‘The Real World’ Creator Planted Eric Nies Nude Photo in ‘New York’ Deleted Scene
The reality TV boom can be traced back to The Real World on MTV. Putting eight strangers in a house together provided enough drama for 33 seasons. The original casts have even reunited for reunion seasons on Paramount+. Much of the biggest drama came naturally, but the producers admit they did have to incite some, but the Eric Nies nude photos never made it to air.
The Real World co-creator Jon Murray was a guest on the Basic! Podcast on Nov. 9. Looking back on the original Real World: New York season, Murray admits the producers crossed the line. The results ended up being deleted from the show.
‘The Real World’ had to provoke reality sometimes
Murray said real drama like Real World: Los Angeles star Tami’s abortion and New York’s debate about racism. However, MTV needed to ensure that something happened every week.
“MTV did say to us, ‘Well, what if nothing happens?’” Murray said on Basic! “We said, ‘Well, if nothing happens, we’ll throw pebbles in the pond.’ So what we didn’t know is generally after about two weeks together, the cast gets exhausted and you’re going to have a week where nothing happens. Of course, we panicked and MTV was like, ‘What’s going on? Nothing’s happening.’ So we said, ‘Okay, we’ll throw a pebble in the pond.’”
‘The Real World: New York’ provoked Heather B and Eric Nies
The Real World: New York put up casting calls in laundromats and scoured modeling agencies. Nies was one of the original cast members, and he had already worked in the modeling world.
“So we took this book called Bear Pond that [Bruce Weber] had shot,” Murray said. “It had a bunch of nude gorgeous guys in it. One of those nude gorgeous guys was Eric Nies. So we stuck it in with some of the other books. We stuck it in two weeks after we’d started shooting. And Heather B finds it and she finds Eric in it and she just goes to town. She had already had some issues with him. He was a pretty boy model and she was making fun of him.”
They deleted the scene out of respect for Eric Nies
Reality TV is still produced and scripted. However, Murray acknowledged that planting Bear Pond in the Real World: New York house was crossing the line in trying to make things happen. They agreed not to include the footage in the show.
“Eric didn’t blame her,” Murray said. “He blamed us for putting the book in there. So we learned a valuable lesson. You don’t want them blaming you. So we apologized to the cast. We said we wouldn’t use that footage and we moved on. Stuff started to happen, we regained trust of the cast and somehow we managed to make 13 episodes.”
