The fourth episode of The Challenge: Cutthroat is in the books. You probably have some thoughts, so let’s compare. Instead of giving a simple summary, I decided to focus on the 10 Biggest moments/takeaways from Episode 4.

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If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:

10 Holy Diver

Every week, the breakdown of the daily challenge boils down to “how did the Blue Team fuck up this time?” Yet again, the Vets were weak links. I do actually have to give a shoutout to Nelson. Before his accident, he was one of the worst swimmers in Challenge history. For him to swim in that water, both with and without the prosthetic, was impressive. While Nelson couldn’t complete the daily, he got the first portion of the dive down, which I wouldn’t have expected and shows he’s been training. There’s actual growth there from Nelly. Cara, on the other hand, has failed in these challenges over and over again. She failed her team in this same type of daily on both Vendettas & Bloodlines — ironically, the two seasons Cara actually won.

I also have to chastise Nurys because she was unable to do a diving challenge on BFANC, and her swimming cost her the Final that season. The fact that the Nurys has had 2–3 years to improve and hasn’t makes me feel like I can’t take her seriously when she declares her desire to be a Champion. Champions put in the work.

Orange Team won as they are an absolute juggernaut.

9 Cara Gets Put in a Corner

Cara keeps saying she’s been doing this since she was 23, and it’s what she knows how to do. So then why doesn’t she know how to dive underwater after 17 years of competing on this show??? Rather than improving her weaknesses, Cara has always doubled down on her strengths and won despite herself. There are so many aspects of the game that Cara does not know how to do.

Something Cara is an expert in is making excuses. So when Josh came at her, she brought up it being the near anniversary of her mom’s death, which is when she left Season 41. To which, when Cara pulled that card, I would’ve folded completely, unlike Josh, who went for the absurd move of both consoling her with a hug and then continuing his statement. It is bold of Josh to speak to a legend this way, and while even someone like CT says it’s not unwarranted, it is tough to say these things about Cara when Josh hasn’t accomplished anything on this show. That said, I enjoy when a rookie is outspoken. Additionally, Cara has been thrust back into the underdog role somehow after all these years and titles.

Something I can guarantee, though, is that Cara will have a daily or elimination tailored to her strengths that she’ll absolutely crush, and her fans will point to it as the reason people were wrong for doubting Cara. Except that’s not why people doubt her — they doubt her because she has challenges where she’s an actual liability. And I will say, Cara bringing up all her eliminations & Finals is one of those things that falls on deaf ears the more she brings her team down. Especially the Finals, because even though Cara is a 2x Champ, she is also a record-breaking Finals-loser, so maybe having her at the end isn’t a good thing.

8 Struggling To Come Up With 10 Takeaways

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this season, but when I write my recaps, I struggle to come up with 10 takeaways. The smaller casts and shorter episodes have given me meatier portions to work with, but fewer storylines to cover these days. Lete is a good swimmer by the way.

7 Grey Geese

In terms of talent, I believe the Grey and Orange Teams are equally matched. The difference, though, is that the Grey Team is made up of more self-motivated & dynamic individuals. That is a good thing for Reality TV, since those are the more compelling characters. Except when you have to work & operate as a team — those individuals begin to crash out once they lose, and additionally, they have their own vision of how they should/can win.

Leo is such a fascinating and layered character. He is simultaneously so dramatic yet also calm and measured. While talking to Nurys, Leo openly shit on Sydney as a human, then was like, “yeah, but she’s ultimately a really good competitor who would be an asset to the team.” Then he empathically told Cassidy that he doesn’t care about nominations in a way that put the onus on Cassidy. Leo has such an aura to him that he feels like a Star even when he isn’t doing much.

Cassidy & Chris are two players right now who are not fully thinking team-based, in part because they’re traumatized from their last season where they each got thrown into 4 eliminations — so really all they’re thinking is “I don’t want to go in”. As is Sydney, as she knows eliminations are where she’ll be vulnerable due to her size — but she’s also trying to get Nurys in, as she thinks Nurys is their worst player. Nurys wants Sydney out because she hates her. Yet, Nurys also hurt her own game by saving Chris instead of Leo because she thought Chris was stronger & better for her team. Adrienne doesn’t give a shit what’s going on because she’s fearless about going into 4 eliminations and has social connections that can carry her. Cory is busy jerking himself off with Nelson’s prosthetic leg to keep himself from banging Izzy. And then Keanu just wants a seat at the adults’ table, but he’s a rookie, so he’s got to drink out of his sippy cup and eat his chicken tenders as he preps to go into elimination after elimination.

Wow, I love this show.

6 Where is the Orange Team?

The Orange Team being a force has mostly kept them off our TV screen, as they haven’t had to worry about voting people into elimination. Episode 1, they were the Stars with the Bananas & CT vote. Since then, they’ve been chilling as Deb was the easy choice for the women’s vote.

It would be nice to see Will or Justin in a meaningful way this season.

5 Digging His Grave

If you didn’t see Taylor Selfridge’s social media posts after the first couple of episodes of this season — she felt especially betrayed by Cory as he insinuated Izzy was the one coming onto Cory. Except this week we got to see even more that Cory was the one laying it on very thick. The way in which Cory was so intimately hugging Izzy this episode felt more like cheating than a regular drunk hookup. I’m here for the mess, but I’m not here for any potential damage control by Cory. I do feel bad that Izzy is becoming “the other woman,” as her designation on The Challenge. Except at least she’s on-screen compared to the rest of Orange.

4 Candid Camera

The scene between Leo & Anna Leigh was SO MESSY. I cannot believe we got some actual raw candid footage of these two players in a way we really never see anymore on the show. Given the amount of off-screen hookups & flirtations on the show that have happened over the years — I know so many cast members at home were probably thanking God that they weren’t put on blast the way Leo & Anna Leigh were.

Man, that scene was so juicy. The way they were talking/flirting was already pushing it, and then for a second, I thought production was at first gonna playfully paint Anna Leigh in a bad light as she said “I really want to make…” and I thought she was gonna say make out, but then she said, “make it to the Final”. I wiped the sweat off my forehead, only to be knocked off my ass as they discussed the idea of a post-show dalliance & trip to a foreign country together, and then Leo jokes about just doing it in the back of the house where there are no cameras. The nail in the coffin of it all was Anna Leigh straight up saying she is horny as fuck.

Hopefully, Anna Leigh and her husband have an open marriage or are into ethnic non-monogamy. If not, her husband is going to be fuming. To make matters worse, Leo has begun calling her “Red,” and, like, man, if someone as attractive as Leo gave my wife a pet nickname, I’d have to toss hands on sight. That’s coming from me personally, who is a very open-minded man.

3 Not Going Quietly

It was a foregone conclusion that Nurys would be the house vote, since Cory was the only member of her team who had her back. Credit to Nurys, though, because unlike so many competitors in recent seasons, Nurys didn’t take getting voted in quietly. Nurys’ voice was heard, and she popped off on multiple people. I love this energy because getting voted in sucks, and in a team format, it’s likely going to happen again, so talk you shit. Some of the best storylines in Challenge history consist of players fighting with their team as they survive in the arena.

Sydney tried to snidely say she’d be “rooting against Nurys,” only to pretend to correct herself by saying “root for Nurys”. Nurys clocked that shit for what it was and went at Sydney for being what she is…a confessional gangster. Sydney tried to come back and say she does talk shit to people’s face and she does a bit — but never to the level she does in confessionals. These two women clashing is a fascinating divide between a competitor with some Reality TV presence and a Reality TV competitor who can also compete.

The funniest part of this all was Keanu getting hit by a driveby from Nurys.

2 Nurys vs. Anna Leigh

This was a banner episode of Reality TV for Anna Leigh. On top of being messy, Anna Leigh absolutely crushed Nurys in this elimination. She outperformed Nurys physically & mentally. Given how Anna Leigh performed in the opening comp to start the season — I don’t think it’s a crazy statement to say she might be the most valuable member on her team. Obviously, Lete is a physical force, but we haven’t seen her show any mental prowess. I’d put this episode from Anna Leigh up there with Melissa on Vendettas, Kailah on Invasion, and Tony on Bloodlines for some of the juiciest early-season debuts in Challenge history. Seriously, put Anna Leigh on next season no matter what. If it’s Exes 3, bring in her husband too.

It sucks to see Nurys make an early exit again. I don’t want to say Nurys was a one-hit wonder because that wouldn’t be accurate; she was promising on Ride or Dies, and I do believe she’s a good competitor. She’s just not built for elimination and has defined flaws as a competitor. Frame-wise and skill-set-wise — I find Nurys to be incredibly similar to Ashley Mitchell. They are two strong competitors who, with their big personalities, struggle to hide. It’s either boom or bust for them. Yet, even when they bust, they put on a show before they do. Nurys is the first elimination so far this season where we are losing entertainment. That is a sign that things are finally heating up, though.

1 Oh Captain My Captain

TJ dropped the twist that the teams will now have only one Captain for the remainder of the season. I wonder if this means the Captain will be automatically safe from elimination all season long as long as their team doesn’t come in last in a daily. Which, if so, that would be nuts. It would also be a stark contrast from the Gauntlet 2, where the Captains in those seasons had to go directly into elimination when their team lost.

Given that they teased a twist where one player will decide how to divvy up the prize purse in the end — you have to assume whoever becomes the Captain is who gets this ability. They should’ve added an extra twist, like you get to cheat on your significant other once, and it gets completely edited out.

The third episode of The Challenge: Cutthroat is in the books. You probably have some thoughts, so let’s compare. Instead of giving a simple summary, I decided to focus on the 5 Biggest moments/takeaways from Episode 3.

If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:

5 We’re All Trying To Find The Guy Who Did This?

Straight up, I tried rewinding the episode to check if I missed something when the episode jumped right into the daily challenge. It was a unique way to cut/edit the episode and is one of the differences we are seeing with the show on Paramount Plus. The daily itself was not amazing to watch, but it was a clear step up from the previous two. It was a slider puzzle mixed with team collaboration and the physical aspect of rowing/player navigating themselves in rafts. As expected, it was a battle between the Grey & Orange teams, with Orange coming out on top this time.

I couldn’t stop laughing when the Blue Team came in last, and Cara was befuddled as to how it happened. They were not a complete mess like they were in the first two messages — except what the Blue Team didn’t realize is that even when they give their all, they’re still worse than Orange & Grey. For them to win, they need to do their best and the other two teams to have bad days.

When they got back to the house, it was even more comical watching the circlejerk between Josh, Brad, and Nelson as they blamed the girls for why they lost. Granted, it was the case last week; that said, it’s just some loser energy, especially given that I’d probably rank all three Blue Team men at the bottom if this were an individual season. The Blue Team lacks leadership & intelligence, but boy, they’re fun to watch.

4 Happy, Healthy, and Boring

So we got to see a birthday party for Tori, and as someone who misses when The Challenge houses were fun — I was happy we got to see the players enjoying themselves. Then a cynical part of me came out because I don’t care for the female vets at all.

Before the season, I was excited to have Tori & Michele back after their standout seasons and Battle of the Eras. Within three episodes, I’m kind of over them, though. The seasons when Tori has been more interesting are when she’s been at odds with a rival like Bananas, Cara, Amanda, etc. This season, Tori is friends with everyone, and they all know she’s an asset for their team, so she’s likely going to be able to avoid eliminations. Tori was also in a relationship when this was filmed, and so she wasn’t going to be in any showmance drama. They showed a “deleted” scene from Episode 2 this week where Tori led a meditation group that was absolutely cringeworthy. The version of Tori we got on our TV is a seriously unfunny human — her humor is trapped in 2015.

The only moment where I’ve cringed more is when Cara & Tori hugged and consoled Michele after she had to vote in Johnny Bananas last week. The same Johnny Bananas who smiled & laughed at Michele’s tears when she dropped from 2nd to 3rd Place during the Battle of the Eras Final and said it was karma. I can deal with Michele’s tears when she’s a true underdog, but just like Tori, she’s in a great spot game-wise. Maybe my tolerance is down as well because I know Michele isn’t going to be mixing it up socially or flirting because she’s in a relationship with Devin.

Another moment I did not care for was the wrestling match between Cara & Lete. I’m giving Lete a pass as a rookie, but the Cara dressing up as “Carl” bit has not entertained me once in the three seasons she’s done it, and I’m wondering if anyone at home loves it. Because if not, it feels like the worst recurring SNL bit ever.

Something that I do have to note is that all these ladies look to be in the best shape of their lives. Michele specifically looks an inch or two taller with how much more toned her body seems to be. As a human, I love seeing these ladies happy & healthy. As a reality TV fan, it pains me because they are not producing entertaining television, and even worse, they’re likely all going far because they aren’t drama-filled.

The difference in my interest when a lady vets and the newer gen players are on screen is stark. I wish we had Nany & Ashley taking up 2/3 of Cara, Michele, and Tori’s spots. Before anyone gets on me for not chastising the men in the same way — I had the same thoughts about Leroy & Derrick on Season 41. This season, at least Bananas always mixes it up, Cory has a mid-life crisis going on, Nelson just being there after his accident is crazy, and CT refusing to put down the Dunkin Donuts in the offseason has made him a walking storyline of whether he will hold his team back by walking in a Final.

3 The Phantom Love Triangle

Straight up, I love Adrienne & Nurys. There are two types of showmances in this world. On the one hand, we have Will & Deb who are going to be playing house and having fun. And then you have Adrienne, who sees Josh put his arm not even over fully over Nurys, but over the bench they’re both sitting on, and so she blows up. Reality TV was not built on measured responses. Adrienne is an intelligent woman, and yet she’s still got a lot of fierceness and chaos, to the point where if she smells disrespect, she’s going to have her voice heard.

Likewise, Nurys caught wind of word that any type of flirting between her and Josh was happening and swiftly snuffed that shit out. Nurys went at Adrienne, mocked Josh’s height & existence in confessionals, and made her the main character in the scenario. Last week, I wrote about Reilly that there are people who are Reality TV Stars and people who get cast on Reality TV. Nurys is a bona fide Reality TV Star, and so is Adrienne.

Josh should get credit as well for his on-screen presence this season. He’s been a vocal member of the dysfunctional Blue Team, is involved in a showmance, and was able to use his social ties with Bananas to keep himself out of elimination. The guy is making a name for himself so far — not sure if good or bad, but he’s making a mark.

2 Leo vs. Chris Vote

I was deeply fascinated by the Leo & Chris vote. Before the vote even happened, Keanu pitched to Cassidy to turn on her Survivor ally Chris. Which at first, I thought it didn’t make sense, except I took a step back and realized that in some of these where 2/3 people are eligible to get voted in, Chris would potentially prioritize Sydney over Cassidy, and thus Cassidy choosing to make Keanu her #1 instead of him would somewhat make sense. Keanu wanted Chris as the other nominee, as he knew that Bananas would be more likely to take a shot at Chris, as Bananas knows from USA 2 that Chris is a massive threat in any Final, elimination, or daily challenge.

