Eh. It can apply to my friend too.

Of course it was. I was hoping Johnny would scream, "Victory!" at the end.

I wish they'd put all the other seasons online. They missed the boat for DVDs, but they could make some money selling the streaming rights.

This show would be way more interesting if they brought on some of the RW cast members from the 1st 10 or so seasons and stopped bringing back the same people over and over again. How watchable would it be if they brought back Dominck from L.A. or Pedro from San Fran... oh, wait...

Sad that CT and Diem couldn't keep up their lead, but I was happy to see them get 2nd at least. It was crazy seeing CT just run out of gas. It was almost like that famous footage of the guy who is almost at the finish line in that marathon and his body completely shuts down on him.

Well, Mark Long was one of the potential replacement roommates that they interviewed on the show during RW San Francisco before he landed the first Road Rules.

Yeah but he's been on so many challenges already. I'm sure out of the 100's of old cast members there have been they could get some new ones that have never been on the challenges before but instead they always stick to the same ones.

I dont know, if it was that easy to get people they probably wouldn't have needed to do Fresh Meat.

I think there are a couple of reasons that we don't see a lot of "old school" RW cast members. Those people are getting older. They made a lot of age jokes about Mark Long, and there are cast members older than him. Most of those people probably have lives and jobs that prohibit them from going on a month long vacation. I'm also pretty sure that nearly 100% of prior cast members are not in the kind of shape that Mark Long is in, and these challenges are physically demanding.

Also, the living arrangements in the house can get pretty wild. Most people grow up at one point or another. The people who don't keep coming back to live in these houses a couple times a year. Case in point, a few years ago Jo from SF did her first challenge and left b/c she couldn't live in that house.

Yeah that all makes sense. However, the only person I heard making jokes about Mark Long's age was Mark Long.

All the fans would finally want the unedited footage and I'm sure the cast members are too chicken to let themselves be seen full on nude without the cover ups and got knows what else they do on the challenges that no one ever sees.

Its also the fact that the former cast members who've actually done something with their lives after the show generally want nothing to do with it anymore unless its a full on reunion retrospective.

MTV is just happy when WWE lets Miz do anything associated with them anymore (like him hosting this year's Challenge Reunion) and I've personally been dying to have Judd Winnick and his wife Pam come back to a Challenge just to say to the rest of the cast:

"So, since RW ended, I've had comic strips put in national syndication, I've written comic books for both DC and Marvel, written scripts of animated movies, including one based of a Batman story I originally wrote for the comic, created my own original animated series. My wife's a successful doctor, and we have a wonderful family.

Now what have you guys done with your life since the show? Just keep coming back here to try to win money?"

"Baby teeth"

Or have Sean Duffy address them, excusing himself for his lack of prior participation due to his duties as a district attorney and US Congressman having kept him busy the last 10 years. That said, one of his RW Boston castmates (Syrus) was on a challenge as recently as two years ago.

I never understood why some people here are so critical about those that do go on the show a lot. They get to travel to cool places, have a lot of fun, do activities they would never imagine, and be on TV while getting paid. Seems pretty nice, and obviously given the type of people that want to be on the Real World I wouldn't peg them to be the most successful kids out there.

Sean Duffy met his wife on the first cross-over show, though that wasn't really a "challenge". He did do the first big challenge show "Battle of the Seasons" where he partnered with Elka.

I don't have a problem with cast members who do challenges. It starts to be a little weird if your still doing them in your late 30s though.

Paula is single, works in a bar, and lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. It was like winning the lottery for her to be "discovered" by MTV. I can't blame her for saying she'll keep doing this until she's a grandmother. Even if she doesn't win cash--she's mildly famous and gets to do things she'd never ever get close to doing when there's another challenge.

MTV, in my opinion, thinks of Bananas and Kenny as two of their stars. Johnny makes most of his income from MTV and that group makes a good deal of money from the rigged nature of the game.

I don't really like the "cool" group that seems to run these challenges and I think a lot of people wouldn't dislike a lot of them if they could realistically be sent home at the beginning. But, sometimes they run the table, and like this challenge, 2 of the top 3 alliances made the final. CT and Diem are likable, but they were every bit part of a group with Johnny and Mike.

I think the drinking and poor behavior doesn't reflect well on a lot of these people. Doing the challenges into your 30's might be ok, but I think most people quit the kind of crazy behavior we see from most of the cast by our mid-20's.

