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* '''''[[The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions|Invasion of the Champions]]''''': The game started off with 18 Underdogs (players who have yet to win a challenge) who get dropped off a boat and onto a beach, where they were living in "The Shelter." They compete individually in challenges, followed by an elimination round. The male and female winners of the challenge would be safe from elimination, and earn their ticket to "The Oasis" — the season house. The last-place male and female finishers automatically went straight into elimination for the first challenge. In the second challenge, the challenge winners will choose a player of the opposite gender to go into the elimination. The rest of the house then voted in who goes against them for the first and second challenge. The males voted for the females, and vice versa. For the third challenge, and the last chance to earn a ticket to the Oasis, the winners will be safe from elimination, and the two remaining players of each gender will compete. In the elimination, each gender will compete. The winners of the elimination round would return to the game, and earn a ticket to The Oasis. The losers of the elimination round go home. Players could not go into The Oasis until every ticket has been earned. Players who earned their ticket to the Oasis will be exempt from elimination and will not compete in challenges until the Champions enter the game. Beginning with the fourth challenge, ss the season twist, eight Champions of past seasons of the show will enter the game, and the Underdogs will form a team against them. Each challenge will be designated for an Underdog or a Champion elimination — entitled "The Fortress." The winning team will earn $10,000 in their team bank account. The best performing guy and girl of the team designated for the Fortress will then choose one guy and one girl to go into the elimination. The rest of the house will then vote in the players who will go against them. The winners return to the game, and the losers go home.
* '''''[[The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions|Invasion of the Champions]]''''': The game started off with 18 Underdogs (players who have yet to win a challenge) who get dropped off a boat and onto a beach, where they were living in "The Shelter." They compete individually in challenges, followed by an elimination round. The male and female winners of the challenge would be safe from elimination, and earn their ticket to "The Oasis" — the season house. The last-place male and female finishers automatically went straight into elimination for the first challenge. In the second challenge, the challenge winners will choose a player of the opposite gender to go into the elimination. The rest of the house then voted in who goes against them for the first and second challenge. The males voted for the females, and vice versa. For the third challenge, and the last chance to earn a ticket to the Oasis, the winners will be safe from elimination, and the two remaining players of each gender will compete. In the elimination, each gender will compete. The winners of the elimination round would return to the game, and earn a ticket to The Oasis. The losers of the elimination round go home. Players could not go into The Oasis until every ticket has been earned. Players who earned their ticket to the Oasis will be exempt from elimination and will not compete in challenges until the Champions enter the game. Beginning with the fourth challenge, ss the season twist, eight Champions of past seasons of the show will enter the game, and the Underdogs will form a team against them. Each challenge will be designated for an Underdog or a Champion elimination — entitled "The Fortress." The winning team will earn $10,000 in their team bank account. The best performing guy and girl of the team designated for the Fortress will then choose one guy and one girl to go into the elimination. The rest of the house will then vote in the players who will go against them. The winners return to the game, and the losers go home.
* '''''[[The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30|XXX: Dirty 30]]''''': Similar to ''Free Agents'', each challenge is either an individual, teams, or pairs challenge. The winning individual, pair, or teams would than nominate 1 player from each gender to go into the Presidio. The remaining non-winning players then participate in "The Double Cross Draw" where the one player of each gender that draws "The Double Cross" (XX) chooses a player from their own gender, who also participated in the draw, to join the previously nominated player into the Presidio to face elimination. In a twist, the eliminated players are sent into the Redemption House to compete for a spot back into the game.
* '''''[[The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30|XXX: Dirty 30]]''''': Similar to ''Free Agents'', each challenge is either an individual, teams, or pairs challenge. The winning individual, pair, or teams would than nominate 1 player from each gender to go into the Presidio. The remaining non-winning players then participate in "The Double Cross Draw" where the one player of each gender that draws "The Double Cross" (XX) chooses a player from their own gender, who also participated in the draw, to join the previously nominated player into the Presidio to face elimination. In a twist, the eliminated players are sent into the Redemption House to compete for a spot back into the game.
* '''''[[The Challenge: Vendettas|Vendettas]]''''': Each challenger in this season has at least one "vendetta" with someone in the game. Similar to both ''Free Agents'' and ''Dirty 30'', each challenge is either an individual, teams or pairs challenge. Each competitor has their own individual bank accounts. The top three winners from each challenge, no matter the gender, form the "Troika". The loser of the challenge automatically goes into elimination. Depending on whether it's a male or female elimination, the Troika nominates three players to go into "The Ring". Later, the three nominees sit with the Troika in "The Inquisition," to give their case as to why they should stay in the game and why one (or both) of the other nominees should go in. In The Ring, the Troika votes for one of the three players from The Inquisition to go against the last place finisher in the challenge. The winner of The Ring stays in the game as also receives a grenade. The winner chooses between three grenades, each grenade earning them a special power to change the game. For example, at the end of the first elimination, Nelson took the ''Money Grab'' grenade, which allowed him to take $5,000 from another competitor.


