year was what happened at the end of their stay in the Pacific Northwest.

From IG/@TheRealNiaMoore:
Nia & Averey backstage at Exes 2
After Show in Glendale, CA

   It was, obviously, the infamous but unforgettable fight between Nia and Averey. And in case you weren't fixated on their original season as much as I was, here's the story behind that and what led up to it. Just as it was with her and Jordan, there was tension during the season between Nia and Averey & Johnny, which really began to take shape near the end of the season. First in EP09, Nia called a truce to her bickering with Javerey. But then came what happened in Episode 11 when, the moment that defined that season finally came to pass when Hurricane Nia finally made landfall in the Pearl District. It began when Nia stepped on the turd of Averey's dog Daisy in the confessional. Then came words between both sides of her not cleaning up after themselves.
   And then when they were in the bathroom, Johnny put a tissue on her back, and she then did the same. Then he threw a energy drink towards Nia, and she smacked Johnny on the back of the head several times. Then when he got out of the toilet room, she had a blow-drier in hand, Averey grabbed her from behind and all of a sudden, the house became a boxing ring as the girls kept throwing punches at each other. And then when you though it wasn't over, Nia then sucker-punched Averey from behind and the fighting began again. When things finally calmed down after all that, words were exchanged between some of the group when Javerey went out to take a breather. In the finale, a house meeting took place among the group afterwards where after a vote went in Nia's favor, Javerey have had enough and they decided to pack up and spend the last week or so in a hotel away from the house. Obviously, just as it's been so many times in watching these shows, I was left speechless by what happened, just like everyone else who watched that.
   As is always the case with other feuds that have emerged within Team MTV, and also because Nia, Averey and Johnny all follow me on Twitter, I've maintained an impartial stance when it came to this fight...thus, I didn't take sides in that manner. But for a reality franchise that's had a long-standing no-violence policy, and for a channel that doesn't show violence much because its target audience also includes teens and those younger than them, many fans and media were irate over that fight being seen in its graphic form. They pointed to how producers couldn't even come in from behind the 4th wall to break that up, over how it was initiated over a piece of dog turd of all things more than on built-up feelings, and even some claiming that Nia was brought in to help spark things up to a show that was sagging in MTV interest behind the likes of Teen Mom. This violence happens a lot on the BMP-produced show Bad Girls Club on Oxygen, but we never seen a fight escalate to this level such as what happened there. And perhaps it was this event that inadvertently led The Real World to make a gamble & introduce those twists that started down the way in San Francisco.

When Team Portland made its Challenge debut on Rivals II afterwards, a lot of us wondered why Jess & Anastasia were chosen considering that the former was not relatively as big of a deal as Nia & Averey, and an alternate choice too. Word on the grapevine was that both Nia & Averey were the first call among the girls to join Jordan & Marlon in Thailand but Ave turned it down knowing those feelings were very much still fresh. Since then, Ave got in that relationship with Johnny that ended badly, and like Adam, Nia has matured a bit in launching her Booty Belt line, among others. As I wrote in my Exes 2 previews, a storyline to watch was of how Jordan, Jessica, Nia, Averey and Johnny can handle living in the same house again, the first two for the 4th straight time. So far, things have been all over the place but now the group has been showing their maturing over time.
   Fans have been doing fantasy Challenges within the fan forums, and there's so many options out there for a possible Rivals III which are too many to mention here. But sometimes, rivalries within this dysfunctional family of the Real World/Challenge & AYTO community can end peacefully and without incident, thereby avoiding a Rivals III pairing altogether. As you saw in the tweets above, Nia & Averey not only squashed their beef once they arrived in Panama, they shared the same room with the girl Ave beat in the Dome - Hailey, and Diem; obviously, the events of Nov. 14 touched all three of the ladies. And this harkens back also to when another inter-cast beef among former Real World roommates was squashed: in addition to Adam & Nany, during Free Agents, Brooklynites Devyn & Chet put an end to their bickering when she made that inspiring run in that final.

Being someone who's been very close to the RW Portland cast for what's now three years since I first established a rapport with them after they got home from Oregon, I'm not surprised that Nia & Averey have squashed this whole beef, and I gotta give them praise for taking advantage of this platform to finally put a ceasefire to this, three years after the fact. And not only should things in the past should stay that way, what happened there in Portland was, really, something that was escalated on just a small issue and it should have never even gone to the kind of violent level in the first place.
   So, aside from what's happened in this lead-up to this season, and after two episodes of what we've seen so far - and knowing what will be happening next week, Nia and Averey putting an end of their rivalry off-camera is, to me, is probably my biggest story so far of Exes 2. If both of you are reading this, I'm glad that both of you have matured enough to put an end to this whole bickering, and hope things will now be on a more civil level.

