Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III
Genre	Reality TV - Competition
Created by	Jonathan Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim
Starring	TJ Lavin (Host)
Country of origin	USA
Original language	English
No. of series	15
Production
Production locations	Nayarit, Mexico
Running time	60 minutes (including commercials)
Original release
Network	MTV
Release	January 23, 2008 – TBA

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III is the fifteenth season of the reality television competition series, Real World/Road Rules Challenge. The challenge takes place in Nayarit, Mexico. It is formatted like The Gauntlet II. It features Veterans vs. Rookies. Those on the Veterans team had been on at least two prior seasons, and those on the Rookies team had been on fewer than two seasons prior to The Gauntlet III.

Rules

This season the teams do not have team captains. Whichever team wins a mission gets to pick someone of the same sex, either male or female, depending on the Gauntlet day, from the other team. They pick two people, a person who will compete in the Gauntlet, and another person who is safe from competing in the Gauntlet that night. The losing team then votes someone from their own team who they want to compete against the chosen person by the winning team. The two teammates then battle it out in the Gauntlet. The same person can not be saved twice in a row. Unlike before there will be no team bank accounts the final mission will be worth $300,000. The only way to earn money is to make it to the final challenge and be on the winning team. Smaller prizes such as phones and vacations will be handed out to winners on the way to the final mission.

Cast

Host: TJ Lavin, BMX rider

Veterans team Player Original season Adam King RW: Paris Beth Stolarczyk RW: Los Angeles Brad Fiorenza RW: San Diego Casey Cooper Fresh Meat Coral Smith RW: Back to New York CT Tamburello RW: Paris Danny Jamieson RW: Austin Diem Brown Fresh Meat Eric Banks Fresh Meat Ev Smith Fresh Meat Evan Starkman Fresh Meat Johnny Devenanzio RW: Key West Katie Doyle RR: The Quest Kenny Santucci Fresh Meat Paula Meronek RW: Key West Robin Hibbard RW: San Diego

Rookies team Player Original season Alex Smith RW: Denver Angel Turlington RR 2007: Viewers' Revenge Brooke LaBarbera RW: Denver Derek McCray RR 2007: Viewers' Revenge Frank Roessler RW: Las Vegas Janelle Casanave RW: Key West Jillian Zoboroski RR: X-Treme Johanna Botta RW: Austin Melinda Stolp RW: Austin MJ Garrett RW: Philadelphia Nehemiah Clark RW: Austin Rachel Moyal RW: Austin Ryan Kehoe Fresh Meat Tori Hall RR 2007: Viewers' Revenge Tyler Duckworth RW: Key West Tyrie Ballard RW: Denver Zach Mann RW: Key West

Gauntlet challenges

Force Field

The two competitors are joined together by a rope that goes over the top of them by a pulley system. For one player to move forward he has to drag the other backwards. Each competitor starts at their line and at the start of the Gauntlet they both race to cross their opponents line. First one to do this wins.

Played: 2 times

Ram It Home

The two competitors start with a wall at their back and a sled that hangs on an overhead track in front of them. They must then use the sled to push each other. The first player to push their opponent all the way back into their own wall wins the Gauntlet.

Played: 2 times

Ball Brawl

The two competitors have to get footballs aligned in a vertical pattern back the the starting point. They both race at the same time to get the footballs, and they are allowed to tackle the person and strip the ball. The first three balls, black, are worth 1 point. The last two balls are white, and worth two points each. The first person to get four points wins.

Played: 5 times

Sliders

The two competitors each have to solve a slide puzzle at the same time. They are 16 space puzzle boards and each of them has the same design, and are given a picture of what the final design should look like. One of them is blue, the other red. Their teammates are allowed to watch and help them solve it.

Played: 3 times

Ankle Breaker

Ankle Breaker is a variation of Tug Of War with both participants tied together by one ankle. They have to pull their opponent through the sand until they reach a rope which will help them reach the finish line. This is very similar to Reverse Tug of War used in the The Gauntlet 2.

