This is the (potentially) true story of seven former strangers who have been picked to reunite. All seven members of the first season of MTV’s landmark show The Real World are rumored to have reunited in New York and had their lives taped once again.
The leak comes from Reality Blurred and is sourced from a “reliable” message board poster. The site reports:
The Real World season one’s cast apparently agreed to MTV and Bunim-Murray’s terms for some kind of reunion, as the cast has recently been filmed—and may now be done with production—in New York City, according to a reliable MTV spoiler.
“MTV has been filming season one of their Real World reunion series starting with the first season in NY,” PinkRose posted at Vevmo.
The post listed all seven original cast members: Becky Blasband, Andre Comeau, Heather B. Gardner, Julie Gentry, Norm Korpi, Eric Nies, and Kevin Powell.
Season 1 of The Real World began airing May 21, 1992, and its cast members are now all grown up and then some, as many of them no longer in the “key” TV viewers demographic of 18-49 (youngest cast member Gentry is 48). Varying portions of the cast have reunited several times over the years, though if indeed all seven original cast members reconvened for this upcoming...whatever it is, it would, I believe, mark their first time together on camera since just after Season 1 aired. (Season 2 opened with them reuniting to spend a night or two in a different Manhattan loft.) In 2014, Gentry, Gardner, and Korpi reunited on the OWN show Where Are They Now.
It is as yet unclear what format this supposedly newly filmed reunion will take on and how much time the cast actually spent together. The Reality Blurred post points to a series of tweets from The Real World: Hawaii’s Amaya Brecher, who claimed on Twitter in December that her cast had been approached to film a “2 week reunion show.” Perhaps this is suggestive of the scope of the rumored Real World: New York reunion, or maybe not! MTV did not respond to a request for comment on this potential leak; if they do, this post will be updated.
As virtual innocents to what would become the unstoppable cultural force of reality TV, the Season 1 Real World cast is endlessly fascinating. They were all likable, motivated, and thoughtful (back in the day, The Real World was cast with people whose ambitions went way beyond just doing reality TV and creating drama). “We were really the guinea pigs,” Nies, who’d go on to host MTV’s dance show The Grind (and its accompanying workout video), has said. Well, put ‘em to use! I think they should be checking in regularly with these people a la Michael Apted’s Up documentary series. For years people complained about MTV not playing videos anymore; the cycle of retroism compels us to start complaining that they aren’t playing The Real World anymore. Get these people back on my TV!