Tag: The Challenge

Chaos descends upon The Challenge as the veterans finally make an appearance

Goodbye, Control. Hello, Chaos.

After weeks of host T.J. Lavin teasing a change to the game in this season of MTV’s The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion. When this iteration of the physical competition show started, the collection of international competitors were in the Control phase.

We finally got to see the countdown clock Lavin mentioned repeatedly, and this week marked the beginning of the Chaos phase. The Challengers are no longer only competing as one big team, instead breaking up into pairs this week for a wild challenge that featured a double-high semi truck, a spinning arm, giant rings and poles along the roadside.

Corey and Ravyn — paired randomly — end up having that particular skillset in their toolboxes, leading to a win and power in the game. The duo (mainly Corey) nominates assumed friend Asaf into the first Chaos elimination round, and the house votes in Ciarran.

But as is always the case when T.J. Lavin is involved, nothing is as simple as it seems. Veteran Jordan shows up, and he draws Ciarran’s name as competition. We know the names of Ciarran and Asaf were on two of the three poles in the draw, but the mystery remains what the third option holds.

Jordan showed why he’s Jordan, taking $10k of the Challengers money and eliminating Ciarran from the game.

Let’s get to Contenders, Pretenders and who has work left to do.

The Challengers are hitting their stride, but will the burn vote strategy become a problem?

Double the episodes means double the fun (and double the money)!

This week on MTV’s The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, we got a double episode of scheming, competing and plotting. After fumbling the bag in weeks one and two and only netting $6,000 of a possible $100k, the crew got their collective act together and crushed both challenges in episodes three and four.

The first forced some of the challengers to do math – gasp! – some to drive buggies with numbers on them and some to direct traffic. Michele ran the show nearly flawlessly, and Kyland, Ed and Jay chipped in solving the math problems.

MORE: The Challenge’s new format for Battle for a New Champion is weird but intriguing

Ravyn earned the house vote — although the women all burn voted, much to the anger of the guys — and called Jujuy into the sand for the elimination battle. Despite winning the first round, Jujuy was sent home.

For the second competition of the week, challengers had to swim out and retrieve puzzle pieces from underwater and complete five pentagons. The crew finished with three seconds left on the clock, but it was a success nonetheless.

Hughie was blindsided with the house vote, pulling Kyland into the elimination round to fight for a spot in the house. Although Hughie kept it close, Kyland came out with the victory.

Despite being upset at the burn vote strategy used by the ladies the round before, a few of the guys employed the same tactic when voting the next time out. Will the “cowardly” strategy that allows competitors to avoid saying a name come back to burn them?

Let’s get to Contenders and Pretenders and see who still has work to do.

The Challenge’s new format for Battle for a New Champion is weird but intriguing

The Challenge is back with a bang with a new format and a new crop of competitors all looking for their first championship.

MTV’s long-running series, The Challenge, is back and with a brand new format. The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion debuted on Wednesday night, bringing 24 competitors together that all share one thing: They’ve never been named a challenge champ.

MORE: The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion: Meet the cast of champs and contenders competing on MTV

Not only does this Challenge season feature all non-champs, it also has the group competing as one team for the first time in 39 (!!) seasons (although, who knows, maybe that could change?). Competitors come from across The Challenge universe, including Australia and the UK.

This year’s format is broken into three distinct sections with Control, Chaos and Conquest. At some point, we will see the return of a collection of our favorite champs — to include CT, Devin, Tori and Kaycee among others — and things will evolve away from the group missions.

The first group mission was straight-forward and offered an opportunity to the group to add $50,000 to the base pot of $300,000 total prize money. Competitors had to run into a deep pit, collect heavy puzzle pieces, get everything and everyone out of the pit and then complete the puzzle … all in the 10 minute time limit (spoiler alert: it didn’t go great).

Let’s get to Contenders, Pretenders and who has work left to do from the first episode.

Olivia Kaiser on coming back to The Challenge after her brutal facial injury: ‘Quitting was never an option’

The competitor who suffered a horrific injury is back for her second season of The Challenge.

It was one of the most horrifying, heartbreaking moments in all of The Challenge history: Olivia Kaiser, a rookie competing in the final of Ride or Dies with partner Horacio Gutierrez, had a golf ball backfire in a slingshot into her face.

The scene was gruesome and horrifying, with a stunned and emotional Kaiser being taken to a hospital. The pair was disqualified from the competition, though that was secondary to the health concerns.

After recovering, Kaiser didn’t let that freak accident stand in her way. She’s back for a second season of The Challenge, this time as part of the cast for Battle for a New Champion, as she joins a huge group of non-champs looking for a first title.

“I feel like my journey was taken away from me and I never got closure from it,” she told For The Win in a recent interview before the premiere of the new season. “If you get eliminated, at least you think, ‘I gave it my all, I did my best.’ When I was disqualified, I felt I had unfinished business to do.”

Kaiser said that she had to take a step back and think about whether she wanted to compete again.

