‘The Real World’ Season 29 is Happening and Here’s the Twist…
If it’s been a few years since you checked in on The Real World, you’d be among a group commonly referred to as “most people.” So what’s a 29-year-old show cusping on the verge of the big 3-0 to do? Revamp the “this is the true story of seven strangers…” mantra in favor of a twist. Slightly off-brand in the sense of not being real at all — which, if you harken back to Seasons 1-9, was once a thing — the upcoming season (premiering Jan 15th) will welcome houseguests 219 through 225. (Yes, we’re all old). The revamped show is complete with a name change — Real World: Ex-Plosion — as well as a new caveat: seven strangers will break bread in their lush San Francisco digs for month one, then it’s trip time, and when they return, they’ll be joined by their exes, who’re moving in for the remaining two months.
Co-creator and Exec Producer Jonathan Murray is not unaware of today’s television climate, stating “When The Real World went on the air in ’92, you put seven diverse people together and you get conflict, and out of that conflict, change–and then you have a story. Now that it’s 21 years or so later, maybe we’re a bit of a victim of our own success. Diversity is a fact of life today. A lot of young people date people of different races, or have friends who are gay. The world has changed. We’ve had conversations [with the network] throughout 28 seasons of the show, but we’ve never made this big of a commitment to change.”
In yet another shocking twist, the houseguests will be given cell phones (ordinarily a reality TV no-no), for posting messages and photos throughout their experience in the house. Call it Confessional 2.0. Will all these changes, including a super-sized house roster, see a rating’s spike for the show? We’ll have to wait until 2014 to find out.
In the meantime:
Images courtesy of MTV.
