Frankie Muniz and Kim Coles Have Very Different Reasons for Saying Yes to 'The Surreal Life' Reboot on VH1

The OG celebrity reality show is back on VH1 after 16 years.

From the time that Frankie Muniz and Kim Coles first watched The Surreal Life they were hooked on the “original celebrity social experiment” that gave us a window into the lives of those we were closely following in the entertainment industry.

Now the VH1 "celebreality" show is back after 16 years, and Coles and Muniz are living The Surreal Life themselves with R&B singer August Alsina; singer, songwriter and reality star Tamar Braxton; NBA vet Dennis Rodman; dancer former WWE superstar CJ Perry; beauty YouTuber Manny MUA and adult star Stormy Daniels.

"When the show originally premiered, I was definitely hooked," Frankie Muniz exclusively tells Parade.com. "It was the first celebrity reality show where you saw people in a different light on camera 24/7.”

The Malcolm in the Middle star says he was quickly hooked on the series. “You really got to see people out of their comfort zone, and I was a major fan.”

Read on for more of a behind-the-scenes look from Frankie Muniz and Kim Coles on the new The Surreal Life, the friendships that were formed, and how the celebs feel they were changed by the unique experience of this reality series.

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What attracted you to this show?

Frankie Muniz: Being such a fan early on, when I was approached to do it—in that same sense it kind of petrified me. Because you’re going into a situation where you have no idea who the roommates are going to be, you have no idea the situations that the show’s going to put you in, especially with all of the cameras and privacy issues.

It was intriguing to put myself out of my comfort zone, and I’m really, really happy I did. I both had the greatest experience of my life, I got to do some incredible things, and also a crazy experience. I have stories for a lot of years to tell. But I really enjoyed it in the end, so I’m happy that I did it.

Kim Coles: I fondly remember The Surreal Life as an iconic show, and all of us tuning in to watch. What Frankie and I have in common is while we were watching that show, we were already potential guests to be invited on that show because we both had celebrity, fame, or notoriety.

I said yes for the adventure and to get out of my comfort zone, and to have the audience get to know me as me, good, bad and indifferent. It's definitely an adventure and highly recommended. Even when it’s uncomfortable, you learn something.

We shot the show more than a year ago, and I got some great lessons that year. It takes a little bit of time just to even synthesize and integrate all of it, and so oddly enough I got some of my best life lessons during this show.

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How were you changed by this experience? 

Frankie Muniz: The biggest thing for me is when you go in, you really don’t know what to expect. You don’t expect to also build relationships with some of the roommates. I left the show now a year later, —Kim and I, Manny and I are great, great friends, and I think we’ll have that friendship forever. But what I liked about it is maybe an image you had of someone prior to getting to really know them, some of those were changed and debunked. Or not. Some of the cast you go, "Wow, they’re exactly the way that they portray themselves," or not. I think that that was really an interesting thing.

You’re together 24/7, truly living with these people. It’s not like you just show up to the set, you film a little bit and you go home. There’s so much time to really get in deep, and there’s a lot of emotion and a lot of highs and lows, and conflict that gets resolved. I think that that’s a cool thing to get to experience. I’ve never had roommates [before the show].

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What did you personally get out of the series?

Kim Coles: You get to learn about people’s character. I think I came away with more compassion, believe it or not. You’re spending that much time together and you can only pretend to be something for so long. You can't do that when you're living together in this environment, and so far away from home and so far away from your loved ones.

Someone, I won't tell you who, snuck their phone into the house even though we were told not to have our phones or any computers or anything. Once that one person had it, it opened up. I was like, “Well, if they can have it, I want mine, too.” So, we could text our wife, husband, or special somebody just to have a little piece of home, but I know we all had to create a home with the people that we were with. And I found compassion and understanding for people’s life experiences.

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How did celebrity status change each of your lives early on? Can you encounter fans and not be recognized today?

Frankie Muniz: I think fame is an interesting thing, right? Because I was a kid when I started acting, and then Malcolm started. So maybe it was a little different for me, but you want to be a working actor. It’s your dream to get to do that. When you get on something that is successful, that people start to approach you and say they love it or they’ve seen it, it makes you feel really appreciated. There are good and bad obviously that come along with fame. There are so many positives, but there also is that lack of privacy and stuff like that.

Kim Coles: I watched Frankie be really gracious this entire trip. We would get into these vans and go places to have our adventures, and Malcolm in the Middle is still one of the top shows in Mexico where we were shooting. I remember driving around and being able to look in people’s houses and see that Malcolm in the Middle was on their TVs. Frankie was so gracious when people would recognize him.

That warms my heart because we do get to be appreciative of these experiences. There are moments again that I’m just a girl in a store, and there are plenty of times when people are—I have a sitcom catchphrase, “woo woo woo.” People frequently come up to me and go, “woo woo woo,” and I embrace that because it’s something that I got to create. It has its ups and downs.

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Why do you want everyone to watch the series?

Frankie Muniz: The fact that you really get to see us as our true, authentic selves. We’re not playing a character, it’s not where we’ve only got to be in front of the camera for an hour, where we’re putting on a front. I think there’s good and bad that come from that, but I like the fact that you get to see me as me. Maybe it’ll change people’s images.

Kim Coles: I would say you tune in, again, to see people get to be their true, authentic selves. I want to say something about Frankie. Frankie for me turned out to be someone who has an incredible amount of integrity through and through. And to see that in a human being and in someone that is a beloved TV star is great. It was grounding, calming, and reassuring that we were all being our human selves.

We are celebrities or famous people or notables, but at the end of the day, we are humans. So tune in to watch humans being human, and you will find people that you resonate with and people that you might have a question mark about. And you might be delighted, excited, and open up as well. In fact, I know you will be!

The new season of The Surreal Life airs on VH1 and Paramount+.

Next, check out the best reality shows of all time.