BY DC CUEVA
If you sift through the pile of press releases, cast bios and clippings this blogger compiles on the shows I watch & cover and use as research material for this site, you'll find that there are a small handful with something in common. Two competitors from the past year & a half's trilogy of The Challenge come from there... so do three members of MTV's most-popular series ever. It even links them to people outside this bubble such as Martin Sheen, Alyssa Milano, Christina Aguilera, Method Man, Bebe Rexha and Pete Davidson, who seemingly had a most-eventful 2018.
They were all born on that largely-forgotten part of New York City known as Staten Island. This is where Real World alums and later Challenge staples Marie from St. Thomas and Nicole from Skeletons in Chicago call home. Vinny and Angelina from Jersey Shore also call this secluded island of sorts home, where Mike The Situation was born, and it's also home base for fashionista Victoria from season 1 of Ex On The Beach, as well as the Wu-Tang Clan. And yet, it has long been forgotten by the bright lights of Manhattan and everything else in New York City.
Now, after seeing some of its natives go onto MTV Reality shows -- and following in the footsteps of other shows from parent company Viacom, Staten Island is now home to the latest new MTV series to generate a bit of controversy even before its first expanded look at the show and its cast were released. Ironically enough, the show has a link to another much-loved show on MTV's older sibling, and whose ancestors date back to one of the darkest eras in modern American history.
Tonight, MTV will welcome its viewers to this often overlooked part of the Big Apple, and offer a look at those breaking away from their past and who are Made In Staten Island.
