Finished Seasons 11-20, here are my thoughts so far. SOME SPOILERS
Hello and welcome back!! About a month ago, I wrote a post detailing my thoughts about seasons 1-10 of The Challenge. I’ve now made it through seasons 11-20. Era 1 brought us 4 seasons of an RW/RR RV Faceoff, a victory lap season in Battle of the Seasons, 2 seasons of elite casting yet a very flawed format in Battle of the Sexes, an enjoyable yet oddball season of The Gauntlet, and 2 seasons of the electrifying Inferno. Era 2 introduces us to some new formats along with sequels and trilogies of the older ones. Without further ado, let’s jump into this review.
The Gauntlet 2: So someone on the production team watched Survivor Pearl Islands and thought, let’s do a pirate theme lol. The Gauntlet 2 is a sequel to the first one, and takes a break from the Vernoica/Rachel/Coral/Miz/Theo/Abram esque casting and gives us a cast filled with a bunch of oddballs with some underrated heavy hitters mixed in. The teams are also divided up into rookies vs vets. We also get TJ Lavin as the host for the first time!! This season was SO AWESOME. From start to finish, it was just a wild ride of this oddball cast going at it, and it turned out to be amazing. I knew TJ was a keeper when he asked if anyone wanted to quit after Cameran did. Also, Jo quits on the first night and makes a scene exiting. We get Aneesa vs Cara with Timmy mocking Aneesa; we also get Danny vs Jodi, and Danny (RIP) was a roobed firecracker. Julie is my favorite this season, as she’s actually a chill player and not too overly holy, unlike in S10. Mark Long is also back as The Challenge’s narrator; this seems to be the norm for him. The challenges and eliminations were great. The soaking competition, transferring coconuts, painting the boards, pyramids, and the over and under challenge were some of my faves, and capture the flag, reverse tug of war, and name that coconut were some of my favorite gauntlet eliminations. Beth finally gets to shine as a villain here, taking out Ruthie and Montana, but then quits once she has to face Aneesa. We get Syrus and TJ going at it. Timmy also beats Derrick right before the final, which was also insane to see. Alton is the MVP of this season, completely beasting through the competition. Then there’s the finale where the vets try to go big against the rookies, and they end up losing the first round, which was HILARIOUS and pretty much on par with how this season was going. This is an easy S-Tier season for me as I had a blast watching it from start to finish.
Fresh Meat: Fresh Meat introduces a fresh set of players who have never been on RW/RR before, along with a refreshed set of veterans to go along with them. This season introduces us to essential Era 2 players such as Kenny, Evan, Evelyn, Diem (RIP), Wes, Johanna, Big Easy, Casey, and Ryan. Evelyn is eliminated first here, so there’s not much to say about her in this season. The season starts off with the vets immediately picking off RW Austin because there were 2 pairs of couples (Danny and Melinda, and Wes and Johanna) coming into the season, and that’s a big no-no. This also starts Wes’ villain origin story as he not only loses his whole alliance, but has a horrible partner in Casey who can’t really do anything. However, they do end up winning like every exile they were in. Speaking of the exiles, they were kinda bad as they were just going from point A to point B with a lot of weight, and if they solved the puzzle correctly, they got an advantage like okay?? It wasn’t anything too exciting for me. Evan and Coral also beast through the first half of this season until they both get medically DQ’d, which sucked. The oatmeal challenge, swimming with sharks, jumping off a very large cliff, and going underwater with sharks (I think?) were challenges that I had found cool to watch. Other moments this season include Diem’s story and her battle with ovarian cancer, Tina vs Diem with Tina calling Diem anorexic, which was absolutely crazy to see, Tina and Kenny arguing constantly, and Derrick missing the final AGAIN, plus his and Diem’s relationship was cute to see. Darrell and Aviv win because Darrell is basically good at everything. It wasn’t as exciting to watch, but it was still a nice season and a great introduction to some amazing players. B-Tier.