Ultimately, Cassidy chose to side with her Survivor allies, and it led to a 3–3 tie vote between Chris & Leo, which Nurys was forced to break. Nurys chose to send Leo in, and in some ways, this was not a great choice. While Nurys wants Chris on her team as he’s their best player — Nurys is potentially behind both Sydney & Cassidy for his #1 spot, and so she’ll get voted in before them. Additionally, it’s now given Leo the right to vote against her without any grief as she shot first. We also know her & Adrienne aren’t on good terms anymore, and so Nurys might have some tough sledding ahead. Credit to my podcast co-host Luke for helping me see how tough of a situation Nurys has put herself in.

1 The End of Fiorenza

It cannot be understated how bad Brad looked in this elimination. As a veteran, Brad’s experience is supposed to give him a mental edge in this game, and yet, he looked like a fish out of water. What was crazy is that Brad had the opportunity to take an early lead in this elimination and wasn’t able to because he didn’t listen to the rules and completely missed the button. To which, that’s not the first time Brad has fucked up like that recently — he ripped a box in the final daily challenge on All-Stars 2 that DQ’d him & Jodi and sent them into elimination and then he didn’t understand the rules at all in his elimination with Adam on All-Stars 4.

Now, Brad was likely never going to win the elimination because once Kenau made it a physical game, he was able to body Brad repeatedly. Sometimes in eliminations, you just run into someone who is bigger & stronger, and there’s no fighting chance — sort of like Bananas & Gabe last season. Except this is now the fourth straight elimination I’ve seen Brad look awful in. He got decisively beaten by Cory on Eras and BLOWN out by Kyland & Adam on BFANC and All-Stars.

If you include All-Stars & his mercenary appearance, Brad is now 1–9 in his last 10 eliminations, which I believe is a record for anyone in a 10-elimination stretch. If you remove BFANC, then he’s 1–8 (I believe Bananas and Amanda have had 2–7 stretches for comparison). I think it’s time for Brad to hang it up on the flagship show. Honestly, it’s not even because Brad can’t keep up physically, because most of the guys on this cast wouldn’t have been able to compete against Keanu. It’s more so that The Challenge has moved on as a game where you need puzzle & math skills that Brad has never materialized. How much work Brad puts in at the gym will never matter if he’s not getting tutored and practicing puzzles as his main focus. Which nobody is going to do or wants to do when they’re a 40+ year old man. Except if you want to seriously compete and win, then that’s what you do.

Shoutout to Keanu on his impressive debut elimination performance. My favorite part of the win was Chris Underwood giddily watching from the crowd as he realized the Grey Team can continually toss him and use him like a horse. Which was a thing on the original Cutthroat, as Brandon & Camila went into a bunch of eliminations for the Red Team. Given Keanu’s personality, I do think him ending up in a bunch of eliminations is his best possible storyline.

A couple of little intriguing nuggets are that Nelson got made Captain for next week’s girls day, and that means he’ll never be Captain on a boys day as long as Josh is there. We also saw a Lete & AnnaLeigh rivalry continue to boil as Lete picked Cara as captain for next week.

The first two episodes The Challenge: Cutthroat are in the books. You probably have some thoughts, so let’s compare. Instead of giving a simple summary, I decided to focus on the 15 Biggest moments/takeaways from these two episodes.

If you prefer audio/video, my podcast recap can be found above/below:

15 Would You Even Want To Be Captain?

Getting to see the Top 8 players in the initial run was very interesting. Sydney & Izzy came in 1st & 2nd, which was very impressive, as they blew out all the men as well. Rookie Josh and the second-season stars Chris, Will, Leo, and Justin followed up, before another rookie lady in AnnaLeigh popped up.

Seeing all the 1st & 2nd season competitors lead the pack shows that the new generation of The Challenge is the future. Now, I wish we could’ve gotten the placements of everyone. That Top 8 probably had to wait a long time because Bananas kept trying to convince Thai locals that he’s famous, CT got sidetracked buying street food, and newly semi-single Cory probably stopped somewhere to get a “massage”.

Regardless, it was fascinating watching the competition to become Captain. AnnaLeigh winning that spot as a rookie among a pretty stacked cast was super impressive. That said, I don’t think I’d want to be a Captain on Cutthroat unless I was already an established power player. For that exact reason, rookie AnnaLeigh got pushed around by Chris & Justin as they stacked each other’s teams while sabotaging hers.

14 Nelly T is Back

Straight up, I thought the way Nelson cut his opening confessional talking about his DWI, the dangers of drunk driving, and stating he’ll never drink & drive again was perfect. It felt serious & sincere. If you at home don’t forgive Nelson or want to see him on this show again — that’s completely fine. The fact of the matter is that Nelson is back and the incident had to be acknowledged.

Now, should he be on the show from a competitive standpoint? Well, Nelson was not a good competitor before the injury, and so I think he’ll be a liability to whatever team he is on. I wish him luck, though.

13 Our Three Teams

The Blue Team is a disaster on all fronts. Half of their players are rookies, and they have the worst vets. Brad & Nelson were not good in their last couple showings, they panic & get loud under pressure, and bring no puzzle skills to the table. Cara is not a vocal leader & has weaknesses that make her a liability in heights & water challenges. Lete & AnnaLeigh are an exciting duo of rookie girls, though.

Orange Team is a juggernaut. Tori is a beast, Michele brings puzzle, water & communication skills, Izzy is a cardio beast, and then CT/Bananas bring experience & leadership while Will & Justin give them two young horses to carry them athletically & physically.

The Grey Team has the most dynamic personalities and competitors, as they have Sydney, Nurys, Adrienne, Cassidy, Chris, Cory, and Leo. They’re all players who bring a lot of personality and skills to the table. The only person I don’t know is Keanu, and from what I hear, he was a beast on Big Brother. My biggest question mark about this team is whether or not they have too many strong personalities. The Orange Team at least has an established hierarchy with their Vets.

12 Nurys is a True Challenger

We got Nurys back on the show, and my favorite thing is that she vocally talked shit about Johnny Bananas online, got her chance to be back in the house after a “1-season ban”, and came back ten-toes down, letting us know she still hates Johnny Bananas.

As Challenge fans, we want authentic beefs & rivalries, and it was annoying watching Nelson align with Fessy again after Double Agents or Devin aligning with Josh & Kaycee after yelling Big Brother sucks the previous season. Nurys is a messy & authentic character who is welcome on any season in my book.

11 Shaky Start (First Daily)

The first daily challenge was awesome in theory and terrible in execution because the degree of difficulty was far too high. Technically, 8/24 players made it across the bridge. Only 2/18 got across once the bridge was unstable, and those two were Adrienne and Leo! Adrienne was the only player able to get through doing a bear-crawl method, which required a ton of core & leg. Meanwhile, Leo got it done by sprinting across as his college baseball skills & coordination were on display.

I just know the producer who designed this daily challenge was kicking dirt when they saw basically nobody getting across the bridge after they probably spent hours setting up the stage.

10 Close Combat

After the first daily, we found out that the 2nd Place team has to nominate two players of the same gender for elimination — one via the Team Captain nominating and the other through a house vote. Given that there’s only a maximum of 4 men & 4 women on a team, the 2nd Place team has to nominate half their players. Which inherently leads to tough conversations and people having to pick sides in ways we don’t typically get this early in the game. On SLA, the vets didn’t even have to take shots at each other for the first nine episodes, and now in Episode 1, we had two legends barking at each other over who is going to be the house vote.

I’m a huge advocate for smaller Challenge casts because it makes every vote matter more, there’s more screen time to go around, and people can’t hide as much. People have to make tough choices politically, which leads to natural drama. Which transitions into my next point….

9 The Unction Dysfunction

The fact that we got a fight/argument between Bananas & CT on Episode 1 that we’d usually have to wait for the end of the season to get is a testament as to why smaller casts are better. The Orange Team tried to tie the vote in hopes TJ would flip a coin to decide which of the two old men would get nominated for elimination. Only once the plan went into play, CT went into panic mode and said it was unfair because more people would save him than Bananas. To which, I’m not fully sure which of the two I would’ve kept, as CT brings more puzzle & eating skills, but his cardio is a liability, and Bananas is a jack-of-all-trades.

Getting to see Bananas & CT go at it was amazing TV and a great reminder that these two DO NOT LIKE EACH OTHER. CT does not fuck with Bananas. If you don’t remember, CT had a televised MTV wedding where Bananas was specifically not invited/allowed to come. These two hold deep resentments for each other and the way each other has gotten to play the game. CT was annoyed by Bananas’ “Love, War & Challenge’s” cliches that he uses to get away with slick moves and all the moments of chance where Bananas has lucked out over the years. Likewise, Bananas hates how CT can easily coast through a game based on intimidation factor & mystique, whereas Bananas constantly has had people at his heels for the last decade. For as much shit as Bananas gets — he has had to fight a ton ever since his Rivals 3 win. To which, CT called out that Bananas hasn’t won in a while.

Then it all came down to Michele. Michele genuinely did not want to continue her beef with Bananas from Season 40 because she HATES conflict and yet got put in this situation where that history came into play with the vote. To which anyone who bet on under 1.5 episodes for the first Michele Fitzgerald tears, congrats, you can cash your bet.

8 Bananas Beatdown

Okay. I need you all to imagine that I’m looking you dead in the eyes as I say this: Johnny Bananas is a fucking legend, and him destroying Cedric in that elimination might be one of the Top 10 most impressive feats of his Challenge career.

Cedric is half Bananas’ age, is fresh out of the Marines, and based on what we saw on Season 41, he’s faster & has more endurance. Yet, when the spotlight was on them, Bananas outpaced, outplayed, and outworked Cedric. It wasn’t just that Bananas won; he beat Cedric by Little League mercy rules, where he took down every single light and sent the kid home in tears.

Before any conspiracy theorist says it was rigged — I went back and watched the beginning of the elimination, and Cedric was hitting his buzzers cleanly at first. It was once Bananas took a lead where Cedric began panicking and then became a total mess. Bananas’ experience came into play, and also, don’t sleep on the old man’s fitness. There’s a reason the guy has won 7 Finals — he’s got great cardio, footspeed, and knows how to pace himself. As a fan of the show — I don’t mind seeing Cedric exit here because he’s just not that entertaining and seems a bit one-dimensional. That said, the Blue Team losing Cedric is MASSIVE as they don’t have any guys left who can solve a puzzle now.

An additional factoid is Bananas now has 16–15 in eliminations, which is 2 more wins than any other competitor ever, and he’s won 6 out of his last 7 dating back to Total Madness. Sidenote: Bananas competed & won with a partially lost voice and sore throat likely caused by self-felatio.

7 Terrible Trivia

The second daily challenge was worse than the first one. Trivia is at its best when basic free-response trivia where we get to find out how dumb the people on our TV are. If you’re going to do teammate trivia, though, it should be based on a survey where players get asked questions like “who is the shadiest person in the house” or “who is the hottest person in the house”. And if you’re going to do it that way, wait until Episode 6–8 of the season. What we got was boring teammate trivia regarding random & sometimes subjective facts in a daily challenge that came way too early into the season.

The Grey Team won, and I won’t be giving them credit, as this daily challenge was dumb, poorly designed, and the win came via double DQ’ds. I’m not even mad at the Orange Team for “cheating” during the daily challenge because production gave them enough time to come up with a strategy (that worked) and the questions were at times subjective. We’ll talk about the Blue Team in a different portion.

6 Keanu is Too Big Brother Coded

It doesn’t happen as often these days, but it’s always been funny to me when players who come from Big Brother think they can operate the same way they did on that show on The Challenge. Keanu, like others in the past, thought they could immediately make 1-on-1 handshake deals that could carry them through the game. That’s not how The Challenge works. Most alliances in this game are built off years of playing it where these vet pre-existing relationships take priority. The only way a rookie can ever truly break through is by winning out and quickly establishing themselves as a force that the Vets would be willing to work with.

On paper, the idea of forcing an Izzy & Lete elimination is great. It’s just a tough move to make when there’s another Captain & teammates involved with their own game & relationships in mind.

5 Adrienne is a Baller

Adrienne was one of the standout competitors & personalities from last season. She won 4 eliminations, went to the Final, and proved to be one of the most entertaining confessionalists we’ve gotten in a long. Adrienne came back for this season in way better shape and even more confident in herself. When she heard Keanu was going to throw in her #1 Izzy, she was quick to interrogate him, shut him down, and stood firm in him letting him know she’ll throw the next daily to get his ass sent into elimination.

She checks every box you want in a Challenge competitor and has now even dipped her into the showmance water with Love Island rookie Josh.

4 Blundering Blue Team

Chernobyl in 1986 was much more stable than whatever this team Blue is. They were already facing a massive talent disparity and then they got a trivia daily challenge where no physicality or actually trivia knowledge was involved. It was a crapshoot that gave them an actual chance to win. They didn’t get a question asked because their 2x Champ and legendary vet Cara couldn’t stop crying and squeaking at the top of the tower. Whenever people bring up Cara as the GOAT female competitor, I kind of pull my hair because these are the moments that some of that level does not have. You’re supposed to lead your team and not be a liability.

AnnaLeigh’s cough was a tough look too especially as she didn’t cop to in the moment. I will note her saying “she didn’t say a word’ was technically true. The DQ’s got made way worse with Brad & Nelson cursing each other out in frustration and in hopes of getting some camera time. They are two 10+ season vets who should be calming influences and instead they’re acting like jackasses. There is a ton of passion to compete on this team and no leadership to guide them.

They had a messy team meeting where AnnaLeigh & Lete got into it, Nelson accused Cara of throwing the daily, Josh chastised Cara, and Reilly was there sad because she was the easy nomination.

3 The Crowd Participation Elimination

Can we just stop doing these “puzzle” eliminations where it comes down to the crowd? The way this elimination played out, it was just a battle of cardio — to which Deb edged out Reilly physically and then was also helped by Reilly’s team misguiding her at one point. I had no major stake in this elimination, but I would’ve walked away way more with whoever won if they competed on their own. Instead, all I know is Deb is a slightly better runner than Reilly. It means nothing. Also, imagine if Nurys eliminations on Battle For a New Champion had crowd involvement like Michele & Rayn’s wins? We would think so much less of her.

Deb staying in the game is probably for the better, as she has a showmance going with Will and tries to be entertaining. Respectfully, I don’t need Reilly on this show. I did not watch Reilly’s Big Brother season, but I had always assumed she’d do well from The Challenge based on photos I’d seen of her & her social media activity. Then I watched her confessional on this show and went woof. Reilly seems like a nice girl, but she has ZERO aura and screen presence. There are people who are Reality TV stars and people who get cast on Reality TV — Reilly is the latter.

