This season premiered on October 12, 2006, and differs from all others in that no teams are assigned. Each cast member is a potential competitor against all others; the surviving male contestant and the surviving female participant will win $150,000 each.
Show format
Cast challenge
At the beginning of each episode, the cast is given a challenge, and it is announced whether male or female cast members will compete in the Duel that evening. The Challenges can involve either members of the same gender competing against each other, or groups of both men and women competing against each other.
Prizes and voting
At the end of each challenge, two individual winners are chosen based on performance. The winner of the gender not entering the Duel is given a prize, while the winner of the gender going into the Duel is safe from the possibility of having to enter the Duel him/herself. In addition, the "safe" contestant begins a voting process by voting for a member of the opposite gender, who then selects a member of the original gender. This process continues until there is one person remaining of the selected Duel gender of the day; this remaining person is assigned to compete in the Duel that evening.
The Duel
The person forced into the Duel then selects a competitor of the same gender to go against him/her that night, and randomly selects from one of four cards help by the host to determine the Duel in which the two players will compete.
I Can - Contestants bet on how many specific items they can lift in a cart. Watermelons and logs have been featured so far.
Ascender - Cast members must climb a rope, pull another rope to release a basket containing puzzle pieces, and climb back down the rope to assemble a tiling puzzle similar to a tangram.
Pole Wrestle - Players are placed at the center of a circle and are asked to place both hands on a wooden pole approximately two feet in length. The first contestant to wrestle the pole out of his or her opponent's hands wins the Duel.
Push Me-Players stand on the same side of a long pole but on opposite ends. The players push the pole (and with it their opponent) to get to a flag on the ground. They must unclip the flag from the ground (and not merely rip it off the carabiner holding it) to win.
Challenge
Female winner
Male winner
Duel day
Sent to the Duel
Chosen for the Duel
Duel
Duel winner
Duel loser
1
Reachin' Out
Robin
Eric
Male
Tyler
John
I Can
Tyler
John
2
Ring Toss
Diem
Kenny
Female
Tina was eliminated for punching Beth. Because it was a female Duel day, no Duel was held.
3
Pass with Care
Jodi
Evan
Male
Tyler
Derrick
Ascender
Derrick
Tyler
4
Roller Derby
Jodi
Brad
Female
Paula
Aneesa
Pole Wrestle
Aneesa
Paula
5
Push Over
Beth
Derrick
Male
Nehemiah
Kenny
Ascender
Nehemiah
Kenny
6
Flying Leap
Svetlana
CT
Female
Casey
Robin
Pole Wrestle
Robin
Casey
7
Throw That
Kina
Evan
Male
Eric
Nehemiah
I Can
Eric
Nehemiah
8
Rafty Race
Jodi
CT
Female
Svetlana
Beth
Push Me
Svetlana
Beth
9
Pole Dance
Diem
Evan
Male
Wes
Derrick
Pole Wrestle
Wes
Derrick
10
Dine-N-Dash
Diem
Evan
Female
Aneesa
Robin
Ascender
Aneesa
Robin
EPISODE
EPISODE NOTES
1/2
*Eric and Robin won the men and women's heat of the first challenge.
There were no teams but the girls branched off into Robin, Kina, Jodi, and Diem vs. Aneesa, Tina, Casey, Beth, Paula, and Svetlana. Robin ran off when she got close to her key. The boys branched off into Eric, CT, Brad, and Kenny vs. Derrick, Wes, Evan, Nehemiah, and Tyler. John tried to fight on his own.
Robin won two free round trips from Frontier Airlines.
Order of voting: Eric, Robin, Brad, Jodi, Derrick, Kina, CT, Aneesa, Wes, Tina, Nehemiah, Beth, Evan, Diem, Kenny, Svetlana, John. Casey and Paula were not picked but were automatically safe since it was a male duel day.
Being the last girl picked Svetlana chose former Key West roomate Tyler to go into The Duel. Tyler then chose former Key West roomate John to face him in The Duel.
Tyler eliminated John from the challenge.
Tyler won a Seiko Watch.
Diem and Kenny won the second challenge.
*Tina punched Beth in the face and was thus eliminated. Since it was a female duel day, no duel was held.
Kenny won a Serato DJ Scratch Kit
Tina becomes the third person eliminated from a Challenge for physical violence, no matter how pathetic.
3
*The pairs were Kenny and Beth, Derrick and Kina, Evan and Jodi, Nehemiah and Aneesa, Wes and Svetlana, Eric and Robin, Tyler and Paula, CT and Diem, and Brad and Casey.
Jodi and Evan won the Pass With Care challenge allowing Evan to be safe from The Duel.
Jodi won an Infocus Projector.
Order for selections in men's duel: Evan, Beth, Nehemiah, Aneesa, Wes, Robin, Eric, Jodi, Brad, Diem, CT, Kina, Derrick, Casey, Kenny. Svetlana and Paula were not picked but were automatically safe since it was a male duel day.