==TV show's conception==
==TV show's conception==

Revision as of 18:46, 31 January 2018

For the current season, see The Challenge: Vendettas.
The Challenge
Logo for the current season
GenreReality game show
Created byMary-Ellis Bunim
Jonathan Murray
Presented byVarious hosts (1998–2005)
T. J. Lavin (2005–present)
StarringVarious alumni of:
Real World
Road Rules
The Challenge
Are You the One?
Big Brother (U.S.)
Ex on the Beach
Geordie Shore
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons31
Production
Running time
  • 30 minutes (1998-2007)
  • 1 hour (2008-present)
Production companyBunim/Murray Productions
Original release
NetworkMTV
ReleaseJune 1, 1998 –
present
Related
Are You the One?

The Challenge (originally known as Road Rules: All Stars, followed by Real World/Road Rules Challenge) is a reality game show on MTV that is spun off from the network's two reality shows, Real World and Road Rules. It features alumni from these two shows, in addition to rookies and alumni from The Challenge, and alumni from Are You the One?, Big Brother (US), Ex on the Beach, and Geordie Shore 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. The most recent season,Vendettas, premiered on January 2, 2018.

Structure

Overview

The Challenge casts are season specific as the cast varies from season to season. The casts are made up of contestants originating from one of The Challenge's related TV programs and contestants originating from one of the few Challenge seasons that have allowed previously unknown contestants. These shows and seasons are: Real World, Road Rules, Are You the One?, The Challenge (from Fresh Meat, Fresh Meat II, Spring Break Challenge and Battle of the Bloodlines. Most recently alumni from Big Brother (U.S.), Ex on the Beach, and Geordie Shore have joined the show.

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.[3] 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:

