Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Sexes

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Sexes
Genre	Reality game show
Created by	Mary-Ellis Bunim Jonathan Murray
Presented by	Jonny Moseley
Starring	Winners Men's Team Mark Long Colin Mortensen Jamie Murray
Opening theme	"Let Go" by Midtown
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	6
No. of episodes	18 + Reunion and casting special
Production
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials)
Release
Original network	MTV
Picture format	Montego Bay, Jamaica
Original release	January 6 – May 12, 2003
Chronology
Preceded by	Battle of the Seasons
Followed by	The Gauntlet

Battle of the Sexes is the 6th season of the MTV reality game show, The Challenge (though at the time, known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge). The season is directly subsequent to the first Battle of the Seasons. Battle of the Sexes featured cast members from The Real World and Road Rules. The cast stayed in the Round Hill Hotel and Villa Resort near Montego Bay, Jamaica. A casting special, Battle of the Sexes: The Good, the Bad, and the Notorious, was aired on December 30, 2002. The show premiered on January 6, 2003 and concluded on May 12, 2003.

This is the first edition of the Battle of the Sexes series, with Battle of the Sexes 2 following in 2004–2005.

Format

This season of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge features the same format as Battle of the Seasons, but instead of dividing teams by Real World and Road Rules teams, they are instead divided by gender. Each mission gave points based on finish, either with a partner or individually. After each mission, the players with the most points cumulative from each team became the "Inner Circle" and voted off whoever they wanted to. The winner of each challenge would earn a "lifesaver" which could be given to a member of either team; the recipient of the "lifesaver" would enjoy total immunity from being voted out, which created many interesting situations. After thirty people were voted off, fifteen for both genders, the final three Girls and final three Guys would compete against each other in a final race, earning $150,000 for themselves, $50,000 per teammate.

Cast

Host: 1998 Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley

Women's team Player Original season Finish Ruthie Alcaide RW: Hawaii Runner-Up Ellen Cho RR: The Quest Runner-Up Lori Trespicio RW: Back to New York Runner-Up Melissa Howard RW: New Orleans Episode 15 Genesis Moss RW: Boston Episode 14 Emily Bailey RR: Second Adventure Episode 13/14[lower-alpha 1] Anne Wharton RR: Northern Trail Episode 12 Ayanna Mackins RR: Semester at Sea Episode 11 Veronica Portillo RR: Semester at Sea Episode 10 Christina Pazsitzky RR: Down Under Episode 9 Tonya Cooley RW: Chicago Episode 8 Aneesa Ferreira RW: Chicago Episode 7 Rachel Robinson RR: Campus Crawl Episode 6 Amaya Brecher RW: Hawaii Episode 5 Jisela Delgado RR: The Quest Episode 4 Gladys Sanabria RR: Latin America Episode 3 Beth Stolarczyk RW: Los Angeles Episode 2 Julie Stoffer RW: New Orleans Episode 1

Men's team Player Original season Finish Mark Long RR: First Adventure Winner Colin Mortensen RW: Hawaii Winner Jamie Murray RW: New Orleans Winner Antoine de Bouverie RR: Europe Episode 15 Shane Landrum RR: Campus Crawl Episode 14 James Orlando RR: Maximum Velocity Tour Episode 13 Eric Nies RW: New York Episode 12 Blair Herter RR: The Quest Episode 11 Syrus Yarbrough RW: Boston Episode 10 Theo Gantt RW: Chicago Episode 9 Jake Bronstein RR: Islands Episode 8[lower-alpha 2] Dan Renzi RW: Miami Episode 6/7[lower-alpha 3] David "Puck" Rainey RW: San Francisco Episode 7[lower-alpha 3] Yes Duffy RR: Semester at Sea Episode 5 David Broom RW: New Orleans Episode 4 Eric Jones RR: Campus Crawl Episode 3 Laterrian Wallace RR: Maximum Velocity Tour Episode 2 David Edwards RW: Los Angeles Episode 1[lower-alpha 4]