Tyler was once again picked for the Duel, and he chose Derrick to face him in the Duel, in which Tyler was sent home.
Derrick won an Xbox 360
4
*The challenge, Roller Derby, was dubbed "the most difficult challenge ever" by host TJ Lavin.
Brad won the men's heat and won a BMW motorcycle. It was between him and CT.
Jodi won the woman's challenge and won immunity. It was among her, Svetlana, and Casey.
Svetlana and Paula were the last two remaining.
The person who was choosing between Svetlana and Paula was Eric, or "Big E". Paula told him (in hand motions) to pick Svetlana to be safe, thus leading to her elimination.
Paula picks Aneesa to go to the Duel with her.
Aneesa won a Seiko Watch.
5
*The Challenge was Push Over.
The challenge was broken up into Heats, Semis, and Finals. The female heats were: (winner first) Jodi vs. Casey, Robin vs. Kina, Beth vs. Diem, Svetlana vs. Aneesa. The female semis were: Beth vs. Jodi, Robin vs. Svetlana. The final was Beth vs. Robin. Beth won the mission.
The male heats were: (winner first) Evan vs. Nehemiah, Brad vs. Kenny, Eric vs. Wes, Derrick vs. CT. The male semis were: Brad vs. Evan, Derrick vs. Eric. The final was Derrick vs. Brad. Derrick won the mission.
Beth won a set of golf clubs from Callaway Golf and a free lesson.
The Order was Derrick, Jodi, Evan, Robin, Brad, Diem, Eric, Svetlana, Kenny, Kina, CT, Casey, Wes.
Nehemiah was picked to go to The Duel. He than picked Kenny.
Nehemiah won a Seiko Watch.
Beth called Jodi's alliance with Kina, Robin and Diem the Drama Mafia.
Beth made an alliance with Aneesa, Wes and Nehemiah to take down The Drama Mafia
6
*CT won the challenge for males and Svetlana won the challenge for females, making herself immune from the Duel.
Svetlana won due to a last minute entry since the flag "was the same color and her bikini"
CT won two free round trips from Frontier Airlines.
Beth added Svetlana and Casey to her alliance.
Casey was picked to go to the duel and picked Robin to attempt to break up the "Drama Mafia".
Casey lost the duel. Robin won the duel.
Sending Casey home (since she lost the duel) weakened Beth's alliance.
Robin won an Xbox 360
7
* It was a female/male partner challenge.
The challenge name was revealed the next episode during the previous episode summary.
The pairs were Wes/Svetlana, Nehemiah/Aneesa, Eric/Beth, Evan/Kina, CT/Diem, Derrick/Jodi, and Brad/Robin.
Evan and Kina took first place - resulting in immunity for Evan from the Duel.
Wes and Svetlana came in second place.
CT and Diem took third place.
Kina won an Infocus Projector.
The order was Evan, Kina, Derrick, Jodi, Brad, Robin, CT, Diem, Wes, Beth, Nehemiah.
Eric was sent into the Duel and felt betrayed by Diem for picking Wes over him.
Eric then chose Nehemiah to go into the Duel with him.
The Duel had Eric lifting 165 logs, the maximum amount.
Nehemiah was sent home by Eric after doing an I Can Duel, further weakening Beth's alliance.
Eric won an Xbox 360
Since Nehemiah had no chance to try the I Can duel, some felt it was unfair for him to go home.
8
*Brad and Beth had an argument which also involved Svetlana, who felt like going home after Brad said "really mean things" to her. However, Brad later stated that the misunderstanding between them had been squashed when he realized Beth was behind the entire incident.
CT and Jodi won the challenge which was called "Rafty Race".
CT won a kite rider.
The order was Jodi, CT, Diem, Evan, Robin, Derrick, Kina, Brad, Beth, Eric, Aneesa. Svetlana was left out.
Robin told Brad to pick Beth because she feared Beth would choose her to duel in case she was sent in.
Svetlana said her choice was between Robin (to get back at Brad because she was mad at him) or Beth (Because she hated her and wanted to send her home). She chose Beth.
The duel introduced the fourth and final option, Push Me. It also featured the second time the duel was won due to a technicallity. The first being Eric reaching the maximum number of logs in I Can. Beth pushed the pole all the way, but accidentally ripped the flag off the clip, which caused her to be disqualified. Svetlana gave up after thinking she lost but the judges said Beth DQed for ripping the flag off. Brad was the first to congratulate Svetlana for winning.
Wes lost another member of his already shrinking allience.
Svetlana won a Seiko Watch.
9
*It was Diem's birthday.
The challenge which was called "Pole Dance"
It was a challenge with two teams, the team leaders were CT and Eric.
