Eric Nies didn’t live in the real-world house for reunion season

In what might be the strangest piece of socially distant accommodation we’ve seen in this whole year and count-oh-god-count crisis, TVLine Note that Real world roommate Eric Nies didn’t actually live in the show’s house during the recent shoot of the next one reunion season, The Real World: Homecoming in New York. Instead of serving as a roommate, Nies was, instead, a screen companion, having been broadcast via a video monitor in the loft where the other members of the show’s cast – from that famous first season, at the less in part as part of an effort to make you all not care about Paramount Plus, please– lived. Since all the interest of The real world, depending on who you ask, is to see how rude human beings can come together during an extended period of forced roommate, it seems contrary to the show’s stated purpose, but Nies says it was not his call, noting that the configuration was “not my choice, but I accepted the result.”

Nies promised an explanation would be forthcoming, but the immediate assumption is probably something to do with COVID quarantine requirements, as it would be a pretty bad idea for MTV to push 7 people into a house and see this that happens when they stop being polite and start getting really contagious. The show’s other six attendees – Becky Blasband, Andre Comeau, Heather B. Gardner, Julie Gentry, Norman Korpi, and Kevin Powell – did formally reunite, however, living together in the SoHo loft where the groundbreaking reality show was first shot 29 years ago.

The Real World: Homecoming in New York is scheduled to air tomorrow, March 4, in conjunction with the launch of Paramount Plus.