Game summary

Elimination chart

Episode		Winners		Inner Circle						Life Saver Recipient	Voted Off
#	Challenge	Team	Life Saver	Girls			Guys				Girls	Guys
1	Sergeant Says	Girls	Melissa, Amaya	Amaya, Melissa, Aneesa, Genesis			Blair, Theo, Jamie, Colin			Dan	Julie	David E.[lower-alpha 4]
2	Dead Man's Drop	Girls	Ruthie	Ruthie	Ellen	Anne	Theo	Jamie	Colin	Gladys	Beth	Laterrian
3	Tree House	Guys	Dan, Jamie				Puck			Puck	Gladys	Eric J.
4	Breath-Hold Bungee	Guys	James			Veronica	James			Emily	Jisela	David B.
5	Seven Rings of Saturn	Guys	Puck, Theo			Emily	Mark			Colin	Amaya	Yes
6	Freeze Your Butt Off	Girls	Ellen					Theo		Tonya	Rachel	Dan[lower-alpha 3]
7	People Mover[lower-alpha 3]	Girls	Ayanna, Ellen					Jamie		Tonya	Aneesa	Dan
8	Battle of the Opposite Sexes	Guys	Jake			Veronica				Blair	Tonya	Jake[lower-alpha 2]
9	Leaky River	Guys	Eric N.			Melissa				N/A[lower-alpha 5]	Christina	Theo
10	Stairway to Heaven	Guys	Jamie			Emily				Blair[lower-alpha 6]	Veronica	Syrus
11	Collision Course	Guys	James							Blair[lower-alpha 7]	Ayanna	Blair
12	Spider Mon	Guys	Shane							Genesis	Anne	Eric N.
13	Human Aquarium	Guys	Antoine							Shane	Genesis[lower-alpha 1]	James
14	Razors Edge	Guys	Antoine			Lori				Shane[lower-alpha 7]	Genesis	Shane
15	Maximum Velocity	Girls	Ruthie							N/A	Melissa	Antoine
16	It Takes Three	Guys	Final Rankings    Guys: Mark 1st, Colin 2nd, Jamie 3rd    Girls: Ruthie 1st, Ellen 2nd, Lori 3rd

Scoreboard progress

Contestant	Episode
	1	2	3	4	5	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Mark	16	45	71	102	136	160	188	220	250	284	314	344	376	410	441	WIN
Colin	28	59	93	115	149	168	200	223	251	279	310	345	372	404	439	WIN
Jamie	28	51	87	115	141	155	183	213	238	274	308	339	372	407	407	WIN
Ruthie	28	64	72	102	134	163	189	210	244	274	300	334	365	365	401	LOSE
Ellen	26	58	64	87	109	145	181	216	240	264	290	318	347	347	378	LOSE
Lori	22	36	50	63	93	123	147	177	203	227	254	281	309	342	376	LOSE
Antoine	2	36	58	90	118	129	163	193	225	258	287	319	355	391	391
Melissa	36	47	61	70	92	125	155	188	208	227	227	253	278	309	341
Shane	12	38	66	100	128	145	167	197	220	247	279	315	349	349
Genesis	34	43	55	65	89	114	140	174	197	218	218	218	248	248
Emily	2	37	61	85	117	151	169	169	202	233	262	291	317
James	8	35	67	103	103	121	155	185	213	245	281	314	349
Eric N.	10	40	66	99	99	127	159	191	227	262	297	297
Anne	24	52	62	79	103	135	153	153	175	196	220	245
Blair	32	39	61	79	99	121	141	171	196	225	259
Ayanna	6	25	45	61	91	126	162	162	193	215	215
Syrus	18	41	71	91	117	133	147	177	198	224
Veronica	28	45	61	88	106	137	167	197	197	222
Theo	32	50	68	94	130	156	170	193	194
Christina	24	37	61	69	69	92	116	116	116
Jake	20	28	60	95	115	136	158	194
Tonya	22	46	52	64	64	84	100	100
Dan	20	40	76	101	101	116	136
Aneesa	34	46	56	67	67	79	95
Puck	16	49	77	98	134	147	—
Rachel	2	17	37	56	74	101
Yes	8	31	65	94	94
Amaya	36	41	57	71	71
David B.	18	43	61	76
Jisela	14	30	42	49
Eric J.	12	25	55
Gladys	14	14	22
Latterian	2	8
Beth	6	16
Julie	26
David E.	10

Competition

Bold indicates the contestants in the Inner Circle.

     The contestant's team won the final challenge.

     The contestant's team did not win the final challenge.

     The contestant came in first in the challenge, won the Life Saver, and a prize.

     The contestant was given the Life Saver by the winner of the challenge.

     The contestant was eliminated but returned to the game due to another contestant quitting.

     The contestant was eliminated.

     The contestant quit the game.

     The contestant came in first in the challenge, won the Life Saver, and a prize and quit the game.

     The contestant refused the Life Saver from the winner of the challenge and was eliminated.

