The Challenge (originally known as Road Rules: All Stars, followed by Real World/Road Rules Challenge) is a reality competition show on MTV that is a spin-off of two of the network's reality shows, The Real World and Road Rules. Premiering in 1998, it originally featured 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 and competitions. Starting in 2018, new contestants were chosen outside of MTV network alumni from different networks like CBS and Bravo (American TV network). The contestants compete against one another in various extreme challenges to avoid elimination. The winners of the final challenge win the competition and typically share a large cash prize.[1][2]The Challenge is currently hosted by T. J. Lavin.
The series premiered on April 20, 1998.[3] The show was originally titled Road Rules: All Stars, and had 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 from which the subtitle is derived.
The show's current fortieth season, titled Battle of the Eras, premiered on August 14, 2024.[4]
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. Many recent alumni come from various reality shows including Survivor, The Amazing Race, Are You the One?, Big Brother, Ex on the Beach, Vanderpump Rules and Love Islandas well as non-reality entertainment and sports programs.
A season's typical multitude of cast members are usually divided up into separate teams or pairs according to a certain criterion, 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 or villainous status, rivals, countries, family members 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. The format of the competition varies by season. In elimination rounds, contestants or teams compete against one another to determine which one is eliminated from the season. Each season has its own, distinctive 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. 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 ones: 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.
Hosts
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). After one season without anyone in this role, 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.[5]
History
Over time, a playful rivalry developed between the cast of Road Rules and The Real World, with the former occasionally attempting to prank the latter while it was in production.[6] 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 episode brought in high ratings and this set ideas in motion to produce the spin-off series.[7] The series started airing in April 1998 as Road Rules: All Stars, and featured cast members from five seasons of The Real World. Another face-off called AquaGames, hosted by Kit Hoover and Mark Long, was between The Real World: Seattle and Road Rules: Down Under and aired as part of those shows later in 1998.
After Road Rules: All Stars, producers decided to include former cast members 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.[8] Following the successful boom of reality television in the new millennium, from shows like Survivor, producers decided to add new elements to the series. 2002's Battle of the Seasons was the first season to depart from the previous six-member structure and brought in a large group of former cast members to compete in one location. The show added in eliminations, with earlier season incorporated voting off by majority, that eventually changed to elimination competitions between cast members.[6][9]
Contestants are various reality television cast members from different television shows. Originally the cast consisted of The Real World and Road Rules alumni, and cast who debuted directly on The Challenge, but eventually MTV expanded it to other alumni from other reality shows and networks.[10][11][12]
The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars (originally known as The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros) is a special recurring mini-series of The Challenge.[13] In each multi-week event, alumni from The Challenge compete against celebrities to win money for charity.[14][15][16][17][18][19]
In 2020, Road Rules: USA – The First Adventure alumnus Mark Long started asking his social media followers if they'd be interested in seeing former cast members of The Challenge coming together for a new version of the series. The movement was titled "We Want OGs." After his idea went viral, he announced a partnership with Bunim/Murray Productions to further develop his project and began gauging interest from potential former cast members.[20] On February 24, 2021, the show was officially announced as The Challenge: All Stars.[21]
In February 2022, different series of The Challenge were announced, this included three international adaptations for Australia, Argentina, the UK, as well as The Challenge: USA, another American series which aired on CBS with CBS reality show alumni. All editions of the series aired locally on a Paramount-affiliated network and were available globally to stream on Paramount+. These four series were followed by The Challenge: World Championship, which features winners and notable players from the international adaptations and the main series of The Challenge competing for a grand prize.[22][23][24][25][26][27] On May 22, 2023, following the conclusion of World Championship, CBS announced that a second season of The Challenge: USA would premiere on August 10, 2023.[28] On June 27, 2024, it was announced that a Swedish version of The Challenge would be airing on TV4 starting on August 12, 2024, marking the first series in the franchise to be produced outside of Bunim/Murray Productions.[29][30][31]
In March 2010, prior to the airing of the 19th season, MTV aired a special spring break spin-off of The Challenge filmed at the Playa Suites Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico.[35] The five-episode spin-off was titled Spring Break Challenge and aired from March 22–26, 2010.[36] The season featured seven Challenge alum who coached teams of college-aged friends through various challenges and elimination rounds in an attempt to win $50,000 in cash and prizes. Fresh Meat alumnus Evan Starkman and The Real World: Key West alumna Paula Meronek served as broadcasters, with T. J. Lavin as the host.[37][38] Camila Nakagawa, a contestant of the winning team, went on to appear on future challenges, with her debut season being Cutthroat.[39][40] Nakagawa is the only player to appear on the main series.
The season was won by Team Susie, coached by Road Rules: Down Under alumna Susie Meister.
The Challenge: CT's Getting Married is a two-part special revolving around the wedding of Challenge star Chris "CT" Tamburello and Lilianet Solares. MTV released the trailer and premiere date on November 20, 2018. The two-week special premiered on December 11, 2018, and concluded on December 18, 2018.[41][42]
The Challenge: Untold History
The Challenge: Untold History is a six-part documentary about The Challenge. It featured over 30 former competitors and several celebrity fans, discussing the show and telling behind the scenes stories. It premiered on September 21, 2022, on MTV. A sneak preview was shown during the Unscripted portion of the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards.[43]
The Challenge: Home Turf
The Challenge: Home Turf is an eight-part YouTube docuseries which premiered on January 29, 2024. The docuseries focuses on eight cast members visiting their hometown and sharing stories about their career and upbringing.[44]
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