2 Cory is Cooked

Challenge fans forget that Cory was off The Challenge for a couple of years after his Pasta Gate DQ on Final Reckoning. When Cory returned for Total Madness, we got a much more mature “Dad” version of Cory that also proved to be an improved competitor. In the 2020’s, Cory’s racked up three Final appearances, two 2nd Place Finishes, and won 6 eliminations. You know what else happened in that time? Cory became fucking boring. The guy who hooked up with 3 girls in one season and declared hit-lists became a sit-back-and-try-to-coast-to-the-Final guy.

He & Taylor Selfridge have hit an impasse in their relationship, though. Who would’ve thought the girl who spat on your other Ex in the Ex on the Beach house wasn’t your lifelong soulmate? Likewise, for Taylor, how many babies do you have to give a man before he makes you a wife? These are questions I don’t know the answer to.

A question I do know the answer to is “Am I excited to get messy hookup King Cory back on the Challenge? To which, my answer is YES. However, it was embarrassing watching Cory try to get after Izzy. To which, I get it completely because Izzy is hot as fuck and I do think she’s attracted to Cory. What I found particularly cringe was how heavy-handed Cory was in how he was talking to Izzy, where he was very much playing up his dad character while clearly flirting. Cory is one of the most attractive men in Challenge history — if you want to hook up with Izzy, just forget about the outside world and be hot & fun. Don’t try to make Izzy a stepmom because she’s young, hot, and here to play the game; maybe have some fun.

1 I Get Older They Stay The Same Age

When a Challenge season premieres, you can guarantee two things: he’s gonna want to do a toast, and he’s going to find a rookie girl to be in a showmance with. Dating back to 2018, Bananas has had rookie showmances with Natalie (Vendettas), Angela (Final Reckoning), Morgan (WOTW 1 and dated for 2–3 years), Moriah (Ride or Dies), Dee (Vets & New Threats), and now Lete. On the one hand, I don’t blame him because they are all incredibly attractive women. And for these women, I don’t blame them either because they’re going to get camera time, an alliance with a Vet, and Bananas is actually one of the funniest guys in the world…if you haven’t heard him tell his same 5 jokes a million times. Which is why you’ll rarely see a competitor with multiple seasons under their belt getting together with a win.

Lete is a fascinating character. Her blowup on Bananas after the elimination with Cedric was so delusional. Saying the 7x Champ needs to prove himself and the elimination was rigged when Bananas just dominated Cedric didn’t make a lick of sense. Then her exfoliating her legs in the house pool based on his insight and getting in the tub with him later in her bikini & pajamas were both really gross. And yet, everyone is looking at her as a physical force, and she’s definitely an “alpha” personality. To which, it’s all still theoretical as she’s not gotten a moment to stand out competitively. She is a former college athlete & WWE talent, so she is athletic — it’s more so that we don’t know how she’ll do with puzzles & the problem-solving aspects of this show.

Her showmance with Bananas does make perfect sense to me. They are both cringy and goofy, and their humor is 2009 coded.

The Challenge 42 is set to debut, and with it, a man & woman are going to be the first eliminated competitors. Being the first player out is obviously embarrassing, and for some it is both the beginning & ends of their Challenge careers. Except when you actually dig through Challenge history, you’ll find that there have been a lot of players who began their career as first boots and still had monumental impacts on the franchise.

Thus, I wanted to create a blog and rank the 10 players who had the greatest impact on The Challenge after beginning as 1st boots. The rules to qualify for this blog are that the player had to be a Rookie and they had to be the 1st Male or 1st Female eliminated during the season, whether it be via purge or elimination. We are not counting DQs like Adam Royer on Rivals 1 or Jo Rhodes quitting on Gauntlet 2. It did not have to happen in Episode 1, but as long as they were the first in the gender pool traditionally getting eliminated, we are counting it.

Let’s jump into it!

10 Shauvon Torres (Duel 2)

I considered players who went to actual Challenge Finals like Ace (Inferno 1), Chet (BOTS), or Rachel M. (Gauntlet 3). None of them seemed as fun or as impactful as Shauvon. Shauvon got thrown into the first elimination on The Duel 2 — she called out Aneesa & swiftly lost as she’s one of the worst competitors in Challenge history. That’s not why she is on here, though.

Shauvon’s impact was deeply felt on The Duel 1 via her Night 1 hookup with CT, which resulted in drunk Adam trying to snitch on CT to Diem and later throw a beer can at him. We then we got the punch heard ‘round the world and CT chasing Adam is one of the most iconic scenes in Challenge history. It led to a domino sequence of production not only DQ’ing CT, but also putting him on ice for a couple years. Which made his return on Cutthroat with the Backpack moment even more iconic. We later got CT back as a full-time cast member for Rivals 1, and he was part of the gang again.

If not for Shauvon, we don’t get these moments, and who knows, CT might’ve continued to spiral further if not for this big blow-up.

Also, that’s not it for Shauvon’s legacy because her popping her implant on The Ruins is an INFAMOUS Challenge moment.

9 Josh Martinez (War of the Worlds 1)

Coming in fresh off winning Big Brother, Josh Martinez had his first of many tears on The Challenge after getting purged in the opening challenge of War of the Worlds 1. Luckily for Josh, Alan Valdez fractured his hand in the same challenge, and so they brought Josh back, and he got to play with Amanda Garcia. They were a hilariously dysfunctional pair.

As a whole, everyone knows Josh is THE GOOF. Josh has been on 7 seasons, is 1–7 in eliminations, and has ZERO Finals under his belt. He does not get cast because he is a great competitor. Josh gets cast because he is an explosive & emotional personality who knows how to get a reaction out of people. You probably saw his name on this list, and you felt something, which is a testament to his influence on the show.

I have clowned on Josh plenty during his Challenge career and will continue to do so. That said, Josh is nowhere near the worst competitor in Challenge history. Josh has competed on many seasons with stacked casts, and he always goes way further than I expect. Part of the reason Josh goes far is because on Team & Pair seasons, his size, cardio, and effort are such massive pluses to whoever he’s working with. As volatile as Josh is in the house — women enjoy competing with him because he’s kind & understanding. Additionally, Josh deserves so much credit for how much work he’s put into his body & fitness. On Season 40, Josh was the only guy keeping up with Jordan & Kyland in all the endurance — he just didn’t have their puzzle skills. Also, I’m about to ragebait some fans: I thought Josh was a better competitor on Season 40 than every Era 1 & 2 man except for Bananas. Now, I’ll drop the mic and walk away.

8 Big T (War of the Worlds 2)

To this day, I’ve never fully understood how Big T got on The Challenge as she was had almost no followers when originally cast on War of the Worlds 2. They had to fill out a whole team of U.K. players, though, and so they brought in Big T almost purposefully to be a first boot. Big T got thrown into the first elimination of the season where she had to face Georgia. While Big T lost, she put up a valiant effort and proved to have on-screen charisma.

They brought her back for Total Madness and she was a funny side character. Her medical DQ exit on the season somehow became a comical moment. Then they brought her back for Double Agents. Double Agents is one of the most brutally boring seasons in Challenge history — except for the storyline & partnership between her and CT. They had a fun dynamic until CT broke her heart in a way that made fans sympathize with and love Big T even more. They later reconciled, Big T beat Aneesa in elimination, and then lost right before the Final to Amber. Big T has never been as relevant as she was on Double Agents. Nonetheless, she had a season where she was a dominant storyline and was owning screen time.

Even on Battle For a New Champion, the opening of that season was her & Melissa against the rest of the house, and Big T got a massive elimination over 2x Champ Kaz Crossley.

7 Rogan O’Connor (Vendettas)

They brought in 5 U.K. Rookies on Vendettas: Joss, Kyle, Kayleigh, Melissa…and Rogan. The first four all made instant impacts on The Challenge — meanwhile, Rogan had a back injury flare-up (& bad cardio) that led to him getting Purged before even entering the house on Vendettas. The other four all came back for Final Reckoning, and it began to look like forgotten was going to become the forgotten 5th member of The Beatles.

Rogan reappeared on War of the Worlds 2 and had one of the funniest runs in Challenge history. Although he was basically a rookie, Rogan’s connections to Joss & Kayleigh allowed him to be a number with the U.S./U.K. alliance that was being run by Kam & Paulie. Rogan also polidicked by having a showmance with Dee that embedded him more within his alliance. Theo & Kyle were losing their mind as they got thrown into eliminations instead of Rogan. In the end, Rogan was on Team U.K. for the Final and became a Challenge Champion. Rogan would come back for Total Madness, where he famously concussed Jay in Balls In, had an epic Hall Brawl face-off with Nelson, and then continued his toxic relationship with Dee that would’ve been a major focus of the show had she not gotten banned/edited out.

I think most fans underrate Rogan as a competitor. At the same time, I know Rogan vastly overrates himself as a competitor. As a personality, he’s one of the better modern Challenge villains.

6 Michaela Bradshaw (Spies, Lies & Allies)

The most recent first boot to make some noise is Michaela, who got taken out alongside Renan on Spies, Lies & Allies. Imported from Survivor, Michaela got exposed for having a list of names & stupidly trying to unite the rookies against the Vets. Silly girl, it’s The Challenge, you’re supposed to bow down to your Vet overlords.

In all seriousness, while Michaela made a rookie mistake by getting with a physical list, she got dealt a shitty hand as her & Renan’s had to compete in the backpack, which was impossible for them to win against the much larger Corey Lay.

Michaela got to return on Challenge USA 2 & Vets and New Threats. She won the most dailies by any female competitor on both seasons, won three eliminations, made multiple power moves politically, and had beef/developed rivalries with Olivia, Theo, Wes, Cassidy, Gavin, Michele, Josh, and Derek. If Michaela can find the right brand of super glue for her ankles, she can become a Champion one day. Even if not, she’s already a force on this show.

5 Devin Walker (Rivals 3)

People forget Devin & Cheyenne were the first team eliminated on Rivals 3. They got taken out by the iconic duo of Johnny Reilly & Jessica McCain. Due to the amount of DQ’s/Quits on the season, they ended up bringing Devin & Cheyenne back into the game. What always makes me laugh is they brought them back into the game and let them sit in the crowd while Reilly & Jessica were getting ready to face Amanda & Nelson in elimination.

Devin & Cheyenne ended up making the Final as they went on a historic run of picking White Skulls to keep them out of the elimination arena. They were a total lay-up team. Still, Devin made a name for himself as a Reality TV character and consistently tried to punch above his weight, beefing with Bananas, Cory, and whoever’s skin he could get under. Over the years, Devin went from meme to guy who can solve some puzzles to a political powerhouse & Challenge Champion. While Devin was far more entertaining & likable as an underdog — his impact on the franchise & win on Ride or Dies are very impressive.

4 Paula Meronek (The Duel 1)

If we don’t count Tina getting DQ’d on The Duel 1, then Paula was the first woman to lose an elimination that season. Paula lost in a Pole Wrestle to Aneesa — it was the first 5 match-ups between the two through the years. The version of Paula we got on The Duel was a much different person, as she was not far removed from her battles with anorexia.

She would come back for Inferno 3 in much better shape and went to the Final. Paula became a staple of the franchise where she was someone you could rely on for entertainment, drama, and hookups, and was there to compete and win. One of the biggest storylines in show history was: could Paula ever win The Challenge? She finally got it done with Evelyn on Rivals and then won a 2nd title with Emily on Rivals 2. We haven’t seen Paula again since, and that’s because she’s gotten sober and moved on with her life.

3 Evelyn Smith (Fresh Meat 1)

After the Fresh Meat 1 combine, Evelyn got taken #1 overall in the draft! Unfortunately, the guy with the #1 pick was Danny Jamieson, who, on top of being one of the worst players in Challenge history — he had a target on his back as being part of a group of Real World Austin rookies. To make matters worse, the amount of weight teams carried in exiles was based on how much luggage they brought. Since Danny brought a ton of luggage for not only himself but Melinda, they then got blown out of the water by Wes & Casey, who only brought two Ziploc sandwich bags worth of luggage.

Evelyn later returned for Inferno 3 and helped the Bad Asses win on her 2nd season. In my opinion, Evelyn is the greatest female competitor in Challenge history. She won 3 Championships, went to 4 Finals, moved athletically in ways we don’t often see, went head to head against men multiple times, had her iconic speech & run on The Island, and won the hardest Final ever on Rivals 1 (at that point). She did it all of that while having some of the worst luck in Challenge history (genuinely, I think she should have been a 5–6x Champ). The cherry on top is Evelyn got it all done before turning 25 years old and then left to go to the Ivy League and get her law degree.

2 Cara Maria Sorbello (Fresh Meat 2)

Most fans grew to love Cara as a scrappy underdog — yet within the context of her rookie season, she had to be one of the most shocking first boots in Challenge history. Cara showed out in the Fresh Meat Rookie combine, then got drafted #1 overall by 4x Champ Darrell, who was still undefeated at the time. Wes & Kenny actually colluded to send them into the first elimination of the season against Pete & Jill. Given that the exiles on Fresh Meat 2 were Mini Finals, it’s even more shocking that Darrell & Cara lost. Even though Darrell & Cara had superior endurance, their puzzle skills cost them.

Luckily, Cara would get a second chance on Cutthroat, a season where she met Abram, got to be on the best team during the season, and went to the Final, much to Laurel’s chagrin. From there, Cara had an up-and-down 8-season journey where she eventually became a Champion & face of the franchise. Time went on, and she fluctuated between loved & hated, and you really never know how the pendulum will swing. Whether you like her or not, Cara is the most important woman in Challenge history.

1 Johnny Bananas (The Duel 1)

Bananas’ first boot origin story is funny because he got called out on The Duel by his Real World roommate Tyler. If anyone should have “John’s” back, it should have been the only other guy who knew him! Things got even wackier because they then played “I Can”, which was a dumb betting game where players wagered how many of an item they could carry/lift. Tyler being able to lift a wheelbarrow with 35 watermelons sent Bananas packing. Bananas tried to get back at Tyler on Gauntlet 3, and then Tyler got a lick back on Cutthroat. Ultimately, it all resulted in these two winning Rivals together.

When Johnny Bananas screams “I AM THE CHALLENGE”, is he right? No. Is he the 7x Champ who has been a face of the franchise for about 15 years now and carried multiple seasons? Absolutely. If you love Bananas, you definitely think he deserves #1. And if you hate him, then you should understand why he’s #1 because rooting against him can be just as fun. There are so many competitors whose biggest moments of relevancy involve beating or getting one over on him.

