DC ExtraTime: The Ginger Man Meets The Queer Eye Fab Five

EDITOR'S NOTE: Because of the sensitivity and the recent controversy surrounding the subject being featured here, comments have been turned off for this post.

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

It's now the month of September, and for those in television land this is the time where the cycle begins all over again: the 2019-20 broadcast year and the fall television season begin this month as the biggest shows on broadcast network television return along with the debut of many new series. The folks in cable land and in the streaming sphere have had a few months' headstart on their free-to-all counterparts with plenty of new shows and seasons.
   This Monday, the syndicated shows will get a headstart on their season, with one of those shows getting to welcome three familiar faces to MTV viewers... and we'll elaborate much more on that when it comes around. And for reality fans, in two weeks from now is what is regarded by many as the biggest night in the entire genre: the doubleheader of the season premiere of season 39 of Survivor and the finale of season 21 of Big Brother. And before that, this coming week sees the season finales of both Bachelor in Paradise and Are You The One?.

September also means that the annual celebration of the past twelve months in television will soon take place, when the 71st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards are handed out on Sunday, Sept. 22nd, just a few days before the official start of the network television year. Last year's Emmys marked a milestone in LGBT community's continued progression in their representation and acceptance on mainstream TV: RuPaul's Drag Race on VH1 added more statuettes to its awards case including the show's host winning the award for Outstanding Reality Host.
   But just as impressive was it being given their Emmy on-stage by the Fab Five of Netflix's revival of Queer Eye, which itself also won three awards of their own in Outstanding Structured Reality Program and two others at the 2018 gala. This year, it's up for that Outstanding Structured Reality Program honor again, along with four other Emmy nominations. And Drag Race is up for fourteen statuettes, all part of a summer that's seen AYTO, The Real World Atlanta and Ex On The Beach fully embrace the LGBT community.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge War of the Worlds 2 - "God Save the Queen"

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Well, are you being entertained by a most memorable sports Saturday? There's more to come after Antonio Brown's move from the Raiders to the Patriots, Michigan's escape vs. Army, Khabib's win at UFC and Canadian tennis history at the U.S. Open... but if you can take a break from that, we here at DCBLOG can give you something juicy in the 'Pulse of Week 2 of The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2.

Last week, this season kicked off with a war in the trenches... not literally fighting, but the two teams going at it in the jungle in carrying flags and encountering bodies too. In the end, the Americans took down that first challenge, and the Brits had to face the music of elimination, where it was this season's lone rookie representative of the summer sensation Love Island, Idris, beating Sean in the latest chapter of the classic battle that is Pole Wrestle. But it's what happened after that first challenge that had everyone shook: Team USA bypassing CT in favor of defending champion Turbo in the draft of reinforcement competitors to join the two sides.

Upon his win on the Proving Ground, a man who's taking into the boxing ring tonight overseas was given one of those Teej-bombs: either stay with the team you're on or bolt to the other side. Idris will have that choice here this week, as the possibilities now increase for someone in the two teams to become a traitor if they win in elimination. For the competition here in week 2, "Cryptic Crossbow" will bring swimming into the game this early on in mixing water with puzzles, and one team may find themselves trying to play catchup in communication. And a year after that jaw-dropping moment on Vendettas, the one they call "the Queen" delivers her latest power move.

After the jump, all the action, reaction & interaction from Thailand, plus the buzz from Labor Day weekend, Cheyenne & Cory joining the Teen Moms for their 10th anniversary reunion, and a familiar face walks into Bachelor in Paradise. Thanks for joining us tonight for the Pulse of The Challenge.

DC SocialPulse: Are You The One? Season 8 - Two More Chances in Paradise

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Welcome back lovebirds... earlier here tonight, we brought you a Backtracked installment of the 'Pulse of the ninth episode and eighth week of Are You The One? Season 8, as the house got to do something that, ordinarily, would be the duties of the handful of analytics sites that cover this show: figure out their perfect matches outside of the Truth Booth... all thanks to the cast's resident nerd, Silicon Valley native Danny.

At the end of that episode, the house was confronting their eighth matchup ceremony and a game that, when they were last there watching the night light show, was starting to slip away from them in having not made as much progress as they wanted. As we rejoin them here (after a two week's wait on TV and a Season 7 stud coming onto Singled Out on here), a couple who have been through a lot in the house are on edge of whether or not they are a perfect match: Justin & Max. They will find out their fate without ever getting voted into the Truth Booth, and it's what happens afterward that will give clues to who the remaining couples are, while the others who are matches will get to know each other more intimately, as we wrap up our summer in a state that just marked its 60th anniversary of statehood.

After the jump, it's the Pulse of this week's episode of Are You The One? - Come One, Come All. Thanks for joining us here tonight...

DC ExtraTime: AYTO Meets Singled Out (Again)

A Follow-Up to
"The Kwasi Beast Gets Singled Out"

BY DC CUEVA                           

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Last year, MTV launched its MTV Studios unit: a production house that produces shows for not just the linear TV channel, but also for digital platforms such as its YouTube/MTV channel and, most especially, non-MTV outlets such as third-party companies. That includes this summer's revival of The Real World when a new generation of seven strangers got to "stop being polite and start getting real" in Atlanta on Facebook Watch, as well as the buzzed about reality series No Filter: Tana Turns 21, starring YouTube influencer Tana Mongeau, which followed her to the alter of the summer's biggest wedding between her and Jake Paul.

