‘The Challenge: Total Madness’ power rankings after ep. 14

Is the final next or not?

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: A double-elimination leads to the final Red Skulls being handed out, and we’re left wondering if the final was next, or if there are more eliminations coming.

A note before we begin: As you may have seen, Dee Nguyen — who is still on Total Madness — 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.

1. Johnny Bananas

Hey, look! No more “Red Skulls” or “Non-Red Skulls” subheads! That’s because everyone left has his or her key to run the final. But there was that cliffhanger about whether there would be more challenges ahead (the next episode preview seems to point toward that being the case). And if there are more eliminations to come, things are about to get GOOD. Obviously, if politics are still necessary, you know the top name on this list has prepared for such a scenario in his head.

2. Jenny

It doesn’t matter if Cory is miffed that she hasn’t paid him back now twice. There’s no way he can push votes her way to send her into elimination, and even if he did, she’d probably come back and make his life miserable.

3. Fessy

I loved hearing more about his story — he fell short of making the NFL — in this episode. But I also loved watching him make a promise to Josh AND to Cory to win Running Out of Time. It shows he’s playing the game right in addition to using his large muscles. Just for fun, here are videos from his 2017 Pro Day, and him dunking.

4. Rogan

It’s cruise control from here until the final. There isn’t anyone there who will vote him into elimination this late in the game.

5. Kaycee

Like Jenny, I don’t see anyone throwing her in to any eliminations that are left.

6. Cory

Bumping him up here because he’s actually played pretty well this year and he’s got a solid alliance going with Nelson and Fessy.

7. Nelson

Same.

8. Melissa

She missed that elimination that Aneesa went into by thismuch (I thought Josh, who argued with her earlier in the season, would send her in). I’m worried that if there’s another Purgatory before the final, she’d go in.

9. Kyle

Waiting and waiting and waiting paid off! But now, if the final ISN’T next, he’s got to start making his case to stay in the bunker.

10. Bayleigh

A HUGE win in Purgatory that finally resulted in a Red Skull after a rough episode last week. But if there’s another elimination, will she go right back there? If not, I’m not sure how she’ll do in her first-ever final.

11. Aneesa

Ugh, I’m so bummed she felt short of the final once again and that she’s never won a title. But if you’ve been reading my weekly power rankings, you know that I felt she was the most vulnerable of the players with Red Skulls, and when the Tribunal was forced into voting for one female competitor to face Bayleigh, they chose her.

12. Josh

Again: if you’ve visited the FTW Challenge power rankings, you know he’s been at or near the bottom most weeks. So I wasn’t surprised to see Kyle take him down in elimination.

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