I’ve been covering The Challenge for 10 years now, and in that time, it’s been astonishing to watch the evolution and growth in women’s competitors. When I first started covering the show, I felt like I was watching the beginning of a revolution where awesome competitors & personalities like Ashley, Tori, Kailah, Amanda, and Kam were all dropped into the universe at roughly the same time. Some of them were fit, some were good at puzzles, some were unafraid badasses, and some were all of the above. The Challenge already had strong women before them, including Cara, who had become the face of the franchise. However, I thought those ladies did a good job in upping the level of competition and the power of presence that women held on The Challenge in terms of political, physical, and entertainment.

People tried to clown on them in the moment. Still, the Lavender Ladies were an alliance of non-super-physical female competitors that produced Championships, Finals, elimination upsets, iconic fights, jaw-dropping moments, and the first Millionaire in Challenge history. And then after their run on Final Reckoning, MTV’s cast continued to up the level of female competitors. So much so that it’s hit a point where the female casts have been consistently stronger than the men’s casts in the 2020’s, which is something that makes me really happy, yet also transitions us into the thesis & title of this blog.

Which is, there is a long history of the men on The Challenge being overly involved in the women’s game on the show, whether it be consciously or unconsciously. In my opinion, unless it is a co-ed partner season — the men should focus on the men and the women should focus on the women. Sadly, that has not always been the case, and so I want to go through and highlight 5/6 seasons where men had way too much influence on the women’s games.

Let’s jump into it (also, I did a video ranking all the Survivor Men on The Challenge, link/video is above).

5 Vendettas

The most interesting storyline going into Vendettas was Cara Maria vs. Kailah after their fallout from Dirty 30 and the social media war that ensued between them. During this era of The Challenge, anything I blogged out about either Kailah or Cara would get 10x the pageviews of any other cast member. Going into Vendettas, they should have built up these two against each other the same way they did with Wes & Kenny on Fresh Meat 2.

Instead, Vendettas had a format with “genderless” winners for almost all of the Troikas. Which ultimately meant that men would take up most of the winners’ spots and would then control most of the decisions in the game. In this season, 22/30 Troika slots were taken up by men, and every single women’s elimination day of the season had 2/3 or 3/3 men in the Troika. This meant the women in the game who were at odds couldn’t even take shots at each other.

What is a bit funny is the fact that those men made a concerted effort to keep the strongest women in the game just in case they’d have to run a Final with them. Which backfired as Cara ended up beating them in the Final to take home the win after only 1 daily challenge & 0 elimination wins all season. Still, it’s frustrating that we missed out on Cara & Kailah gunning for each other in a real way. Then Kailah got DQ’d on Final Reckoning and the potential all-time rivalry became a “what could’ve been”.

4 Gauntlet 1 & Inferno 1

Both the original Gauntlet & Inferno had genderless eliminations. Thus, in these big team formats, the game always devolved into the men tossing the women into elimination as a means to “trim the fat” before the Final. This style of gameplay actually did lead to some iconic stretches like Sarah Greyson winning 5 eliminations on The Gauntlet or Katie winning 2 eliminations on The Inferno after her team threw challenges to get her out. Regardless, these formats gave men an outsized influence on the game.

3 Challenge USA 1

The women on Challenge USA 1 were excellent. Desi, Angela, Justine, and Sarah all looked like women who could go toe-to-toe with any of the best ladies on the flagship — and then I found myself impressed as well by Cayla, Alyssa, and Kyra at points throughout the season.

At the same time, USA 1 had the weakest male cast this show has ever seen. There were 3 good male competitors in Tyson, Danny, and Kyland — and then, if you want to be generous, Ben was half-decent and always gave 150%. After that, we are talking about a group of unathletic and unfit men. If you threw Josh Martinez on that cast — he’s easily in the Top 5. The reason I bring this up is because USA 1 was a season that worked largely in partnerships. Week after week, these women were shackled with deadweight competitors in the daily challenge — which honestly, isn’t a big deal given that there have been plenty of seasons where the female casts have been the strongest and held back men in partnerships.

The reason it was a MAJOR ISSUE was that they still did partner stuff in the Final. Which was odd given that production chose to medically DQ Ben right before the Final started and forced women to compete solo in some incredibly brutal legs. Including a leg that would have been impossible for Angela Rummans to complete, so she decided to sit out and was DQ’d even though other players timed out of other portions. Enzo Palumbo not being able to swim more than 5 feet took out Desi Williams, which was completely unfair as the partnerships were randomized. Two men who basically didn’t even participate in a Final took out the two strongest women in the game. That is preposterous.

2 The Island

When I went back and did some research, I found the men & women had the same total participation in Face-Offs on The Island, and there were 4 men and 4 Women who made it to the Final. Which, when you look at it from the outside — it makes The Island seem like a fair season. That said, anyone who watched The Island will let you know that it was a season littered with misogyny. Men took control of the first 4 keys of the game, and from there, it felt like any key given from there was scraps from women/outliers. Bananas & Kenny hurled many names at women. Dunbar was blaming women for eating food and not giving him more as the reason for him being an asshole. And they made sure to silence/go after any strong women — voting out Rachel early, and then making KellyAnne & Evelyn public enemies #1 and 2.

Even Evelyn’s big moment at the end of the game was her having to make a deal with the devil where she still joined a boat with 3 other men who were against her the entire game to win. To which, I don’t blame Evelyn for doing it because if she hadn’t done it — she would have had to watch those same men and not have any money in her pocket.

It really does suck looking back that we had Rachel & Evelyn on a season together and they never got to go head-to-head in anything.

1 Battle of the Eras

Hand up, I haven’t gotten over the fact that Battle of the Eras was completely underwhelming and became a dragged-out slog despite having one of the most stacked casts in Challenge history. We had Laurel, Cara, Rachel, Jenny, Emily, Tori, Kaycee, Jodi, and so on all in the same house — and yet these women basically didn’t get to take shots at one another besides the opening challenge of the season.

Once it became an individual game, the men were the ones who had the deciding vote for women to go into elimination, and they were the ones who decided the targets coming out of elimination. This made the second half of the game really boring. It would’ve been way more awesome and fulfilling to watch Tori actively take shots at Jenny and Rachel or vice versa. These women should have been able to go into war, and instead, they were just passive-aggressive with each other because they knew they ultimately couldn’t vote each other in.

Splitting up men’s & women’s elimination days was MTV’s way of extending the season for more episodes, and by giving voting power to the opposite gender, it incentivized people to give effort in every daily challenge. Except in doing so, they nerfed the potential entertainment & high-level gameplay we could have seen from these women. It’s an absolute shame, especially knowing that we are likely never going to get a female cast of this magnitude ever again. Sucks to suck

The Challenge All Stars debuted five years ago, and in a short time, it has had a colossal impact on the franchise. The spin-off was originally introduced as an idea on social media by Mark Long — they talked about it being a two-week fun & games experience with a bunch of OG’s. While we got a bunch of OG’s, the show was immediately a high-level competitive game with intense dailies & eliminations that happened to feature older cast members that we hadn’t seen in a long time. Over the years, so many names, new & old, shuffled in, and what’s surreal is so many players have completely redefined their images and legacies as Challenge competitors. Hell, some went from obscurity to having their lives now deeply entrenched in The Challenge world.

In today’s blog, I will be doing a “Top 10” of the players who changed their legacies the most dramatically for the better via their appearances on All Stars. I’m also going to list a bunch of honorable mentions, and if you think there’s anyone who didn’t get included who should be, list them in the comments wherever you find this. Genuinely, this is a list that could’ve gone 25 deep.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

MJ Garrett: The guy won All-Stars 2 and had a notable run on All Stars 3. That said, Jonna earned more flowers (deservingly so), especially as she solved the puzzle that led to their win.

Janelle Casanave: Really underrated run on All Stars 2 that showed she wasn’t a random 1-time Champ who got lucky.

Casey Cooper: Look, Casey won a daily & made a power move to knock out Derrick on All Stars 2. She also didn’t lose an elimination!

Laterrian Wallace: Established himself as a physical powerhouse in Pole Wrestles and won a Mini Final — other than that, a bit hit or miss.

Shane Landrum & Da’Vonne Rogers: A pretty underwhelming season as a pair, yet they each got to their first Final ever and got to show out while there. They were so close to a victory.

Let’s jump into the Top 10 now, and also, if you can Subscribe to the Substack, it is free:

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10 Jay Mitchell

When fans picture a lay-up and quitter on The Challenge, Jay was the #1 person on everyone’s mind. No matter who you were a fan of on this show, everyone could collectively clown on Jay for quitting during Exes 2 Final when he AND Jenna said they were not going to be able to finish an eating/drinking portion. Jenna got off scot-free because Jay had to drink first. I will note, Jenna is actually the worst eater between the two, and it’s something that led to her finishing last in the Bloodlines Final too. However, because Jenna got to go on multiple seasons after Exes 2 and make multiple Finals & win eliminations, only Jay got hate.

I mean, even to this day, “Jay, are you crying?” from TJ is probably one of the funniest lines in Challenge history.

After a decade, Jay finally got his shot at redemption on All Stars 4. Did he dominate, go to the Finals, and win? NO. But if you watched All Stars 4, Jay clearly proved he’s not only not a total lay-up — he’s a good competitor. On All Stars 4, Jay was consistently in the top half of players in the daily challenges and often proved to be a huge asset to his teams because he was smart. Jay was good at math, clever at figuring out strategies to work efficiently in daily challenges — and then also, he was physically strong for his size and had excellent cardio. Steve & Adam were the only two men I would’ve taken over Jay as a partner on All Stars 4.

Now, Jay’s season ended in semi-disappointing fashion. Following an impressive daily challenge where Jay used his brain to find a loophole and then used his strength to push himself to victory — Jay threw himself into the final men’s elimination of the season. I respect Jay for doing that because he was rightfully under the impression that it would be the last chance to earn a Star. Jay had also told everyone he was throwing himself in, and he did not want to chicken out after the Exes 2 debacle. The elimination itself, though, was basically unwinnable as he had to dive into water and sort a color-based puzzle. The reason it was unwinnable is that Jay is fucking color blind. It was the equivalent of Jordan throwing himself into Wrecking Wall on Free Agents. Given that he needed to earn a Star — I respect Jay for giving his all. Had he known there was going to be a participation trophy daily challenge for an extra Star like the one Laurel & Derek got, maybe Jay wins that and goes to the Final.

9 Frank Sweeney Fox

The tough part about Frank Sweeney’s Challenge legacy was that he only did 3 seasons, which was basically only 2, as he got medically DQ’d from Free Agents (after winning the first 2 eliminations of the seasons). While he was an undefeated Champ & 2x Finalist as a main show cast member — there was just not enough sample size, and so much time had passed that it was hard to compare him against people who had done 6–15 seasons. Frank finally made his return after a decade on All Stars 5. There was a caveat, though: they partnered with Sam from Battle of the Seasons. To which, I’m not trying to be rude, but Sam was not in Challenge whatsoever. We saw Frank freak out on Sam when she was actually in decent shape (especially compared to her opponents) on BOTS. So to compete with her in the shape she was in, and knowing that she hadn’t even been on the show since that season, was tough.

Despite all of this, Frank played the game at such a high level. He devoted himself to the political, social, & strategic game, and he used Sam as a weapon; he knew if any team tried to strike at them, it would be dumb, as Sam made the non-threat in the Final. Frank got the entire house to take big shots at all the partnerships who posed major threats. He saw the Lavender Lady alliance as a threat, and so he manipulated Devin & Leroy and Amber & Fessy to take shots at them, while also getting the house to take aim at the biggest threats in Adam & Steve. On top of all that, Frank also WON two daily challenges with Sam. They worked excellently as a partnership in any event where Sam didn’t have to do a ton of cardio, and Frank would fill in everything in between. With their two wins, Frank made the biggest power moves of the season as he pitted Adam & Steve against Devin & Leroy and later Turbo & Nany.

Frank made the big moves to win. Ultimately, winning wasn’t possible with Sam. As I say that, it should be noted — they didn’t even come in last! Sam DQ’d them in multiple portions, and still they finished 3rd, won a checkpoint, and finished 2nd in three more. Watching Frank adapt to working with Sam and get the best out of her was proof that he is one of/if not the most competitive person this show has ever seen. There is a difference between great athletes on this show and someone who will never stop grinding to win & compete. After All Stars 5, Frank is a no doubt Top 10 men’s competitor for me. People are lucky he stopped competing when he did.

8 Adam Larson

My favorite thing about Adam’s return to The Challenge is he was someone who really stayed away from the Reality TV Universe and was living a peaceful life as a dad. And even in his initial few episodes of All Stars 4, Adam was this corny, cheesy dad. Then The Challenge bug really bit him, and we saw the uber-competitive beast within get awakened. Adam was a force on All Stars 4, kicking ass in dailies, destroying Brad in an elimination, and probably would’ve been the male favorite to win had Steve not stolen his Star at the end. Then again, Adam reaped what he sowed as he had tossed his friend Steve into multiple eliminations.

Luckily, this spat led to them getting partnered on All Stars 5. Together, they won on a historic run. Adam & Steve got put in an interesting spot where they were not part of the major alliance and had giant targets on their backs as one of the two male-male teams on the season. As a pair, they won two daily challenges and tied the single-season record with 5 elimination wins. Including defeating their biggest Final threats in Turbo/Nany and Devin/Leroy. They then edged out Shane & Da’Vonne in a closer-than-expected Final, and Adam became a 2x Champ in the process. Between their pair, I often found myself much more entertained and impressed by Adam as a competitor. As a whole, I genuinely believe Adam is someone who brings far more to the table than most of the Era 1 Men we’ve been seeing on the flagship show recently.

Also, going on All Stars completely changed Adam’s life, as he’s had a whole relationship with Averey Tressler, which is a crazy thing to type out because they are two Challengers from very different eras who each had a short window on The Challenge & seemed bound to be forgotten.

7 Melinda Collins

Before All Stars, Melinda was quietly in contention for the worst female Challenge competitor throne. While she wasn’t mentioned as much as players like Shauvon or Casey — statistically, Melinda had the 2nd worst expected daily challenge win ratio of any female competitor ever and was 0–4 in eliminations. Also, Melinda was married to Danny at one point, and that wasn’t great for her reputation, as he is heavily in the conversation for worst male competitors ever.

On All Stars 2, Melinda completely reshaped her image as a competitor. I will note, Melinda boldly went on the season less than six months after a traumatic miscarriage experience. Early in the season, Melinda’s goal was to go out there & push herself.

When the game hit the partner phase — she and Nehemiah paired up, and even though they weren’t the most dominant athletes, their two-decade-long friendship & desire to win made them a strong pair. Together, they had a killer end-of-season run where they won the 2nd-to-last elimination & final daily challenge to not only guarantee themselves a spot in the Final, but also pit Darrell/Janelle against Brad/Jodi. After that, they went to the Final, and in Melinda’s first Final ever — she sprained her ankle less than 30 minutes in. And you know what she did? Melinda toughed the fuck up and pushed through, and not only that, she & Nehemiah won Part 1 of the Final, which was basically 98% of the Final. Sadly, they couldn’t finish the job with the final puzzle, and Jonna/MJ stole the win (despite being an hour or more behind on Part 1). Still, Melinda had a Championship-worthy performance, which is something I never expected. Melinda is a tough woman and has my utmost respect.

