The Challenge (TV series)

For the current season, see The Challenge: Rivals III.
The Challenge
Genre Reality game show
Created by Mary-Ellis Bunim
Jonathan Murray
Presented by T. J. Lavin
Starring Various alumni of:
Real World
Road Rules
Fresh Meat
Fresh Meat II
Spring Break Challenge
Are You the One?
Battle of the Bloodlines
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 27
Production
Running time
  • 30 minutes (1998-2007)
  • 1 hour (2008-present)
Production company(s) Bunim/Murray Productions
Distributor Viacom Media Networks
Release
Original network MTV
Original release June 1, 1998 – present
Chronology
Preceded by Real World
Road Rules
External links
Website
Production website

The Challenge (originally known as Road Rules: All Stars, followed by Real World/Road Rules Challenge) is a long-running reality game show on MTV that is spun off from the network's two reality shows, Real World and the now cancelled Road Rules. It features alumni from these two shows, in addition to first-time cast members called 'Fresh Meat', alumni from Are You the One?, and relatives of these cast members called 'Bloodlines', competing against one another for a cash prize.[1][2] The Challenge is currently hosted by T. J. Lavin.

The series premiered on June 1, 1998. The title of the show was originally Road Rules: All Stars before it was renamed Real World/Road Rules Challenge by the show's 2nd season, then later abridged to simply The Challenge by the show's 19th season. The series initially used no hosts but instead a former cast member who had been kicked off his or her season, providing assignments as "Mr." or "Ms. Big" (David "Puck" Rainey, David Edwards, and Gladys Sanabria served this role). Later on, however, the series began using hosts: Eric Nies and Mark Long co-hosted a season, and Jonny Moseley and Dave Mirra hosted various seasons before T. J. Lavin became the show's regular host by the 11th season.

Since the 4th season, each season has supplied the show with a unique subtitle, such as "Rivals." Each season consists of a format and theme whereby the subtitle is derived. Of each season's format and theme, 8 have been repeated or revamped through sequel seasons with shared subtitles. In chronological order, these include: Battle of the Sexes (tied to Battle of the Sexes II, the show's first sequel season); The Inferno (tied to The Inferno II and The Inferno III, the show's first trilogy); The Gauntlet (tied to The Gauntlet II and The Gauntlet III); The Duel (tied to The Duel II); Fresh Meat (tied to Fresh Meat II), Battle of the Seasons (tied to the second Battle of the Seasons); Rivals (tied to Rivals II and Rivals III); and Battle of the Exes (tied to Battle of the Exes II).

The current 28th season, entitled Rivals III, premiered on May 4, 2016.[3]

Structure

Overview

The Challenge casts are season specific as the cast varies from season to season. The casts can only be made up of A.) contestants originating from one of The Challenge's related TV programs or B.) contestants originating from one of the few Challenge seasons that have allowed previously unknown contestants. These shows and seasons are: The Challenge's two precursor programs, The Real World and Road Rules, the reality show Are You the One?, The Challenge's spin-off television program, Spring Break Challenge, and The Challenge's own Fresh Meat seasons (only the seasons Fresh Meat, and Fresh Meat II).

A season's typical multitude of cast members are usually divided up into separate teams according to a certain criteria, which varies from season to season. The criteria that teams have been arranged by over the show's history have ranged all across the board, from gender of the contestants and original show of contestants to bad guy/good guy status of contestants and ex-romantic partners of contestants. Each of the opposing teams compete in numerous missions in order to win prizes and advance in the overall game. Following each mission, a team or a cast member is voted into an elimination round to take on the least successful team from the previous mission. In elimination rounds, they must compete against one another to determine which one is eliminated from the season. Each season has its own, very distinct elimination round, distinguished from those of other seasons in title, design, and general atmosphere. Determining which two teams or two cast members are sent into the episode's elimination round frequently leads to drama and contestants playing the game dirty; this is due to the show's contestants being in charge of who is thrown into elimination rounds.[4] Like that of The Real World, sporadically throughout the course of each episode, various contestants are seen privately expressing themselves through reality TV confessionals about the events taking place on the show.

Some seasons, however, have used entirely different formats from the typical: The Island is one Challenge in particular that adopted many features atypical to Real World/Road Rules Challenge, instead taking concepts like that of another reality television game show Survivor; as another example, the first season (Road Rules: All Stars) ironically only included contestants from The Real World and consisted of a much smaller cast before the show was completely reconstructed by its second season. Except for season one, a monetary prize has always been the award for winning the final mission.