CT chose Diem, Evan, Jodi, Wes, and Svetlana to be on his team.
Eric chose Robin, Brad, Kina, Derrick, and Aneesa to join his team.
CT's team won the challenge, therefore the winning team had to go into round two, where it was everyone against everyone on a race, to determine the male and female winners.
Diem beat out Robin and Svetlana. While Evan beat out CT and Wes.
Diem won a full set radio and audio system for her car, which was presented to her mostly as a Birthday present. While Evan won immuntiy from that night's duel.
The order chosen for The Duel was: Evan, Diem, CT, Jodi, Derrick, Kina, Eric, Robin, Brad. Wes was left out as he asked Robin to vote him into the Duel.
It was then when Wes decided to take Derrick into the Duel with him. Wes did this just to see who was the "King of Duels, Exiles etc."
The Duel for the night was "Pole Wrestle"
People were scared because both players were very competitive and were thinking they could really hurt each other during the Duel.
Wes and Derrick went into the Duel, they wrestled for 20 minutes after Wes finally was able to take the pole out of Derrick's hands. Derrick was eliminated from the challenge.
A very emotional Derrick felt defeated as he was sent home from his fifth challenge, and going home empty handed once again. Derrick said "I need to go home and re-evaluate what I'm going to do with my life."
Wes said he respected Derrick a lot and felt like naming Derrick the godfather of his children.
Wes became emotional over sending Derrick home as well when he called his girlfriend, and former Real World cast member Johanna (RW: Austin), Wes told her he felt tired, and broke down to tears telling her how much he loved her and wanted to marry her. He also said he did not want to be in the challenge any longer.
10
*After a night out of drinking, Robin and Aneesa were involved in an argument, which exploded when Robin said hurtful comments to Aneesa, comments about Aneesa's race and sexuality.
Aneesa said she would forgive Robin for her comments, but she would not forget.
Brad also felt hurt and angry by Robin's comments to Aneesa.
The challenge was called "Dine N Dash".
It was a team challenge, the team leaders were Svetlana and Diem.
Svetlana chose Eric, Jodi, Brad, and Aneesa to be on her team.
Diem chose CT, Robin, Evan, and Kina.
Wes was left out, therefore he did not have to participate in the challenge.
The challenge had the participants eating as much food as they could and whoever gained the most weight in 20 minutes would win.
Diem's team won.
In order to have a female and male winner, the cast entered part two of the challenge, which had the cast running collecting ten flags and placing them in a basket.
The female winner was Diem, and her prize was immuntiy for that night's duel.
The male winner was CT; however, he was later disqualified for collecting the flags in the wrong order. Evan was the new winner.
The order for the Duel was: Diem, CT, Jodi, Evan, Kina, Brad, Robin, Wes, Svetlana.
Brad had second thoughts about saving Robin from the Duel, he was still offended by her comments to Aneesa, but he decided to choose her in the end because they've known each other from years ago. They met during their season of The Real World; (RW 14: San Diego). To Brad, their friendship was stronger than competition.
Aneesa was left out and sent into the duel.
She then chose Robin to join her in the duel, for obvious reasons.
The Duel game chosen was "Ascender"
The winner of The Duel was Aneesa who sent Robin home after beating her in the game.
Aneesa won an Xbox 360.
Brad said he was affected and hurt for losing his long-time friend Robin from the duel, but he said it would not let him affect his game plans.
Side notes
Prior to filming, the Key West season was extremely fragmented, mostly due to the tension between Tyler and Svetlana during the airing of their season. There are clear rifts between the four Key West castmembers, making them easy targets for early elimination.
This Challenge features the third person ever to be kicked off a Challenge for violence; it was Tina for punching Beth.
Jodi, who has been seen to be promiscuous in previous installments of the Challenge, comes to this season as a born-again Christian.
Diem and CT hook up.
Diem had to embarrasingly remove her wig in various challenges, but everyone showed her encouragement and support, especially Kina, Robin, and Jodi, who even wore some of Diem's wigs in a later episode to make her feel more at ease.
Throughout the challenge, Beth sees an alliance of Jodi, Kina, Diem, and Robin, of which she calls the Drama Mafia. She later forms an alliance against this group, consisting of Wes, Nehemiah, Svetlana, and Aneesa. However, the alliance crumbled as Nehemiah was eliminated by Eric, then Beth herself was disqualified from the Duel against Svetlana.
Svetlana and Brad get into a tense argument later on over Beth's scheming, but Brad is the first to congratulate her when she wins the Duel against Beth by disqualification.
Aneesa and Robin get into a huge fight after Robin insults Aneesa about her race and sexuality. Robin gets drunk and says "Aneesa you confuse the fu*k out of me. You're gay, straight, lesbian, Black, White, Pureto Rican, PICK SOMETHING!" later causing Aneesa to send Robin home.