  • Original Real World/Road Rules Challenge (including RW/RR Challenge 2000 and RW/RR Extreme Challenge): Real World vs. Road Rules groupings, six players per team, no eliminations, missions in number of previous challenges (though the original Gauntlet and Inferno were Real World vs. Road Rules).
  • Battle of the Seasons (2002) and Battle of the Seasons (2012): On the first Battle of the Seasons, players were separated into teams of Real World and Road Rules, each cast member is paired off with a castmate from their original season. Each mission gave points based on finish. After each mission, the players with the most points cumulative from each team became the "Inner Circle" and voted off whichever pair they wanted. The individual winning pair of each challenge would earn an "additional prize." After five pairs from each team were voted off, the final three Real World teams and final three Road Rules teams would compete against each other in a series of challenges before the final race. The 2012 Battle of the Seasons had a completely different format from the original. Each team consists of two men and two women from select seasons. After each challenge, there is a winning team and a losing team. The losing team is automatically sent to "The Arena," and faces possible elimination. The winning team become the Power Team, and selects one team to battle against the last-place team in the Arena. The teams entering the Arena must select one player of each gender from their own team to compete in the elimination. If the teams entering the Arena cannot decide which players will compete in the elimination, the Power Team chooses for them. The winning pair in the elimination rounds return to their season and stay in the game, while the losing pair is eliminated, reducing their season to two players.
  • Battle of the Sexes and Battle of the Sexes 2: As the title implies, players are divided by gender. Each mission gave points based on finish, either with a partner or individually. After each mission, the players with the most points cumulative from each team became the "Inner Circle" and voted off whoever they wanted to. The winner of each challenge would earn a "lifesaver" which could be given to a member of either team; the recipient of the "lifesaver" would enjoy total immunity from being voted out, which created many interesting situations. No life-shields were used in the second installment. The final three players of each gender would compete against each other in a final race.
  • Inferno, Inferno II and Inferno 3: The first Inferno consisted of Team Real World vs. Team Road Rules. The 2nd and 3rd installment consisted of Team Bad Asses vs. Team Good Guys. Teams nominate two of their own players for each elimination round and vote one of the opponents' two nominations into the "Inferno" round. The players going into the "Inferno" then have the opportunity to save themselves from going in by winning a "life saver" in the challenge before the "Inferno."
  • Gauntlet, Gauntlet 2 and Gauntlet III: The first gauntlet consisted of Team Real World vs. Team Road Rules. The 2nd and 3rd installment consisted of Team Veterans vs. Team Rookies. In the 2nd and 3rd particular installment, "Veterans" are considered players who have participated in a minimum of two challenges, while "Rookies" had either participated in one challenge or none at all. In the first two installments, team captains are assigned on a pre-challenge mission. The losing team's captains would alternate between male and female to go into the "Gauntlet," in which they would face off against someone from their own team as voted by the remaining team members. In the third installment, no team captains are assigned, and the winning team also protects one player from the losing team from being chosen for the Gauntlet, but cannot protect the same player on two consecutive opportunities.
  • Fresh Meat and Fresh Meat II: These seasons introduce new people to Challenges without appearing on The Real World or Road Rules. These new players are "drafted" by "alumni" of the opposite gender (those who come from RW, RR, or previous 'FM', some of whom have not been on a Challenge before) to create pairings which are the teams for these Challenges. The winning team chooses one team for an elimination round called an "Exile," while the other team is selected by a vote.
  • The Duel and The Duel II: Promoted as "every man for himself" as there are no permanent teams (though some individual challenges require teams to be formed). All players compete individually, leading to just one champion of each gender.
  • The Island: A challenge with no missions, just elimination rounds where the competitors are put on an island with limited supplies. In each episode, the competitors select three people (not necessarily by gender) to go into an elimination round to win safety and a key to the prize money chest at the final challenge. The two non-winning players have a chance to plead their case to all the other competitors at the vote-off, where one player wins a key and the other is eliminated.
  • The Ruins: Two teams of "Challengers" and "Champions" based on whether players have won a previous season's final challenge. Prior to each challenge, each team nominates a group of three players of each gender within the team for elimination; after that challenge, the winning team's nominated group picks the match-ups for the "Ruins," which consist of a male Challenger against a male Champion, and a female Challenger against a female Champion.
  • Cutthroat: Teams are not initially set. There is a race in the beginning, and while the top three players are announced, the bottom three are named as captains of the three teams; the three teams are then drafted by the captains (while maintaining equal numbers of players of each gender). Each challenge involves all three teams; the winning team is safe from the elimination round — the "Gulag," while the losing teams go against each other in the Gulag. Voting is done within one's own team by secret ballot to choose one player of each gender to go into the Gulag.
  • Rivals, Rivals II and Rivals III: The first two installments feature two-player teams of the same gender consist of players who are paired against their "worst enemies," whom they have engaged in bitter feuds, fights and rivalries with in previous Real World and/or Challenge seasons. The challenge winner is safe from elimination – "The Jungle," while the last-place finisher and a non-winning team of the same gender battle it out in "The Jungle." Each challenge alternates between a male and a female Jungle elimination in the first two installments. The third installment features male/female pairs. The third installment also has 3 teams going into the elimination; the losing team, and 2 teams picked by the winning team. At the Jungle, the 2 teams picked for elimination by the winning team go back and forth picking skulls out of a box. There are 3 white skulls and 1 black skull. Whoever picks the black skull, them and their partner go into the Jungle against the last place team, and the other team is safe from the Jungle. Also, in the finale, teammates would go head to head in challenges, whoever finishes first the most in the challenges would decide if they would keep the money they earned for their respective placing, or split it with their partner. If the cast member chose to keep it for themselves, then their teammate would leave empty handed.
