Close Up Mtv’S ‘Real World’ In Its 9Th Year Of Giving Voyeuristic View Of Diverse Housemates

MTV’s hit show “The Real World” has a remarkably simple recipe for success: Gather a diverse group of seven young people, toss them together in a house in a major city, turn on the TV cameras around the clock and see what happens.

Now in its ninth year, “The Real World,” premiering tonight at 10, has become MTV’s highest-rated program and something of a pop culture icon.

“I’m 34, and I watched and loved the first season of the show,” says supervising producer Andrew Hoegl, in his fifth year with the production. “And I have a lot of friends who did as well.”

Part documentary, part soap opera, “The Real World” can be as unpredictable as real life and as melodramatic as any Hollywood concoction. This year, the show is set in soulful, sinful New Orleans. (Past sites have included London and Miami).

In the opening moments of the first episode, a typically eclectic group of young people is chauffeured to a beautiful Greek Revival mansion in the city’s historic Garden District. And then they’re on their own.

“We were pretty much given free rein,” says Jamie, 21, one of this year’s cast members. “At the beginning, we’re given an orientation packet with guidelines and rules. And there really aren’t that many.”

Indeed, much of the show’s action is a result of what isn’t forbidden. Cast members this year - as in the past - can and do pair up romantically. Alcohol is consumed. Tensions rise as personalities inevitably clash.

Julie, a devout 20-year-old Mormon from Utah, says she initially suspected that some kind of behind-the-scenes manipulation might be going on.

“I realized that when things would get slow (in the house), it was almost like you could predict that something dramatic would happen soon,” she says. “I wondered if they were doing something as a catalyst.

“But then I realized it’s just human nature. As soon as we start getting bored with each other, some kind of contention will rise. Now I look at my family and friends, and I can see the same patterns. It’s amazing.”

As with any reality-based show, the heart and soul of “The Real World” is its cast. This year viewers will be getting to know Jamie, a rich white Ivy League graduate from Chicago; David, a strongly motivated African-American musician/body builder from Chicago’s inner city; Melissa, a half-black/half-Filipina Florida native who’s boy-crazy, opinionated and enjoys causing trouble; Matt, a white hip-hop graffiti artist and devout Catholic; Kelly, a level-headed blonde from Arkansas; Danny, a thoughtful, empathetic gay guy who looks like James Dean and knows how to speak French; and Julie, a perky blonde who is innocent in the ways of the world.

Julie’s Mormon parents were deeply concerned about their innocent daughter’s shocking living situation, including her male roommate. She was so overwhelmed by the intense contrast between home and The Big Easy that she cries twice in the first episode.

“I promise I’m not gonna be the show’s crybaby,” Julie says with a laugh. “But when I first got to the house, I was traumatized.”

Both Julie and Jamie, however, say that getting used to the constant, prying eye of the TV camera wasn’t that difficult.

“It’s just like having a kid,” Julie says. “You have to remember to take them with you everywhere you go.

“But it’s not as intrusive as everyone thinks. Like anything in life, you can get used to it.”

Jamie notes that the presence of the cameras soon became “routine,” though they did alter reality a bit. “You think things like, `I can’t go out and have too many beers because I have to work tonight. And then it’ll be the Jamie-comes-to-work-drunk episode.’ That kind of stuff is in the back of your head.”

Producer Hoegl says that while the cast members might appear to represent certain types at first glance - the gay guy, the religious girl, the inner-city black guy, etc. - the point of the show is “to see what happens when the skin is peeled off and personalities are unraveled. Then you see what people are made of.”

As “The Real World” unfolds this summer and fall - doled out in 30-minute segments every Tuesday night through November - Jamie won’t be watching.

“I made a conscious decision not to,” he says philosophically. “I think I shed a lot of my ego while being in New Orleans.

“I’ve opened up. Doing the show was an awesome experience, personally. I don’t need to see what Hollywood does to that experience.”