The Challenge
Reality Bites Backis a new podcast from Bunim / Murray Productions , the studio that built realism TV into what it is today . The podcast aims to take out back the curtain on unscripted video , with each sequence doing a deep dive into an iconic realism show . The first coiffe ofReality Bites Backepisodesincludes shows likeThe Challenge , Bad Girls Club , The Bachelor , andI Love New York . realism Bites Backis available on all platforms , including Spotify , Apple Podcasts , Google , and Amazon , with new episode dropping every Friday .
Reality Bites Backis host by three powerhouse reality television system executive : Nicholette Dixon , VP of development at Bunim / Murray ; and Monique Berduo and Nikki Cameron , directors of development at Bunim / Murray . The podcast is create by Steve Ezell , who serves as Bunim / Murray ’s SVP of growth and current programming . Bunim / Murray Productions is responsible for some of the most popular reality shows in telly history , includingKeeping Up With The Kardashians , The Real World , andLizzo ’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls .
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Reality Bites Back Dives Into The Challenge, The Bachelor & More
Reality Bites Backfeatures numerous fellow member of reality TV royalty as guests on the podcast , includingTJ Lavin fromThe Challenge , Tiffany Pollard fromI bed New York , and Dr. Drew Pinsky . Listeners can expect to get a behind - the - scenes look into how realism show are produce and developed , and the podcast is exactly what realism television fans have been wait for . Nicholette , Monique , Nikki , and Steve lecture to Screen Rant about theReality Bites Backpodcast , the unscripted writing style as a whole , and their far-famed careers .
Screen Rant : What was the inspiration behind make theReality Bites Backpodcast ?
Nikki Cameron : At Bunim / Murray , we have so much content , so many show and we see so many people doing podcasts and “ interviewing our endowment , ” and thing like that . We thought we should definitely be in the audio blank , like why not ? As a squad of ontogeny executives who actually love reality TV outside of our Job , it just made complete sense to step into this space , peel back the level , give the tea , the juicy chin wagging , and remember to talk about the business itself on the podcast .
Monique Berduo : Jumping on to that , in a nutshell , adding on to Nikki , it ’s really that we ’re the producers and the insiders behind a lot of this content that we deplete and that has really formed the genre . The ladies probably get demented of find out me say this but it ’s literally our honey letter to the human beings of unscripted .
Screen Rant : What are the things that reality exhibit need to be successful ? Are there any tell - tale signal that a show will be successful ?
Nikki Cameron : First things first , for me , I ’m conk to say talent . People who are unapologetic and people who really are authentic to themselves , and you could tell at first glance that they ’re not seek to be someone they ’re not .
Monique Berduo : Not only that , but I call up it ’s a couple of thing . Definitely gift , echoing Nikki , but also reckon on the buyer you ’re give-up the ghost for and the specific world genre you ’re working with because it is such a immense genre . It ’s so many thing like competition and prestigiousness documentaries . I retrieve it ’s what story is refreshed that has n’t been told and why do people need to hear it now ?
Nicholette Dixon : I think we ’re living in an era where everyone is searching for genuineness . You get that with natural endowment as well as narration . mass want to hear more than just their own voice echoing back at them ; they need to hear various feeling , they ’re unforced to be bruise , and they ’re willing to lean into the counterculture . That ’s something that unscripted has always offered as well as being on the pulse of where we are as a state .
Screen Rant : Speaking of endowment , how unmanageable is it to manage personality on a realism show ? I know that being reality television fans , there are tough personalities to deal with on in all likelihood every show , so how do you sail that ?
Monique Berduo : I think it ’s what we signed up for , so honestly it ’s kind of soft for us having had so much experience . If I ’m just starting out as a PA , I would be traumatise by endowment acting any case of way . But after have so many yr in the industry , it ’s just “ rolling with the punch . ”
Nikki Cameron : I cogitate it takes a particular type of person too . I think it takes someone who understands logistics and who does n’t take everything personally [ laughs ] . It consume so many things because it ’s a quite a little . You recognize that bring with talent , as when you go into the work force in any job , you have to deal with different types of personality . to be successful , you learn how to cope and you work out it out .
