DC ExtraTime: A Challenge Girl Meets NASCAR's Newest Champ

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Six years ago, the cameras of Season 30 of The Real World briefly ventured from the hustle & bustle of Chicago -- and those from the roommates' past making temporary visits to the house -- to the outskirts of the third largest metropolitan region in this country. For one day, MTV Reality intersected with one of man's biggest confrontations: that against speed and machine, all played out on a large speedway and in a stadium with football-sized attendances.

   It was there that the cast of Real World Skeletons spent a Sunday at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL south of the city to take in the 2014 installment of NASCAR's annual stop in Chicago for the opening race of that season's NASCAR Cup Playoffs. Tony, Nicole, Sylvia and their fellow castmates took a day out for a day at the racetrack, getting that first feel for competition that would eventually bring bring them to multiple Challenge seasons afterwards... they even hung out with a few of the drivers before they received the famous four-word command, "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"

Motor Sports has been around for as long as there has been automobiles, and where competition ranges from motorcycles and monster trucks to rallying and drag racing. In the rest of the world, it's the Formula One World Championship that grabs the attention of fans everywhere with over 350 million tuning in during the season to follow several times' world champion Lewis Hamilton and others take to circuits around the globe. But it plays second fiddle in North America to its form of open-wheel racing, IndyCar, headlined by the Indianapolis 500.

   And yet, that too also doesn't have the kind of extensive year-round media attention that accompanies its stock-car counterparts: starting in the late 1940's, NASCAR has grown leaps and bounds from a regional happening throughout the Southeast to tremendous success across the country. Every weekend from its biggest race in Daytona in February through to the 10-race Playoffs in the fall, millions of fans follow the progress of what was, for a time, the most-watched sport in this country outside of the NFL. Though its growth has stalled somewhat, the top-tier Cup Series still remains strong, while the secondary national XFINITY Series and regional circuits showcase the next generation of drivers.

DC ExtraTime: Before They Were MTV Stars - Hooters Girls

Repost from during Are You The One? Season 4, a related story on this will be featured in the next DCBLOG post to come later today (Nov. 12, 2020).

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

In my six trips to Las Vegas the past decade, my preferred way of going up & down the Strip has been of taking the LV Monorail. An air-conditioned tram behind the casinos takes many of the city's 40 million annual visitors to their preferred places quicker & cheaper than a taxi. When I head down towards its southern terminus at the MGM Grand, across the way within view of the station is an off-strip hotel & casino bearing the name of America's most renowned restaurant brands, whose logo bears the image of an owl and the name of his famous call.

Since it began operations in 1983, Hooters has grown from a hometown restaurant in Clearwater, FL to a national brand now spotted in over 450 locations in the U.S. and 25 other countries. The company's image is best personified by the waiting staff featuring primarily attractive, young ladies wearing a white tank top and orange shorts and having sex appeal too... Thus, the term Hooters Girls is the most notable feature of this restaurant that serves up American food. And it's only part of a Tampa Bay empire that's also included video games, airplanes and sponsorship, even with occasional legal history too.

Two recent alums of the Real World/Challenge franchise are former Hooters Girls. When we first saw her on the premiere of RW Portland three years ago, we met Averey from Tempe, AZ as the girl from Michigan who had who moved out to the desert with her only piece of home, adorable dog Daisy, to get a new start. Clever video techniques she used in her casting tape saw her go from wearing her typical outfit in the sun-soaked locale that is the Phoenix metropolitan area, to wearing the signature Hooter Girl outfit. She says in the tape, "I do work for Hooters - as funny as that is.  So this would be, 'Normal Girl Day' (typical outfit)... Hooter Girl (Hooters outfit)... Don't Be Jealous." 

Four years earlier, we had Boston'er Emilee on Real World Cancun who, too, worked at Hooters. In her casting interview, she discussed the perceived enigma that comes with working there: "I hate when people treat me like I'm ignorant because I'm not. I mean, I work at Hooters. And I was just talking to a girl the other day about how we have these customers come in, and they come in with these expectations of that you're going to be stupid. And I hate people like that; that's my #1 pet peeve. My self esteem isn't with what I look like, it's with my intelligence. And I hate when people be a little mean.  It's not even sometimes words...It's just a superiority. And it's like, especially with guys, who I hate when someone tries to tell me what to do or questions my ability. It really just p.....s me off. That's my #1 pet peeve. My friends know it, my mom knows it, it really irritates me."