6 Wes Bergmann

People are probably surprised to see Wes’ name on this list, as he was already a legend before All Stars. Except Wes’ win on All Stars 3 is truly the crown jewel that very much cemented his status as a Top 5 competitor.

While Wes had never racked up wins in the same way Bananas, Jordan, and now CT have — he was always the person who would put on the most entertaining games to watch. There are a lot of seasons where Wes misses badly — but when Wes is hitting, there is no better showman. For a long time, the big ding against Wes’ career is the fact he’s never had the most in the tank for Finals. Everyone knows he got carried on the mountain on Rivals 1 and then had multiple other Finals where he started strong then faded, like on War of the Worlds 1, Champs vs. Stars 1, and Champs vs. Stars 3. His win on The Duel 1 was really close & Wes lucked out that there was a penalty shootout, where his years of soccer experience gave him a time advantage that was crucial to his win. During the Rivals 2 Finals, CT did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to puzzles, eating, etc.

Going into All Stars 3, Wes had his work cut out for him. The All Stars 3 cast is legitimately in contention for one of the strongest male casts in Challenge history. 11 out of the 12 men were former Champs, and 8/12 were multi-time champs. Were Derrick, Mark, and Brad the prime versions of themselves? No, but you couldn’t look at their bodies and be like “that guy stinks”. They were still beasts with decades of experience.

Additionally, for Wes to win, he had 3 big obstacles in his way in the form of: Jordan, Yes, and Darrell. Two long-time enemies and one new one who Wes knew if he was going to win the season, he needed those threats out before the Final. Wes did a great job of uniting the house to take shots at these players at the right moments. He was key in getting Mark to pit Darrel & Jordan against each other in elimination. Meanwhile, Wes volunteered to put himself in the arena so that he could take the shot at Yes himself, which he did, and WON. And then, they all lucked out a bit with Mark taking down Jordan.

Wes got himself to the Final, and he destroyed everyone. He won an opening advantage portion on Day 0, crushed every mental checkpoint, and won Day 1 even with Nehemiah having a 5-point advantage from the Stars. Then on Day 2, Wes took the lead immediately and never looked back. Nobody could keep up with him running-wise; he came in 1st in the eating portion and crushed everything in his sight. It is one of the cleanest Challenge Final wins and seasons ever by a competitor.

As a whole, the version we saw of Wes on All Stars 3 is the best version of him he’s ever been on the show. People always talk about when Wes super duper jacked as the prime version of him. Except that version was never going to be the most physically dominant athlete. What sets Wes apart is he’s skilled, coordinated, and a great swimmer — and so once he keyed in on the cardio & puzzle skills as he did on All Stars 3, that is when he hit another level. Getting that 3rd win is so huge for his legacy, and also the fact that his 3 wins came in 2006, 2013, and 2022 is a testament to his longevity as a Challenger and his willingness to adapt.

5 Cara Maria Sorbello & Laurel Stucky

These two are twin flames whose stories are forever intertwined, and All Stars 4 was their show.

Cara Maria had not been on The Challenge for almost 5 years going into All Stars 4, and her fan approval rating when she exited after War of the Worlds 2 was at an all-time low. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, though, and so fans welcomed Cara back with open arms on All Stars 4. And what made it great is the Cara we got on All Stars 4 was legitimately a reinvigorated version of herself. Near the end of her run on the War of the Worlds seasons, it didn’t really seem like Cara was having much fun on the show, despite being a top competitor and a face of the show.

On All Stars 4, Cara was not only competing at a high level physically; we saw her carry herself like a mega star, take control of political deliberations, and actually play the game strategically. Even with most of the house trying to shut her out of the Final and pitting her against strong players in elimination, Cara prevailed and got herself to the Final. And even though Cara lost — she put in an epic performance in the Final where people thought she would have won had the “Stars” twist not played a factor. Regardless of the outcome, Cara bought herself a ton of favor with fans on All Stars 4, and then her social media posts since have undone some of that goodwill.

Meanwhile, Laurel’s season shouldn’t be slept on either. Laurel went on All Stars 4 and was simultaneously a mess emotionally, as she got played by Nicole for the billionth time. Yet, we saw Laurel win the most daily challenges during the season, won multiple portions during the Final, and took home the win in part because of her social game as players donated her Stars. While Laurel had always been in the GOAT conversation, her having only 1 win prior was always a hangup. Getting the 2nd win is so huge — especially given that Laurel hadn’t been to a Final since Free Agents and didn’t look great on Ride or Dies. Winning All Stars 4 re-established Laurel’s place in The Challenge hierarchy.

4 Nehemiah Clark & KellyAnne Judd

Before All Stars, Nehemiah & KellyAnne were two of the most underrated Challenge competitors, and even now, I think they’re unsung heroes who have carried Challenge All Stars.

Let’s start with KellyAnne. KellyAnne had one of the more interesting Challenge careers, where she was this scrappy ball of fire on The Island & The Ruins. KellyAnne’s mix of entertainment & competitive ability turned her into an immediate star who had the potential to be one of the female faces of the franchise. Then we didn’t see KellyAnne for another 7 years! And then when KellyAnne did pop up, it was on Bloodlines & Rivals 3, which were two of the weaker/weirded seasons of its era where KellyAnne wasn’t even competing with a ton of people she had history with other than Bananas, Wes, and Sarah. While many thought it was an underwhelming return — I still found KellyAnne quite entertaining & a great competitor.

Then MTV put her on ice for another 5–6 years until All Stars popped up and we all got reminded that KellyAnne is both a beast competitor and just a chaotic character. On All Stars 1, KellyAnne was able to cruise to the Final as she crushed dailies and avoided getting targeted because her friend Kendal was public enemy #1.

In that Final, KellyAnne had an epic comeback performance: after opening in 5th after the first two checkpoints, she finished as the 1st-place woman in the last 4 checkpoints, including the final individual portion, tying her with Jonna for the lead. If All Stars 1 had a female champion, it would be both KellyAnne & Jonna, and you can easily argue that KellyAnne would win the tiebreaker as the first person to cross the finish line. It sucked that KellyAnne didn’t get the title of Champion, but it was a reminder that she’s always been an amazing competitor.

We then got KellyAnne again on All Stars 3, where it was her & Kendal vs. Kailah & her alliance for the majority of the game. To which, KellyAnne is awesome to watch as the underdog fighting against the majority. She is always authentically herself, even if it means putting her foot in her mouth at times. Watching KellyAnne continuously try to navigate the game politically, fail, and then be able to fight back by winning comps is good TV. Even on All Stars 5, KellyAnne & Sylvia’s dynamic as a pair who went from hating each other to growing a mutual respect in a short time was entertaining. You can toss KellyAnne onto any season, and it will be made better by her presence.

Then we have Nehemiah, a guy who won a Challenge Championship in his original, yet is forgotten because it came via Big Easy dying. Nehemiah was an interesting figure because he was a good competitor physically and notably was the only person ever to eliminate Kenny. Additionally, he had 3 elimination losses that weren’t his fault: 1. Big Easy beat him on The Duel because they ran out of Watermelons in “I Can”. 2. Evan straight up cheated in their Duel 2 elimination, and production did nothing. 3. Evan threw their elimination & after throwing the daily to face CT on Rivals 1.

Nehemiah had a cursed Challenge existence, and then he came back for All Stars and made a splash from the jump. In the opening swimming/diving challenge that killed everyone, including legends, Nehemiah stood out as one of two players who were able to retrieve 3 blocks. He continued on a path of success, winning a lifesaver & an elimination, and looked poised to make the Final before losing the last elimination to Big Easy. It was Nehemiah’s 1st clean loss and a disappointing one — especially as he felt annoyed to get voted in over Yes.

So the next season, Nehemiah went from guy in the crowd to trying to be a Star. On All Stars 2, Nehemiah was the head of the King’s Palace, which is probably the most notable alliance/group to come from the spin-off. They puffed their chest about their group & had big targets. While they weren’t the strongest alliance, they were loyal and would take bullets for one another. Nehemiah won 2 eliminations during the season, was involved in multiple big political moves, and he & Melinda won the final daily that allowed them to force a Darrell/Janelle & Brad/Jodi elimination to end the season. He & Melinda then crushed Part 1 of the Final, even with Melinda injuring her ankle. Based on the totality of the Final, they were the rightful winners of that season. Unfortunately, Challenge Finals aren’t always built to be fair. Regardless, Nehemiah was able to show the world that he can be a main character.

Nehemiah would later return on All Stars 3, and he stayed under the radar the entire game. There were so many heavy hitters on this season, including Nehemiah’s #1 Wes. He was able to stay out of the line of fire until the final elimination, when Derrick called him out for a Pole Wrestle-style elimination, thinking Nehemiah was the weakest guy there. Nehemiah then promptly dog walked Derrick to get to another Final. He qualified for another Final and finished 3rd, where an eating portion took down his vegetarian self. Coming out of All Stars, though, we are talking about a guy who is 4–1 in eliminations, went to 2 Finals, led a major alliance, and should’ve won a Final while competing with an injured teammate. It is hard to compete with that resume. And also, if anyone had ever only watched All Stars, they would fully believe Nehemiah is on the same level/if not a better player All-Time than Derrick, Brad, or Alton. Which I’m not saying he is, but Nehemiah should be in Top 15–20 All-Time conversations after everything we’ve seen.

3 Yes Duffy

The Challenge All Stars 1 was a special season because it was a fun change of pace from the flagship, and it was also much more competitive & hardcore than we expected. All Stars 1 opened with one of the most difficult daily challenges this show has ever seen, and in it, Yes Duffy went from forgotten figure of the old days to immediately establishing himself as a threat. In that opening cold water/diving daily challenge, we watched legendary competitors struggle to get more than 1 puzzle piece . Meanwhile, Yes went out, pulled out 3 pieces, and then carried his team with his math skill to win the opening daily. It put him on the map, and then throughout the game, Yes proved to be a phenomenal competitor and someone easy to work with.

Yes managed to get to the Final without seeing elimination, and in that Final, he put on a show. Whether it was a puzzle or something physical, Yes worked smarter & harder than his opponents while showing so much teamwork & listening skills. During the partner portions — 4/5 women in the Final had their best checkpoint while working with Yes. The only one that didn’t was Ruthie, who had her 2nd best checkpoint with him. Yes was good that partner luck was taken out of the equation, as he brought everyone up to his level and did it humbly. There was a stark difference from watching Yes versus a Jordan or Bananas or Wes. He was genuinely a good guy & kicked ass. Then it came down to the last solo portion of the Final, and he outpaced Darrell — the legend who everyone assumed nobody could ever catch cardio-wise in a Final. For good reason, Darrell is a horse — except that day, Yes was a stallion. With that singular win on All Stars 1, Yes went from an unknown to fans wondering if he could go toe-to-toe with flagship top dogs like Jordan & Bananas. We’d later see Yes on All Stars 3, where he performed well yet got caught in the fire of a rivalry with Wes, where Wes came out on top in a head-to-head elimination. If Yes were to come back again, everyone would assume he’d be one of the biggest threats to win due to his mix of cardio & puzzle skills.

2 Steve Meinke

When Steve popped up on All Stars 2, he was a deep-cut competitor who I wouldn’t blame most Challenge fans for not knowing. He only appeared on one season (The Gauntlet) and was on for 8 episodes. If anything, even as a so-called Challenge expert, I only knew him as the guy who lost an elimination to Trishelle on The Gauntlet and who randomly had his shorts unbuttoned to flash his underwear in the cast photo for the season.

So when Steve popped up on All Stars 2 and revealed his career as a hand model, it was a fun little surprise. That said, the coolest part of Steve’s initial return was the fact that he was a free-thinker and talker. An example of this is when he clowned Derrick on his outfit for the first deliberation of the season, not thinking anything of it. Whereas most people wouldn’t do that, because Derrick is a 3x Champion with clout & status in the universe. Nope, Steve didn’t like the outfit, made a joke/observation, and went about his day. And then when Steve found out Derrick was gunning for him — Steve won a daily challenge & then took a shot to force a Derrick vs. Brad in elimination. It was such a big move that came from an unsuspecting person (well, two people actually, because Casey Cooper was also part of this). Steve then lost a physical elimination to Teck soon after, and from there, the assumption was we’d probably seen the last of him.

Except, Steve came back for All Stars 4 having gotten himself into the best shape of his life. Steve proved to be a very intelligent competitor throughout the season, constantly figuring out strategies to work as efficiently as possible. With his new, upped level of fitness, Steve proved to be a force. He won 3 eliminations to guarantee his spot in the Final, took out his biggest threat in Adam by giving his Star to Ace, and then Steve was incredibly close to winning the actual Final, had he not mismanaged his Stars.

Steve would then return for All Stars, and I already broke down that season in Adam’s section earlier. What needs to be noted, though, is that after All Stars 5, Steve’s elimination win streak extended to 8 STRAIGHT WINS. For reference, Wes is the only other man in Challenge history to win 8 eliminations in a row, and it is a record that took 15+ years for a man to match. Coincidentally, Adam (at 6 in a row) is the only person within reach of Steve & Wes. And with Steve’s record still being active, he can potentially tie & even beat Laurel (9) for the all-time record, which is a wild thing to say about someone who was barely a footnote in Challenge history less than 5 years ago.

1 Jonna Mannion

If you asked someone their opinion on Jonna as a Challenger before All Stars — some might say she was a little underrated and had some bad luck with partners. Most would probably bring up how sad they were that Zach treated her like shit on Exes 2, which most thought would be her last appearance. As a Challenger, her record before All Stars was 5 seasons, 0 Finals, and a 2–5 elimination record. Statistically, not great.

So when Jonna popped up on the cast for the first All Stars, expectations weren’t high — especially as Jonna had given birth to her second child only 7 months earlier. Even on the 1st All Stars, Jonna went under the radar as she was neither considered a threat nor a lay-up. That sums up part of Jonna’s career as a Challenge competitor, because she was always competent in every aspect of the game but never had a spot where she was dominant.

Yet, the second Jonna was in the Final, that balance came in handy, as there was never any portion where she was a liability. Jonna showed so much toughness, grit, some puzzle skills, got lucky with some partners, and in the end, tied with KellyAnne for 1st Place female.

The next season, Jonna went on All Stars 2 in better shape, having studied puzzles, and then put on a masterclass game of social politics. She did a lot of quiet manipulation while also nudging others to take shots at her biggest competition (Jodi). While the All Stars 2 Final was a mess, it was Jonna who racked up the code that won her & MJ won the season; in the process, she became Champion.