Nicholette Dixon : natural endowment wrangling is definitely an art form . But I will say , maybe the spicier take , when it come to talent , the louder the good . The more obnoxious , the good . Often , the type of individual that you do n’t inevitably desire to expend 24 hour with will make the best telly . You desire mass who are going to show up and be unapologetically themselves . There ’s a reason why there are diehard sports fan no matter how you sense about them – for example , Johnny Bananas . He is who he is , no matter what , every individual sentence . Now , wrangling a talent like Johnny Bananas , who ’s amazing and we love him , or whomever it may be , could take some art form or finesse as a manufacturer , but that ’s our Book of Job and that ’s on the button what we ’re look for when it get along to our productions .
Steve Ezell : I mean , they ’re still people at the oddment of the day . There ’s in spades some abstract thought and talk terms in any sort of talent human relationship . We ’ve got our tricks that we ’ve found over the years , and we know when to put the pressure and when to back off and rent them win this battle .
Screen claptrap : Even though you ’re all stager in the realness idiot box industry , is there anything from doing this podcast and the deep dives into these appearance that have surprised or shocked you ?
Monique Berduo : I will say there is a great episode that we do with Tiffany Pollard of I hump New York , where Nicholette asks her a really poignant doubt , and she reveals to us , that no one had ask her before , and she was able to find stoppage free-base off of that inquiry that Nicholette involve , so stay tuned for that sequence ! moment like that , where we ’re able to extend the dialog in a different way you would n’t require it is a takeaway that we ’ve been learning .
Screen Rant : One of the first appearance you blab about already wasThe Challenge , in which you did a two - part episode . Being aChallengefan , what prompt you to make a two - part special forThe Challenge , and what was the most eye - opening matter you take ?
Nikki Cameron : Well , the actual Challenge : Untold chronicle publicize in six portion , so it was a way to condense all of those six parts , but also it just made sense to release it in tandem with the documentary , right ?
Nicholette Dixon : Yeah , The Challenge is an iconic , legendary series , we ’d be neglectful to not give it all the flowers it merit . So we really want to sit down with our guests – we had quite a few on , the most that we ’ve had on the podcast thus far – and really give them the space to talk about their experience on the show . We ’ve had veterans like Darrell [ Taylor ] that ’s been on the enfranchisement for over 10 long time , Aneesa [ Ferreria ] as well . We wanted to give them the space to take out all their experience .
Nikki Cameron : And also getting to see their personality outside of TV . Like view Tina [ Barta ] and Veronica [ Portillo ] organically be your in effect girl that you would go have drinkable with [ chuckles ] .
Screen Rant : Is there a realism show you produced that took off in a way you did n’t expect ? If so , what show was it , and why do you mean it surpassed prospect ?
Nikki Cameron : I would say Lizzo ’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls . I mean , not because we pull ahead an Emmy , but I feel like it was a space that had not been tip , specially with Lizzo and her story and what she represent . I feel like audiences just took to the storytelling .
Steve Ezell : Also , even depend at something like hold out R. Kelly . It all comes back to our ability as fabricator and documentarians to affect more than just pop culture but the greater good of society .
Screen Rant : For each of you , what first got you into world TV ? Are there any specific shows that first sparked a passion for unscripted television ? Or was it just working in the industry that fix you into it ?
Monique Berduo : Oh my gosh , I reckon it was by all odds just working in the industriousness . It ’s so funny because I actually started out creating content for the Spanish market , so back when MTV Tres was a matter with music videos and different special . But I was a lover of the genre sinceThe HillsandLaguna Beach , so I intend just an chance to account tell – we talk about it all the clock time – this to an extent feel like a fake job because we are having a blast doing it , and being able to be in the position where we get to tell unquestionable stories .