The Duel: The Duel has one of the best formats ever, with every player now playing for themselves. This season was really good as we got a nice set of players who pretty much came to win. I was surprised to see Eric back, as I lowkey thought he was going to be a one-season wonder, but boy does he make his presence, esp in future seasons. This season also introduces Johnny Bananas, who gets taken out first by Tyler (RIP). Diem taking her wig off was so powerful to see… which then gets overshadowed by Tina punching Beth, then proceeding to miss the punch, which leads to her getting DQ and we don’t see her again until Cutthroat. Nehemiah also surprised me, taking out Kenny, which was awesome. Then we get Beth and Nehemiah together, which was honestly so odd to see. Wes also takes out Derrick in a high intense Duel. We also get a Beth, Wes, Aneesa, and Nehemiah alliance. The two biggest cons of The Duel, though. The first being that half of the episode titles spoil who goes home, which was annoying, and the next con being the fact that Beth and CT get disqualified due to the Push Me elimination being basically jank all around. Other than that, the challenges were nice, the duel eliminations were cool, Svetlana is one of the prettiest females to ever play this game, and I really wish she had done more seasons. They also did the crate challenge before it had become a trend lol. CT and Diem’s relationship blooming was cute to watch. Evan trying to cheat in Acsender and still losing. Aneesa beating Robin after Robin asks her if she’s gay, lesbian, straight, black, white, Puerto Rican, or Portuguese, which was CRAZY work. Wes and Jodi win the season, which is fine, no complaints. The Duel is a season that has a little bit of everything in it, and it turns out well. A-Tier.
The Inferno 3: The first 2 Inferno seasons were high-intensity, drama-packed seasons where it made me highly invested as to what was going to happen next in every episode. I thought that this would be the same, and boy was I wrong. Unfortunately, this season does not deliver at all, and let me tell you why. First of all, this is NOT an Inferno cast at all. Yeah we get CT, Derrick, Tonya, Timmy, and Abram, who were on the last 2 Inferno seasons, but then it just gets filled with players like Alton, Cara, Susie, Colie, Davis… which is semi-fine… but eh. The casting this season sucked. It’s like they were trying to fit a Gauntlet-like cast into an Inferno season. This season also could’ve been the season of CT, but he punches Davis in the face and gets kicked out, which leads to Derrick being his replacement, and him ultimately winning the season. Tonya doesn’t catch a break as Susie and some of the other girls continue the “I hate Tonya” train, which honestly becomes annoying at this point. This season also tries to set up Susie as being this mean girl with Cara, and it just doesn’t go well. Susie works best as a player who shows up, shows out, and stays out of drama. Susie does not work best as a mean girl queen bee. Ace, Alton, and Timmy sitting out of the challenge over a Speedo is stupid. We also get a Timmy getting DQ’d in an elimination over a piece of glass not breaking, then we get a very much, possibly not needed farwell montage of Timmy, which just made this season more draining, even though I do like Timmy. I guess the only good moments this season were Ace making it to a final, Jenn gets introduced here and she becomes a huge player in later seasons, the Africa house being GORGEOUS, Johnny makes it really far this time, Battering Ram and the grape juice challenge were good, and players such as Tonya, Derrick, and Evelyn get their first win and become champions. With all that being said, however, this season is a D-Tier for me as this was just a mess overall.
The Gauntlet 3: The Gauntlet series is kinda like the Total Drama Island of the franchise, kinda wacky but still good tv. After the disastrous inferno, this season takes us back to the Gauntlet, giving us another installment of the vets vs rookies showdown. The vets cast is stacked, with so many heavy hitters and stars, and Adam. This season also introduces longer episodes, going from about 30 mins to 60 mins. After several players hook up in the first episode, the game finally starts. The vets have a chance to steamroll this whole thing, potentially bigger than what the guys did to the girls in BOTS2. However, some of the guys decide to throw challenges to get rid of players like Beth, Coral, and Katie, and it’s just honestly not fun to watch. Like yes, we get to see a Beth and Coral matchup and Katie and Coral definitely not backing down from a fight, but it’s not fun when you have players like Kenny and Evan calling the shots and Big Easy being the actual hindrance to the vets team (even tho Big Easy is generally a good challenge player). This season also loses some points because every time Brad did a confessional, his eyes scared me. TJ, does anyone REALLY want a car kicker stereo? The finale is painful to watch for several reasons. While the finale itself was good, Big Easy was the main problem for the vets team, and while I do feel bad for him basically getting tossed around and getting yelled at constantly by several teammates, especially CT, I too would be mad if someone like Big Easy, who talked a big game early on, then just basically plummeted at the finale; Bananas was right. The vets then make a comeback, but since Big Easy got medically DQ’d, they lose, and the rookies win because TJ said that they have to all be there as a team. It was honestly overall very stupid. I also don’t care for Frank and Jillian at all. The reunion was good because Coral ripped Evelyn a new one, so that was awesome to see. Still a C-Tier season for me overall.
