This study investigates the long-term parasocial relationships between fans and reality television personalities in MTV’s The Challenge, one of the longest-running reality competition shows in the United States. Unlike other reality TV formats, The Challenge features a recurring cast whose lives unfold across multiple seasons, allowing fans to form extended emotional bonds over decades. This project explores how fans engage with these personalities over time and across digital platforms—including Reddit, Cameo, Patreon, and podcasts—and how reality TV contestants navigate their roles as affective laborers in a platformized media landscape.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How do fans experience and sustain long-term parasocial relationships with cast members of The Challenge?
2. How do reality TV contestants engage in parasocial relational work via digital platforms such as Patreon, Cameo, and Instagram?
3. In what ways do fan practices (e.g., participation in fantasy leagues, podcast events, and social media engagement) reflect affective and economic investments in these relationships?
4. How does The Challenge function as a longitudinal media system that facilitates these evolving relationships differently than other forms of reality television?

Through a combination of interviews, participant observation, online ethnography, and autoethnography, the study aims to produce a nuanced understanding of the emotional, social, and platform-mediated dimensions of contemporary reality TV fandom.