Partners

Sergeant Says				Tree House				Seven Rings of Saturn				People Mover
	Amaya & Melissa		Antoine & Latterrian		Amaya & Veronica		Antoine & Blair		Amaya & Tonya		Antoine & Shane		Aneesa & Tonya		Antoine & James
	Aneesa & Genesis		Blair & Theo		Aneesa & Anne		Colin & Yes		Anne & Genesis		Blair & Jake		Anne & Emily		Blair & Dan
	Anne & Christina		Colin & Jamie		Ayanna & Rachel		Dan & Jamie		Aneesa & Christina		Colin & Mark		Ayanna & Ellen		Colin & Eric N.
	Ayanna & Beth		Dan & Jake		Christina & Emily		David B. & Theo		Ayanna & Lori		Dan & James		Christina & Lori		Jamie & Mark
	Ellen & Julie		David B. & Syrus		Ellen & Tonya		Eric J. & Syrus		Ellen & Melissa		Eric N. & Yes		Genesis & Ruthie		Jake & Shane
	Emily & Rachel		David E. & Eric N.		Genesis & Jisela		Eric N. & Mark		Emily & Ruthie		Jamie & Syrus		Melissa & Veronica		Syrus & Theo
	Gladys & Jisela		Eric J. & Shane		Gladys & Ruthie		Jake & James		Rachel & Veronica		Puck & Theo
	Lori & Tonya		James & Yes		Lori & Melissa		Puck & Shane
	Ruthie & Veronica		Mark & Puck

Episodes

No. in season	No. in series	Title	Original air date
1	56	"Hola Jamaica"	January 6, 2003
2	57	"Sargeant Says"	January 6, 2003
3	58	"Dead Man's Drop"	January 13, 2003
4	59	"Tree House"	January 20, 2003
5	60	"Breath-Hold Bungee"	January 27, 2003
6	61	"Puck's Wedding"	February 3, 2003
7	62	"Seven Rings of Saturn"	February 10, 2003
8	63	"Freeze Your Butt Off"	February 17, 2003
9	64	"People Mover"	February 24, 2003
10	65	"Battle of the Opposite Sexes"	March 3, 2003
11	66	"Leaky River"	March 17, 2003
12	67	"Stairway to Heaven"	March 24, 2003
13	68	"Collision Course"	March 31, 2003
14	69	"Spider Mon"	April 7, 2003
15	70	"Human Aquarium"	April 14, 2003
16	71	"Razors Edge"	April 21, 2003
17	72	"Maximum Velocity"	April 28, 2003
18	73	"Handsome Reward"	May 5, 2003

Reunion special

The reunion special, Hot and Bothered: The Battle of the Sexes Reunion, was aired live on May 12, 2003 and was hosted by the season's host Jonny Moseley.

