Alpharetta resident Kim Zolciak, who spent 12 years as a Bravo reality star on two shows, is joining the eighth season of MTV’s “The Surreal Life” with six other celebrities.
The financially beleaguered Zolciak, whose last reality show “Tardy for the Party” ended in 2020 after eight seasons, will move into a mansion later this month with singer Macy Gray, actor Chet Hanks, former Fifth Harmony singer Ally Brooke, rapper O.T. Genasis, ice skating star and TV commentator Johnny Weir and model and social media influencer Josie Conseco. A few “Road Rules”-style challenges will be thrown in.
This might also give Zolciak a brief break from her embattled marriage with former Atlanta Falcon Kroy Biermann, who recently filed for divorce a second time in four months.
“The Surreal Life” originated back in 2003 during the early days of reality TV on sister station VH1 in a sub-genre dubbed “celebreality” and had some elements of MTV’s groundbreaking “The Real World,” which featured regular people. The idea was to force different celebrities to interact with each other. Some developed lifelong friendships while others sowed conflict. Many were faded TV, film and music stars seeking a paycheck or some way to get back into the spotlight.
Those first six seasons featured stars like MC Hammer, Corey Feldman, Emmanuel Lewis, Vanilla Ice, Ron Jeremy, Charo, Flavor Flav, Da Brat, Christopher Knight, Sherman Hemsley and Janice Dickinson. Josie Canseco’s father, the baseball slugger Jose Canseco, was part of season five. (Flavor Flav leveraged the show into several spin-off shows including “The Flavor of Love.”)
That first round of seasons ended in 2006 and the reality show didn’t return for 15 years. In 2021, a new “Surreal Life” on VH1 featured celebrities such as Frankie Muniz (”Malcolm in the Middle”), Kim Coles (”Living Single”), ex-basketball star Dennis Rodman, former porn star Stormy Daniels and R&B singer/reality star Tamar Braxton.
This newest season will be the first time the show will debut on MTV. An air date has not been announced.
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