Real World 20th Awards Bash, Part 3
15-minutes of Fame, MTV's The Real World New Orleans 3 Comments »I missed the first half of the show last night because Candyce and I were watching The Hills on Tivo. (More about The Hills later.) Once Spencer moved out of Heidi’s apartment and the show was over, I skipped over to MTV to schedule a recording of the Real World thingy at 10 PM, and what do you know? The show is on right now…at 7 PM Pacific time (duh). After feeling stupid for a half second, I pressed record and Candyce snuggled in close for the main event.

Me on the red carpet at The Real World Awards Bash.
“29 and married” is the new “22 and famous.”
Party Like it’s 1999
We filmed the show a few weeks ago in Los Angeles. I had an absolute blast at that night, despite the fact that I was the only cast member who showed up from RW New Orleans. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone again. All day my heart was giddy with the thought of the seven of us being together for the first time in several years. When I got to the party Jonathan Murray, the creator/owner of show, told me I was the only one from my cast who showed up. I was so disappointed.
It was a rush to spend time with casts from the shows that aired before ours…all the people I met at the 10-year reunion. It was also a blast to be re-united with everyone from The Gauntlet too. I talked to a couple folks from that show and we made peace with our past. It was good to hug and makeup.
The show was filmed in a cool modern house perched on a hilltop in the Hollywood Hills. This made for a glamorous backdrop for the show, but it created many problems. First of all, there was no place to park. The homes are packed on top of each other because Real Estate is so premo. And the steep, winding streets that connect these lux homes are very narrow. So if you lived in LA and wanted to show up whenever you wanted to, you had to have a friend drive you there like a soccer mom and drop you off.
I got there in one of several vans full of out-of-towners that were staying at hotels in the area. It was a lot of fun to be in a van for 45 minutes with 10 other kids from different seasons. Although most of us had never met one another, we had a strong connection because we’ve all been through the same dramas that comes with the show.
Flashing Lights
The red carpet experience was amusing. When you see “red carpet” photos, you usually see glamorous people looking glamorous. If you watch some video footage of the passage over the red carpet, you’ll see that person sparkling from the flashes from cameras. I suppose every red carpet has unique circumstances, but of the handful that I’ve been a part of, it’s never been totally glamorous, especially at this event.
You basically have 100+ people trying to make their way from one end of the carpet to the other. Once you’re on the carpet, you’ll have your picture taken, you’ll be interviewed by lots of people with microphones standing next to people with cameras. You don’t hurry because you want the media to get a good look at you so they will talk about you once the event is over. Everyone uses this same playbook, so the line is slower and longer than at the DMV. But nobody really cared. The people who crossed over the carpet were having fun at their party…the people still waiting for their time to shine had their own party 100 feet away. Good times.
What’s Wrong Here?
It’s hard to write about all of this because there’s so much to say. So I’ll just get to the point. The awards categories were ridiculous and humiliating. The word “honor” is no where near any of these categories:
- Steamiest scene
- Person you love to hate
- Best meltdown
- Best brush with the law
- Best fight
- Best phone call gone bad
I’m not surprised that these were the awards categories, because the show has gotten so raunchy over the years. The early seasons were a creative mix of unique individuals placed in a cool house in a cool city. The content of each show slowly evolved until the ratings spiked with the raunchy drama of RW Hawaii (season 8.)
When they chose people for season 9 (my season), they purposely tried to re-created the essence of the earliest seasons. Our ratings were high, but I suppose they weren’t high enough. Every season after us gets more scandalous than the season before.
I don’t blame Bunim-Murray or MTV for letting the show spiral down like it has. They will tell you that they are a business, and this is the stuff that sells. “We give the viewers what they want.” They’ll explain that MTV is a part of Viacom, a publicly traded company whose share holders expect high returns. So who do you blame? Is it MTV? Is it Viacom? Is it the thousands of Dads around the country who own stock in Viacom but won’t let their kids watch RW? Or should you just blame the stupid kids on the show who make stupid decisions?
I don’t believe that nobody is to blame just because it’s a complicated problem. We are all at fault. We’ve allowed public indignity and self-exploitation to pass as entertainment: pornography, Girls Gone Wild, Jackass, cage fighting, and half of the videos on YouTube. The history books will not judge our society kindly.
You don’t have to look far to know that something is not right here. Two people from The Real World are dead. Frankie from RW San Diego died of cystic fibroses. Pedro from RW San Francisco died of AIDS. When it came time to remember and honor these two souls, how could viewers take their deaths with any sincerity? Can one person be entertained by the raunchy drama of RW for the first hour of the show, then pause for three minutes melodramatic mourning, then flip the switch back to gorging your eyes with the footage of the threesome in a hot tub?
Life Goes On
I was inside saying my goodbyes when I stepped up to the window to see that the two hosts standing on stage reading lines off their Teleprompters into the cameras. Except for a handful of kids waiting for their awards, the only people listening to them were from production crew holding cameras and microphones. It was pitiful.
The irony was inescapable. We were invited to this hilltop in Hollywood to be congratulated for our achievements, yet everyone lost interest before the night was over.
The reality is that each person at that party was a fragile soul. We all know what it’s like to be famous and what it’s like to be ordinary again. We know what it’s like to be humiliated and exalted on national television. We know criticism and praise. We know that this big and exciting thing we are apart of us not as big and as exciting used to think. It’s easy to leave the crowning party when you stopped caring years ago.
Life goes on. People get old.
I love my life. I am blessed. I married the girl of my dreams. Later this year we are going to have a baby, the most miraculous promise that’s ever been made to me. I have never been more excited about a new chapter in my life.
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