Not Your Older Brother's 'Road Rules'

Fourteen years ago, MTV set out to find out what would happen if you took seven strangers and made them live and work together all while taped. Twelve years and fourteen seasons ago, MTV tried to find out what would happen if you did that with five people in an RV. Road Rules was born. Road Rules 2007: Viewer’s Revenge – the first season since 2004 – brings MTV’s classic reality show back from the dead. Or, it tries to at least.

This season’s “Roadies” still band together in a tiny RV while driving through exotic locales in order to attempt elaborate and “extreme” challenges – car bungee jumping, wrestle alligators, be a human mannequin in a store window wearing only body paint. But, that’s about all that’s left of the initial premise.
Six strangers has morphed into six Road Rules alumni. The RV is still around, but it has a new name. Gone are the mission mayors – replaced with a bland but overly enthusiastic host. The biggest, and must obnoxious change, is an over-elaborate elimination system, which involves viewer participation and takes forever to explain in the premiere episode. The cast nominates one guy and one girl, the viewers then decide which one they would rather see leave, that person has to compete against a member of ‘The Pit Crew’ for their spot on the RV. And that’s the short version.

Road Rules is not the only reality show that eliminates its characters, and it’s not even a new concept to Road Rules (the show’s producers first added the elimination angle in season 11.) However, those other shows managed to keep some sort of continuity in the larger group by starting with a large number that gets dwindled down as the season progresses. Now a rotating cast of characters is virtually assured with the potential for elimination every week.

With the success of other MTV reality shows, which don’t kick people off every week – Laguna Beach – it seems an opportunity to go back to the basics was missed. Instead the setup is more complicated and unnecessary than ever. As enthusiastic as the alumni were to have Road Rules back, you’d think someone involved might have glanced at another season.

Road Rules 2007: Viewer’s Revenge airs Tuesday nights at 9 ET on MTV. The show reruns various times throughout the week. Photo courtesy of mtv.com