Played: 1 time

Game summary

Episode	Male or female Gauntlet	Challenge winners		Winning team's picks		Losing team's pick	Gauntlet challenge	Gauntlet results
				Safe from Gauntlet	In the Gauntlet	In the Gauntlet		Winner	Loser (eliminated)
1	Male		Veterans	Ryan	Nehemiah	Alex	Force Field	Nehemiah	Alex
2	Female		Veterans	Brooke	Jillian	Angel	Ram It Home	Jillian	Angel
	Male		Veterans	Tyrie	Tyler	Frank	Force Field	Frank	Tyler
3	Female		Veterans	Tori	Jillian	Brooke	Ball Brawl	Jillian	Brooke
	Male		Rookies	Adam	Evan	Johnny	Sliders	Evan	Johnny
4	Female		Veterans	Johanna	Janelle	Jillian	Ball Brawl	Jillian	Janelle
	Male		Veterans	Ryan	Frank	Zach	Sliders	Frank	Zach
5	Female		Rookies	Casey	Coral	Beth	Ball Brawl	Coral	Beth
	Male		Veterans	MJ	Derek	Ryan	Sliders	Ryan	Derek
6	Female		Veterans	Rachel	Melinda	Tori	Ball Brawl	Tori	Melinda
	Male		Veterans	Ryan	Frank	MJ	Ankle Breaker	Frank	MJ
7	Female		Rookies	Katie	Ev	Casey	Ball Brawl	Ev	Casey
	Male		Veterans	Frank	Ryan	Nehemiah	Ram It Home	Nehemiah	Ryan

• Tyrie Ballard quit during the third episode to return to his girlfriend who was in the hospital.
• MJ Garrett was brought in as a replacement for Tyrie in the fourth episode.
• Due to arguments with the Veteran team planning to send Coral in the Gauntlet, Coral leaves the challenge.

Current rosters

Veterans	Rookies
Adam Brad CT Danny Diem Eric Evelyn Evan Katie Kenny Paula Robin	Frank Jillian Johanna Nehemiah Rachel Tori

Challenge summaries

Challenge 1: Piñata Pit

There is a huge Piñata that is holding two different colored balls, orange for men and green for women. TJ hits the pinata and the balls will come rushing out. Then the challengers will rush into the pit and try to grab a ball and make it back to the end of the pit. Anyone who leaves the pit without a ball is eliminated and the next round will start. This cycle will keep going until one team has no more players one their team. Tackling and taking the balls from your opponents is allowed. Whichever team wins both of the gender rounds wins the challenge. If one team wins one gender and the other team wins the other gender, then there will be a one-on-one face off match between the Veterans' best guy and the Rookies' best guy. The males win immunity from the Gauntlet and the females win a Zune Multimedia Player from Microsoft.

Heat 1
Veterans eliminated: Casey, Kenny.
Rookies eliminated: Angel, Brooke, Frank, Tyler.

Heat 2
Veterans eliminated: Coral, Danny.
Rookies eliminated: Jillian, Johanna, Zach.

Heat 3
Veterans eliminated: Paula
Rookies eliminated: Alex, Derek, Rachel, Tyrie

Heat 4
Veterans eliminated: Adam, Ev, Johnny, Katie
Rookies eliminated: Janelle, Ryan

Heat 5
Veterans eliminated: Beth, Diem, Eric
Rookies eliminated: Melinda, Nehemiah
Veterans win the male portion

Heat 6
Veterans eliminated: Robin
Winner: Tori
Rookies win the female portion

Extra heat
Veteran: CT
Rookie: Derek
Winner: CT

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 2: Screw You

There are two identical obstacle courses, one for the Veterans, one for the Rookies. In those obstacles are three bolts with a wing nut on each side. One pair of players from each team will unscrew the wing nut, by each player grabbing one side of the bolt and running in circles. After that they then run to an obstacle. They then go on to the next bolt and so on. After one pair making it through the course, the next pair on their team will go. The Rookies are short one player so one of their players will have to go twice. The player who goes twice is Derek. The team with all of their pairs finished first wins the challenge. The females win immunity from the Gauntlet and the males win a Zune Multimedia Player from Microsoft.