The Island: The Island introduces a brand new format and concept. It’s based on being on an island with very limited resources, except with some being from the ARMY and being completely different from what the challenge usually is in terms of challenges and eliminations. It turns out… okay at best, but overall not good. This is basically Survivor with extra steps and confusion. To make the final, you have to have a key, and to get that key, you have to win a face-off, and to even get in a face-off, you have to be voted into a face-off, and you also have to NOT get eliminated if you lose the face-off because eliminations are now solely based on votes, and if you have the most votes, then you are out. The season kicks off with a solid cast; after 5 seasons off, Rachel is back which is nice to see. Kenny and Johanna are now a thing, which plays into a later season along with Kellyanne and Cohutta. Kenny is also very mean to Tonya, and she gets out first. Abram then leaves because he’s now a corporate guy. This is the start of the Johnny Bananas’ saga as he pretty much does everything on the island, which leads to the Johnny, Kenny, Paula, and Johanna alliance, which was very dominant yet very unrootable. Robin gets into it with Johanna, Dan, and Ashli; also, I'm pretty convinced that JT hates Ashli. Evelyn and Kellyanne are the saving grace of the season, as they are very anti-Johnny and Kenny. The highlight of the season was Evelyn taking Johnny’s key, which was awesome to see, but then he takes it back immediately afterwards. It’s okay because Ev wins the final face-off and makes it to the final. Paula then gets screwed over after Evelyn cuts a deal to have Johnny, Derrick, and Kenny on her team, which was hilarious to see Paula get screwed over like that. Johnny gets his first win here, Evelyn, Kenny, and Derrick also win as well, and that’s pretty much it. The season had its moments, and I would be down to watch it because I did like the vibes, but if it was going for the Survivor route, then they should’ve just gone full on Survivor. C-Tier.
The Duel 2: The Duel 2 is a sequel to the amazing first Duel, and this season is a nice watch, I will say. The cast is solid as Mark, Ruthie, Katie, Eric, CT, Adam, Diem, Rachel, Landon, and Brad are back. We get CT hooking up with Shauvon, which leads to CT and Adam fighting and CT almost killing Adam. They both get kicked out, which kinda brings the cast aesthetic down, and we get MJ and Nehemiah being the replacements, and this is MJ’s second time being a replacement, which is just yikes lol. Also, if you didn’t know, MJ has a wife and kid he wants to win this for (he says this a lot). Shauvon makes a memorable first boot. This season was kinda a slow watch, but it was okay as it was something different each episode; one episode, the cast is doing a “Freezing as Puck” challenge, the next is Nehemiah basically getting isolated by the group, then losing to Evan, then there’s toenail gate as Isaac chooses Landon because he clipped his big toenail, we also get a Paula/Dunbar/Kimberly love triangle, then an Aneesa/Rachel/Jenn love traingle. This season also had a lot of pairs, as it felt more like The Duos than The Duel. Landon and Brittni beasted through the competition, and it’s a shame that she didn’t do more seasons. I also couldn’t believe that Brad beat Landon in the last duel before the final. There’s also Brad and Tori relationship content, but who cares? Evan and Rachel win, and the final was cool. B-Tier season.
The Ruins: Known as the dark, toxic, and ugly season. This season is all of that and then some, and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. The season divides the players up into champions and challengers, giving us some legendary champions and an oddball of challengers, and a format that is very much complicated to explain, but it’s still really good. Besides the format, the season itself is so juicy. It starts off with a love pentagon between Wes, Johanna, Kenny, Cohutta, and Kellyanne, as Wes and Kellyanne are now dating, and Kellyanne dated Cohutta before, and Johanna and Kenny are still a thing, but Johanna and Wes were a thing, and Wes and Kenny were on multiple seasons together; it’s so thrilling to see. This all leads to Wes vs JKE, and Wes and Kellyanne vs Darell. Wes is pretty much in the hot seat this season. Evelyn is also under Johnny’s wrath, as Evelyn is friends with Kellyanne and JKE decides to break that up. Chet is also very underrated and sweet, but he goes out first. Shauvon then busts her implant, and she quits. Johanna also threatens to sell Wes’ house since her name is on the deed. After a lengthy break from the show, Veronica is back and gets very close to Evan. She then gets into a physical fight with Tonya, which hurts her positioning because they all seem to take Tonya’s side after the fight. Tonya is kicked out tho and this is the last season of her. There’s then Plungergate, where Katie lashes out over a plunger in her bed, which leads to her getting into it with Sarah and then Sarah kicking her ass in elimination. The highlight of this season was Veronica pulling off the vote flip, and getting it off of her and Kellyanne and onto Ibis and Kimberly. Cohutta then takes out Wes surprisingly, and that’s just the first 5 episodes. The next 5 kind of slow down, but we still get Sarah being an MVP and taking out Johanna; Darrell and Brad get into a huge fight, which leads to them both of them getting kicked out. This benefits neither of them as Darrell loses all of his money and winning streak, and Brad gets a big fat shiner and leaves Dunbar as the only guy on the Challengers team. The rest of the season shows Casey being very weak in all of the challenges, and then Bananas take out Dunbar, which leaves the Challengers team being only Kellyanne and Sarah. The final comes, and while it would’ve been nice for those 2 to win, the Champions take it home and prove why they are the champions. There’s also the Tonya/Kenny/Evan lawsuit that I’m aware of that makes the season even more dark, but other than that, the season itself kept me highly entertained, and It’s defintiely an S-Tier season in my book.
