Disney Channel Has Announced The Premiere Date of The ‘Bug Juice’ Revival

The reality show for pre-teens is getting a 2018 update!

It’s hard to imagine a time when reality TV wasn’t a fixture in our entertainment landscape, but back in the late 1990s, the trend was just getting started. From 1998 to 2001, the Disney Channel debuted their first unscripted show, “Bug Juice,” which took place at a different summer camp each season. It followed two dozen preteen campers throughout their summer as they navigated friendships and new experiences.

Now the series is being revived with a whole new group of tween campers at Camp Waziyatah in Waterford, Maine, the same camp where the first season of the original series was filmed. The reboot, “Bug Juice: My Adventures at Camp,” will premiere on July 16 on the Disney Channel.

The 16-part series will air new episodes daily Monday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m. EST, and it will also be available on the DisneyNOW app and Disney Channel VOD (video-on-demand).

We're headed back to camp for fun, friends, and all-new adventures. #BugJuice: My Adventures at Camp premieres 7/16 at 7:30p! pic.twitter.com/0gUMsGHjwL

— Disney Channel (@DisneyChannel) July 6, 2018

Of course, a lot has changed in the world since 1998. “Bug Juice” campers in the 2018 version will have cell phones, which is sure to add to the drama. The show will also incorporate animated emoticons, “boomerang” shots and onscreen memes — likely in a bid to appeal today’s internet-immersed youth culture.

Last year, Disney Channel confirmed that the reboot was in the works and expressed excitement for a whole new generation to experience the popular show.

“‘Bug Juice’ took viewers on a journey of adventure and self-discovery,” Susette Hsiung an executive vice president at Disney Channels Worldwide told Cosmopolitan.com in a statement last August. “Now, nearly two decades later, we are thrilled to be back in Maine at Camp Waziyatah with the creative team from Evolution Media and many of the same crew members who produced the original series.”

I was a little too old to watch the original “Bug Juice” back in the day, but the show sounds a lot like a tween version of MTV’s “The Real World” — another reality TV show that pioneered the genre and among my personal favorites.

Although I’m now way too old to care about the melodramas of preteens’ lives, I just may need to tune into this revival! Will you be watching “Bug Juice: My Adventures at Camp”?