Why 'Real World' Alum Karamo Brown Hopes Facebook Watch Series Goes Back to 'Original' Format (Exclusive)

Karamo Brown hopes as "The Real World" hits a new platform on Facebook Watch, the show will return to its roots.

In a recent interview with TooFab, Brown, who starred on the MTV reality series back in 2004, expressed he wants the show to focus on bigger, more important issues like it did back in its early seasons.

"I think it should go back to the original show, meaning the original show was like a real documentary style -- seven strangers," he said. "You just got to really see these kids really going through life. By the time I got on 'The Real World' I had two hot tubs in my house and a big tree and I was living in a mansion. It's not reality."

The "Queer Eye" star, who had an almost decade long career as a social worker after his time on "The Real World," told TooFab he thinks a modern, realistic edition of the series will benefit people of all ages.

"I think what people can benefit from, especially with social media now, is to really see what young people are going through versus like this heightened 'Look, everyone's in the house drunk and having sex!'" Brown said. "Because we've seen that it's fun. Don't get me wrong, I don't knock it. I enjoyed doing it...when I was 22."

"But I think that with a relaunch -- go back to that original," he added. "The first four seasons where you really saw people struggling with their mental health and with their relationships."

Brown referenced a pivotal moment in the show's history: when Pedro Zamora told his castmates he was HIV positive back in Season 3 during "The Real World: San Francisco." Zamora died from complications of the disease at the age of 22, just hours after the season finale aired. However, Zamora became a '90s icon for bringing attention to his AIDS activism.

"I remember seeing Pedro [Zamora] tell his roommates -- I was like nine at the time or eight -- but I remember him saying, telling his roommates that he was HIV positive," Brown recalled. "I was like, 'What is this?' And their reaction being like, 'Don't come near me.' But others being like, 'I love you and support you.'"

"That's real," he continued. "You know what I mean? And when you're in the hot tub all the time, you miss a lot of those real conversations. So I think they should go back."

While Brown was on Season 15, "The Real World" continued on for years, racking up a total of 32 seasons before going off the air in 2017.

Although the new series "The Real World: Atlanta" doesn't premiere until this Thursday, from the trailers and clips that have dropped so far, it seems Brown's hope for the revival to bring back the raw, "real" conversations might come true. The Facebook series has a cast from wide-ranging and diverse backgrounds -- from a pansexual African-American Republican to a single mom who is a DACA recipient. The conversations look like they are going to be as real as it gets.

Check out the trailer below.

"The Real World: Atlanta" premieres Thursday on Facebook Watch.

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