Real World Gets Rocky Mountain High

“The Real World” is climbing mountains. The eighteenth season of the long-running, MTV reality show will film in lower downtown Denver later this year. They’ve been in Hawaii, the east coast, the west coast, and even Texas; but this is The Real World’s first time in Colorado.

Once a reality television pioneer, there’s no denying that “The Real World” has long since been eclipsed by the modern wave of excessive reality television. I haven’t really watched the show since “Real World” Hawaii” back in 2000, and even then I got on board mostly out of boredom. Either the show has lost whatever it once has, or the original victims of the MTV generation like me, have outgrown it. Still, there was a time for almost everyone, when we were hooked.

But there’s a new generation of wannabe drunks and party animals being marketed to by MTV now, and the show still gets ratings. It remains one of the top shows on cable television. At one point the show even spawned a rather good Real World style movie called The Real Cancun. Unfortunately, no one seemed to notice.

The people of Denver are naturally eager to see their city showcased as the young, hip place Denver is rumored to have become. Denver’s Mayor is ecstatic. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Denver to showcase our cultural and recreational vibrancy to a very large, young audience,” he says. Judging from that quote, there’s a pretty good chance he’s never seen the show. It’s unlikely viewers will see much more of Denver than the inside of a few nightclubs in between shots of house drama and under-the-covers sexing.