The year was 2016. MTV filmed its 32nd Real World season in Seattle, featuring the largest cast in the series’ history. Like the three preceding Real World seasons, this one had a “twist.” Every cast member had a nemesis come to live in the house with them.
The Real World: Bad Blood was MTV’s last-ditch attempt to save the franchise, and it failed. It also failed at establishing a presence on The Challenge, which was a surprise because it introduced 13 potential new cast members… and that number omits Mike Crescenzo, who was already Challenge-eligible from his Are You the One? appearance.
The lack of representation felt odd because it seemed like MTV wanted a large cast so people would go on The Challenge. This was around the time when Are You the One? first debuted on the show, so it felt like MTV was trying to get new faces to migrate over to The Challenge. But this was also an era before non-MTV shows were integrated into the franchise.
So, what went wrong? A lot.
For starters, we did see Theo and Anika on Invasion of the Champions — but there’s something funny about them being cast. Invasion of the Champions started production in early October 2016, a couple of weeks before The Real World: Bad Blood started airing. So, producers had no idea whether the public would like either personality before casting the two rookies on The Challenge.
If you watched Real World: Bad Blood, Theo was an obvious pick for The Challenge (despite his performance on the show). He was athletic, a bit of a ladies’ man, and seemed willing to compete. On the other hand, Anika was an odd choice. She was fairly quiet on The Real World: Bad Blood.
After watching the entire season, casting Anika makes more sense. Even if she didn’t have a ton of fans, she wasn’t going to be hated, and there were a lot of controversial figures on The Real World: Bad Blood. Because producers were casting before the season aired, Anika was a pretty safe bet.
Of course, Anika didn’t have many haters on Invasion, but that was mostly because so few people watched The Real World: Bad Blood. It was a hard season to get into because The Real World’s DNA was missing. There was a lot of drama, but production had to force it. Plus, there were many very off-putting storylines. The season dealt with casual racism, abortion, and domestic violence accusations.
At one point, these controversial topics defined The Real World, but in 2016, viewers weren’t interested. And production knew this — that’s the reason we had twists on the show. Ex-Plosion and Skeletons worked, but after that, the sensationalism was gone.
While we can also assume this 14-person cast was assembled to introduce new potential Challengers, it’s also likely production realized viewers didn’t want that. While The Real World: Bad Blood was filming, Rivals 3 was airing. That season saw an influx of Are You the One? Rookies, and there was very negative feedback surrounding that decision. So, by the time the Bad Blood cast was eligible for The Challenge, random rookie fatigue had set in.
Based on the season’s poor ratings, polarizing drama, and rookie overload, production likely decided to cut its losses. Add in Theo and Anika’s abysmal performances on Invasion, and there wasn’t a compelling reason to feed Bad Blood cast members into The Challenge.
Despite all of this, that decision feels like a mistake. Theo and Anika were eliminated in a bogus (and likely rigged) elimination. Theo has openly talked about wanting to do another season, and he seems like a contender for a redemption arc. There were also some cast members who could have been interesting on The Challenge, like Jordan, Tya and her fake accent, Jenn, Kassius, and the Stack sisters.
Bad Blood and Go Big or Go Home feel like a lost era of Challengers. While these Real World seasons were unpopular, that doesn’t mean they didn’t contain strong Challenge personalities. Kailah was lucky enough to get multiple chances on The Challenge, and Bad Blood probably had a few decent competitors that never got to put on a Challenge jersey. When Road Rules was fizzling out, its unpopular seasons got more Challenge representation. Four cast members from Viewers Revenge appeared on The Challenge, and Road Rules: Xtreme had one of the biggest Challenge presences ever. Sadly, the Real World went out with a whimper, and the Bad Blood season is mostly forgotten.
Stop Being Polite 