Nikki Cameron : Mine is a footling unlike . I did n’t always begin out in this industry , I did some other thing before , but I just retrieve see homemaker and being like , “ I have show idea ! ” I had a friend who was an executive , and I did n’t know the nature of her business , but I said , “ Girl , I have a show melodic theme , ” and she said “ Oh , that ’s what I do ! ” I was like , “ Tell me more ! ” [ laughs ] . But I just retrieve always watch over Housewives orFlavor of Loveand all the display we grew up watching in eminent school , and I thought , “ This is kind of nerveless . ”
Nicholette Dixon : I would say I fall in love with reality , actually with The Real World : Seattle . That time of year really convey me hooked , those late ' 90 , early 2000 ’s seasons like Seattle , Hawaii , Las Vegas . In realness TV , you could build worlds , you hump , The Surreal Life as well as The Real World , and Road Rules evolving into The Challenge . To see those universes built out is amazing . It ’s definitely probably not where we thought we were going to be film the musical genre .
Steve Ezell : It was definitely arise up with The Real World and follow my contemporaries on screen . Watching Chicago as they operate through 9/11 when I was in college going through it , and those kinds of things . It ’s like , that ’s what I require to do . And it did n’t bring out to be in front of the screen , so I said , I ’ll go behind the scenes and see if I can make it in back there .
Screen Rant : What ’s the hardest part of working in the realism video industry ? We talked about the gift before but is there anything else that is specially unmanageable ?
Monique Berduo : Yes ! Actually , the first affair that comes to mind , since we bed it so much and are invest in it , and I say it all the time that if you ’ve made it this far in your career , it is because you live and breathe this . Because you kind of have to so as to be successful . So I think the hardest part for me is if at any point I have to turn over over my account to maybe a production squad or if I have to apportion a story that could potentially be shot down by high - up execs , that ’s where my heart variety of breaks into flyspeck pieces , but then I ’m care , “ Okay , there are more stories to be told . ”
Nikki Cameron : Even for someone like me who like everything – but that ’s the hard part , really break up down the show and figuring out how to make it work and how to produce it , I intend that ’s challenging , but it ’s obviously something we ’ve excelled in . But I guess we all go through that .
Monique Berduo : We have a sobriquet for our party boss that we have to pitch our ideas to . We call him the “ Dream Killer ” [ everyone laughs ] because with our little hopes and dreams that we ’re hawk out and hoping to get developed , he ’s the first individual to close shut it down [ laughs ] .
Nicholette Dixon : I think , for me , it ’s find that new claw , that new , unique degree of entry . I mean , we ’re all kind of selling the same ideas . A singing contention is a telling contest . Your bait is you ’re sitting in a chair and you ca n’t see who ’s singing , you hit a button if you care what you hear . Or , this prison term , we ’re proceed to have them wear a mask and we ’ll seek to guess who ’s vocalizing , but it ’s really a vocalizing competition at its basic level . We ’re all selling bottle of water supply and trying to put a Modern label on it . It ’s finding that push and pull of “ crock up format , ” as we call it . You definitely have to be in making love with it because to stare at something over and over again and attempt to find something Modern about it , you have to be in dearest with non - scripted to do that .
Screen Rant : in conclusion , what ’s your favored memory from a realness show you ’ve worked on ?
Monique Berduo : I do n’t bonk about you ladies , but I think back the day so vividly when I first got into this industriousness as a PA . I was work on Splash on ABC , which was essentiallyDancing With The Starsbut diving event . Each and every single one of those days , doing the lowliest of job ever , I was my happiest because I was like , “ This is the point where my aliveness changes because I lie with what I need to do . ”
Nikki Cameron : I ’ll say when I first started working at Bunim / Murray and we were doing the [ maintain Up With The ] Kardashians reunion for Bravo . One of our boss said to me , “ Can you check that Scott [ Disick ] is all right ? ” or “ Can you produce this scene ? ” I remember cerebrate , “ I have a go at it the Kardashians , and here I am working on set . ” It was crazy . And they were all very pleasant and nice people . So that was a great moment , specially starting out working at Bunim / Murray .
Nicholette Dixon : My favorite second as an executive was my first show , which was to the Game Show web , which was very exciting . Out of all the data formatting and express I ’ve taken on , I never anticipate my first show with GSN . But as a viewer , circling back to realism Bites Back , New York vs. Pumpkin on the first time of year of Flavor of Love , that definitely left an unerasable mark as a viewer as what could be seen on boob tube .
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