What happens when people stop being polite and start getting real? Well, an almost fully reunited cast of the original season of The Real World.
In the first two minutes of The Real World Homecoming: New York’s premiere, released by Paramount+ on Wednesday, March 3, Eric Nies joins the cast via video conference as the other six roommates — Becky Blasband, Andre Comeau, Heather B. Gardner, Julie Gentry, Norman Korpi and Kevin Powell — sit in the loft.
“Guess what I have?” he asks the group, who have returned to 565 Broadway for the first time in nearly 30 years. He later is shown getting in what appears to be an ice bath. Nies, 49, revealed in an interview with The New York Times last month that he didn’t enter the loft. He later told The Boston Globe that he “can’t elaborate” on the reason until the show debuts.
“I can say that everything has happened in divine order. We’ve stayed in contact with each other over the years. We’re on a group text together; some have communicated more than others,” he shared. “But they are aware of my journey. They are aware of what I’ve personally gone through.”
The original series, which launched MTV’s reality TV fanbase, debuted in 1992. During the clip, the six roommates inside are shown cheering and taking a selfie inside the confessional.
The loft has been updated quite a bit since the 90s, but some things remain the same — like the fish tank and the book Love & Sex still on the shelf. But the cast has changed a ton over the years.
“It wasn’t just youth. It was also the times. We were a little wilder, a little freer,” Blasband, 53, told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of the season. “It felt more pressured this time, for me at least, than it did the first time where I was like, I have no idea what this is.”
Meanwhile, Gardner, 50, was hesitant to return. “We’re all grown! We all live in our own separate situations. I’m like, ‘I don’t want no roommates,'” she joked to Us. “But I’m glad. I’m so glad that I went back.”
Nies has continued working in the entertainment industry after The Real World ended.
“I see all of it as a blessing just to evolve and grow and heal and transform,” the former Grind host, who has been sober for years, told Us. “I mean, the experience as a whole just changed my life forever in ways that you can’t even possibly imagine unless we had a week together talking about my life’s experience. I mean, it had such a profound impact on my life. I’ve said a number of times that The Real World and this experience potentially saved my life really.”
The six-part series will be available to stream weekly on Paramount+ beginning Thursday, March 4.
