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Reality television is everywhere. But with the Real World, this was the proverbial fork-in-the-road. Strangers come together in a location and lived together in a beautiful home and have to deal with one another.

The drama, intrigue, sex, and… sex turned MTV from one-stop music video channel to a fully defined network. Following in the tradition of the Peck’s, Kevin Powell’s, and Pedro’s -- Ms. Janelle Casanave finds herself thrust into the spotlight.

As she prepares for the Challenge, Ms. Casanave talks about how the seventeenth season almost never came to fruition, why certain rich folks didn’t want the show to even be in Key West, and how MTV cameras didn’t catch everything, much to the dismay of Ms. Casanave.

HHDX: Real World’s season seems to be very dramatic and stressful. But the Key West season also had the dilemma of filming during one of the most brutal hurricane seasons ever. How was it to have to go through Katrina, Rita, and Wilma?

JC: Being from the West Coast, I never thought that I’d be in a hurricane, ever, in my life. I really didn’t know what to expect. The cast was dispersed into separate hotels. I was kind of one of the fortunate ones, my hotel didn’t have any of the issues of flooding and what have you. But there were a lot of areas in Key West that had major damage after Katrina. The cast and crew definitely felt Wilma and Rita, especially Wilma. We evacuated to Ft. Lauderdale and ended up underneath the eye of the storm. We didn’t know what was going to happen. For people who live there… they know what it’s like, but we were all pretty shocked to see the windows getting blown in. It was a pretty dramatic experience. They weren’t expecting to have to deal with that. What aired on television is what exactly how it happened. Our season is unique because we had to deal with that. I mean… it is history. Our situation isn’t comparable to people who live in Key West and are from there. We are fortunate to be able to pick up our stuff and leave, but for the residents… that was their livelihood. When we came back, we saw washing machines and refrigerators strewn all over the place. It was sad to see how people had to just pick up the pieces. I know that it was twenty times worst in New Orleans, but it was pretty rough there. Continued on page 2 »