Instagram @JustinaValentine

Along with getting to reboot The Real World, The Hills and Jersey Shore, MTV also dug into its vaults to modernize the show that predated Are You The One, Ex On The Beach, late 2000's hit A Shot at Love and most other reality dating shows in 90's afternoon staple Singled Out. In our bit featuring the new version of the show last year, Kwasi from AYTO Season 8 was the very first picker of the show's revival as Justina Valentine and Conceited from Wild 'N Out took over the hosting gigs occupied by Chris Hardwick, Jenny McCarthy and Carmen Electra.

Another of Kwasi's castmates from the same AYTO season that's given us current Ex On The Beach single Kenya Scott and her ex Tevin Grant, also came onto Singled Out in Coney Island beach lifeguard Daniel Vilk. Our bio on him wrote, "Daniel may call Brooklyn home, but he takes great pride in his family's Ukrainian heritage... and it's something the women greatly appreciate. He's one who can say that his love for hot-tempered, jealous girls is why his relationships have not worked out. But Daniel conveniently leaves out that it's his ways of being unfaithful which have been the cause... and he often cites his partying lifestyle as an excuse for his behavior." Like many others there, Daniel didn't find true love in Hawaii, but he did become romantic with Chicago girl Samantha McKinnon.

In this episode which is embedded below, the person the fifty guys are come competing for that date is Sara, a self-described party girl who likes to turn up, is aiming to land a guy who knows what she wants, and who believes that there are no guys left who are good... and she is looking for a guy who's spontaneous and romantic who can also take her seriously. Find out if Sara does, and if Daniel will score her heart.

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG

DC SocialPulse: Are You The One? Season 8 - "It All Comes Down to Jax"

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BACKTRACKED EDITION
BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Well, we have made it through the first week of the post-summer season... that means, the NFL season is underway (albeit a sleeper in Chicago), and that means fall TV season is now starting. It also means that a summer vacation that began back in June is now headed towards its conclusion for the cast of Are You The One? Season 8: Come One, Come All.

When we were last brought you the SocialPulse of AYTO back in mid-August (for reasons to be explained here at the end), the Hawaii house had the traditional nighttime party under the skies, and once again the focus was on the one with the bleached blond hair, Kai... and there was also a fight on the dance floor as well. And a couple that took over the house was the pair known simply as #Rage - Remy and Paige.

As for the game itself, as it stands after their seventh matchup ceremony the house is stuck at three beams, and there's not much time left for them to get from there to eight - which is the magic number as there's just sixteen singles here in Hawaii. And as we rejoin them here, the house will have only three tries left to get from there to the end and $750,000. But something that the folks at AYTO Math have been doing has been of figuring out the matches before the house does: that's what a few in the house will figure out thanks to something called analytics. That may have bearings on the couple of the most intrigue in Hawaii.

After the jump, it's a special Backtracked edition of the 'Pulse of AYTO, as the game begins to change in paradise. And welcome to the weekend...

The Look - MTV's Ghosted: Love Gone Missing

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Seven years ago, MTV took a cue from what other networks were doing: take the show or franchise that is its most-watched, and offer its launchpad of the millions of viewers who watch it to a buzzed-about new series that came on afterwards. It's because of the strategy we called the "big timeslot effect" in using the Teen Mom franchise, and later Jersey Shore Family Vacation, that the following shows can thank them for big viewership and bigger buzz: Are You The One?, Siesta Key, Floribama Shore, the U.S. versions of Ex On The Beach and Just Tattoo of Us (How Far is Tattoo Far?), and the program that started this very trend...

The TV version of the eye-opening documentary film Catfish premiered in the late fall of 2012, and has been witness to a litany of jaw-dropping reveals, moments and discoveries in its travels across this broad country of ours. It made the subject of the docu-movie that inspired the show, Nev Schulman, and his longtime traveling companion of six years, Max Joseph, internet and television icons in helping to discover a part of the digital world that, until the TV show's debut, had not been focused on much: someone using a false online identity to dupe users who they thought they were in an online romance with, often from hundreds and even thousands of miles away.

This Tuesday sees the debut of a brand new series born out of this internet phenomenon, but this time the focus shifts slightly to a new subject, but following along the lines of the show it was inspired by. The cameras will turn from the world of online romance to a part of the digital landscape that has not had as much attention... but as it was when Catfish debuted, it will have the spot of airing after Teen Mom 2 (with a slightly new cast in Young & Pregnant's Jade Cline replacing Jenelle Evans) to offer a platform to showcase this new part of the world that will be discovered: the act of being Ghosted.