But it's kind of clear that this is what MTV wants. I think they believe if the "stars" go home early, people won't watch.

Because they give the impression this is their career and they do nothing in their real lives until this moment and then watching them compete the way they do gets even more ridiculous cause you think this is the only way they can make money in the world.

I don't have the impression that this is their career, but even if it is I don't see the big deal. I imagine a lot of them, like many people in the world, have menial boring jobs that don't pay a lot of money. Why wouldn't you jump at the chance to do this unless you're making 6 figures elsewhere?

Of course someone would jump at that chance. I don't blame them for that.

I'd "blame" them if they all then thought they can now make it in Hollywood because of the series, find out they can't, yet continue to keep trying without doing any real work, and make sure to constantly show up on this show because of it.

Not to mention, if they have those menial boring jobs, what kind of jobs are they where their bosses will let them leave for like 4 weeks a year at a time?

None of them ever give the impression they have any actual jobs waiting for them when this is over.

Wow, most of these people are just emotionally stunted nutcases. It's not an act. Diem is even kind of trashy and she's the "nice" one. It's like seeing, in many cases, the cast of 16 and pregnant only 10-15 years later. That would be like Johnny and Paula. These are not kids, for the most part, and they really act like it.

Yes, I get why they say yes to coming back. The experiences must be great, but they really do get people that I don't really recognize from the wide range of people that I know. Not all fit that, some mature, but most are kind of ghetto and stupid. The challenges can be fun, but when they get extended time to talk, they certainly don't look good.

Camilla has a great body, but I don't see anything special about her face.

Paula should see a psychologist, because you can see over the years that she's just not a happy person and she tries to find something in these challenges that she's missing in life. That's a big mistake.

CT does seem to have a kinder personality now, but I couldn't understand most of what he tried to say tonight. My wife think he's the hottest guy, but thinks the way he talks and his lack of intelligence diminishes his appeal. She think Bananas is horrible.

Johnny is a beast in these challenges, but he's really immature and probably will never have a healthy relationship in his life.

The lecturing about the black face incident is annoying. They've all done things when they're drunk that are incredibly stupid. You know your partner is or isn't racist or is or isn't just completely stupid at times about what is appropriate. Emily doesn't seem to be someone who'd hurt anyone on purpose. That would be a factor I'd think about seriously before making this into a racist drama.

Aneesa judges others harshly (always has), but doesn't see that in herself. Emily is one of the few people I think might be nice to know in "real life."

I feel badly for Robin. She's just past the stage where she should be on these shows and it was apparent from the beginning. As she said, she has issues, but she's not a bad person, just someone who doesn't need to be in such a highly charged environment while she's trying to deal with whatever personal issues she has.

I don't even like Miz and I'm probably the only one who will post in this thread that doesn't. I actually watched the Real World still when he was on the Chicago version and I'm someone who moved away from MTV almost completely before Vegas, Austin and anything else after. But he was annoying then and he's annoying now. But in his career of fake wrestling, that kind of weird personality probably makes him even more successful, so good for him in that he's living his dream. I'd just rather not have to see him or hear from him again.

I hope Ev isn't done for good and I'd like to see Laurel again to see if she's changed or if she'll follow in the long line of people who do these shows for a decade or more and never learn a think.

I don't see Mike's appeal. He tries too hard, but he's totally full of himself, second only of this cast to Johnny.

Derrick got married, had kids, and moved on, all after having gone for a crazy psycho to a bulldog in comps like always, but a much more respectful guy. Mike will never exist that way. He's 40 years old and desperate to flex his muscles on tv again. Ugh.

Sounds like I'd be someone who wouldn't want to see another challenge. Hell no, I can't wait for the next one. I just can't really explain why that is. Possibly because I was also raised in a cult.

dolphinboy, the Miz was on the "Back to New York" season of The Real World, not Chicago.

Also, I'm not sure who the "Mike" you're referring to is. Do you mean Mark Long?

But Johnny also summed up what I said about all of them also when he said now he'll just keep living off his winnings until the next challenge.

No desire to do anything with his life except compete on this show and sue Mark Wahlberg and not win.

Finally got around to watching all the recorded episodes and wrapped up the season. Enjoyed it.

Is it just me or did Diem look really good this season?

For anyone who's interested, David Jacoby (Grantland) did a podcast interview with Johnny Bananas and CT:

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollyw...bananas-and-ct

That just might be one of the saddest sentences ever written on the interwebs. So why does it make me chuckle to read it?