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For all of you reality TV junkies out there, I had an idea that some of you might find interesting. This is probably due to the exorbitant amount of time I've had lately to watch some TV, but also due to the addictive nature of watching non-celebrities preen before the camera. I fault MTV for starting the modern-day, pre-Survivor, reality show madness with their initial concept of The Real World. Because of their success, it was spun off into millions of different iterations, including the pseudo rip-off Road Rules. Now here is where the idea comes into play. Recently, MTV had a marathon of their competition-based Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno. If you've seen the show, you know that Road Rules destroys Real World for the majority of the competition. The Road Rules team is a well-oiled, athletic ass-kicking machine, but this isn't a coincidence. It all comes down to the casting process.

The primary candidates for casting in both shows are always categorizable by personality type, but another big factor is casting has to be the propensity for drama and conflict. I believe, however, that there are subtle differences in the casting process. Let's start with Real World. Seeing as there are no tasks and that the jobs given to them are marginally easy to accomplish, there has to be more conflict. These people don't have to work together harmoniously, they just have to work together. They don't have to live together harmoniously either, they just have to live together. End of story.

Road Rules on the other hand, is all about completing tasks. Whereas the cast members are still wont to be contentious, they're also cast to work well together, or at least learn to work well together. And of course, there's always one person who's cast to step up when their number is called and come up big when something is either too dangerous, or gross for the weaker members of the team to handle. Having gone through these experiences, there's no doubt these team members are more well-prepared than their coddled cousins living in renovated fire-houses and plantation-style houses. I bet jealousy of these accoutrements helps as well.

Will this continue to be the trend for future Challenges? It remains to be seen.