It was All Stars 3, though, where Jonna really had a career-defining season. Jonna was on an island by herself, not part of the majority alliance (the Treehouse) or the KellyAnne/Kendal group. Jonna was on her own, and everyone knew she was going to be the biggest threat in the Final. Despite having a target on her back, Jonna fought & won 2 eliminations and the last daily challenge to get herself to the Final. And then once there, Jonna cleared her competition. Jonna won Day 1 of the Final and then held the lead for the entire duration of Day 2, which was a straight-up race. What was so impressive is that Jonna was going against Kailah, KellyAnne, and Nia — three women who, when the season aired, were still age 35 or younger, and were all younger than the most recent flagship winner at the time (Kaycee Clark). In that first Final, Jonna was facing OG’s, but in All Stars 3, Jonna was outrunning, outeating, and outpuzzling people who were/should still be in their prime.

Jonna became a back-to-back Champion and is the only woman to be the 1st Place Female on 3 straight seasons of The Challenge. Yes, it was All Stars. Regardless, finishing 1st in a solo/pair is so difficult to do for anyone in a single season — the fact she did it in three straight seasons is unbelievable. Bananas & CT have never finished 1st three seasons in a row. Actually, Jonna is the player to ever do it in three solo/pair seasons in a row — when Darrell (4 in his case), Jamie, Derrick, and Jordan did their 3-peats, they all had team wins for anywhere between 1–3 of the wins. There is the caveat that she tied with KellyAnne on All Stars 1, but even then, we’re picking nits.

What Jonna did is special, and anyone who tries to diminish it is a hater. She went from being forgotten to achieving something probably nobody else will ever do again in this show’s history. Anything Jonna does from here on out is gravy.

By the way, if you want more, here is a video I did ranking the women of Survivor on The Challenge:

I will be breaking down the trailer for The Challenge Cutthroat: Season 42 as I do every season. There are no spoilers in this blog that you won’t figure out by watching the trailer super slowly. YES, there are spoilers, but they are spoilers via inference and analysis. Essentially, if I see something with my eyes, I’m going to point it out. Above is the trailer in video form.

At the bottom, I did version of this breakdown on YouTube if you prefer to watch than read. Also available up top.

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Let’s jump into it.

The trailer opens EXPLOSIVELY with former WWE Wrestler & Deal or No Deal Island competitor Lete cursing a shorter competitor with a bit of blonde hair, it seems. So I’m guessing she’s cursing either Adrienne, Reilly, or Deb. I say this as two other blondes, Cassidy & Tori, are seen in the background. Additionally, CT & Will are also in the background.

Now, what could have made Lete this upset? First guess is that wrestling is fake & everyone CAN see John Cena. Second would be someone asked if she wanted to go into elimination, and then replied NO DEAL. And third, which is most likely, the person shit the bed in The Challenge, and Lete is just a competitor.

Also, goddamn, she’s tall, ripped, jacked, everything. I’m scared, I’m turned on, and I’m tuned in.

We then get thrust into action with a giant mud pit challenge where all three teams are fighting for balls.

SLIGHT SPOILER INCOMING:

Something I clocked from the big zoomed-out image is that there are 20 players left: 8 on the Orange Team, 7 on the Grey, and 5 on the Blue.

Among players we see getting into it are Will, rookie Keanu from Big Brother, and then Cara Maria & Tori are each seen tackling men, with Cara taking a shot at Leo.

We then get a shot of Johnny Bananas at the house saying: “he’s never been more turned on in his entire life”. I thought I’d make a small penis joke here, but those are tired and played out, just like his shtick.

TJ welcomes us to Thailand & The Challenge Cutthroat. Fans have been clamoring for Cutthroat 2 for more than a decade, as the original season is probably the most universally liked season in Challenge history. Which, to me, has always been a testament to the 3-team format, because, on its surface, Cutthroat was a bit of a weaker cast for its era.

What is also exciting is that we are back in Thailand which has been home to a lot of great seasons, including Rival 2, Invasion, and War of the Worlds 2. Coincidentally, CT won all of those seasons, and he’s back again as he’s got child support & potentially two sets of alimony to pay.

We then go back right into the action, and spoilers ahead. It looks like this season’s trivia challenge has players standing on panels at the edge of a skyscraper, where they’ll be dropped if they get a question wrong.

Interestingly, we get a shot of 4 Players on the grey team, three of whom are wearing blindfolds, and the one who isn’t is Nurys, who is getting dropped! Maybe she kept them open because someone told her she’d get a chance to look at Horacio’s most recent DM’s. Among Nurys teammates are Sydney, Leo, and I believe Cory. Which, I have to say, is such a strong team for a modern-day Final. The mix of cardio & puzzle skills is off the charts with that group. Also, I’m very excited to have Nurys back.

We then get a crowd shot of some of the orange team, which includes Justin, Will, CT, Michele, Izzy, and Tori. Goddamn, that’s a good team too! You know what, credit to casting because when you have smaller casts, there’s less fluff and more stakes.

Something I will note is that, based on recent seasons, these teams are likely not Final, and players will probably have opportunities to switch, as they did on USA 2, War of the Worlds 2, and Spies, Lies & Allies.

Then we get a zoomed-out shot of the teams before and during the beginning of a swimming/water challenge. Everyone has their full team here except the Blue team, which is two people down.

TJ introduces that this is a 24-player cast, and we get a shot of players walking into the arena. It is a men’s elimination day as the men on the Blue Team are dressed to compete, while the women aren’t. The fact that each Blue Man is dressed suggests that the eliminations might be a call-out format like The Duel, or that people don’t get voted off till right there in the arena.

We are then told its a 3-team format just like the original Cutthroat. This is the 3rd out of 4 seasons where Grey/Orange have been the major jersey colors on The Challenge and it’s fucking ridiculous. They look so ugly once they get dirty/players sweat in them. Production must be getting a discount on these orange jerseys. The filter on this trailer is also so murky. Give us some vibrancy!

That said, we get a full look at the opening teams:

Blue Team: Cara Maria, Cedric, Reilly, Lete, Anna Leigh, Nelson, Josh, Brad

I am sorry to say this is very clearly the worst team. First off, half their players are rookies. Secondly, Nelson & Brad were not good in their most recent appearances, and that was before Nelson lost his leg. The rookies need to be good for this team to have a chance at winning anything.

Orange Team: Will, Deb, Tori, Bananas, Justin, Michele, Izzy, CT

This Orange team is so ridiculously stacked. Deb is the only weak link in this group and who is they will sacrifice when going into elimination. You have two GOAT’s in CT & Bananas and then two of the most best male rookies from 41. Tori & Michele are returning after awesome runs on Season 40, and Izzy has great cardio.

Grey Team: Cory, Nurys, Adrienne, Cassidy, Chris, Sydney, Leo, Keanu

The Grey Team has all of the most interesting & dynamic personalities that I will be cheering for to win this season. I fell in love with Adrienne, Sydney, and Leo last season. I adored Cassidy & Chris on USA 2, thought Nurys was the MVP of Season 39, and have always wanted to see Cory finally get the W for a while now. This team is not as strong as the Orange Team, and they’re going to need a leader to thrive, but they can compete with them.

We then get some dramatic close-ups of Will, Justin, Nurys, Keanu, Cassidy, and Cory. During this portion, we hear TJ reveal the twist & wrinkle of this season: the Team Captain of the winning team will decide how the $500,000 grand prize is divided.

Which could lead to a hilarious moment where 6 people become Challenge Champions and only 1 gets paid. That said, it does distract a bit from the fact that $500,000 is such a small amount in 2026. If 4–5 people win and split it evenly, that’s 100–125k that then becomes 50–60k after taxes. Not quite quit your day job, given that it takes 3 months to film. I’m not saying that as a rich man — I’m saying that as someone who knows I’d have to quit my job to film The Challenge. Then again, most of these people don’t know how to use Tide Pods, let alone have actual day jobs.

Doing some real speculating here, though, the Team Captain concept is intriguing. Could we see the Team Captain role work similarly to The Gauntlet 2, where the Captain is the one who must enter elimination when their team loses? So could players theoretically try to get themselves thrown into elimination late in the game to become the Captain so they can have a chance to take home all the money?

After this is a shot of Bananas talking about how he’s going to fuck with his team in every way possible. Classic Bananas behavior; although it could be smart given his experience knowing that carrying a big team entering a Final can be bad and they’re likely to dominate the regular season if they don’t try to lose. There is history between him and Tori, Michele, and Izzy from their recent seasons as well.

Then we have the 1st daily challenge of the season. I say this as I can see all 8 Blue Team and Grey Team members in the shot. In this image, players are trying to run across an unstable bridge as players from the opposing teams are holding onto ropes as they try to trip them up.

Just a fucking hysterical image of CT pushing down a stray toddler who has enter the field in the mud pit daily challenge.

Deb.

A couple graphics asking whether players should split the cash or cut and run? Which again, the prize pool is only $500k….Unless you’re only splitting it with only one other person…Don’t do it.

We see the Grey Team celebrating after a daily challenge as it seems like they got 6 people across the bridge. Izzy & Sydney are seen high-fiving.

Finally, some drama. We see Michele talking to, presumably, Cassidy, as she says Cassidy sold out the only person who had her back (Michele). They are both from Survivor and were friendly on USA 2 even when the whole house was against Cassidy. I would say Michele yelled, but she really doesn’t yell, and if she does, usually tears come out. That’s not me taking a jab; it’s just literally what happens.

I love Cassidy because she is a kind person who somehow can’t stay out of drama.

We see Justin in a confessional say that he lives drama. Ok then, let’s see you get messy, Justin, especially when you’re not in a confessional chair. The first couple of episodes with you and Derek on 41 were cute — except we haven’t seen anything after. Stir the pot, Justin.

Some showmance stuff gets teased. I believe Will is on his knees for Deb, and then Josh & Adrienne seem to be into each other, which is then preceded by an interesting scene.

Based on the edit, it looks like there might be something going on between Nurys, Josh, and Adrienne. Nurys says there is no love triangle, yet curses out Adrienne in the process, which she does not take lightly. These are two of my favorite female personalities, and so the only side I’m taking is for them to be partners on the next Rivals season. Give us good TV, ladies.

Also, Adrienne looks like she’s lost a good amount of weight since Season 41.

We then get Johnny Bananas powerbombing Lete into a pool and a chessy Nelly T confessional. This drama section was not juicy enough for me.

Now we just get a whole bunch of action shots. We see Cassidy Clark running down the steps of a Buddhist temple, which reminds me of Nelson/Anthony & Sylvia/LaToya’s elimination from Invasion. There are shots of Izzy and other players swimming/diving in a water-based daily challenge. This looks similar to the capsule challenge from Bloodlines that very few players completed.

There is a shot of players hanging over water as they hold onto rings using their upper body strength. My guess is that in this challenge, the team that gets the most players from one platform to another wins. Except this looks really fucking hard. We also see two players from the Orange Team celebrating after the water challenge.

We get our first shot of an elimination, and it seems to be between a Blue & Grey team player. They are climbing a board/wall with numbers on it. Given how the modern Challenge works, I assume they had to solve a math equation and then try to grab the solution.

CT gives us one of us his played out confessionals where he basically says nothing by saying “they are not ready for this, I don’t know if I am”.

Now we got some real action. It looks like Deb (maybe Tori) takes down Sydney in the Mud Pit challenge with a tackle that leads to Sydney requiring to see the medic. I hope this isn’t a serious injury because Sydney is a beast and I’d hate to see her go out this way.

Then we see Will literally flip someone who was hanging onto his back, all the while multiple people are trying to tackle/wrangle him in.

After that, we get another shot of that math/numbers elimination, except it’s gotten hella physical.

The editing team flashes a bunch of blink-or-you’ll-miss-’em moments at us. We see Will in the same swimming/diving challenge we’ve already seen, but also a shot of Cara Maria riding his back at a bar. Will’s messy ass put Season 41 on his back and now he’s ready to do it again he seems.

Then we have Deb flashing the crowd in the elimination arena, presumably after a win, or just to hype up the crowd. Also, she has killer abs.

And then we get TJ riding on a bike while an explosion happens behind. Because of course, what The Challenge is missing is more unnecessary explosions and making sure TJ looks cool.

And the last clip of this trailer is TJ introducing the idea of “Trial by Combat”, which I assume is what they’re calling Mercenaries/Heavy Hitters on this season.

The CT backpack moment was teased in the original trailer for Cutthroat, and so it will be interesting to see if the people they brought in this time around are on par. Based on the trailer too, it looks like Tori is in elimination, so that’s a godsend for the people in the crowd because she’ll face someone tough. Yet, I also think the Mercenary might have a rough day at the office too.

The fact that it is called Tribal by Combat leads me to assume there might be a risk/reward aspect to this. Possibly, players are volunteering to earn captainship by taking on/defeating the Mercenary. Some names who would be interesting & likely for us to see for women are Rachel, Jenny, or Emily. And then for men, Wes hasn’t appeared on the flagship since Double Agents. I could also imagine Frank or Yeremi (as reigning champ) popping up.

And that’s your trailer.

QUICK NOTES

The people we see most prominently in this trailer are:

• Will

• Josh

• Bananas

• Deb

• Lete

• Cassidy

People We See a Good Amount:

• Justin

• CT

• Keanu

• Tori

• Cara Maria

• Adrienne

• Nurys

People We Mostly Only See In 1–2 Key Moments or In Background:

• Cory

• Nelson

• Michele

• Sydney

• Izzy

People We Hardly See:

• Leo

• Brad

• Cedric

• Chris

• Anna Leigh

• Reilly

Also, if you can Like & Subscribe on YouTube, that’s be appreciated too.

Straight up, I wanted to make a list of some competitors who had awesome moments in the elimination that have either been lost to time, forgotten, or never gotten the proper credit they deserve. This is not a list of the most obscure eliminations ever — it is a list to celebrate those who don’t get talked about in the same level & regard as the CT Backpack or Joss vs. Derrick.

If you don’t see a name on this list that you were expecting, then I either consider it a not-forgotten elimination/competitor or I just forgot it, and it will be included when I do this list again in the future. Also, feel free to shout out any elimination you think doesn’t get enough love in the comments of wherever you found this post.

By the way, if you can Subscribe to Substack (it’s FREE), it would be appreciated. Let’s jump into the list now:

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10 Ammo — Dirty 30

Dirty 30 was a very long season with multiple Redemption Houses. The Redemption House aspect of the game minimized the impact of so many eliminations throughout the season, including Ammo cleanly taking down Tony in a climbing/dexterity-and-strategy elimination. In what was a brief run in their only Challenge appearance, Ammo proved to be a decent player. In his elimination against Tony, Ammo showed no fear and beat Tony cleanly. We forget about this because Tony later re-entered the game via a Redemption challenge and had an extended run on the season. Meanwhile, Ammo later lost an elimination to Jordan, during which they even took a lead at one point against the legend. But because of some trauma that Ammo felt during the elimination against Jordan, they didn’t stay in the Redemption House, and their existence from the season gets wiped away from there.

