| Real World XI Preview: The Real World Guide To Being The Perfect Roommate | Profiling the seven new housemates, who reside in Chicago this season. They include: quick-tempered Aneesa, a Philadelphia native; sweet-natured Cara, who hails from a Boston suburb; Chris, also from Massachusetts, who recently reconnected with his father; New Orleans native Keri, who hopes to join the FBI; Kyle, from Illinois, a Princeton student looking to buck expectations; Californian Theo, who's the son of a pastor; and Washington native Tonya, who has overcome a difficult childhood.
| 1 (1 hour) (Season premiere) | Kicking off with clips from the new cast's audition videos, the reality series' 11th-season opener finds seven strangers moving into a funky former warehouse in Chicago's artsy Wicker Park district. The group includes Aneesa, a lesbian who isn't shy about showing off her body; Chris, a recovering alcoholic who worries about revealing his sexuality; and Theo, a pastor's son, who's interested in Aneesa. Rounding out the cast are Keri, a beautiful Louisiana native; Princeton grad Kyle, who develops a rapport with Keri; Cara, who, until now, has always had a boyfriend; and Tonya, whose small-town upbringing leads her to feel lost in the big city.
| 2 | Cara enjoys her newfound "single" status while coping with the emotional spillover from her former relationship. Also: Chris struggles with "coming out" to his roommates---even though they've already guessed that he's gay.
| 3 | The housemates receive their job assignments---working as lifeguards at a Chicago beach. "The whole word 'lifeguard' freaked me out," says Cara during an interview in which she jokes that she's so irresponsible that she "can't even maintain a Chia Pet or a haircut." Before the seven can start to mimic scenes from Baywatch, however, they must take a training course and pass a rigorous swimming test. In other happenings, Tonya tells Chris about her difficult childhood and, suffering from health problems (and perhaps a bad case of homesickness), considers a temporary return to her home in Walla Walla, Wash.
| 4 | Tonya receives medical treatment in Walla Walla. Keri is mad at Kyle for how he treats her in front of his friends.
| 5 | Kyle and Keri argue about how he treats her when they're with his friends; Theo brings home several girls for a party and one of them throws up in the shower stall, angering his housemates.
| 6 | Conflicts involving the roommates' attitudes about homosexuality make for an insightful episode. The issue arises when Chris invites the rest of his housemates to attend a Human Rights Campaign dinner with him and his new beau, Kurt. All but one of them agree to attend the event, which champions equal rights for gays and lesbians. Even Tonya, who has voiced her disapproval of gays in the past, plans to go. It's Theo who refuses, asserting that "God says [homosexuality is] a sin." In other events, Aneesa, Cara, Theo and Tonya get jobs helping youngsters at a park design a mural, while Kyle, Keri and Chris start their lifeguard duty.
| 7 | Sparks fly when Aneesa is drawn to an attractive young woman, Veronica, whom she meets at the Red Dog. Although most of her roommates like her new girlfriend, Theo and Chris have reservations. Also: the non-lifeguards meet the kids who will be painting the mural with them.
| 8 | Cara's father visits and takes everyone to dinner. Also, Cara is intrigued by Kyle's friend Djordje; and Aneesa and Veronica reconcile and go out for a night on the town.
| 9 | Tonya's kidney problems resurface, causing Cara to rush her to the hospital from work. Also, Tonya's boyfriend visits; Kyle plans a weekend getaway to his father's lakeside cabin for himself and his housemates; and Kyle's girlfriend, Nicole, suggests that they break up.
| 10 | The housemates, Tonya's boyfriend Justin and Chris's boyfriend Kurt spend a weekend at Kyle's family's summer house. Also, Chris takes a part-time job tending bar and Keri has issues with Kyle's indecisiveness.
| 11 | A homesick Keri returns to New Orleans for a friend's wedding. Also: Theo takes an interest in one of the kids helping paint a mural at the park; Kyle and Cara head out for a night on the town; and Theo's brothers visit.
| 12 | Tonya asks Aneesa to be more modest; an ex-boyfriend of Cara's visits; and an ill-timed gesture from Chris sheds light on Cara's issues with her self-image.
| 13 | Aneesa rankles her roommates by refusing to do her fair share of the house chores. Also: Tonya passes another kidney stone and has to return to the hospital.
| 14 | The housemates wrap up their jobs with Summer Parks Programming, with Kyle, Keri and Chris leaving their work as lifeguards and the others finishing their work on the mural with a presentation to the kids' parents. Also: Kyle attends an AA meeting with Chris; and the gang learns that they're slated to be storytellers for a Halloween event, which upsets Theo, who sees it as the "devil's holiday."
| 15 | On September 11, the cast reacts to the events in New York City, with Kyle attempting to contact Nicole and his sister, both of whom live near the World Trade Center. Also: Aneesa celebrates her birthday---and butts heads with Tonya, who hogs the phone.
| 16 | Kyle decides he wants to reenergize his relationship with Nicole, but first he must redefine his relationship with Keri. When he asks her to give him some space, she doesn't respond well. Also: Aneesa loses the keys for the minivan.
| 17 | Cara and most of her housemates travel to St. Louis, where they visit with Cara's family and her ex-boyfriend, Jared. Meanwhile, Tonya stays behind in Chicago, where she enjoys being alone in the loft.
| 18 | Tony's boyfriend Justin visits and has words with Theo about how Theo treats Tonya. Also: all the housemates, except for Tonya, travel to Boston, where they attend a '70s theme party thrown by some of Chris's friends.
| 19 | The housemates return to Chicago from Boston and are soon at loggerheads with Tonya, who confronts Cara because she believes Cara betrayed her by telling the others of her breast-augmentation surgery.
| 20 | Keri feels pressure to finish writing her play, which is one of three the housemates are supposed to perform for Halloween. Cara, who doesn't like Keri's play, tries to get out of performing it by creating a sob story around Tonya---which Tonya calls her on. Also: Keri is disturbed by Cara's newfound alliance with Kyle.
| 21 | Aneesa runs into trouble when both of her girlfriends show up at the same club on the same night; Tonya undergoes surgery to remove her kidney stones.
| 22 | Kyle's younger brother visits, leading Tonya and Keri to question why. Also: Kyle takes part in a fashion show; and Keri and Kyle have a major argument in which she accuses him of acting "fake" for the entire time in Chicago.
| 23 (season finale) | The reality series' 11th season, made memorable by tensions between cast members and some racy behavior, comes to a close. On their last night in Chicago, Cara invites her roommates to watch her and her friend Matt sing at a coffeehouse. Everyone attends---except for Chris and Tonya, who go to work out instead. "It's not like they went to research the human-genome project," Cara complained in a post-taping interview, still smarting from the slight. Later in the episode, the housemates retire to the hot tub, where they share insights about each other. In an awkward moment, Keri has to discuss Kyle, with whom she's had a complicated---and sometimes torturous---friendship.
| Real World XI Reunion: Stop Being Polite (1 hour) | Aneesa, Cara, Chris, Keri, Kyle, Theo and Tonya reflect on their stay in Chicago, giving their spin on the fights, feuds, romances and brooding that accented the season. From MTV's Times Square studio in New York City. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