Theme and format by season title

Each distinct season title has indicated the general gameplay format used:

TV show's conception

During the filming of The Real World: Boston and Road Rules: Islands, the two casts met while the Real World cast was vacationing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Producers set up a face-off where both teams would compete for a cash prize. The intensely competitive challenge brought in high ratings and this set ideas in motion to produce yet another spin-off series. After another face-off called AquaGames, hosted by Kit Hoover and Mark Long, between The Real World: Seattle and Road Rules: Down Under in 1997, the Challenge series was born in 1998 with Road Rules: All Stars, and featured cast members from five different seasons of The Real World.

After All Stars, producers decided to include former castmembers of Road Rules in the series as well. In the next season, two six-member teams were sent around the world in a competition to see which show could best the other in head-to-head competition. The series followed the format for three years and brought in hugely successful ratings.

Following the hugely successful boom of reality television in the new millennium, producers decided to add new elements to the series. In 2001, production began on Battle of the Seasons. This season, the first to depart from the previous six-member structure, brought in a large group of former cast members to compete in one location. Beginning with the first Battle of the Seasons, MTV added a fantasy challenge game to their website. Players "draft" cast members, a la fantasy baseball and cast members are given points for performing certain tasks, such as cursing or "hooking up."

After switching to the "vote off" format, the series would alternate between "Battle" seasons, including two seasons of Battle of the Sexes and themed Challenges which included the Gauntlet and Inferno seasons. Both the Gauntlet and Inferno seasons contained "showdown" matches between members of the two opposing teams. The cast member who lost the showdown would be sent home. The Gauntlet seasons featured an intra-cast dynamic as teams were forced to vote off cast members within their own groups into the showdown, while the Inferno seasons featured an inter-cast dynamic as teams were forced to vote off cast members from the other group into the showdown.

In 2005, Bunim-Murray Productions decided to invite new people to the Challenges who were never a part of either Real World or Road Rules and called them 'Fresh Meat.' This decision was forced, in part, because of the status of Road Rules at the time. While Road Rules had stopped production until further notice after its thirteenth season, Real World had just finished wrapping its sixteenth season in Austin, Texas. Road Rules had a fourteenth, and final, season in 2007. One additional 'Fresh Meat' season has followed with cast also being integrated in The Challenge from the 2010 Spring Break Challenge miniseries and Are You the One?[5]

External episodes

While internal episodes are the usual and feature an original mission, voting process, elimination round, and surrounding social lives between the season's contestants, external episodes feature the season's contestants reviewing themselves in internal episodes and adding feedback. This is typically combined with video clips from the internal episodes in question. The Challenge has three types of these external episodes, an aftershow that takes place sporadically in the form of a series throughout the entire season, a post-show reunion of notable cast members from that season, and a bonus footage special.

The Challenge lingo

Veterans and rookies

Two commonly used terms on the show are "veterans" (or vets) and "rookies." Veterans are particularly thought of as players that have won at least one Challenge season, but the term has also been applied to players who have appeared on several seasons of the show, or have appeared in the final stages of a challenge. Rookies are thought of as players that have done none of the above. The most vulnerable rookies are those who have just recently completed their season on The Real World, Road Rules or Are You the One? and are participating in the game for their very first time; often they are the first to be singled out and targeted by everyone else due to their lack of bonds with existing cast. However, at least one rookie has reached the final challenge on every season, for the exceptions of Fresh Meat II and Battle of the Exes.

Alliance

Another commonly used term on the show is "alliance." The term is used to refer to challengers working together. These contestants have colluded together so as to increase their overall chances of winning the season game. But for safety in numbers offered by the collusion, the show's contestants would run the risk of victimization to the game's politics and popularity factors. Politics plays a role due to the show's formats in which options of who is thrown into elimination rounds and other determining factors are left up to challengers themselves. Alliances are typically formed through pacts and negotiations made among certain contestants early on in the game. Alliance operations can range from saving alliance members, throwing missions for the purposes of advancing the alliance, picking and choosing based upon alliance involvement as opposed to levels of performance, etc.

In early seasons of the show, alliances were heavily frowned upon by most of the contestants. As such, alliances used to be carried out with much more secrecy, craft, and deviousness. In fact, many of the earliest alliances on the show were formed to sabotage members of one's own team who were perceived as weak. Once exposed, alliances typically came as offensive and shocking to those not involved. Since the later seasons, however, alliances have become a norm among the show's contestants, so much so that most contestants are expected to join an alliance upon beginning out a season. Despite its use among most, there are still a minority of contestants who elect to play the game straightforwardly, feeling as though alliance tactics are a sign of weakness and a lack of competitive spirit. Those who reject alliances, however, are seen as not playing the game strategically. Although the widespread and overt practice of alliance construction has expelled its original devious reputation, its effectiveness and capacity to surprise attack has waned.

