Showing posts with label are you the one. Show all posts
Showing posts with label are you the one. Show all posts

Monday, August 22, 2016

Potential Challenge Participants From Are You The One? Season 4

A little more than two months ago, I laid out a four-step plan for fixing MTV's The Challenge. The season was in a bit of a slump, but eventually turned itself around. This season, Rivals III, actually ended up having one of the most memorable finishes of any reality television show ever.

So maybe the people who professionally make reality TV for a living are better at making reality TV than I am. I can admit that.

However, the third step in my plan was putting together an Are You The One team to compete. I had already watched the first three seasons at that point, so I threw about a dozen names into the potential pool. But season four hadn't aired at all yet, so I had to make some educated guesses (based just strictly on pictures and one-sentence bios).

Let's see how I did:



Asaf

I think he's a cologne model because the dude is (1) shredded (2) from Israel and (3) wearing a bathing suit that is smaller than any underwear that I own.

The short bathing suit (and his entire fashion sense in general) was very exotic because Asaf is from Israel. He's also from California. I don't really know. 

But what I do know is he'd be great on The Challenge because he's in great shape, he loves to fuck everything that moves, and he barely speaks English. Those three things, especially when combined into one person, are always a recipe for entertainment on The Challenge. 


Cam

They describe him as a 6'8" cowboy, but I'm not sold on him having the edge we're looking for to Make The Challenge Great Again.

I think I nailed this one. Cam is huge, but he's really a soft individual and I can't see him having the sort of aggressiveness that guys need to really compete in The Challenge. But you can't teach size, and a huge tatted farm boy has a leg up on a lot of the "men" that come through AYTO. 


John

The first seven words of his bio are "A true alpha male to the core" and they describe him and "tough and intense." That should work.

Johnny is the PERFECT Challenge competitor. He's huge, he drinks too much, and he could conceivable be Rivals or Exes with like half the people from this season of AYTO. 

My Mount Rushmore of favorite John moments: 
  • The night he had to get restrained and then stormed out of the house saying "I'm sick of people telling me how I'm supposed to feel!"
  • The two days he spent leading Emma on even though "his heart" told him he wanted the smoking hot chick with fake boobs. 
  • The night he told Victoria (his Perfect Match) that she turned into a fat whale sometime around week four. 
  • Fifteen minutes after that last conversation, when he and Victoria violently made out on the kitchen counter. 

Sam

Flowing blonde hair on a former college football player is a welcome addition to any team of any kind. Sam is also #TeamPonytail which is pretty cool in my opinion.

This was the closest I cam to whiffing in my initial predictions. The physical traits are all there for Sam, but I think he's too goddamn nice to be in a competitive situation like The Challenge. Then again, he's a college football player so he's obviously got some sort of competitive side. 

I feel like the Challenge house would use his sensitive side against him. It almost reminds me of Dustin The Gay Porn Star - although this is obviously on a MUCH smaller scale. You know what? Forget I even mentioned Dustin. 

And The Other Guys
  • Cameron (the other one, who was in the honeymoon suite for the whole show) is big question mark for me. I don't remember anything he ever did. He probably won't make an appearance because he didn't have a lot of time to really do anything noteworthy.
  • Gio will probably weasel his way onto at least one season of The Challenge, and the night that Johnny Bananas puts him in a casket will be a real celebratory occasion for me. Fuck Gio.
  • Morgan, as it turns out, is AYTO alum Mike Crescenzo's roommate. Mike is now currently dating Tori, who was Morgan's perfect match. Shit is weird sometimes with these people, man. Morgan is muscular, but I'm not convinced that it's not just popcorn muscles. I'd love to see him and Tori both find their way onto a season of The Challenge, and if Mike joins them then even better. 
  • Prosper - was it racist of me to leave him off the preview post? He's an enormous dude, he has a sensitive/romantic side, and he just about threw Gio through the glass window one night. I'd expect him to do whatever it takes to get out of Albany for another couple of months. Maybe he can be Gio's Rival?
  • Stephen From Delco brought some Philly trash flair to this season (I say that lovingly, obviously). He comes off as kind of an asshole initially because of his tattoos and his Delco attitude, but as the season went on he became more of an emotional boyfriend type. He's not super muscular and he didn't seem to be super cunning, but anytime we can get some Philadelphia blood in The Challenge I'm all for it. 
  • Ty was possibly the worst cast member to ever appear on Are You The One, ever. 
The Challenge: Real World vs. Are You The One

We have 7 guys and 7 girls on each team. Here's who I'm lining up on the AYTO side:
  • Adam. Challenge veteran, probably still not employed full-time so most likely available. 
  • Dario. Another vet, with more experience than any other AYTO member. 
  • Layton. How he hasn't been on yet is a mystery to me. He's huge and he's angry. 
  • Mike. As mentioned above. 
  • Morgan. As mentioned above. 
  • Asaf. He's the best, he really is. 
  • John. This man was tailor made for Challenges. 
Let's do this, MTV. 

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Let's Fix MTV's The Challenge

Following last night's episode of The Challenge (and, really, the majority of the first five episodes this season), it's clear that we need to fix something with our favorite reality TV show.

