The Challenge Season 39 Episode 05 Description
Countdown to Chaos
The next phase of the game approaches as the countdown clock nears zero, contenders split into pairs for Upside Down Whirled, and one player worries she’s being targeted by an ally.
The Challenge Australia All Seasons
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The Challenge Season 38
The Challenge Season 39
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The Challenge Show Description
The Challenge (originally known as Road Rules: All Stars, followed by Real World/Road Rules Challenge and occasionally known as The Real World/Road Rules Challenge during this time), is a reality competition show on MTV that is spun off from two of the network’s reality shows, The Real World and Road Rules. Originally featuring alumni from these two shows, casting for The Challenge has slowly expanded to include contestants who debuted on The Challenge itself, alumni from other MTV franchises including Are You the One?, Ex on the Beach (Brazil, UK and US), Geordie Shore and from other non-MTV shows. The contestants compete against one another in various extreme challenges to avoid elimination. The winners of the final challenge win the competition and share a large cash prize. The Challenge is currently hosted by T. J. Lavin.
The series premiered on June 1, 1998. The show was originally titled Road Rules: All Stars (in which notable Real World alumni participated in a Road Rules style road-trip). It was renamed Real World/Road Rules Challenge for the 2nd season, then later abridged to simply The Challenge by the show’s 19th season.
Since the fourth 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 show’s most recent season, Double Agents, premiered on December 9, 2020. The show’s 37th season, titled Spies, Lies & Allies, will premiere August 11, 2021.
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, in a few seasons, previously unknown contestants. The cast usually contains both “veterans” (or vets) and “rookies”. Veterans are thought of as players that have won at least one Challenge season or have appeared on several seasons of the show; Rookies refer to newer players. 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). Many recent alumni come from a variety of reality shows such as Big Brother, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Ex on the Beach, and Geordie Shore.
A season’s typical multitude of cast members are usually divided up into separate teams or pairs 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 from gender, the contestants’ original show, heroic/villainous status 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 dirty gameplay; this is due to the show’s contestants being in charge of who is thrown into elimination rounds.[5] 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 restructured in its second season. Except for season one, a monetary prize has always been the award for winning the final mission.
Seasons
| Order | Title | Host | Format | Original Release | Location of the residence | Winner(s) |
| 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 "Los" 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 |
January 28, 2002 – May 27, 2002 |
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico | Real World (Danny Roberts & Kelley Limp, Mike Mizanin & Coral Smith, Sean Duffy & Elka Walker) |
| 6 | *Battle of the Sexes* | Jonny Moseley | 2 teams of 18 | December 30, 2002 – May 12, 2003 |
Montego Bay, Jamaica | Guys (Colin Mortensen, Jamie Murray & Mark Long) |
| 7 | *The Gauntlet* | 2 teams of 14 | September 29, 2003 – January 26, 2004 |
Telluride, Colorado | Road Rules (Adam Larson, Cara Zavaleta, Darrell Taylor, Dave Giuntoli, 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 | 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 |
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico | Rookies (Frank Roessler, Jillian Zoboroski, Johanna Botta, Nehemiah Clark, Rachel Moyal & Tori Hall) |
|
| 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 | 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 & Tyler Duckworth) |
|
| 21 | *Rivals* | 14 pairs | 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 | 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 & Windhoek, Namibia |
Team San Diego (Ashley Kelsey, Frank Sweeney, Sam McGinn & Zach Nichols) |
|
| 24 | *Rivals II* | 16 pairs | 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 | January 6, 2015 – March 24, 2015 |
Pedasí, Panama →Ørsta, Norway |
Jordan Wiseley & Sarah Rice | |
| 27 | *Battle of the Bloodlines* | 14 pairs →2 teams of 12 →5 pairs |
December 2, 2015 – February 17, 2016 |
Bodrum, Turkey →Berlin, Germany |
Cara Maria Sorbello & Jamie Banks | |
| 28 | *Rivals III* | 13 pairs | May 4, 2016 – August 3, 2016 |
Huatulco, Mexico → Mendoza, Argentina |
Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio & Sarah Rice | |
| 29 | *Invasion of the Champions* | Individual →2 teams →Individual |
February 7, 2017 – May 16, 2017 |
Krabi, Thailand | 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* Teams |
January 2, 2018 – April 17, 2018 |
Gibraltar, BOT & Marbella, Spain → Prague, Czech Republic |
Cara Maria Sorbello | |
| 32 | *Final Reckoning* | 17 pairs | July 10, 2018 – December 4, 2018 |
Hermanus, South Africa | Ashley Mitchell & Hunter Barfield | |
| 33 | *War of the Worlds* | 16 Pairs →Individual |
February 6, 2019 – May 29, 2019 |
Swakopmund, Namibia | Turabi "Turbo" Çamkıran | |
| 34 | *War of the Worlds 2* | 2 Teams of 16 | August 28, 2019 – December 18, 2019 |
Chiang Mai and Phuket, Thailand | Team UK (Chris "CT" Tamburello, Dee Nguyen, Jordan Wiseley & Rogan O'Connor) |
|
| 35 | *Total Madness* | *Individual* Pairs Teams |
April 1, 2020 – July 29, 2020 |
Prague, Czech Republic → Central Eastern Alps, Austria |
Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio | |
| Jennifer "Jenny" West | ||||||
| 36 | *Double Agents* | 15 Pairs | December 9, 2020 – April 21, 2021 |
Reykjavík, Iceland | Amber Borzotra & Chris "CT" Tamburello | |
| 37 | *Spies, Lies & Allies* | TBA | August 11, 2021 – | Vrsar, Croatia |