Credit: Hooters.com

Recently, last year saw not one, but two Hooters Girls on Season 3 of Are You The One?. When we met Augusta, GA native Britni - who we featured here last week, she had worked for some time at a local location there before she found her own perfect match in Chuck. And second, while her AYTO 3 ex Devin has made rounds in the Rivals house, Kiki recently spent the past two months focusing on her own challenge: winning the 20th Annual Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant in Las Vegas. She won the regional pageant for the Mid-Atlantic region back in May, which saw her advance to Nationals in Las Vegas over a week ago.

While all we saw from her in Hawaii was of getting played by Big D during the season and being sent into the Truth Booth many a time, it's a much different Kiki when she's at her local Hooters in Fairfax County, VA outside of Washington, D.C.  Their description of her writes, "Kirsten is a spirited jokster from Chantilly who loves to pull good-natured pranks on her co-workers. She has a master's degree in special education and loved her internship with a self-contained autism class at an elementary school. Kirsten's hobbies include snowboarding, wakeboarding, spending time with her two dogs and going on as many roller coasters as possible!"

Kiki spent last week in Vegas and at the PALMS Resort & Casino taking part in the Pageant along with 78 other beautiful women from around the world, as well as all related matters such as calendar photography and the like, which included the vote for Miss Fan Favorite. With that always lucky number of #7, she received strong support from her fan base who's followed her the past 12 months in voting for that award, which unfortunately she didn't win but is still a sign of her popularity among AYTO fans. In the end, Fort Lauderdale Hooters Girl Sable Jade Robbert took top honors, but Kiki did enjoy the great week she had in Sin City to make memories with the ladies and add more to her appeal as one of the most-popular Trifecta castmates of recent years. Next stop: Challenge perhaps?

- I AM DC @DC408Dxtr

#TheEscapeYouDeserve

DC ExtraTime: "This is the True Story" Inside The Sands of The Hourglass...

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

If there is a bright spot to what has been a dark year of 2020, it has been that more & more of us have been spending our time at home at all hours of the day, working and getting educated virtually in addition to the usual routines we have to start our day and then when we would usually get home from work and school until it's time for lights out. It has seen internet usage skyrocket to new heights thanks to technology keeping us all connected, and viewing in television dayparts have increased also.

If you are one of those who are obsessed with reality television like we are here, then you know that part of the genre we love is influenced by daytime soap operas and the experience that Mary-Ellis Bunim had producing them before joining documentary producer Jon Murray to create their production arm that has brought us The Real World, The Challenge, Keeping Up with The Kardashians and other iconic reality shows. Much of what you see on those shows and everything else in the reality genre are influenced by daytime soaps: the arcs, the characters and the pacing of episodes are all influenced by that genre.

The soap opera genre is officially known as "serial drama" in having storylines that continue from episode to episode every weekday... and of course, the moniker comes from these shows being sponsored & produced by companies that market popular soap brands. It may not have the kind of large appeal and ratings that it once had as talk shows, courtroom-based series and other program genres have taken over the late-morning and afternoon time periods. But watching the soaps remains a favorite for the at-home housewives after all these years, with a few of them still on air decades after they began airing during the golden age of television.

Something that's been as much a decades-long staple of NBC as Today, The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, Dateline and its Olympic coverage has been Days of Our Lives, which began airing on the Peacock back in November 1965, and is into its 56th year as its longest-running scripted series. Days has documented generations of the Horton, Brady and DiMera families in the fictional town of Salem with the many twists and turns that have gone down there. And every soap opera fan has grown up with the little-changed title sequence voiced by the series' patriarch MacDonald Carey: "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives."

Inside MTV Reality: The Challenge Invades Big Brother All-Stars

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

We've just had Halloween and THAT event last week, but for those of us who follow reality TV year-round, we've all finally have had a chance to take a breather in this unique time in our world after having a sense of normalcy being restored for most of this year. We witnessed Johnny Bananas conquer The Challenge once again as it provided us with much needed escapist programming to take our minds off of the world outside our windows, which made its way to Total Madness when controversy saw a recent champion get blacked out by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Season 35 of the fifth major pro sport was really the only big "sport" that was going on in the course of a spring and early summer of 2020 of this COVID world, and just shortly after came a rite of summer. After five seasons of having those who have stepped inside its famous house, CBS stalwart Big Brother took center stage among avid fans of the non-scripted space and those who watch the show every year. That includes those from Challenge Nation who joined the party watching the episodes with Julie Chen-Moonves and the live feeds if they're lucky to fork some money for CBS All Access, which added past Challenges, Real Worlds, other MTV shows and the UEFA Champions League to their lineup.

