When we last left MTV’s reality competition show The Challenge, a team made up of CT, Dee, Jordan and Rogan claimed victory after a wild season.
This time? It’s every competitor for his and herself in Total Madness, as 28 of the best vets and some very talented rookies compete for a million dollar prize while living in an underground bunker.
As always, we task our resident Challenge expert Charles Curtis to power rank each of the competitors after each week.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
This week: Cory gets his way into Purgatory and faces Swaggy C with what might be one of the final Red Skulls on the line.
A note before we begin: As you may have seen, Dee Nguyen — who is still on Total Madness after winning an elimination bout last week — was fired by the MTV series after her offensive statements about Black Lives Matter on social media. Nguyen apologized, and episodes have been edited to leave out much of her storyline.
Given this entire situation, I’m leaving her out of the rankings.
Red Skulls
(Note: instead of writing “they have a Red Skull” over and over again, I just grouped everyone with and without them)
1. Johnny Bananas
He backstabbed Melissa last week when in the Tribunal, sending Dee in when she made him promise he wouldn’t. It backfired, but he’s still in control.
2. Jenny
She made it into the final stage of Tanks a Lot, continuing to prove she’s a contender.
3. Fessy
Dude is a BEAST. Did you see him carrying all that heavy junk in this week’s challenge and finishing first in the second half of it? That’s going to translate really, really well to a final. And his vote for Swaggy to go into elimination, as he detailed, was smart since it helped Swaggy, Cory AND Bayleigh all at the same time.
4. Rogan
Still in the running to win it all.
5. Kaycee
Not much to say this week but she’s underrated.
6. Nelson
Having his buddy Cory with him in the final — I’ll assume they’ll both avoid elimination the rest of the way — is actually huge if they get a chance to help each other.
7. Cory
Will his ankle injury be a problem down the road? We’ll see. For now, he convinced the house to vote him in and he picked it up after struggling at the start of Purgatory.
8. Aneesa
I worry about her in the context of this power-packed group that has red skulls.
Non-Red Skulls
9. Nany
You can bet she’ll be pushing hard to go in next week at what could be the final women’s elimination.
10. Bayleigh
It’s awful that her husband, Swaggy C, got eliminated, but she played her opportunity to send him in to get a Red Skull perfectly, and that’s all you can ask for. I still think if she goes in next week, she’s got a great shot to earn one herself.
11. Kyle
After he lost out yet again on going in to get a Red Skull, this is where I get to make a prediction about who gets the final shot at one: TJ Lavin will announce a final purge — maybe a big puzzle? — elimination challenge, where winner takes the Skull and everyone who loses goes home.
12. Melissa
Time is possibly about to run out on her, and arguably her best chance to go in was last week when she was in a Tribunal.
13. Josh
I seriously don’t understand his logic about NOT putting himself up as the house vote and allowing Kyle and Cory to take over the conversation. It’s late in the game! You NEED to go in. The only thing you can control outside of making a Tribunal is convincing the house you should go into Purgatory and the chance to get the Red Skull. Another squandered opportunity.
14. Swaggy C
He and Bayleigh played a good game this season, and there was a point in the elimination bout against Cory that I thought he had it. But as he said, inexperience cost him and I hope he’ll be back in the future to get even further.
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