Fresh Meat 2: Fresh Meat 2 is the sequel to the first Fresh Meat and does everything the first one did but better. This is the first season of Cara Maria and Laurel, but Cara Maria gets eliminated first along with Darrell, which was an upset I was not expecting. Katelynn is also the first trans woman on the cast and immediately wants to go after Kenny, queen. The exiles are a bit harder but still meh. Vinny looks straight out of Jersey Shore. The game is primarily focuses on Wes and Kenny, with Wes and Evelyn successfully rallying the troops to take down Kenny and his allies, especially Paula and Sarah. However, since Kenny and Laurel constantly almost every main challenge possible, this backfires and it leads to Wes and Evelyn being in the minority, losing all of their allies, and even Wes betraying Danny. There’s also the Wes/Thresea/Kenny mini love triangle that occurs. Jenn and Mandi get into a fight. Brandon and Katelynn get disqualified because Brandon drank alcohol before the exile, which was hilarious. Mandi screaming at Wes the same way he did to Casey in his FM season was so satisfying to see. Ev and Luke should’ve done the puzzle in that exile. The final was cool, with Landon and Carley winning, which I was not expecting. I do wish Jenn and Noor did get some money tho, as they were a good duo. The cabin and location were also really gorgeous; I enjoyed the winter vibes this season. This season was really good and had some solid moments and good gameplay. A-Tier.
Cutthroat: Ah yes, the iconic Cutthroat. This season introduces teams, as you are pretty much stuck with the players on your team until the very end. The house, first of all, is a castle, which is cool. We then get Shauvon vs Laurel and Thresea vs Camila. Laurel is def the villain of this season. There’s also a secret ballot this time for the votes. The eliminations are also cool with handcuffs, SWAT, and of course the iconic backup off me. Chet plays Mandi as he definitely comes with the mindset of winning instead of wanting a showmance. Brandon becomes a beast this time around, killing it in eliminations specifically. Cara Maria and Abe are a thing. Laurel vs Big Easy happens with Laurel calling him ugly and fat. Abe does a good job leading his team, and holy tattoos he has. While Shauvon does seem to look better physically this season, she still doesn’t deliver and ends up quitting. Katie and Ty get into it, with Ty basically telling Katie that he’s going to hit her. Also, Ty sucks at everything; he also gets into it with Brandon and Emily on different occasions. Chet gets medically DQ’ed, which is sad to see; we also get Tyler’s eating storyline. CT and Tina return, and the CT vs Bananas back up off me elimination was INSANE. CT just walking him like that was just awesome to see. The main challenges were awesome, with bottleneck stampede and the king of the hill main challenge being my favorites. Cara Maria and Abe are instantly looked at as targets by Laurel and Sarah; this leads to Laurel (and Sarah) vs. Cara Maria (and Abe). For the teams themself, the red team was solid, the blue team was not good, and the gray team was super dysfunctional yet good. Tyler was also the MVP, taking out Bananas, Derrick, and lasting longer against CT. Poor Paula is screwed over again and disqualified right before the finals. I too want a T-Mobile MyTouch 3G slide. In the final, Abe gets medically disqualified, yet the gray team still gets to go ahead?? Then Sarah goes down, and Cara Maria impressively does well. The red team wins, and it was nice to see. This format, the cast, the challenges, and the season itself were just awesome and definitely an S-Tier season for me.
And there you have it, all of my thoughts on seasons 11-20. In Era 2. The show has now definitely found its footing, which is nice to see. It introduced a heavy load of players and gave some good moments. Also for Cutthroat, it was bittersweet because I was watching it right when I had gotten the news that Tyler died; it was so sad, but I’m glad I was able to watch him dominate Cutthroat and get his first win, and I can’t wait to see him win Rivals as I now know the winner of that season. Before I get into Rivals, I think I am going to watch Cutthroat 2 first as new episodes air.
Here are some of my favorite players to watch in Era 2:
Ace, Julie, Beth, Brad, Darrell, Wes, Evelyn, Johnny Bananas, Kenny, Svetlana, Veronica, Cara Maria, Brittni, Jenn, Paula, Rachel, Casey, Coral, Johanna
HM: CT, Aneesa, Kimberly, Dunbar, Robin, Mark, Diem, Tina, Evan, Sarah, Chet