This was the first Big Brother season to take place in the new ViacomCBS, but the first since summer 2005 that the Eye network and MTV have been on the same team under the same corporate umbrella, and twenty years after that first season during the summer that helped put the Eye network back on the map. Of course, the seeds of the eventual integration of the two networks' parent companies can be traced back to when The Challenge needed to add some fresh blood to the competitor list, and they looked to former Big Brother houseguests to help pave the way for other reality shows outside the MTV fold to join in. Since then, seventeen of them have crossed over to doing not only the past four Challenges, but also three seasons of the U.S. version of global sensation Ex On The Beach.

Those of you who followed the fortunes of Josh, Natalie and the rest of those former houseguests from Vendettas to Total Madness joined with them and everyone else to watch BB All-Stars, the show's 22nd regular season but the second to cast an entire group of past alumni to take up residency in America's most heavily-watched summer house with over 100 high-def cameras to watch their every move 24/7. And you can tell from everyone buzzing about it on your social media feeds that, once again, things were back to normal in how your fellow followers got to analyze every move from their couches as once again, it took over our lives. And there were a couple familiar faces as after five seasons of it invading The Challenge, it was time for Big Brother to return the favor.

DC ExtraTime: A Team MTV Halloween 2020

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

IG Clockwise from top left: @T_Raines, 
@_Maria_Elizondo, @DJPaulyD, 
and @Taylor.Selfridge

We are now into the month of November, and today is a big day in this country... but this is not the biggest day of the 11th month of the year to this blogger nor is that four-day weekend of Thanksgiving that comes later on: my birthday comes in ten days from right now as this is being posted on this Tuesday. But the one day of the year that's best known in my universe by the hashtag #DCBDay comes right during the midst of the fall & winter holidays, which begins on Halloween.

When we rang in 2020 ten long months ago, we anticipated this among other holidays to fall during the most exciting time of the entire week: the weekend - and on the most ideal of days to celebrate that last day of the month on a Saturday night. What none of us didn't expect was that many of us would have to celebrate the spookiest of holidays in the comfort of our own homes, perhaps not having as many guests knock on the door for trick or treating due to the pandemic, or even risking it all to dress up for those parties that are such a part of our culture when we reach October 31st on the calendar.

Nonetheless, this year's installment of Halloween has provided us with plenty of options when it comes to picking those costumes, and that was perhaps the most important thing on the minds of the people who we keep our tabs on in going Inside MTV Reality on this DCBLOG site. Of course, that would be the cast members of the shows that we cover greatly on here, ranging from The Challenge and Are You The One to Siesta Key to the Shore franchise.

Below and in no particular order, a long but diverse sampling of what they dressed up as for a most unusual Halloween 2020 from the world of Instagram. And after they got to binge watch one particular program on a certain pay stream service in the past year, you'll never guess what the most popular costume was this time around...

DC ExtraTime: AYTO Takes Over Boogie's Comedy Slam

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Tomorrow is a day most of us have been looking forward to, or dreading, depending on the mood you are in right now as we are this close to Election Day. As a place you come to for a place of escape as detailed by a slogan I've taken ownership of since March - "The Escape You Deserve", we don't really need to elaborate on that title above... but one aspect of American society which has taken full advantage of this situation we are in has been the world of comedy. And judging by the playful jabs and jokes that Stephen Colbert and other late night talk show hosts have given us before bed all during this tough year, then they have treated this campaign and lead-up to tomorrow as a daily field day.

Making you laugh has been a regular fixture of this DCBLOG ExtraTime series, including the instances of online pranksters hanging out with MTV'ers, the lighter moments involving these people, and what we got planned next in showing those hilarious costumes from back on Halloween on Saturday night. And someone who's been a frequent subject on here has been the resident comedian of the show that brought me into watching romantic reality TV: John Jacobs was part of the first Are You The One? cast and paved the way for other shows to join The Challenge when he was on Battle of the Exes 2, but we've featured JJ many times here including his Tampa News Force YouTube satire series.

Two years ago, we had another comedian take a break from telling jokes to head to the one show where the hopes of a perfect match and a million dollars can live or die by lasers and lights. And just recently, that man got to do what he does best in front of a couple NBA stars and in two places he calls home: the stand-up stage and in the place he grew up in - the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.

DC ExtraTime 'Gram Scan: It's Getting Spooky in Siesta Key

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

IG clockwise from top: @JuliettePorter,
@JKelderman & @TheKelseyOwens

Going into this year, we all had high expectations for the start of the third decade of this century and millennium... one of those was that some of the biggest holidays we celebrate each year would fall on the weekend. Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July, Christmas and New Year's would all fall around weekends such as these - along with the birthday of this blogger falling on a Friday the 13th in a couple weeks. And then came COVID... it's best that we really don't want to elaborate on how 2020 has been.