- I AM DC

DC ExtraTime: Nia and Jake

Excerpt from DC SocialPulse: Real World Go Big - Episode 7 posted on Mother's Day
Sunday, re-posted as a separate post in the interest of MTV Trifecta fans

BY DC CUEVA                     

> @DC408Dxtr / @DC408DxNow

For those like myself who is both an MTV Trifecta fan and is social friendly, I have grown a rapport with most of the MTV family since I joined Twitter some four years ago. This includes a strong bond with each entirely-new cast of the ecosystem - whether it'd be a new set of Real World roommates since St. Thomas or the three previous Are You The One? casts, and just Friday I gave a follow to most of the AYTO Season 4 cast.
   Included in that list is Portland: the last of the traditional Real World seasons with no twist for the seven strangers to worry about. It was the first Trifecta season that MTV Insider and webcast host Brian Cohen got to cover in doing cast interviews, while one of the first DCBLOG posts that I did here was a Forum post on the Reunion. There in the Pearl District, we saw Averey & Johnny's romance, Jordan getting into it with everyone, J-Deezy recording, Princess Jess and Anastasia, and Joi too. And of course, as Brian alluded to on his shows they've become a great Challenge class as well, with finals appearances and a win in their first three starts, and PDX will be well represented this time around.
   There's no doubt who the most-memorable castmate of season 28, and that would be Nia Moore for all of what we saw on that season. And what happened at the end of that stay there in Portland remains burned on our brains, as was what happened on Exes 2 when a shot to be in the final was taken away from her before the last Dome. We will not discuss what happened there in further detail in this ExtraTime piece with respect to sensitivity, as the focus of this story is much more on the positive side. And if you've got a tissue box handy, you might have a tear in your eye after you read this story here on this Mother's Day. So, here it is...

Real World Portland: As They Saw It - Reunion Revealed

* Views expressed in Fan's View are only those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of DC Cueva or DCBLOG.

By DC Cueva, with Kevin Gonzalez & Kaitlyn Macisco

> @dc408dxtr, @KevinGonzalez_, @Kmacisco

With a couple days left until The Challenge: Rivals II premieres, yesterday's posting of a picture with the entire cast on a layover at an airport in Tokyo & en route to Thailand by cast members signals the anticipation towards this crazy season; in fact I just changed the iPad home screen to that pic as well. But with about 48 hours until the new season of the so-called 5th major sport kicks off, lets go back a month to another crazy affair - the latest season for my favorite show - The Real World Portland.

For me, The Real World and The Challenge have played a big role on my twitter over the last year - not surprising for the franchise that I follow most, going back a long way over a decade. And a tradition at the end of every season of these two shows - and certain other MTV shows as well - has been the reunion: an hour to discuss and look back on everything that went on throughout the entire season. And at these reunions, it's almost certain that there's gonna be some or more so the same drama that we saw during the episodes that preceded it. But the process of taping the reunion is longer than the 43 minutes sans commercials that you see on TV - it's way longer than that. And of course, there are some things that you didn't see or hear unless you were one of the lucky people who get to sit in that MTV Times Square studio & have a front row seat to all the fireworks.

That's why for this edition of As DC Sees It...or shall we say, "As Kevin & Kaitlyn Saw It," we'll uncover the wraps to give you a firsthand perspective of what it's like to be in the audience, to watch the drama unfold among the casts, and even get some valuable scoop on everything you want to know about all this, most especially unseen gossip. And in this edition: a look at the reunion for Real World Portland, starring its dynamic cast of Anastasia, Averey, Jessica, Jordan, Joi, Johnny, Marlon, Nia & house dog Daisy...and hosted by RW legend/Queen B (& fellow Bay Arean) Coral. From a fight unprecedented in Real World history to the behavior & life backgrounds of most of the cast, romances in & outside the Pearl District to yes, a Hurricane, it was one of those RW seasons that really stood out to me. Plus, there was the added incentive that I became very good social media friends with all of them throughout the season, having followed them well before we got to see them on TV; I gave a few castmates a follow just after filming ended last November. (Seems that's been so long, doesn't it?)

Because of these shows, I've become good twitter friends with total strangers who I've never met in person but share a passion for this franchise, and one of them is Kevin Gonzalez (@KevinGonzalez_). This guy from New York, who was the lucky 25,000th follower to Bunim-Murray's twitter account @BunimMurray, has been to the last three reunions: Real World St. Thomas, Challenge BOTSeasons and this Real World Portland one. Joining him to give us the scoop is Kaitlyn Macisco (@Kmacisco), who was also in the audience braving the six hours of taping in that studio. This will add additional perspective to a post from a blogger who I followed during the season who was also in the audience, more on that at the end of this post. For now, here's what you've been waiting for, let's dive into the scoop, starting with the general atmosphere before the storm began...