Paramount+ / MTV The Real World Homecoming on Paramount+
Nearly 30 years after its groundbreaking debut on MTV, The Real World is set to return to our screens, with none other than the original cast of the show’s first season. The Real World: New York saw strangers Becky Blasband, Andre Comeau, Heather B. Gardner, Julie Gentry, Norman Korpi, Eric Nies and Kevin Powell move into a New York City loft together to “find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.”
Now, the show’s entire cast is reuniting for The Real World Homecoming: New York, which is set to drop on ViacomCBS’s new streaming service, Paramount+, on its launch date of March 4. The first installment, a “multi-episode docuseries,” will also be filmed in the same iconic NYC loft and will see the seven cast members “revisit the shocking moments and explosive issues that transpired during the historic season and discuss how they parallel in today’s social climate,” according to the show’s press release.
The original seven stars will also open up about how the show changed their lives and what’s been going on with them since their season ended. In announcing the season, Chris McCarthy, President of MTV Entertainment Group, said:
THE REAL WORLD is credited with creating the Reality TV genre and was one of the first series to tackle important and yet unrepresented topics such as LGBTQ, race, gender, HIV/AIDS and religion. With Paramount+ being the home to so many global reality hit franchises it seems only fitting to bring back the franchise and cast that started it all for the launch.
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Paramount+ Is the Rebranded CBS All Access & Will Be Launching on March 4
Find out what happens when the OG cast once again stops being polite and starts getting real. The #RealWorld Homecoming: New York debuts March 4th on #ParamountPlus. @RealWorldMTV
Paramount+ is a subscription service by ViacomCBS that will launch on March 4 and will include tons of content from CBS, MTV, Paramount, BET, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. In addition to multiple seasons of The Real World and its MTV spinoff show The Challenge, it will also host popular shows like Love & Hip Hop, Love Island, RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Amazing Race, Survivor, Big Brother and Jersey Shore.
The Real World‘s revival, coinciding with the launch of the streaming service, will be a return of the show to our screens for the first time since 2017 when it last aired on MTV. The show’s revival idea was first sold to Facebook Watch in 2018 and resulted in the 33rd season of the show, The Real World: Atlanta, which aired in 2019. With the launch of Paramount+, the show will now be made in-house, with the filming of Homecoming recently ending.
MTV had been dropping hints about a new series for weeks prior to this announcement, with its social media accounts sharing clips of the first season’s cast.
The Original 1st Season of ‘The Real World,’ Set in New York, Was a Groundbreaking Reality TV Show
Remember when people stopped being polite and started getting real?
When fans were first introduced to the seven cast members, they met a model, a dancer, a hip hop artist, a poet, a filmmaker, a musician and a folk singer. A romance seemed to blossom between Eric and Julie and viewers saw the cast members having real and raw conversations about race, sexual orientation and their vastly different backgrounds.
Following their season on reality TV, a few of the cast members appeared on The Challenge, most notably Eric Nies, who competed on three seasons. Eric competed on the very first season of The Challenge, Road Rules: All Stars; the sixth season, Battle of the Sexes; and the ninth season, Battle of the Sexes 2, which he won. Eric also served as the host of the fifth season alongside Mark Long.
Heather B. Gardner also competed in one season of The Challenge, the third season called Challenge 2000. Norman Korpi and Becky Blasband competed on Battle of the Seasons together, the fifth season, and Norman then returned for The Gauntlet, season seven of the long-running franchise.
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