“I went into a state of questioning a lot of things,” she remembered. “My face was hurt, I didn’t look the same. It was a very humbling moment where I said, do I want to be known for her looks or as someone who’s a fighter? I chose to be a fighter.”

“For me, quitting was never an option,” she added. “Clearly, that was proven at my most vulnerable moment on the field when I was still trying to compete.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cok-pIhvjT2/

Now, she’s coming in as a veteran with experience, looking forward to playing the social game that comes along with living in a Challenge house, and she was surprised to have a bit of a target on her back as a competitor the cast wanted to keep an eye on.

But when you’ve made the final in your first season and shown an incredible amount of toughness coming back from what she went through, it makes sense.

And she has motivation that goes beyond returning from that abrupt end to the last season: She says her Instagram DMs are filled every day with messages from fans who, even now, are watching Ride or Dies and rooting her on.

“I had so many supporters and it was so overwhelming in the best way,” she added. “I felt I owed to them to come back and show them what I’ve got.”

Season 39 of The Challenge, with Battle for a New Championship, premieres Wednesday, October 25 at 8 p.m. ET.

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion: Meet the cast of champs and contenders competing on MTV

Here’s the full cast list for Season 39 of The Challenge.

The Challenge has expanded everywhere, with new franchises like The Challenge: USA and the OGs who competed on All-Stars.

But now, the flagship show is back on MTV, with Season 39 premiering.

This time around? It’s The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion. There will be 24 competitors, among them are some absolute legends — names like CT, Laurel, Darrell, Jordan and Tori — who have won before. But those winners will appear in eliminations.

That means the recognizable names elsewhere will be competing for their very first title.

The season will premiere on October 25 at 8 p.m. ET on MTV. Take a look at the full cast below, along with the teaser that dropped in mid-September:

The Challenge: USA Season 2: Meet the cast of vets and reality stars who will compete on CBS and Paramount+

Meet the cast of the latest season of The Challenge.

The first season of The Challenge: USA had so much star power from reality show contestants, hailing from series like Love Island, The Amazing Race, Big Brother and Survivor.

This time, after a wild World Championships? Some big names from those shows will join Season 2 of The Challenge USA … along with some legendary vets from the MTV edition of The Challenge, including a certain GOAT.

Let’s take a look at the full cast list, which will be below the teaser that dropped on Tuesday. The first episode will drop on CBS on Thursday Aug. 10 and will be live and on demand on Paramount+:

The Challenge: World Championship: Tori Deal on being a champ and how surprisingly tough this season is

The Challenge champ talks about how hard World Championship will be.

Amber Borzotra. Darrell Taylor. Johnny Bananas. Jonna Stephens.

Those are just the start of a list of names who are appearing on The Challenge: World Championship, in which a group of “global MVPs” from spinoffs like The Challenge USA will partner with those champions.

Joining that list of all-time greats is Tori Deal, who will be coming off an incredible win on Ride or Dies, her first in her career alongside Devin Walker.

As the season of World Championship drops on Paramount+, Deal spoke to For The Win about her victory and what we can look forward to in this season:

(This interview has been edited and condensed.)

The Challenge: World Championship: Meet the cast of legends and champions who will compete on Paramount+

A look at the big names competing The Challenge: World Championship this season.

With series name like The Challenge: World Championship, you’d better have a cast worthy of that title.

And that’s the truth: The global version of the MTV reality competition series that will premiere on March 8 on Paramount+ (and a sneak preview will be on MTV at 8 PM ET that night) has so many former champions to work with some huge names from other versions of the series (USA and Australia).

Per a release: “In the franchise’s first-ever world tournament, each global MVP will be paired with a “Challenge” Legend, a notable veteran from previous seasons of the MTV series, who will serve as their partner to form the most epic teams in the history of the franchise. Together they will work towards the most difficult challenge of them all: the brutal finale worth $500,000.”

Check out the cast and a first look at it below:

The Challenge: Ride or Dies power rankings after part 2 of the 100-hour final

The final is SO SO HARD.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE CHALLENGE!

Ready?

Season 38 of The Challenge is here: Ride or Dies, which pairs up competitors with one family member, friend or significant other as pairs try to win money. There are sure to be twists and turns that we’ll see throughout the season that might change everything.

As usual, we’ll do some power rankings each week to see who’s in the lead … and who could fall short.

In this week’s episode: It’s Part 2 of a 100-hour final, with three teams remaining and the grueling tests getting tougher from eating tons to more puzzles.

The Challenge: Ride or Dies power rankings after part 1 of a grueling final

The final is going to be 100 HOURS LONG!

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE CHALLENGE!

Ready?

Season 38 of The Challenge is here: Ride or Dies, which pairs up competitors with one family member, friend or significant other as pairs try to win money. There are sure to be twists and turns that we’ll see throughout the season that might change everything.

As usual, we’ll do some power rankings each week to see who’s in the lead … and who could fall short.

In this week’s episode: THE FINAL HAS BEGUN. And … it’s going to last for 100 hours. In Part 1, we see one pair go home in a stunning moment.