DC ExtraTime: Siesta Shore's VMA Jersey Takeover

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

In the past few years, there has been a wave in the way viewers have been getting their MTV: yes, satisfy everyone with what they've been offering in the shows that's been staples for years and offer new ones too... but also be mindful of those millennials who've grown up with the channel in the past two decades. Chris McCarthy and his team at 1515 Broadway have had this very fact in mind as one of their goals when they set the course to turn this channel around, and it's why things have been going upward as far as ratings and respect have been concerned.

A reason for two shows of our fairly recent past returning to our lives in the past two years in Jersey Shore in 2018 and The Hills this summer is because of what's been going on down in Florida: two shows inspired by the spirit of their predecessors out west and to the north, two that were launched out of the coveted spot of airing after Teen Mom, and who offer some contrasts. One is a docu-soap focusing on college-aged kids going through life in their small town located in one of America's greatest beach towns. The other is part of a global TV franchise that is simply, "a comedy with heart," and brings to everyone the flavor of the American South.

There have been romances on both shows, drama going down in just about every episode, and people who channel what viewers of a previous generation had with LC, the Situation and the rest of those who grew up with two of MTV's biggest hits. And compared to what the likes of Snooki, Speidi and the rest of those who they watched growing up, there's also an emotional attachment among those people that proves that there is something human and relatable in them that strikes a chord with viewers.

In TV land, the first two seasons of these shows may be some separated by some 400 miles of highway, but it seems that helping give people reason to watch MTV once again has united the casts of these shows. And it took for the platform of the channel's single biggest night for the casts of Siesta Key and Floribama Shore to come together, all ahead of their upcoming third seasons.

DC Vegas: Time for Number Ten...

DC FORUM SPECIAL
BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

There are certain things that gets this person in a state of being anticipatory: a Bay Area sports team is playing for a championship, the every two-year fortnight known as the Olympic Games, a new season of any MTV Reality series, or anything that's related to the passions I have. It's likely that you have had those occasions where you are ready for something you've waited some time for and just can't seem to sleep at night. Well, that's something I have whenever my parents make reservations for something that, for them, happens a few times each year when they travel out of town and force me to be the man of the house for a week at a time.
   But once every year for most of the dozen years, either they or my sister & brother-in-law have tagged this one along to go on a few days' vacation outside of the Bay Area. Over my lifetime, I've had the chance to travel to some great places, though in reality I have only stepped foot in just one country outside the U.S. and four other states other than California... it's unlike those who, thanks to social media, have grown a strong rapport with in the people who make up the family who star in the shows I have considered my favorite for two decades.
   A few times, the Cueva family has made that long plane flight over the Pacific to the homeland of my parents & relatives, the Philippines - the "Motherland" as we call it. Five times, we've taken that 7-hour drive down the Los Angeles area--three to Disneyland & Universal Studios as a kid, a fourth to my sister's graduation from UC Riverside in 2002, and a fifth two years ago when we celebrated my niece's birthday with Mickey & friends. A couple times, I've joined my dad to visit my relatives in New York City, and I've been to Hawaii also a few times. And before the advent of the nearby Indian casinos in California, I traveled to Reno a few times, even spending a spring break week in Lake Tahoe. And the most recent vacation saw me win $2,000 on the slots much to my stunned self.

But in the course of the past decade - and whose lineage goes all the way back 25 years, there is no place outside of where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where I have developed such a great love affair with than with the city of Las Vegas. It seems that when the first talks of us possibly going there, I begin getting into that mood. The thing I have referred to on social media as #DCVegas has become my own personal equivalent of the Super Bowl: the biggest event in my own universe. I've been there more often than any other vacation destination: nine times dating back to the summer of 1994.
   To prove how big a Vegas enthusiast I am, as an online shopper I've collected many things related to the entertainment capital of the world: travel guides, movies including the entire Hangover trilogy, two Real World seasons that have been filmed there, and other souvenirs. I have several private playlists on my YouTube channel devoted to Vegas and things related to it: travel videos, live slot play, things related to the city and other matters so I can watch and put myself in that mood. And there's many SD cards with photos and video I've taken from my adventures there which have been posted across my social channels.
   For a trip that takes anywhere from three to five days to enjoy the sunshine and the pleasure, it takes as many as three months for me to meticulously plan out all the details to have the best possible trip experience during the 50+ hours that I am actually on the ground in Vegas itself. I have a dedicated folder full of Vegas material ready for me for every trip, so I do not have to go back to square one again to plan each trip, and will only need to get updated guides and print-outs to reflect any changes to the town since the last time I was there. This process is the same for everyone who plan trips months in advance to make sure things run smoothly come vacation time.
   And there's nothing like the week and the last 24 hours leading into any #DCVegas trip, or any big vacation I go on, for that matter. There's having to buy new gear and clothes, wash any garments I may consider to put into my luggage, dusting off my Under Armour shoes that I only take out of my closet just for these occasions, and buying enough music to fill the many devices I have & keep my checkbook happy. And there's also a tradition I have of getting a fresh haircut the day before, or the day of, any big trip. These are all signs that I'm ready to head out of town for the time of my life... and it doesn't officially begin until I play in my plugs ZZ Top's version of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" the moment I arrive in the city - a modern day tradition of all of my Vegas journeys.