This is part five of a five-part series. Read the intro to the series here.

Interviews have been edited, condensed and arranged by topic to allow a coherent story to emerge.

DAVID WEXLER (show creator, writer, producer): My only regret is that we weren’t renewed. I think it would have been really cool to follow them for four years. If there’s any project that I think about what it could have been – I think the first year was great. I think we could have had three more of them. So that’s my only regret.

JORDAN ELLERMAN (cast member): That’s a tough one. See I don’t know. The thing is, I think I would just because it hasn’t been a big deal in my life since. There hasn’t been long lasting repercussions from me doing the show. And it did help me out a lot – I was able to pay for an entire semester’s tuition, and I was able to pay for my rent. Just on money basis alone I’d say I’d do it again.

DAVID WEXLER: We were really one episode away from, if we had one more strong performance that we would have been renewed. And I think if it was renewed it would have opened up more communication, and it would have been all it could have been.

ANDREA ENDRIES (cast member): You know, that’s really hard to say, because I think that everything happens for a reason. The way that my faith is, I know that God had that show happen for a reason, I know that it taught me things. … I got tons and tons of messages, like, for two years, from people asking questions about faith and asking questions about how I was saving myself for marriage. … I know that there was a reason for it, but at the same time I don’t think I could be a part of that world right now where I am.

DAVID WEXLER: There were two camps. One was really interested in taking it to the University of Arizona, the next school, whatever school it was. I loved the idea of following them until they graduated. I thought that would have been a beautiful piece of television, and that would have been really exciting to me. I think people would have begun to get it more, that this is about the characters, the relationship problems, their family problems, their school problems.

TRICIA DICKINSON (UW marketing director): We understand now how to advise students for opportunities for reality shows and we have had several requests since that show. We also understand our interest in getting involved with reality shows as a campus, which is negligible. It’s not something we’re interested in.

LOREEN STEVENS (independently contracted casting director): I’d be very interested to see, are they graduating now? How are they doing? I’ve had people say to me, “Oh, I wish they’d have a reunion, I want to see where they are now.”

DAVID WEXLER: I think there’s a nice arc in the first season with Kevin, even. I think he’s a bit of a partier and then he gets his act together, if I remember correctly, and starts doing really well in school and stuff like that. That really interests me. And then, you can see – imagine when he starts sophomore year.

RYAN RAINEY (incoming Badger Herald editor-in-chief), in a 2010 Badger Herald news article: One of the stars of MTV’s “College Life,” the infamous Kevin Tracy, was one of three University of Wisconisn students whose North Brooks Street party was busted Sept. 11 [2010] by UW police. The fine? A whopping $86,000. Tracy, along with roommates Travis Ludy and Mitchel Klatt, hosted a house party which, according to an MPD report, attracted over 200 people.

TRICIA DICKINSON: Just think about what this is putting out there about yourself, if that’s the way you want to be known not only as a student, but in your life beyond UW-Madison. This stuff, once it’s on film, tends to live on.

COLIN SCHMIDT, in a comment on Jason Smathers’ 2009 review: Good luck to the freshman on the show, you are brave, can’t wait to see you in 4 years.

JORDAN ELLERMAN: I’m still in Madison. I took my first year at UW, and then I took a year off with the intention of getting in-state tuition. But I couldn’t find work for the first few months, and … I had to make a decision, like, should I go back to school, or should I wait another six months to be able to get in-state tuition and go to UW. So I decided to go to Madison Media Institute. I’d been thinking about it when I looked at UW, and it’s – my two passions are writing and music. I did creative writing at UW, and I’m doing music at Madison Media Institute.

ANDREA ENDRIES: I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. I was getting my, you know, my videos put together, I was doing interviews, everything was going exactly the way I wanted it to go, just as planned. But while I was down in Florida, … God tried to ask me, “Are you doing everything you’re doing for you, or for my blood,” for God’s plan or my own. … And who knows, God might take me back there once I do this for a while, but as of right now I decided to go full time into ministry [for qlp.tv]. … I’m living currently down in Nashville, Tenn. … But I tell everybody down here, I’m like, I’m always a Badger, no matter what.

JORDAN ELLERMAN: I don’t see anyone from the show anymore. There were two web people, who were web. They were on webisodes that never got aired. That was Dan and Anna. Dan I still see, we party, we go to the bars. I did a little production [under the name DJ Umi], and he raps, so I was making beats for him and stuff.

ANDREA ENDRIES: Besides Josh (now working as an engineer in the west suburbs of Chicago), I really haven’t seen them – I mean we’re Facebook friends. There was one, Anna, who I don’t know if you’re aware of, she did some of the web stuff, but she was killed in a car accident.

JORDAN ELLERMAN: Anna was probably the person on the show that I was closest to, and she actually passed away. She was my closest friend on the show and I hung out with her a lot, especially during filming. You can actually see her in a lot of my footage.

ANDREA ENDRIES: I look at the MTV world as like this little bubble, so I can’t believe I was there. But I wouldn’t want to be there now.

DAVID WEXLER: I don’t think we could have done anything differently, it was just too bad. So. I think it could have been a really big, a really important piece of TV if it went on for four years. I think everyone would have finally gotten it and it would have been something very interesting.

(Updated May 11, 2012 at 9:05 a.m.)

The following ArtsEtc. Seniors created this project

Sam Berg is an ArtsEtc. Reporter. He was Space Ghost at the 2008 Freakfest and is graduating with a degree in English.

Holly Hartung wrote for Arts Etc as a reporter and Dairyland Down-low columnist. Freshman year she thought College was her favorite study spot until she realized she had actually been at the Historical Library. She is graduating and moving to Berlin this summer to journalize, German style.

Katie Foran-McHale is an outgoing Arts Etc. Staff Writer. She lived in Chadbourne as a freshman in 2007-08 and will graduate next week with a degree in journalism, communication arts and music performance.

Joe Nistler is the incoming ArtsEtc. Content Editor. He lived in Sellery, the heart of College Life country, as a freshman in 2008-09 and will be finishing up in fall 2012 with journalism and Italian degrees.

Lin Weeks is the outgoing ArtsEtc. Editor. He lived in Bradley Learning Community as a freshman in 2008-09 and will graduate next week with a degree in economics.