It’s a crazy elimination to think about because if there’s no Redemption House, Ammo sends Tony home, and it’s another early exit & embarrassing loss for Tony. Instead, though, this loss was a wake-up call for Tony, and he stepped up his game from then on.

9 LaToya — Free Agents

I don’t want to say that Free Agents is the best season of The Challenge (because it’s not), but I think it, along with Cutthroat, are the two most universally liked seasons of The Challenge. Part of its appeal is that the season’s format is so simple & easy to get into, and it kicks off with a shockingly good Balls In elimination between LaToya & Jemmye. This elimination match-up would not be anyone’s dream face-off in a million years. Yet, it made for an amazing elimination because these two women were evenly matched physically. LaToya was more athletic, whereas Jemmye had a bit more size & experience, and was expected to win as she had made the Final the previous season.

It was an absolute battle with each girl scoring & defending multiple times. LaToya ultimately came out on top to pull off the upset in what would end up being the highlight of her Challenge career. Well, either that or when she cursed out Jordan in a deliberation. Also important to note: this was the more entertaining version of Balls In before they added the dumb little semicircle where, once you enter it, you automatically get a free score on the basket.

8 Tonya — Inferno 2

Due to all the messiness, drama, and controversy behind Tonya, it’s easy to forget that there were a couple of seasons where Tonya was a pretty good competitor. On Inferno 2, Tonya won 2 eliminations, taking down Julie & Shavonda and, in the process, made it to her first Final. Tonya beat Julie in Patch Work, an elimination round where players were attached to a bungee and had to wrestle or rip patches off the other player’s jersey/suits. And then she beat Shavonda in Spinner, which was a game of pure mental fortitude as players were spun on a wheel until they couldn’t take any more. Tonya stayed in there, talked shit, and won.

These eliminations have been wiped away both over time and in the moment. Tonya shit the bed by getting wasted the night before the Inferno 2 Final and really held back her team. Later on, Tonya would return for Inferno 3 and make amends, as she was one of the strongest players that season and key to her team dominating the season and winning the Final.

7 Ty — Exes 1

When people discuss the legacy/GOAT argument for Emily Schromm , something they bring up is that she carried Ty to a Final. To which Ty is historically a disappointing competitor, as he, for the most part, never lived up to his outward physique. That said, Ty carried his weight in their eliminations to get to the Final.

People forget Ty beat Abram 2–1 in a Pole Wrestle elimination, and it gets overlooked because Abram acted like a maniac during it and, after the fact, said he could go for 10 more rounds compared to Ty, who looked gassed. Except that doesn’t matter because Ty won!!!! Ty beat the guy who was a 2x Champ and regarded at the time as a Top 10 All-Time competitor. Ty also cleanly beat another Champ in Dunbar in a physical. Dunbar was never good and is probably the worst male Champion of the last 25 seasons, but it’s another notch under Ty’s belt. Ty deserves more credit for his Exes 1 run.

6 Knight — Rivals 2

There is truly only one moment ever when Knight legitimately shone as a Challenge competitor, and it was in the blind-sticking fight elimination between himself & Preston and Robb & Derek. Robb & Derek were a vastly superior team to Knight & Preston, but in what was a total carnival game, Knight figured out a strategy and a clever way to communicate with Preston that allowed them to go full-on Ninja mode to win the elimination. Knight & Preston were such a disastrous pair, yet for this one moment in time, they had a stroke of brilliance. Credit to Preston too for directing Knight well during the elimination as well.

What’s even funnier is when they brought back this elimination on Champs vs. Stars 1, Wes, Bananas, CM Punk, and Shawne Merriman all adopted the Knight strategy, with Wes using it to perfection to beat Bananas.

5 Bettina — Spies, Lies & Allies

SLA is one of the worst seasons in Challenge history. That said, the first 4 episodes of the season were pretty good, then it got derailed by the idiotic Fessy DQ, and eventually picked back up until the twist that split the pairs into teams turned it into one of the most boring seasons ever.

Right before that twist, though, we got one of the best episodes of the season after Priscilla made a move the previous week that finally forced the Vets to have to turn on one another. Which led Cory to feel betrayed after he & Bettina got voted in. They would end up facing Amber & Jeremiah in Hang in the Balance, a game where players were harnessed on a platform and had to walk across an angular balance beam to transfer puzzle pieces. It was a TOUGH elimination that required a lot of cooperation. Both teams were struggling, and Jeremiah & Amber took a big lead.

You would have expected Cory as the veteran & 4x Finalist to step up. Nope. It was all Bettina. She took over what they were doing, physically guided Cory, and then single-handedly solved the puzzle to win them the elimination. To take over the lead from a vet & knock out a champion in the process in your first ever elimination is pretty fucking epic. This was a legit badass performance from Bettina that nobody will remember, because her laugh was her most memorable feature and because SLA became awful right after this elimination.

4 Veronica — Dirty 30

Because Veronica had underwhelming runs on Vendettas & Final Reckoning, people group her performance on Dirty 30 with those seasons as being bad, when it couldn’t be further from the truth. While Veronica was clearly not in the shape she was in her prime — Veronica proved on multiple occasions that she had a competitor in her & could still play the game on Dirty 30.

A prime example of this was when Veronica decisively beat Aneesa in a decently physical elimination. While Aneesa is not an elite competitor — her forte on The Challenge is, to this day, eliminations, where at one point in time, she held the record for most wins ever by a woman in the arena. And although Veronica was a 3x Champ, this match-up was only Veronica’s 3rd elimination ever and first in eight years. They played Web of Lies, a game in which players navigated down a 25-foot tower covered with multiple levels of webs, plastic ceramic wrap, and ropes. This elimination was both physical yet also a ton about strategy. People forget that Veronica won a ton of lifesaver challenges in her prime, largely because she’s mentally tough & wicked smart.

In this elimination, when TJ blew the horn, Veronica immediately threw herself into the elimination, using her smaller size to her advantage to slide down the tower and was far more efficient in how she got back up. This elimination perfectly depicted why Veronica is a 3x Champ, where even though she’s unlikely to ever win the modern era — you could see why she thrived in a past era where brute physicality wasn’t everything. It also showed why Aneesa’s never won — maybe if a peek at someone in the shower had been a reward for winning, things would’ve played out differently.

3 Big Easy — All Stars 1

Obviously, most people know Big Easy for dying in The Gauntlet 3. And before I give him flowers, I want to open by saying, for the most part, Big Easy is not an underrated competitor. Even after losing weight, Big Easy’s cardio was never good. He was a quitter & often a coward in many daily challenges and even in the All Stars 1 Final. Big Easy is also not even physically strong compared to his size. Worst of all — the guy never takes ownership.

Now it’s time to give him props because on All-Stars 1, Big Easy & Jisela face off against a much stronger duo in Nehemiah & Kendal in the final elimination of the season. In the elimination, players essentially had to use ropes and rings to form a ladder they would climb to ring a bell. Jisela got injured and hobbled early into the elimination, and instead of it being over right there, Big Easy cleverly figured out a more efficient yet unconventional way to build a ladder to singlehandedly win his team the elimination. It was a HUGE win that dramatically changed the season’s outcome, as Kendal & Nehemiah would have been much stronger competitors in the Final. Not even so much that they would have won, but more so that if certain players had gotten to partner with them in different portions, the final outcome might have been different.

Big Easy proved in this elimination and a previous puzzle challenge during the season that he is a decently intelligent guy. Which kinda makes the fact that he’s never gotten in cardio shape even more frustrating.

2 Janelle — All Stars 2

A completely forgotten recent elimination was when Darrell & Janelle took down Brad & Jodi in the female elimination of All-Stars 2. People do not consider this a grand upset, as Darrell & Janelle are both great players and former Champions. However, Jodi was on a streak where she won The Gauntlet 2, won 6/8 individual immunities on The Duel 1 & became the first solo female champ, and then came back after 15 years and won 4/8 dailies on All-Stars 2. Jodi was on a run where she had a valid argument as the greatest female competitor ever.

Meanwhile, Janelle was already considering leaving the game because a previous back injury she had was flaring up during the season. Which is why I’m giving her props: the two teams played in an elimination where players essentially had to break down furniture with a hammer, slide the debris through a hole to a teammate who would do the same with an even smaller hole. The team that then transferred the most total weight would win. Even with Jodi being stronger & more conditioned, Janelle figured out ways to stay calm, expend the least amount of energy, and avoid tweaking her back, which was crucial, as the elimination involved a ton of reaching to pick stuff up. Brad & Darrell were decently even in this elimination — it was Janelle who triumphed and took down a goliath in Jodi.

Given how the All Stars 2 Final played out, people were quick to forget this elimination, yet it was such a huge moment.

1 Nate & Christina — Rivals 3

Rivals 3 is a really weird season. The season had a historically weak cast, had a bunch of DQ’s/quits, and then it became overshadowed (deservingly) by Johnny Bananas stealing the money from Sarah. In it, there are a bunch of hidden gen moments, including a shocking elimination upset as the team of Nate & Christina took down Cory & Ashley in a physical elimination.

The elimination was one player pushing a giant lever to pull an opposing player hanging on a bar attached to a rope. As they pushed more, the line extends and the amount of tension increases. It was a Best-of-3 elimination, with each gender swapping turns in the other’s role. Cory & Ashley assumed they’d win as they were physically bigger and stronger than Nate & Christina, the lay-up team of the house who probably weighed less than 250 lbs combined. Except they played half the elimination the wrong way. While Cory & Ashley were able to outpush Nate & Christina, they hung onto their bars the wrong way. A key part of maintaining grip in this elimination was relaxing your body, because if you tried to pull, you would create more tension and eventually your body would give out.

Nate & Christina were given a tip on how to play from Sarah Rice before the elimination, as she had played in a similar elimination on The Ruins. This led to one of the greatest elimination upsets ever, which has only gotten better with time. Ashley won the next season & later became a 2x Champ. Cory made the Final the next season and is one of the greatest players to never win, as he is a 5x Finalist with 11 Elimination wins and multiple wins over Champions. Meanwhile, we’ve never seen Nate & Christina again, which adds to the win’s legacy-and-forgotten aspect. I will hilariously note that I started the list for this blog a few months ago, and since then Nate has appeared on The Zach Nichols podcast, which has brought the elimination back into the spotlight.

There have been so many seasons where Challenge competitors had standout performances only to come up just short of a win. Except, how many times has that person who lost had a legitimate claim to have had the best season of all-time had they won?

Well, I decided to go down memory lane and look back at some of the impressive & entertaining overall seasons ever and figure out who could stand among some of the immortalized wins ever. These are seasons where had a player won, they would be talked about as the greatest ever, and we would mythologize the players as Top 10, Top 5, Top 1 All-Time competitors. Thus, we will look at some of the hardest seasons to win based on the casts they competed against & the game formats, and how well the certain players in question performed during the season. Team seasons are inherently not going to be on the list, not because a player can’t be impressive in them, but statistically, someone is far more likely to win a team season than an individual or pairs season.

To make this blog, the person had to have a real shot at winning. I need to believe that one tweak in a political decision or elimination game played or Finals format would result in a different outcome. The person also had to have a track record during the season to believe they could have won. An example of amazing season where it’s too many steps to believe a person would’ve won is Tony on Vendettas because he finished 4th out of 4 men and Tony’s mental game is the weakest part of his game—so even if he didn’t Purged, he’s likely not beating Cara in the last part of that Final.

Now if we’re ready, let’s jump into the list (ALSO SUBSCRIBE TO THE SUBSTACK, IT’S FREE):

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10 CT — The Duel 1

I want to open this one by saying CT is the reason CT lost The Duel. People forget that because he finished 2nd in the last daily challenge , they let him pick the elimination against Brad. Meaning, CT could’ve picked anything, including Ascender, which he crushed Evan in, and would probably destroy Brad in, as it was a puzzle, or could’ve just picked Pole Wrestle and outmuscaled Brad. Instead, CT picked the elimination where he watched Beth DQ and then did the exact same fucking thing. Brad was specifically playing the elimination in such a way to get CT to DQ, and he fell for it. It was CT’s fault.

Had CT picked literally any other elimination, we are talking about a season where he wins 3 daily challenges & takes down Evan & Brad, and probably crushes Wes in the Final, as he had way better cardio & puzzle skills than him (during this era). In the process, CT would become the first solo male champion and he would cement his status as the top guy of his era. The would also change the hierarchy of Challenge history. Wes’ legacy as a competitor is so tied to winning The Duel that it always puts him in the same category/pedestal as CT & Bananas. If Wes loses and doesn’t come back for years, do we view him the same way we do Paulie now? Or does he continue to do Challenge, and does the JEK era go differently with Wes there during Gauntlet 3, The Island, etc.? If CT gets that win, the Challenge history and his life will be completely changed. That version of CT getting $150,000 dropped in his bank account would have been dangerous—it would’ve snowed more Boston that year than it usually does.

A small knock against CT’s Duel 1 season is he technically did not win a single immunity daily challenge. Although, just in terms of eye test, it’s hard to compete with Duel 1 CT.

9 Nurys Mateo — Battle For a New Champion

People might get mad seeing Nurys’ name on this list for three reasons: 1. They are not a fan of her & her social media behavior. 2. They thought she got lucky on Season 39. 3. Battle For a New Champion had no Champions on the cast and thus, beating those players isn’t that impressive.

Well, my response is that the first two points don’t matter when objectively ranking her season. Many athletes have had single-season performances they were never able to replicate, but it doesn’t take away from what they did in the moment. Now, BFANC not having any Champs on it does hurt a bit. However, it having only 1 winner statistically makes it a tougher season to win as everyone had a 1/24 chance rather than a typical 1/14 or 1/12 shot. Additionally, nobody shits on The Duel 1, but that season had a cast with zero men who had won prior.

Why is Nurys on this list? Well, it’s simple, Nurys went on a historic streak of elimination wins — taking down Horacio, Kyland, Olivia, James, and Moriah, before finishing 2nd behind Emmanuel in the Final. To solo takedown more than 20% of a cast is truly historic. Not only that, the quality of wins is so high. Horacio, Kyland, and Olivia were a combined 14–1 in eliminations prior to getting beaten by Nurys. Kyland & Horacio proved in their other seasons that they could legitimately go toe-to-toe with the most elite players in show history and had taken down former Champs like Jordan, Darrell, and Brad. Likewise, Olivia went to the Final as a rookie, was pretty good on 40, and then won Season 41 WHILE pregnant. Moriah wasn’t a joke either, as she & Fessy were crushing every team in the mini Finals on Ride or Dies. The only comparison to Nurys’ season in terms of quality of opponents eliminated was when Bananas took down CT & Jordan on Free Agents, and Laurel beat Theresa, Aneesa, and Cara on Free Agents. Both of those wins are regarded highly.