A competition that once relied on displays of brute force and steroids has turned into a bunch of girls acting like your girlfriend when she's too drunk and starts fights for no reason.

Barstool's The Challenge podcast that was taped after last night's episode laid out some ways for MTV to fix things:
Step 1: The Format Of The Next Season

Real World vs. Are You The One is the easy choice. It's been laid out already this season via several fights (on the show and on Twitter), and there's no reason to not grab this low-hanging fruit.

There is a team made up of people who initially came into the mix via The Real World, and another team made up of people from the first four seasons of Are You The One. Rivals III, like the seasons before it, has 14 guys and 14 girls competing. That means we need 7 guys and 7 girls from each feeder show.

Each episode of our new Challenge, there is a team challenge to decide who is going into elimination. As per Challenge guidelines, we will alternate weekly between male and female eliminations. The losing team has to vote in one of its members to face off in The Jungle/The Desert/The Dungeon/Whatever, and the winning team will vote in another member from the losing team. Whoever loses goes home, and whoever wins returns to their team.

At some point, like every Survivor season ever, we'll have to combine the teams and/or turn it into a single-player competition. We'll figure that out later; let's keep it big picture for now.

Step 2: The Real World Pre-Show Web Series

I'm not going to take any sort of credit for this at all because it's taken word-for-word from Jack in the podcast above.

We're going to follow Johnny Bananas around the country as he recruits 13 of America's favorite challenge competitors to build a super team of meatheads and drunk girls.

Off the top of my head, if I had to pick 7 guys I would go with Bananas, CT, Wes, Kenny, Jordan, Johnny Reilly, and Tony. Feel free to disagree with any of them, but those seven are the correct answer.

Step 3: The Are You The One Team

This is where I can actively contribute to the discussion. I've watched the first three season of AYTO, and I will be watching the fourth when it premieres on Monday June 13th.

There are dozens of guys to choose from to fill out the 7-man Real World roster, but through three seasons we have a pretty limited pool for Team AYTO. The big issue is the lack of meatheads - instead of the classic roided-up guys from the old Challenges, we get goddamn millennials like Nate and Devin.

Here's who I'd consider for a good throwback Challenge competition:

Season One
  • Adam - You might remember him from The Challenge: Battle Of The Exes II, when he and Brittany made some noise as rookies. He's big and athletic enough to handle his own, and his already-created semi-romance with Brittany can fill up an episode of drama for the producers. For what it's worth, even though I'm not putting together any of the girls for this show, Brittany would 100% make my team. 
If I remember correctly, Adam & Brittany won a date here and then fought the whole time

Season Two
  • Anthony - Sorry to add a new face into the mix, but Anthony was enjoyable to watch on AYTO. He also shows signs of being the guy that gets angry and that's always a good contribution to any Challenge. 
  • Dario - Everyone's favorite meathead-but-not-really-a-meathead twin is obviously getting the invite. 
  • Garland - I'm not a racist, we need at least one brother on this team. 
  • Layton - I really have no idea why they didn't pay Layton whatever he wanted to be on Rivals with either Anthony or Dario. There was one episode where I legitimately thought the producers were going to need restraints to keep him from committing a murder. Layton is a huge dude, played baseball at Ole Miss, and is the only AYTO cast member that I wouldn't hesitate to put head-to-head against The Old Heads of The Challenge. 
Everyone say hello to Layton (and Anthony, who's getting berated)
Season Three
  • Connor - He's like half a step below Layton, but only because he is a much more relaxed person. I can't remember him ever snapping or going into a fit of rage, but all the physical tools are there (by that I mean he's huge and he lifts weights). 
  • Hunter - The token good old southern boy who grew up on a farm throwing bales of hay into his truck. He might be a little too nice for the Challenge, and he's definitely going to get his mind turned into a pretzel by Wes and Bananas. 
  • Mike - The big issue with including Mike is you know the producers would find a way to include Amanda on this RW-AYTO season. They were together throughout their season of AYTO, and she got under his skin so much that he did what everyone who watches her wants to do and pushed her on her ass. Amanda, of course, immediately went from Aggressor Mode to Victim Mode and ruined Mike's whole day. I can't imagine Mike would say yes if he knew Amanda was going to be around, which is sad because he's probably a solid competitor. 
  • Kiki - I know I said we weren't doing girls, but I need more Kiki on my television. 
Season Four

This is obviously a little tough to predict because we haven't actually seen anything with these people yet but here's who I think might fall into our Challenge pool based on their bios on MTV.com:
  • Asaf - I think he's a cologne model because the dude is (1) shredded (2) from Israel and (3) wearing a bathing suit that is smaller than any underwear that I own. 
  • Cam - They describe him as a 6'8" cowboy, but I'm not sold on him having the edge we're looking for to Make The Challenge Great Again. 
  • John (or John Connor, or JCH) - The first seven words of his bio are "A true alpha male to the core" and they describe him and "tough and intense." That should work. 
  • Sam - Flowing blonde hair on a former college football player is a welcome addition to any team of any kind. Sam is also #TeamPonytail which is pretty cool in my opinion. 
Step 4: The Challenge Season 29: RW vs. AYTO

And now, everything is fixed.