Layup

Coined in Rivals II, a "layup" is a metaphorical usage referring to efforts made to ensure that a season's weakest contestant or team or at least highly weakest contestant or team makes it to the final mission. In this sense, a weak contestant/team is given a free ticket to the final mission by most or all of a season's cast. The logic behind this method is that competing against a weaker contestant/team in the final mission creates for a more sure-fire win with least amount of effort as possible. The move is performed by contestants/teams refraining from voting weak links into elimination rounds.

Spring Break Challenge

In March 2010, prior to the airing of the 19th season, MTV aired a special spring break spin-off of The Challenge in Acapulco, Mexico.[6] Challenge alum coached teams of college-aged friends in various challenges of old and new, while Fresh Meat alumnus Evan Starkman and The Real World: Key West alumna Paula Meronek served as broadcasters, with T. J. Lavin as the host. Camila Nakagawa, a contestant of the winning team, went on to appear on future challenges, with her debut Challenge being Cutthroat. As of the end of 2015, Camila is the only player to appear on the challenges.

Seasons

Order Title Format Original Release Location of the residence Winners
1 All Stars 1 team of 5 June 1, 1998 -
June 29, 1998
Road trip: MontrealLake Placid
WellingtonAucklandLos Angeles
Cynthia, Eric N., Jon, Rachel C. and Sean
2 Real World vs. Road Rules 2 teams of 6 November 9, 1999 -
December 14, 1999
Road trip: San FranciscoLos Angeles
Las VegasLos Angeles
     Road Rules
(Anne, Kalle, Kefla, Mark, Noah and Roni)
3 Challenge 2000 2 teams of 6 January 17, 2000 -
April 3, 2000
Road trip: Las VegasNashvilleMiami      Road Rules
(Dan S., Holly, Los, Piggy, Veronica and Yes)
4 Extreme Challenge 2 teams of 6 January 9, 2001 -
May 22, 2001
Road trip: Portland,MEMontreal
BostonLondonHamburgPrague
LondonNew YorkLos Angeles
     Real World
(Dan R., Jamie M., Julie S., Kameelah, Rebecca and Syrus)
5 Battle of the Seasons 2 teams of
8 pairs of 2
January 28, 2002 -
May 27, 2002
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico      Real World
(Mike M. & Coral, Sean & Elka, Danny R. & Kelley)
6 Battle of the Sexes 2 teams of 18 December 30, 2002 -
May 12, 2003
Montego Bay, Jamaica      Guys
(Mark, Colin, Jamie M.)
7 The Gauntlet 2 teams of 14 September 29, 2003 -
January 26, 2004
Telluride, Colorado      Road Rules
(Adam L., Cara, Dave, Darrell, Rachel R., Roni, Sarah G., Theo, and Veronica)
8 The Inferno 2 teams of 10 February 2, 2004 -
May 31, 2004
Acapulco, Mexico      Road Rules
(Abram, Christena, Darrell, Holly, Katie, Kendal, Timmy and Veronica)
9 Battle of the Sexes 2 2 teams of 18 October 4, 2004 -
January 31, 2005
Santa Fe, New Mexico      Guys
(Dan S., Eric N., Theo)
10 The Inferno II 2 teams of 10 March 7, 2005 -
June 20, 2005
Manzanillo, Mexico      Good Guys
(Darrell, Jamie C., Landon and Mike M.)
11 The Gauntlet 2 2 teams of 16 December 5, 2005 -
March 27, 2006
Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago      Rookies
(Alton, Ibis, Jamie M., Jodi, Kina, Landon, MJ, Randy and Susie)
12 Fresh Meat 12 pairs of 2
(male/female)
May 29, 2006 -
September 11, 2006
Myocum, Australia      Darrell & Aviv
13 The Duel Individual October 12, 2006 -
January 18, 2007
Armação dos Búzios, Brazil      Wes
     Jodi
14 The Inferno 3 2 teams of 10 April 10, 2007 -
July 3, 2007
Somerset West, South Africa      Bad Asses
(Abram, Derrick, Evelyn, Janelle, Kenny and Tonya)
15 The Gauntlet III 2 teams of 16 January 23, 2008 -
March 26, 2008
Riviera Nayarit, Mexico      Rookies
(Frank R., Jillian, Johanna, Nehemiah, Rachel M. and Tori)
16 The Island Individual
→2 teams of 4
September 10, 2008 -
October 29, 2008
Colón Island, Panama      Red Boat
(Derrick, Evelyn, Kenny, and Johnny "Bananas")
17 The Duel II Individual April 8, 2009 -
June 17, 2009
Queenstown, New Zealand      Evan
     Rachel R.
18 The Ruins 2 teams of 14 September 30, 2009 -
December 23, 2009
Phuket, Thailand      Champions
(Derrick, Evan, Johnny "Bananas," Kenny and Susie)
19 Fresh Meat II 13 pairs of 2
(male/female)
April 7, 2010 -
June 9, 2010
Whistler, British Columbia, Canada      Landon & Carley
20 Cutthroat 3 teams of 10 October 6, 2010 -
December 22, 2010
Prague, Czech Republic      Red Team
(Brad, Dunbar, Tori and Tyler)
21 Rivals 14 pairs of 2
(same gender)
June 22, 2011 -
September 7, 2011
Dominical, Costa Rica
Buenos Aires & Bariloche, Argentina
     Johnny "Bananas" & Tyler
     Evelyn & Paula
22 Battle of the Exes 13 pairs of 2
(12 male/female &
1 female/female)
January 25, 2012 -
April 4, 2012
Sosúa, Dominican Republic
Reykjavík, Iceland
     Johnny "Bananas" & Camila
23 Battle of the Seasons 8 teams of 4 September 19, 2012 -
December 19, 2012
Bodrum, Turkey
Swakopmund, Namibia
     Team San Diego
(Ashley, Frank S., Sam and Zach)
24 Rivals II 16 pairs of 2
(same gender)
July 10, 2013 -
September 25, 2013
Phuket, Thailand      CT & Wes
     Emily & Paula
25 Free Agents Individual
Pairs
Teams
April 10, 2014 -
June 26, 2014
Punta del Este, Uruguay
Pucón, Chile
 03  Johnny "Bananas"
 24  Laurel
26 Battle of the Exes II 13 pairs of 2
(male/female)
January 6, 2015 -
March 24, 2015
Pedasí, Panama
Ørsta, Norway
     Jordan & Sarah R.
27 Battle of the Bloodlines 14 pairs of 2
→2 teams of 12
→5 pairs of 2
December 2, 2015 -
February 17, 2016
Bodrum, Turkey
Berlin, Germany
     Cara Maria & Jamie B.
28 Rivals III[3] 13 pairs of 2
(male/female)[3]
May 4, 2016[3] Huatulco, Mexico
Buenos Aires, Argentina
    