Tonight, we all celebrate Halloween in its every few years occasion of it falling on what is considered the most ideal day for it to fall on: Saturday. In a perfect world, this would be when parents don't have to get home early from work to help dress up the kids in their costumes and prepare candy before the main event after dark of them going trick or treating and then coming home and staying up late instead of having to go to sleep early because of school the next door. Obviously, this changed world we are in changed all of that, and most of us have been forced to stay home for this Halloween Saturday Night.

However, the stay at home restrictions and encouragement from local authorities to go out and go door to door for candy hasn't deterred the usual excitement that comes with the last day of October... and that includes a group who knows how to party in the town that boasts America's top beach. We are talking about the cool crew of Siesta Key, who have had a couple chances to celebrate Halloween on their show: the second half of both Seasons 1 and 3 of the show have featured Juliette and the rest of her power clique dressing up in wild costumes and marking the big night with their signature parties.

Last Saturday night, most of the group came together in town to celebrate the coming occasion of Halloween, and as they always do for parties like this they shared it with their hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. And below, some of the best from when things get spooky in Siesta Key.

DC ExtraTime: From the Peak to The Voice

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

The S19 coaches of The Voice (all
pix except EOTB courtesy NBC)

In two times on this site, we brought into focus one of American television's biggest hits in NBC's The Voice: the Peacock's take on the classic singing contest involving four artists spinning their chairs when they hear a singer they love so much they desperately want them on their team as they look for gold at season's end. The first instance of this came during the Dirty 30 season of The Challenge back in 2017.

   To those who produce the show and make the magic happen each week, Will Gill works behind the scenes on the show as part of the audience warmups before taping begins and the spotlight shines on the performers and the coaches. But to us MTV Reality fans, Will is the one who got to score a date with Janelle from Real World Key West and who won Gauntlet III because of Big Easy... and who got roasted for trying to cry to grab her feelings later in the season and heard a mouthful from her on the reunion.

The other instance of The Voice appearing on this site until now isn't actually from that show, but whose use of those chairs came in an early Before They Were MTV Stars. The long-forgotten summer 2012 FOX dating show The Choice brought that concept to the world of reality dating TV, and where it brought four celebrities in touch with worthy singles in an effort to win a date with those like Joe Jonas, Rob Gronkowski and others.

   While it was short lived, The Choice did give us a glimpse into the future as it featured the national TV debut of three future MTV Reality stars: Nia Moore of Real World Portland & two Challenges, and Brittany Baldi & Chris Scali who would later be part of the original cast of Are You The One? when Season 1 debuted two years later. Nia and Scali were the last ones standing in their quests for love: her with Jason Cook and him with Singled Out alum Carmen Electra, among other notable celebs that included Mike the Situation, DJ Pauly D. and Romeo Miller.

The son of Master P. has presided over all four seasons of the American version of MTV's totally twisted take on love, Ex On The Beach... if not for COVID we'd be enjoying Romeo's company again in helping to bring torture to the stars who are chosen to find out whose ex is next. And almost two weeks ago, we had another show be added to the many those from EOTB and other MTV shows have crossed over - and it was one who found himself on the most recent season of Ex.

   It seems long ago now, but the last time we had to see the sight of exes come walking back into the lives of the stars came back last winter when the global EOTB franchise had its first winter-themed season, Peak of Love in New Zealand... a far cry from sandy beaches, swimwear and the sun. Season 4 of Ex on America was dominated by four past Challengers, an AYTO alum and those from RuPaul's Drag Race, Bachelor Nation and Nickelodeon being represented.

But while Laurel, Nicole, Marlon, Jemmye, Adore and others had most of the airtime as did Georgia S. & Callum from Britain, Michigan singer Ryan Gallagher spent much of the winter largely in the background. Compared to everyone else, he only had to deal with just one ex (Magdalena Ruiz) come into the house where their efforts to rekindle their relationship fizzled out. But as part of a family of six siblings, Gallagher had to temporarily having to leave the chalet due to a family emergency at home, as his mom has been battling MS since he was only 3 years old.

   But it's not to say that Ryan has such a great talent: he has been a singer just about all his life, and who had the chance to perform in the background for Josh Groban and then for Carrie Underwood and Michael Bolton. Then came performing on Nashville Star, traveled to the Philippines where he also performed on local television, and performed throughout the Pacific Rim and on Broadway before going onto American Idol. Like any other good performer who goes onto hat show, he boasts a diverse repertoire where he is able to do pop covers but who's in his element in classical & jazz standards. And it's in the ladder category that brought him to the just-premiered 19th season of The Voice.