Chicago-set ‘Real World’ gets premiere date, new twist

MTV announced Monday that the 30th installment of “The Real World,” currently filming in Chicago, will debut Dec. 16.

And while that date is closer to Christmas than Halloween, the season will be full of skeletons.

Since you can only show 20-somethings having sex in a hot tub or throwing punches at each other so many times, Bunim/Murray Productions plans to shake things up in the long-running series. Producers have dug up the skeletons in the seven cast members’ closets and invited them into the West Loop loft for what’s sure to be a civilized convo over a cup of tea.

“Each episode, a new skeleton literally arrives on their doorstep to stay in the house,” according to the network. “The roommates are forced to deal with their past lives while also balancing living with their new roommates, looking for love, or just having fun as young 20-somethings in the heart of Chicago.”

The episode descriptions read like a season of Jerry Springer shows: A cyber bully will be confronted by her enemies. Brothers who haven’t spoken in three years will come face to face. A secret baby mama is revealed just a few weeks before the due date. A player has three of his hookups suddenly living in the house at the same time. A son is surprised by the father he’s never met. A roommate revisits the folks she’s hurt after years of abusing drugs.

In one episode, Bruno Bettencourt from East Providence, Rhode Island is said to endure a painful skeleton encounter with his estranged brother Briah, who told Bruno that he wished he had died in a car accident that nearly took his life.

“No one wants their worst enemy or embarrassing past moving in with them, but by facing your past you actually grow, and that growth, however painful it may be, is what makes this season of ‘The Real World’ so watchable,” said creator Jonathan Murray in an emailed statement.

Filming for the series started this summer in the former home of Bon V nightclub on Randolph’s restaurant row.

This marks the second time the show has been set in the Windy City.

The 11th season was shot in Wicker Park in 2001, when the cast of partying 20-somethings wasn’t exactly welcome with open arms. Their temporary home became the target of graffiti, broken windows and protests by opponents of the neighborhood’s gentrification and of the series itself, which critics blasted for portraying an unrealistic view of young Americans.