The Real World: Hollywood is the twentieth season of MTV's popular reality television series The Real World, which focuses on seven diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It premiered on April 16, 2008.
The Residence
This season the cast residence, called Stage 20, is housed in the Columbia Square Building, a seven-story, 105,000 square foot building at 6121 West Sunset Boulevard at the intersection of North Gower Street in Gower Gulch that formerly served as a CBS broadcast facility in Los Angeles, where programs such as I Love Lucy were filmed. (Map) The building is part of a 125,000 foot complex that takes up an entire city block, which previously housed eight studios and two radio stations, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV. The complex also included a 1,050 seat auditorium, a restaurant, and a bank. The northeast corner of the complex was used for filming. It is is 23.3 miles from the Venice beach house where The Real World: Los Angeles was filmed. The property was purchased in August 2006 for $66 million USD by Molasky Pacific, LLC, who intend to redevelop it to attract other residential and office tenants.
According to MTV, this season of The Real World is the first to incorporate environmentally friendly household and lifestyle choices, including a solar-heated swimming pool that uses salt to reduce the need for chemical treatment, energy star appliances, bamboo flooring, recycled glass counters, some sustainable furniture, energy efficient lighting, a computer powered by an exercise bicycle, paperless toilets, a smart stove, an air conditioner system that provides water for an outdoor vegetable garden, a computer that tracks the amount of carbon saved by the housemates, and a hybrid car.
Cast
This season is the first in which a cast member was chosen by the fans via a multistage online poll from a pool of 20,000 applicants. The seventh cast member as voted by the fans was 20-year-old model Greg Halstead. In August 2007, vevmo.com reported that two of the cast members, Greg Halstead and Joey Kovar, left the show following an unspecified "series of events", and were replaced with Nick Brown and Brittini Sherrod.
MTV has stated that the majority of the cast members are entertainment industry types that could best take advantage of the return to Los Angeles to forward their career goals. On December 5th the cast was filmed performing at this season's workplace IO WEST, a comedy club in Hollywood, orchestrating a sketch as the comedy troupe Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
Episodes
Episode 1
The cast assembles at the house. Sarah, Kimberly, and Joey perceive Greg to be unfriendly, negative, cocky, and immature. Will is surprised to learn Brianna is a stripper, and she feels that he lost respect for her because of this. She learns an arrest warrant was issued for her back home for an incident in which Bobby, her now-ex boyfriend, hit her and tried to prevent her from leaving their home. She has to return home to resolve it. Will says he has a crush on Sarah. Greg angers Joey by calling him a "weirdo".
When Greg dismisses criticism of his behavior, Kimberly, Dave, Joey and Brianna have a group confessional in which they criticize him. In response, Greg calls them "peasants", "fools", and "clowns", saying he doesn't care about them because he is "perfection". The episode has also been aired with pop-up bubbles saying humorous things about the house guests.
Episode 2. "Let's Not Get Ghetto"
Greg and Joey put their differences aside. Greg invites Will out one night, but Sarah is upset that Will will miss her birthday party. The women are offended when, during dinner, the men flirt with a woman who later shows up at the house and is turned away. The same thing occurs the next night when a man Sarah met at her birthday party shows up at the house. Dave and Kim flirt platonically. Joey and Brianna make out and share a bed. Kim and Brianna argue when the house's maximum allowable number of guests (seven) is exceeded. During this Kim says, "Let's not get ghetto", a statement Will sees as racist, but Kim explains Brianna has said this about herself. Greg helps them make up. Brianna is disturbed over how Joey behaves when drunk. Joey himself doesn't like going to bars or drinking any more, but fears he cannot withstand peer pressure.
Episode 3. "Where's Joey?"
Kim and Dave insist that they do not want their flirtation to lead to a relationship. Joey and Brianna reveal past problems with substance abuse, and fear recidivism. Greg is suspected to be responsible for a series of pranks. Andy Dick tells the cast they will take improv comedy lessons at the iO WEST theater with Artistic Director Charna Halpern, who will be their coach. The cast feels Greg's disinterest in this comes across as rude, and his refusal to attend a mandatory comedy night with them gets him in trouble with Charna. Brianna and Joey's relationship experiences tension, in part due to Brianna's dalliance with another man.
Episode 4. "Joey's Intervention"
Brianna returns to Philadelphia with Will to resolve her legal troubles. Dave and Joey are angered by Kim and Sarah, whom they think are too judgmental of people who become strippers out of financial necessity. Conflict stemming from roommates bringing home guests early in the morning recurs, as from Joey's alcohol-fueled temper, including a tantrum from him that frightens his roommates. He agrees to leave the house to begin a 30-day treatment program. Brianna returns to the house, and realizes she still has feelings for Bobby, her ex.
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