5 Timers Club

Cast members

Players with the most Final Challenge Prize Money

Note: This list includes players who have won a minimum of $100,000, and is updated as of Battle of the Bloodlines.
PlaceCast memberOriginal seasonChallenge wins/# of ChallengesTotal money made
1 Johnny "Bananas" DevenanzioRW: Key West 5/13$409,043
2 Wes BergmannRW: Austin2/9$248,000
3 Darrell TaylorRR: Campus Crawl4/6$240,555
4 Kenny SantucciFresh Meat3/8$236,293
5 Laurel StuckyFresh Meat II1/4$201,000
6 Cara Maria SorbelloFresh Meat II1/8$188,500
7 Landon LueckRW: Philadelphia3/4$184,166
8 Jodi WeathertonRR: X-Treme2/3$176,666
9 Derrick KosinskiRR: X-Treme3/9$176,293
10 Sarah RiceRW: Brooklyn1/8$172,689
11 Evelyn SmithFresh Meat3/7$167,000
12 Evan StarkmanFresh Meat2/6$151,293
13 Chris "CT" TamburelloRW: Paris1/11$136,500
14 Rachel RobinsonRR: Campus Crawl2/7$135,555
15 Jordan WiseleyRW: Portland1/3$133,000
16 Mike MizaninRW: Back to New York2/5$129,500
17 Paula MeronekRW: Key West2/10$126,000
18 Aviv MelmedFresh Meat1/1$125,000
19 Jamie BanksBattle of the Bloodlines1/1$125,000
20 Emily SchrommRW: DC1/3$104,000
21 Abram BoiseRR: South Pacific2/9$102,500
22 Susie MeisterRR: Down Under2/4$100,173
23 Carley JohnsonFresh Meat II1/1$100,000

Challenge records

Locations

The Challenge has been shot in many different countries around the world, as well as some taking place in the United States.
During seasons 1, 4, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27 and 28 the cast traveled between several different countries.

Rank Location Seasons visited
1
 United States 6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9)
2
 Mexico 5 (5, 8, 10, 15, 28)
3
 Canada 3 (1, 4, 19)
4
 New Zealand 2 (1, 17)
 Czech Republic 2 (4, 20)
 Thailand 2 (18, 24)
 Panama 2 (16, 26)
 Turkey 2 (23, 27)
 Germany 2 (4, 27)
 Argentina 2 (21, 28)
11
 United Kingdom 1 (4)
 Jamaica 1 (6)
 Trinidad and Tobago 1 (11)
 Australia 1 (12)
 Brazil 1 (13)
 South Africa 1 (14)
 Costa Rica 1 (21)
 Dominican Republic 1 (22)
 Iceland 1 (22)
 Namibia 1 (23)
 Uruguay 1 (25)
 Chile 1 (25)
 Norway 1 (26)

References

External links

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