  • Battle of the Exes and Battle of the Exes II: Thirteen teams of ex couples compete in a challenge where the winner is safe from elimination and will be known as "The Power Couple," and they are responsible for choosing one team to go into the elimination round called "The Dome," along with the team that came in last-place in the challenge. A twist was added on Battle of the Exes II: Eliminated teams would compete in "Battle of the Ex-iled," which no one in the house knows about. The eliminated team will compete against the last "Ex-ile" winner and the loser would be permanently eliminated. This lasts until only four teams remain in the house, and the last team standing from Ex-ile will go back to the house for two more challenges before the final, which they are eligible for as long as they are not eliminated again.
  • Free Agents: Each challenge is declared as either an individual, pair, or team challenge. For pair and team challenges, names are drawn out of a bag — one of each gender, or more for multi-team or pair challenges — that will be designated as captains. For team challenges, the captains will select players that will be split evenly amongst gender. For pair challenges, the captains will either select players of the opposite gender for challenges that are designated as male/female pairs, or the same gender for challenges that are designated as same-gender pairs. The winning team/pair/players are safe from elimination, and choose one player of each gender for elimination. The remaining non-winning players then participate in "The Draw," where the one player of each gender that draws a "kill card" faces the previously voted players in the elimination round.
  • Battle of the Bloodlines: The season starts with 14 pairs of two, each consisting of a The Real World, The Challenge or Are You The One? alumni and their relatives. The winning pair of the mission sends in one pair to face the losing team of the mission into The Pit, depending on gender. However, after the second elimination, pairs are separated into two teams, each consisting of 12. The losing team has to send one player from the losing team into The Pit, while the winning team has to send another player from the losing team into The Pit. If a player loses in The Pit, that player is not only eliminated, but so is their bloodline. The final five teams reverted to their pairs of two. The Pit consisted of both teammates competing instead of one representative competing for both teams for one elimination, then reverted to one representative for each team for the last elimination.
  • Invasion of the Champions: The game started off with 18 Underdogs (players who have yet to win a challenge) who get dropped off a boat and onto a beach, where they were living in "The Shelter." They compete individually in challenges, followed by an elimination round. The male and female winners of the challenge would be safe from elimination, and earn their ticket to "The Oasis" — the season house. The last-place male and female finishers automatically went straight into elimination for the first challenge. In the second challenge, the challenge winners will choose a player of the opposite gender to go into the elimination. The rest of the house then voted in who goes against them for the first and second challenge. The males voted for the females, and vice versa. For the third challenge, and the last chance to earn a ticket to the Oasis, the winners will be safe from elimination, and the two remaining players of each gender will compete. In the elimination, each gender will compete. The winners of the elimination round would return to the game, and earn a ticket to The Oasis. The losers of the elimination round go home. Players could not go into The Oasis until every ticket has been earned. Players who earned their ticket to the Oasis will be exempt from elimination and will not compete in challenges until the Champions enter the game. Beginning with the fourth challenge, ss the season twist, eight Champions of past seasons of the show will enter the game, and the Underdogs will form a team against them. Each challenge will be designated for an Underdog or a Champion elimination — entitled "The Fortress." The winning team will earn $10,000 in their team bank account. The best performing guy and girl of the team designated for the Fortress will then choose one guy and one girl to go into the elimination. The rest of the house will then vote in the players who will go against them. The winners return to the game, and the losers go home.
  • XXX: Dirty 30: Similar to Free Agents, each challenge is either an individual, teams, or pairs challenge. The winning individual, pair, or teams would than nominate 1 player from each gender to go into the Presidio. The remaining non-winning players then participate in "The Double Cross Draw" where the one player of each gender that draws "The Double Cross" (XX) chooses a player from their own gender, who also participated in the draw, to join the previously nominated player into the Presidio to face elimination. In a twist, the eliminated players are sent into the Redemption House to compete for a spot back into the game.
  • Vendettas: Each challenger in this season has at least one "vendetta" with someone in the game. Similar to both Free Agents and Dirty 30, each challenge is either an individual, teams or pairs challenge. Each competitor has their own individual bank accounts. The top three winners from each challenge, no matter the gender, form the "Troika". The loser of the challenge automatically goes into elimination. Depending on whether it's a male or female elimination, the Troika nominates three players to go into "The Ring". Later, the three nominees sit with the Troika in "The Inquisition," to give their case as to why they should stay in the game and why one (or both) of the other nominees should go in. In The Ring, the Troika votes for one of the three players from The Inquisition to go against the last place finisher in the challenge. The winner of The Ring stays in the game as also receives a grenade. The winner chooses between three grenades, each grenade earning them a special power to change the game. For example, at the end of the first elimination, Nelson took the Money Grab grenade, which allowed him to take $5,000 from another competitor.

