Andy DehnartIn the dark ages when television shows had to be watched when they were on TV, and on actual television sets, I discovered The Real World because MTV would frequently marathon episodes and seasons. I spent many weekends re-watching seasons of The Real World that way.
Now, as Facebook produces a new season of the show in Atlanta, it’s going to marathon three seasons of the show—or, to use the more current language, stream them so we can binge-watch them.
Since this is Facebook—which has to create the illusion of connection between a $500 billion corporation and the individuals it needs to spend more and more time getting addicted to scrolling on its pages, so it can gather more personal data to exploit and pretend to apologize for later— Facebook users will vote to choose which seasons are streamed.
There will also be a vote to add one cast member to each of the three new seasons that are being produced.
Voting for the new U.S. season started late last week, while votes open for the Mexico and Thailand seasons on March 11.
The cast members who could be voted into the season filming soon in Atlanta are Clint, Joanna, and Michelle. They’re introduced in this video:
The 9 Real World seasons Facebook might stream
Voting on old seasons starts today and lasts for three weeks.
Winners will be announced March 25, and “will be available to view on Facebook Watch in the lead up to the new seasons this spring,” Facebook said.
That sounds like they’ll be available for a limited time only, not unlike the original marathons.
The choices, though, are questionable—both in terms of the categories and the options. From Facebook’s press release:
- Favorite Season: New York (season 1), San Francisco (season 3), or Austin (season 16)
- Hottest Cast: London (season 4), Key West (season 17), or Ex-Plosion (season 29)
- Most Controversial Season: Los Angeles (season 2), Las Vegas (season 12), or Portland (season 28)
For #1, New York and San Francisco, definitely. But Austin? How are Seattle, Miami, and Hawaii not anywhere to be found?
Also, calling Los Angeles “controversial” is almost cute, considering how tame that season was compared to the unbridled violence that future seasons would bring.
Also, why must we have a vote? Let’s just have all the seasons, please!
As of noon, only the “sexiest cast” poll is live, and “Poll results are hidden,” I learned when I voted for London, because I want to watch that season again, and Jay performing his play in his underwear is my reason if you need one.
These choices feel somewhat like a war between old Real World and new Real World, and I wonder if recency bias and/or ignorance of what the show used to be like will affect the results.
Also, it seems like MTV and Facebook are not exactly targeting Real World viewers who were alive in the 1990s.
Whoever manages the Real World page on Facebook is a big fan of ALL CAPS YEAH BRO and has been sharing clips of moments like violent fights, and actually asked people to choose between Pedro and Sean’s wedding and Stephen slapping Irene in the face as “the REALEST” moment.
This doesn’t bode well for what they think Facebook viewers want from The Real World.