Memorable Moments

• Before the show even began, Puck and David E. (both of whom were kicked out of their house by their roommates during their respective seasons) got into a very heated argument. The conflict ended with Puck spitting in David E.'s face, who then demanded that Puck be ejected from the show. Executive producer Jon Murray was torn with the decision to send Puck home after half of the cast rallied to keep Puck on the show, while the other half of the cast did not care if he went home. Puck then suggested that he would allow David E. to spit in his face as well, in an act of fairness. David E. agreed to go along with this at first, but later refused and instead went back to protesting that Puck be removed from the program. Murray was able to negotiate between the two and put an end to their squabble without resorting to Puck's removal from the game. However, during filming of the opening cast credits, David E. spat into Puck's face when the cast members were told to act out a tug of war game. This was edited out of the final cut. After the first challenge, David E. became outraged when he realized Puck was secretly convincing all the contestants to vote him off. He then threatened to leave the show. David E. would be the first male to be leave the show on his own accord.
• Melissa developed a deep animosity toward her former Real World cast member Julie over speaking arrangements that were made outside the show. Melissa had claimed that Julie misrepresented her services to a particular college which thereby prevented her from being booked. Melissa made it very clear that the two were no longer friends upon arriving to the show and she was very instrumental in getting Julie voted off first, even though she had received a high score in the mission. Their dispute continued outside the show where each side of the girls' argument was displayed onto their own respective websites, as well as the homepage for the show on MTV.
• Gladys was pregnant and was ultimately voted off third because of it. She was also forbidden to partake in the Dead Man's Drop mission, after hanging upside down could do substantial harm to her unborn child.
• Amaya planned to have the Inner Circle vote her out because she had a family crisis to attend to and didn't want to quit, but to the surprise of viewers who had followed her bitter feud with Veronica on a previous challenge, Veronica said she didn't want Amaya to leave and wouldn't vote her out. Melissa wrote on her blog that the two women had become friends since that challenge.
• Rachel was voted off by the Inner Circle (consisting of Ellen, Emily, and Ruthie) in the sixth episode, which many believed to be unfair since she did not have the lowest score on the scoreboard. She then proceeded to deliver a rant in which she declared, "This game is ugly, the inner circle is ugly, and I don't want to be a part of it anymore!"
• Puck and Ellen constantly came into conflict with one another, and Puck had even threatened to "kick her ass" at one point.
• A feud erupted between Veronica and Emily after Veronica allegedly slept with Emily's boyfriend James while he was helping her move into her apartment.
• Puck married his girlfriend, Betty, and mother of his infant son, Bogart, during the show. A special episode was aired that depicted the wedding, without any challenges or eliminations. Ellen, Tonya, Melissa, and Amaya were the only players in the game at that point who did not attend the wedding, abstaining out of protest because of the way Puck treated the women.
• Puck left the show after trashing the residence when his wife was detained at departure from Jamaica for not having her green card. Because the teams had to be symmetrical, the previously voted off male, Dan, was put back in the game. The women were thrilled to see him return, but he only lasted one round before getting voted out again.
• Emily's plotting against people that she did not like caused a large amount of controversy and resulted in both Rachel and Veronica's eliminations. Ellen and Ruthie would take most of the heat for these decisions, which made them very upset. Emily would later quit the show after her boyfriend, James, was voted off.
• When Veronica was voted off, Jamie tried to use his Life Saver to keep her in the game, but because he didn't inform Johnny of his choice, as well as openly admitting to choosing Blair beforehand, Veronica was sent home.
• During one of the missions, Antoine began to hit on one of the judges while still involved with the competition. He was lying down in a pool of water, so he was wearing his challenge issued speedo. The revealing swimsuit led the judge to tell Antoine that he had a "nice boner" while she couldn't stop laughing.
• Several of the women refused to participate in the "Battle of the Opposite Sexes" mission after they were insulted at the prospect of taking off their clothes, even though the rules stated they only had to remove an article of clothing if they answered a question incorrectly.
• In the final mission, titled "It Takes Three," the men had an early lead until they got to the second part of the challenge, which was a puzzle. Their difficulty with it led to the women catching up and even getting ahead of the men. After they left, the men went over to the women's puzzle and took it apart piece by piece, since it was still intact and put theirs together using the portions of the women's that had already been completed. Once finished, the men caught up with the women and ended up winning, completing the final challenge an hour ahead of the women. This had caused controversy after some viewed this as cheating, but it was not outlawed under the rules that were set, and was therefore not disallowed.
• Ruthie remarkably completed the Maximum Velocity mission in only four seconds, winning the mission, and cars, for the women.
• Ayanna quit the game after the "Collision Course" mission because she felt unappreciated by her team members. While she did not officially quit, she asked to be voted off, which the inner circle obliged.
• In spite of serious family problems plaguing him, Eric won the Life Saver at the "Leaky River" mission.
• After the "Human Aquarium" mission, James and Shane were tied in the points, leaving the vote on who would go home up to Life Saver recipient Antoine. He gave the Life Saver to Shane because James was blunt about his belief he deserved the spot, which Antoine didn't like.
• Had Antoine simply completed the "Maximum Velocity" mission, he would have made it to the final mission and shared in the $150,000 prize with the men. However, he DQ'ed, allowing Jamie the final spot.

Notes

1. Emily quit the game in Episode 13 because she did not want to participate in the game without her boyfriend James, who was just voted off by the Inner Circle. Genesis, who was originally voted off, was not eliminated and Lori, who had the fourth highest score was automatically put in the Inner Circle.
2. Jake quit the game in Episode 8, citing personal reasons.
3. Dan was originally voted off in Episode 6. However, when Puck quit the game, Dan was brought back because the teams needed to be symmetrical, and have the same number of players.
4. David E. quit the game on the first episode after coming into conflict with Puck, who had suggested David to be eliminated by the Inner Circle. David, who was already offended by Puck spitting on him, chose to leave the game.
5. Eric N. dedicated the lifesaver to his sister, who was in the hospital with an over-100 degree fever. The lifesaver was not used to save a contestant, which was allowed in the game.
6. Jamie did inform Jonny of who he was giving the life saver to prior to the elimination. After Veronica was eliminated, he said that he was about to give it to Blair but then gave it to Veronica. Since Jonny was never informed and Jamie made it clear that he changed his mind after the elimination, his original selection of Blair had to stay, thereby eliminating Veronica.
7. Blair refused the lifesaver in Episode 11 because he felt that he did not deserve to stay over the other guys who had scored higher than him on the scoreboard. Shane had refused the lifesaver in Episode 14 because he did not want Antoine to give up his spot in the final four.

External links

• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived December 20, 2006)
• MTV's official Road Rules website
• MTV's official Real World website