The Real World has been a mainstay for MTV since it was launched in 1992, but the show has been hit hard in the ratings. To shake things up, the network is not only returning to the site of one of the show’s most popular seasons, but is shaking up the show’s format.
Real World: Ex-Plosion will start off like a typical Real World season, complete with seven total strangers who will live together in San Francisco for a month to form bonds. But after a month, MTV will take the cast on a day trip. When they come back to the house, they will find their exes have moved in.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-creator Jonathan Murray noted that the show isn’t as popular as it once was because so many of today’s reality shows do much more with its participants than just throw them in a room and see what happens.
“Now that it’s 21 years or so later, maybe we’re a bit of a victim of our own success,” Murray explained. “Diversity is a fact of life today. A lot of young people date people of different races, or have friends who are gay. The world has changed. We’ve had conversations [with the network] throughout 28 seasons of the show, but we’ve never made this big of a commitment to change.”
As Variety notes, adding exes intrigue has worked well for Real World spinoff The Challenge, with Battle of the Exes bringing in more viewers than Real World.
The previous season of Real World was set in Portland and was not popular with viewers. In fact, there were rumors that it would be the show’s 28th and final season, but MTV renewed the show in August. Some see the 29th season as the make-it-or-break-it year for the show.
image: MTV