The order and pairings of the Veterans were:

1. Ev and Kenny
2. CT and Diem
3. Brad and Robin
4. Johnny and Paula
5. Beth and Danny
6. Coral and Evan
7. Eric and Katie
8. Adam and Casey

The order and pairings of the Rookies were:

1. Derek and Nehemiah
2. Frank and Tyrie
3. Ryan and Tyler
4. Janelle and Tori
5. Johanna and Melinda
6. Jillian and Rachel
7. Brooke and Zach
8. Angel and Derek

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 3: Roped In

There are two huge circles, 20 feet (6 m) in circumference. At the center of each circle there is a rope swing. At the bottom of the swing there are 12 ropes attached to it. On the edges of each circle there are 12 poles. On six of the poles there are puzzle pieces and on the other six there are slots that match the puzzle pieces shape that the teams are picking. There will be one male on each team that sits on the swing. The other players pull him with the swing to obtain a puzzle piece and then put it into one of the slots it matches. The first team to deposit all six puzzle pieces in their slots will win the challenge. The males win immunity from the Gauntlet and the females win a Fuji Film S700 digital camera.

The Veterans had Adam on the swing while the Rookies picked Ryan to be on the swing.

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 4: Wring Out

Each team must have players run to the ocean carrying clothing to soak in the water. Other players must stand at a clothes line and pull the clothes across to the wringers. The wringers must wring out the clothes to fill up a bucket to the line. The first team to do this wins and is safe from the Gauntlet.

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 5: Blind Man's Maze

For this challenge a maze was set up with many obstacles in it. Each team chose one person to guide the whole team through the maze, while the team members going through the maze were blindfolded. The Veterans chose Coral to be their "eyes", and the Rookies chose Johanna. The Rookies had an advantage since the event was based on total team time, and they had less people competing.

Challenge winner: Rookies

Challenge 6: Push It

Teams had to push their cars to the end by transferring wooden planks from the back of the car to the front, creating a path. The Rookies started out strong and looked like they were going to win, but there was no rule saying that the car couldn't touch the sand. Strategized before the challenge, the Veterans agreed that if they were losing they would yell "sandbox" and they would push the car through the sand in a last effort attempt.

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 7: Man Overboard

This challenge has a huge sled hanging 25 feet (7.6 m) over the water from a 120 foot (37 m) track. There are going to be three rounds for each team with up to five people in each round; all players must go only once. When the host says go they have to pull themselves from one side to the other and that is when one person will jump off. Then they go back to the other side and another person will jump off. When the third person jumps off the sled the round is done. The times for each round are totaled and the team with the fastest time wins the challenge.

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 8: Assembly Required .

The task of this challenge was to tear down a building shaped like a famous temple, move it to the new building zone, and rebuild it. The Veteran guys threw the challenge without the Veteran girls knowing causing the Rookies to win their second challenge.

Challenge winner: Rookies

Challenge 9: Walk The Plank

Veteran males knocked over: Adam, Kenny, Evan

Rookie males knocked over: MJ, Ryan

Veteran females knocked over: Casey

There was no Rookie female heat because the Veterans had enough people across to automatically guarantee a win.

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 10: Pole Push

The task of this challenge was to force the other team out of the circle by means of pushing on the giant pole. Each team grabbed the pole on their respective ends and pushed against the other team in an effort to force them out.

There were two heats; the males went first and the females second. The Veterans won both heats.

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 11: I Dig You

The task of this challenge was to dig up all of your teammates from their buried coffin. Each team started with one digger and the rest of the team buried in the sand. The digger had to answer three true-false questions correctly before they were allowed to start digging out the person trapped inside. If they answered a question incorrectly they had to move on to another buried teammate before returning.

Rookie digger: Nehemiah

Veteran digger: Evan

Challenge winner: Veterans

Challenge 12: Over the Edge

Challenge winner: Rookies

Challenge 13: Mexican Blanket

Challenge winner: Veterans

References

1. "Viva Mexico". Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III. Season 15. Episode 1. 2008-01-23. MTV.
2. "It's Personal". Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III. Season 15. Episode 2. 2008-01-30. MTV.
3. "Less Is More". Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III. Season 15. Episode 3. 2008-02-06. MTV.
4. "It's Not Fair". Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III. Season 15. Episode 4. 2008-02-13. MTV.
5. "Match-Up of the Century". Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III. Season 15. Episode 5. 2008-02-20. MTV.
6. "All Alone". Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III. Season 15. Episode 6. 2008-02-27. MTV.

External links

• The Gauntlet III at mtv.com