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, Are You the One?, and the Battle of the Bloodlines season of cast relatives.[4]

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 almost every season. Exceptions include The Island, 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.

Specials

Spring Break Challenge

Main article: 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.[5] 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. To date, Camila is the only player to appear on the challenges.

The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros

Main article: The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros

In a six-episode event entitled The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros, ten Challenge greats competed against ten pros. The series premiered on May 16, 2017, and was hosted by NFL wide receiver Victor Cruz.[6][7]

The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars

Main article: The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars

The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars is a special eight-week mini-series in which ten Challenge greats compete against ten celebrities. The series premiered on November 21, 2017, with Mike “The Miz” Mizanin as the host.[8]

Seasons

Order Title Host Format Original Release Location of the residence Winners
1 All Stars David "Puck"
Rainey 		1 team of 5 June 1, 1998 -
June 29, 1998 		Road trip: Montreal→Lake Placid
→Wellington→Auckland→Los Angeles 		Cynthia Roberts, Eric Nies, Jon Brennan, Rachel Campos & Sean Duffy
2 Real World vs. Road Rules David Edwards 2 teams of 6 November 9, 1999 -
December 14, 1999 		Road trip: San Francisco→Los Angeles
→Las Vegas→Los Angeles 		  Road Rules
(Anne Wharton, Kalle Dedolph, Kefla Hare, Mark Long, Noah Rickun & Roni Martin)
3 Challenge 2000 Gladys Sanabria 2 teams of 6 January 17, 2000 -
April 3, 2000 		Road trip: Las Vegas
→Nashville→Miami 		  Road Rules
(Carlos Jackson, Dan Setzler, Holly Shand, Piggy Thomas, Veronica Portillo & Yes Duffy)
4 Extreme Challenge none 2 teams of 6 January 9, 2001 -
May 22, 2001 		Road trip: Portland, ME→Montreal
→Boston→London→Hamburg→Prague
→London→New York→Los Angeles 		  Real World
(Dan Renzi, Jamie Murray, Julie Stoffer, Kameelah Phillips, Rebecca Lord & Syrus Yarbrough)
5 Battle of the Seasons Eric Nies &
Mark Long 		2 teams of
8 pairs of 2 		January 28, 2002 -
May 27, 2002 		Cabo San Lucas, Mexico   Real World
(Mike Mizanin & Coral Smith, Sean Duffy & Elka Walker, Danny Roberts & Kelley Limp)
6 Battle of the Sexes Jonny Moseley 2 teams of 18 December 30, 2002 -
May 12, 2003 		Montego Bay, Jamaica   Guys
(Mark Long, Colin Mortensen, Jamie Murray)
7 The Gauntlet 2 teams of 14 September 29, 2003 -
January 26, 2004 		Telluride, Colorado   Road Rules
(Adam Larson, Cara Zavaleta, Darrell Taylor, Dave Giuntolli, Rachel Robinson, Roni Martin, Sarah Greyson, Theo Vonkurnatowski & Veronica Portillo)
8 The Inferno Dave Mirra 2 teams of 10 February 2, 2004 -
May 31, 2004 		Acapulco, Mexico   Road Rules
(Abram Boise, Christena Pyle, Darrell Taylor, Holly Shand, Katie Doyle, Kendal Sheppard, Timmy Beggy & Veronica Portillo)
9 Battle of the Sexes 2 Jonny Moseley 2 teams of 18 October 4, 2004 -
January 31, 2005 		Santa Fe, New Mexico   Guys
(Dan Setzler, Eric Nies & Theo Vonkurnatowski)
10 The Inferno II Dave Mirra 2 teams of 10 March 7, 2005 -
June 20, 2005 		Manzanillo, Mexico   Good Guys
