The Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. First broadcast in 1992, the show, which was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family, is the longest-running program in MTV history and one of the longest-running reality series in history, credited with launching the modern reality TV genre.
The series was hailed in its early years for depicting issues of contemporary young-adulthood relevant to its core audience, such as sex, prejudice, religion, abortion, illness, sexuality, AIDS, death, politics and substance abuse, but later garnered a reputation as a showcase for immature and irresponsible behavior.
Following Bunim’s death from breast cancer in 2004, Bunim/Murray Productions continues to produce the program. The 28th and most recent season, set in Portland, Oregon, premiered on March 27, 2013, and ended its first run on June 12, 2013. An upcoming 29th season, set in San Francisco, California, is currently in production, and is expected to air in 2014.
The series has generated two notable spin-offs, both broadcast by MTV: Road Rules, which lasted for 14 seasons, and the reality game show The Challenge, which has run for over 20 seasons since 1998. The Challenge is mostly cast-contestant dependent on both The Real World and Road Rules, as it combines contestants from various seasons of both shows. Coordinating the series with its spin-off, MTV alternates between airing seasons of The Real World and The Challenge and ends out seasons of both shows by showing previews for the upcoming season of the other.
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In the hour-long “The Island,” internationally acclaimed adventurer and survivalist Bear Grylls gives the modern American man the ultimate challenge: Can a man of today’s world survive on a deserted island without the luxuries – or even the basics – of contemporary everyday life?
Big Brother: After Dark was an uncensored, uncut live feed from the American Big Brother House while broadcast on Showtime2. The program debuted on July 5, 2007 as a companion show since Big Brother 8 and it aired on Showtime 2 in the United States and Slice in Canada.
The program was the only first-run original program produced specifically for any of Showtime’s seven multiplex channels.
On May 29, 2013, it was announced that Big Brother: After Dark will move to TVGN beginning on June 26. While it was promoted by TVGN as remaining uncensored as it was on Showtime 2, on TVGN “Big Brother: After Dark” is now rated TV14 and censored for language by muting of the audio.. The network says that nine words and nudity will be censored from the show, though some profanity still goes through. The broadcast airs uncensored over Slice in Canada.
A version of this program was also developed as a companion series to Big Brother Canada on Slice.
Richard Blais hosts the country’s top bakers as they battle it out to create Halloween’s spookiest and most-irresistible treats. From spider cupcakes, cheesecake coffins and witch finger cookies to towering confections of terror, these bakers must prove their skills to judges Ron Ben-Israel, Carla Hall and Sherry Yard to land the $25,000 prize and the title of Halloween Baking Champion!
Observing programs for troubled teens in which inmates reveal the realities of prison life in the hope of deterring them from a life of crime.
Nine men recreate a voyage by William Bligh in 1789, when he and his loyal crewmen crossed 4,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean from Tonga to Timor after being cast adrift from HMS Bounty by mutinying seamen and left for dead.
Living history show presented by Fi Glover. Six celebrities travel back in time to the relentless graft of Victorian Britain.
The colorful crew at Gotham Garage overhauls an eclectic collection of cars and trucks, trading up to a showstopper they can sell for big bucks.
The series drops 10 adventurers on an island with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a million dollars in cash. Those who survive for 40 days filled with gut-wrenching journeys and demanding physical challenges will split the money as their prize. The catch? They can buy all of the survival supplies and creature comforts they desire, but everything is crazy expensive (think $30K for a tent), all decisions to make a purchase require a group majority and the cost comes out of their shared prize money.
Elite street racers from around the world test their limits in supercharged custom cars on the biggest, baddest automotive obstacle course ever built.