(Darrell Taylor, Jamie Chung, Landon Lueck & Mike Mizanin)
11 The Gauntlet 2 T.J. Lavin 2 teams of 16 December 5, 2005 -
March 27, 2006 		Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago   Rookies
(Alton Williams, Ibis Nieves, Jamie Murray, Jodi Weatherton, Kina Dean, Landon Lueck, MJ Garrett, Randy Barry & Susie Meister)
12 Fresh Meat 12 pairs of 2
(m/f) 		May 29, 2006 -
September 11, 2006 		Myocum, Australia   Darrell Taylor & Aviv Melmed
13 The Duel Individual October 12, 2006 -
January 18, 2007 		Armação dos Búzios, Brazil   Wes Bergmann
  Jodi Weatherton
14 The Inferno 3 2 teams of 10 April 10, 2007 -
July 3, 2007 		Somerset West, South Africa   Bad Asses
(Abram Boise, Derrick Kosinski, Evelyn Smith, Janelle Casanave, Kenny Santucci & Tonya Cooley)
15 The Gauntlet III 2 teams of 16 January 23, 2008 -
March 26, 2008 		Riviera Nayarit, Mexico   Rookies
(Frank Roessler, Jillian Zoboroski, Johanna Botta, Nehemiah Clark, Rachel Moyal & Tori (Hall) Fiorenza)
16 The Island Individual
→2 teams of 4 		September 10, 2008 -
October 29, 2008 		Colón Island, Panama   Red Boat
(Derrick Kosinski, Evelyn Smith, Johnny Devenanzio & Kenny Santucci)
17 The Duel II Individual April 8, 2009 -
June 17, 2009 		Queenstown, New Zealand   Evan Starkman
  Rachel Robinson
18 The Ruins 2 teams of 14 September 30, 2009 -
December 23, 2009 		Phuket, Thailand   Champions
(Derrick Kosinski, Evan Starkman, Johnny Devenanzio, Kenny Santucci & Susie Meister)
19 Fresh Meat II 13 pairs of 2
(m/f) 		April 7, 2010 -
June 9, 2010 		Whistler, British Columbia, Canada   Landon Lueck & Carley Johnson
20 Cutthroat 3 teams of 10 October 6, 2010 -
December 22, 2010 		Prague, Czech Republic   Red Team
(Brad Fiorenza, Dunbar Merrill, Tori (Hall) Fiorenza & Tyler Duckworth)
21 Rivals 14 pairs of 2
(same gender) 		June 22, 2011 -
September 7, 2011 		Dominical, Costa Rica
→Buenos Aires & Bariloche, Argentina 		  Johnny Devenanzio & Tyler Duckworth
  Evelyn Smith & Paula Meronek
22 Battle of the Exes 13 pairs of 2
(12 m/f; 1 f/f) 		January 25, 2012 -
April 4, 2012 		Sosúa, Dominican Republic
→Reykjavík, Iceland 		  Johnny Devenanzio & Camila Nakagawa
23 Battle of the Seasons 8 teams of 4 September 19, 2012 -
December 19, 2012 		Bodrum, Turkey
→Swakopmund, Namibia 		  Team San Diego
(Ashley Kelsey, Frank Sweeney, Sam McGinn & Zach Nichols)
24 Rivals II 16 pairs of 2
(same gender) 		July 10, 2013 -
September 25, 2013 		Phuket, Thailand   Chris "CT" Tamburello & Wes Bergmann
  Emily Schromm & Paula Meronek
25 Free Agents Individual
Pairs
Teams 		April 10, 2014 -
June 26, 2014 		Punta del Este, Uruguay
→Pucón, Chile 		 03  Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio
 24  Laurel Stucky
26 Battle of the Exes II 13 pairs of 2
(m/f) 		January 6, 2015 -
March 24, 2015 		Pedasí, Panama
→Ørsta, Norway 		  Jordan Wiseley & Sarah (Rice) Patterson
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 Sorbello & Jamie Banks
28 Rivals III 13 pairs of 2
(m/f) 		May 4, 2016 -
August 3, 2016 		Huatulco, Mexico
→ Mendoza, Argentina 		  Johnny "Bananas" Devananzio & Sarah (Rice) Patterson
29 Invasion of the Champions[9] Individual
→2 teams
→Individual 		February 7, 2017[9]-
May 16, 2017 		Krabi, Thailand[9]   Chris "CT" Tamburello
  Ashley Mitchell
30 XXX: Dirty 30 Individual
Pairs
Teams 		July 18, 2017-
November 28, 2017 		Cartagena, Colombia
→ Salta, Argentina 		  Jordan Wiseley
  Camila Nakagawa
31 Vendettas Individual January 2, 2018 Gibraltar, BOT & Marbella, Spain  

5 Timers Club

Cast members

Main article: List of The Challenge (TV series) contestants

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 XXX: Dirty 30.
Place Cast member Original season Challenge wins/# of Challenges Total money won
1 Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio RW: Key West 6/16 $685,043
2 Jordan Wiseley RW: Portland 2/4 $583,000
3 Camila Nakagawa Spring Break Challenge 2/10 $561,250
4 Chris "CT" Tamburello RW: Paris 2/13 $264,750
5 Wes Bergmann RW: Austin 2/10 $248,000
6 Darrell Taylor RR: Campus Crawl 4/8 $240,555
7 Kenny Santucci Fresh Meat 3/8 $236,293
8 Cara Maria Sorbello Fresh Meat II 1/11 $223,500
9 Derrick Kosinski RR: X-Treme 3/10 $211,293
10 Laurel Stucky Fresh Meat II 1/5 $201,000
11 Landon Lueck RW: Philadelphia 3/4 $184,166
12 Jodi Weatherton RR: X-Treme 2/3 $176,666
13 Sarah (Rice) Patterson RW: Brooklyn 2/9 $173,739
14 Evelyn Smith Fresh Meat 3/7 $167,000
15 Evan Starkman Fresh Meat 2/6 $151,293
16 Rachel Robinson RR: Campus Crawl 2/7 $135,555
17 Mike Mizanin RW: Back to New York 2/5 $129,500
18 Paula Meronek RW: Key West 2/10 $126,000
19 Aviv Melmed Fresh Meat 1/1 $125,000
20 Jamie Banks Battle of the Bloodlines 1/2 $125,000
21 Ashley Mitchell RW: Ex-Plosion 1/3 $121,250
22 Emily Schromm RW: DC 1/3 $104,000
23 Abram Boise RR: South Pacific 2/9 $102,500
24 Susie Meister RR: Down Under 2/4 $100,173
25 Carley Johnson Fresh Meat II 1/1 $100,000

Challenge records

Locations

The Challenge has been shot in many different countries around the world, as well as some taking place in North America.
During seasons 1, 4, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30 and 31, 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)
 Thailand 3 (18, 24, 29)
 Argentina 3 (21, 28, 30)
6
 New Zealand 2 (1, 17)
 Czech Republic 2 (4, 20)
 Panama 2 (16, 26)
 Turkey 2 (23, 27)
 Germany 2 (4, 27)
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)
 Colombia 1 (30)
 Spain 1 (31)
 Gibraltar 1 (31)

References

  1. ^ MTV. "The Challenge: Battle of the Exes 2 (TV Series) | MTV". Challenge.mtv.com. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  2. ^ Remodeling TV Talent: Participation and Performance in MTV's Real World ... - Hugh Phillips Curnutt - Google Books. Books.google.com. ISBN 9780549747185. Retrieved 2013-01-03.
  3. ^ "Real World/Road Rules: The Island – TJ Lavin is Developing an Attitude Problem" (blog). wordpress. October 2, 2008.
  4. ^ MTV. "The Challenge: Battle of the Exes 2 (TV Series) | MTV". Challenge.mtv.com. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  5. ^ "MTV Spring Break 2010". Mtv.com. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
  6. ^ "Preview of MTV series The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros". espn.com. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  7. ^ "Champs vs Pros: Beloved Challenge Victors Set to Battle Top Athletes". Mtv.com. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  8. ^ Russian, Ale (2017-10-11). "Cast Revealed! Josh Murray, Shawn Johnson and More Stars to Compete in MTV's The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  9. ^ a b c Donnelly, Matthew Scott (January 11, 2017). "Underdogs Will Have Their Day When The Challenge Returns For Season 29". MTV. Retrieved January 11, 2017.

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