Another historical comparison is Sarah Greyson, who eliminated 5 people on the original Gauntlet. Except Sarah got to run the Final as part of a team, whereas Nurys had to compete on her own, beat all other women, and then came up just short against Emmanuel. There are reports that Emmanuel cheated off Colleeen in Sudoku, and also, there were two times in the game where he easily could have seen elimination against Devin or CT, but got saved by the dagger pulls/twists. If Devin had taken out Emmanuel instead of Callum, then maybe we get a Nurys win. Then again, maybe in that universe, the entire season plays out differently, and Nurys doesn’t even get to compete in those eliminations that made her season so iconic.

8 Cara Maria — Dirty 30

People often historically overrate Cara’s season on Vendettas, as she didn’t really do anything that season before the Final. The season people sleep on is Cara’s run on Dirty 30, where she won 4/7 daily challenges, got Purged not via coming in last in a daily challenge but via a vote, which was definitely bullshit. There is no world where someone should ever get “eliminated” during a big team daily challenge. Cara is used to getting cheated, but not in that way.

After said bullshit, Cara then proceeded to beat 4 people in a Redemption challenge to get back in the game, and then 4 more people in the Bloodbath Purge to clinch the 1st spot in the Final. In a span of two games, Cara beat all other Top 8 women back-to-back.

Now, what keeps Cara from being in the Top 5 is that she got torched by Camila in the Final, and even Cara herself said she thought Tori got 2nd while the Final was happening. Then again, given that Camila probably should’ve been DQ’d for her behavior, then Cara very realistically could have won. Another knock against this season though, is that Dirty 30 had a really weak women’s cast, especially once Ashley quit on Day 1. Genuinely, Camila and rookie Tori were the only other legit contender. And before anyone mentions Kailah or Jenna, those two women cannot solve puzzles or eat gross food—they are not Final threats.

7 CT & Diem — Exes 1

Were CT & Diem one of the most dominant pairs the show has ever seen? No. But from a storytelling perspective, they would’ve had the most satisfying win in Challenge history — one so great, even the creators of The Challenge have admitted they wish CT & Diem had won. The truth of the matter was and is that Bananas & Camila were the best pair that entire season and would be the favorites in any season if they competed together.

On Exes 1, though, CT & Diem did catch fire at the end of the season, though, winning the final two dailies of the season before the Final and were crushing before CT gassed out at the Final. Had they forced a Bananas & Camila face-off with Ty & Emily in either of the last two eliminations (which would’ve favored Emily & Ty’s size), then CT & Diem could’ve cruised to a victory. Unfortunately, they were victims of their own choices.

It’s absolutely heartbreaking that Diem never got a win and if this had been the way CT had gotten his first win, it would’ve been the most special & fulfilling win of his Challenge career. As a whole, Exes 1 would also be regarded as a GREAT season had CT & Diem won, instead, it is one of the weaker entries of the 20’s.

6 Tyson & Angela — Challenge USA 1

Kind of cheating as I’m grouping two individuals, but if you didn’t watch The Challenge USA 1, you missed out on an absolute exhibition by both Tyson Apostol and Angela Rummans. They each won 4/11 daily challenges, which was twice as many as any other competitor on the show. But it wasn’t just that they won the most dailies; it was the level of performance they continually exhibited. From Day 1, these two were the clear alphas in the cast, as they partnered in the first daily, and in a challenge where they had to scale down a skyscraper while doing math. These two had zero fear as they were scaling down and quickly got the math done to win the challenge and establish power. From then on, everyone wanted to be their partners.

Whether it was heights, balance, or swimming, Angela was always a top dog. As a former collegiate pole vaulter, her sense of coordination was on a level I don’t think I’ve ever seen on this show. She won two dailies, both as an individual and in partnerships. What is particularly impressive about Angela’s season in The Challenge USA 1 female cast was actually quite formidable, as I’d rate Desi, Justine, and Sarah as all great-to-elite competitors, and then would include Cayla, Alyssa, and Kyra as good players. Throughout the season, it felt like Angela was a level above these strong women. Unfortunately, the final for USA 1 was a clusterfuck, and Angela got punished by the ineptitude of production and the weakness of the men’s cast. During the Final, they made all the players compete in partnerships, except since Ben medically DQ’d before the Final, women were forced to compete solo in some portions. Angela had to compete solo in what would’ve been the most physically arduous portion of the Final. She chose to timeout, which people were constantly doing throughout that Final with no penalty, except production chose to DQ Angela after the fact that she did so. Had they told Angela beforehand, she wouldn’t have chosen to timeout. Regardless, it would’ve been almost impossible for her to finish that portion, as many of the players were unable to finish while working in pairs.

Would Angela have won that Final if production didn’t fuck up? I can’t say with certainty because #1 Sarah did well in the Final, and then #2, Desi also got fucked over in that Final via her partner Enzo getting her DQ’d from the jump. Based on Desi’s performance in the USA 2 Final, she easily could have won as well. If Angela had won USA 1, though, we would be talking about her in a similar vein to our top women all-time. She would be on a similar tier to an Emily Schromm.

Regarding Tyson, as I mentioned above, the men of Challenge USA 1 were quite weak. It was Tyson, Danny, Kyland, and then kind of Ben — and then after that, the men of that cast were a fucking disaster. Like, if you threw Josh Martinez on the Challenge USA 1 cast, he would have been a legit contender. So why is Tyson on here? Well, Tyson was a tour de force of entertainment this season, with his confessionals driving the season’s watchability. He was so funny and confident, and deservedly so because a couple of his performances this season were jaw-dropping. There was a swimming daily challenge where Tyson competed with Cashay, who literally did not know how to swim. Tyson put her on his back, swam them back and forth for 10 laps through open water, and then singlehandedly solved a puzzle to beat nine other teams! I genuinely think it might be the most impressive performance ever by an individual during a pair/team daily challenge. As a former collegiate swimmer & pro cyclist, Tyson’s cardio made him look undefeatable.

Then in the Final, Tyson didn’t quite dominate as expected. Danny performed excellently, and then it came down to Sudoku, which Danny knew how to do and Tyson didn’t. While the Final was fudged by production, Danny beat Tyson, and he was a great competitor/deserving winner. Had Tyson won, though, we would be immediately comparing him to some of the all-time Challenge legends. Sadly, I don’t believe we will ever see Tyson or Angela on this show again.

5 Wes & Theresa — Exes 2

In terms of the mix of both entertainment & performance, it’s difficult to compete with Wes & Theresa. Exes 2 is one of my all-time favorite seasons because of the game Wes played. Going against Bananas at his peak, Wes played a high-level game of politics, manipulation, and calculated risk-taking. Wes & Theresa won the opening daily on Exes 2, and with that power, Wes rejected the immediate temptation of going after Bananas and broke bread with the rookies by going for a low-tier veteran team in Dustin & Jessica from the jump. The rookies were low-cost, high-reward investments, and they paid dividends when Jay & Jenna won a later daily challenge. The two then basically did Wes’ bidding by voting in Nia & Leroy. We saw Wes form a secret alliance with Zach that was instrumental in Wes later taking out Bananas. During this season, Wes directly/indirectly pitted Leroy against Bananas & Johnny Reilly in elimination, two strong competitors who were Leroy’s allies. Yet somehow, when Leroy won a daily challenge, Wes not only convinced Leroy not to throw him into elimination, but also got Leroy to toss in Zach against Jordan as a means to take out a threat and…allow Leroy to become his #1 ally??? As I write it out, it sounds so dumb, but it’s what actually happened.

Had the exile twist not happened, Wes & Theresa had a clear path to the Final.

We must now talk about their performance as a team. Wes & Theresa won 3/9 dailies, came in 2nd in three additional challenges, and notably destroyed everyone in the season’s mini Final. While Wes was the face of the operation, their power as a team came in large part due to Theresa hitting her stride as an athlete and competitor. For many years, Theresa was always a great theoretical player as she was fit & athletic and even was supposed to play college basketball. Unfortunately, Theresa was marred with bad partners & bad luck for most of her early Challenge career. After coming close to making the Final on Free Agents, Theresa took training seriously and jumped multiple levels as a competitor. On Exes 2, Theresa was the most fit woman in terms of cardio, she was almost as strong as Wes in the water, her height & length were an advantage in challenges, she had elite & memorization & puzzle skills, and importantly, her natural athleticism & coordination consistently shone. With Wes at the helm to run their political game and coach her up in challenges, they were an unstoppable force. Unfortunately, the exile twist not only flipped Wes & Theresa’s game on its head — every move production from then on felt specific in trying to get them out.

Wes & Theresa had to compete in a Final Five daily challenge that allowed teams to gang up on them to guarantee they wouldn’t win. And then they got put into a Hall Brawl against Prime Leroy and 6’ Nia. They had a game where a win was in their grasp, and then in one minute, it was ripped away & stomped on. Looking back, I don’t even hate the exile twist — what I despise is the fact that Wes & Theresa were not given a legitimate shot to still compete and make the Final. The design of that daily challenge after the twist is still one of the most ludicrous things I’ve ever watched.

4 Theo — War of the Worlds 1

Whoever won War of the Worlds 1 would inherently be one of the greatest winners ever, as they would’ve been a sole winner in a 34-person cast. A cast, in particular, that I would call one of the strongest in show history. Theo was a force on War of the Worlds 1, winning 5 daily challenges, an elimination, and Day 1 of the hardest Final ever. He was minutes away from victory, but an eating portion & some math miscalculations ultimately cost him the victory. What sometimes gets lost in the history of the War of the Worlds 1 Final is that Turbo almost medically DQ’d immediately, along with Georgia, and had production pulled him, it would’ve been an easy & historic win for Theo.

Also, some credit should go to Ninja Natalie because she was the 1st-place female going up against probably the strongest female cast the show had seen at that point.

3 Laurel & Kenny — Fresh Meat 2

This is a season I’ve blogged about plenty of times before, and it’s because Laurel’s opening foray into The Challenge is one of the more unbelievable performances. On Fresh Meat 2, Wes built a gigantic alliance where he had total control of the numbers, and they were gonna target Laurel & Kenny week after week. EXCEPT, Laurel & Kenny won 5 of the first 6 daily challenges of the season. There are historically good-to-even-legendary competitors on this show with fewer than 5 career solo/paired daily challenge wins, and that’s how Laurel started her career.

The one daily Laurel & Kenny lost in that opening stretch, they still came in 2nd Place, but then got voted into elimination. In said elimination, they took down Sarah Rice (& Vinny). Given that Sarah is 6–2 All-Time in eliminations and is a Top 10 female competitor, that’s another notch on their belt. Laurel & Kenny also would’ve won a 6th daily challenge, but they threw a victory to their allies Jill & Pete as a show of good faith as an alliance, and because they knew they were so good, that either they would beat anyone in elimination, or Wes/Evelyn would be too scared to face them and would throw in their own alliance instead. They proceeded to do the latter, feeding more into the hands of Laurel & Kenny’s game.

Kenny was a veteran of The Challenge, and Laurel was a natural where it didn’t matter what was thrown at her — she was going to figure out a way to make it work in each daily challenge. That combo made them so deadly. Additionally, the fact that they were the same height made them so compatible when working together physically. I think if you replay this season and Kenny has any other Fresh Meat partner, he is an early boot. Instead, he and Laurel DOMINATED. It wasn’t against a weak cast either! While the male side had a fair share of duds , I would argue that the Fresh Meat 2 female cast was the strongest in show history when it aired.

So what happened? Well, Landon fucking happened. Landon pulled off one of the most superhuman performances ever in Challenge history. Landon literally dug his head into Carley’s ass and pushed her up a mountain as Laurel & Kenny gassed out. In 99/100 worlds, Laurel & Kenny probably win that Final. In the world we live in, Landon pulled off the greatest upset this show has ever seen.

2 Tori — Battle of the Eras

Hand up, I’ve hated on Tori Deal a good amount during her Challenge career and stated that while she was Elite, she just was never gonna be on the Tippity Top Tier of competitors. Well, Tori shut me the fuck up on Season 40. Battle of the Eras had far and away the strongest female cast in show history, and yet once the game hit the individual portion, Tori continually stood at the top of the field. Tori won 5/8 individual daily challenges while going against Rachel, Jenny, Cara, Laurel, Aviv, Michele, Junebug, and Olivia.

When Jodi & Rachel dominated dailies on their Duel seasons , they were going against some of the weakest female casts the show has ever seen. For Tori to do it against so many elite Champions and finalists is unheard of. What made it even better was that Johnny Bananas was gunning for her the entire individual portion, and by consistently winning, Tori never gave him a chance to vote her in. Another small detail to add to Tori’s resume is that she defeated Kaycee in a solo elimination , and Kaycee to that point had been 7–0 in eliminations where she didn’t have to compete alongside her brother.

Then things suddenly fell apart. In a moment of ego, Tori didn’t give 100% in the final daily challenge, thinking she didn’t need to give her all to avoid last. Instead, Tori came in last and got pitted against Cara Maria. The two battled in an endurance-based water-treading elimination where Tori took down Cara, but the elimination took a massive toll on Tori for the Final the next day. Then the Final itself was something we’ve never seen before. The Final was a swimming marathon. What’s crazy is that Tori herself is not a bad swimmer. She’s won multiple swimming challenges during her career & including on Season 40. Except when it came to distance swimming — Michele & Jenny were simply superior. To which, I wanna give Tori a slight bit of credit in that she & Rachel tied when it came to the water portions of the Final — except because of Karma Points and late night coin counting, one of them came in 1st and the other in 4th.

It was a brutal outcome for Tori because she was so prepared to crush a traditional Final. Tori was fully ready for the normal amount of swimming in a Final or even 150% of the usual amount. What we got was 8000% more swimming than ever before. If it had been a traditional Final, Tori had proven to have the best cardio & endurance throughout all the mini Final daily challenges during the season, and she was performing the best she had ever done before in puzzles. Now, it wouldn’t have been a guarantee that she’d beat Jenny or Rachel, but it was very much in play compared to the Final we got — especially given Jenny’s asthma issues with long-distance runs.

Had Tori won, not only would her season be in the conversation for the greatest win , we would immediately have to begin a dialogue regarding whether or not she might be the best female competitor ever. Someone who is part of both of those debates now, though, is Jenny West. Anyone who triumphed over this Season 40 female cast is instantly iconic & Jenny winning 2/3 seasons in the era she has is so impressive.

1 Landon—The Duel 2

Landon won 5/9 daily challenges on The Duel 2, and I’d even argue he won 5/8 because the first daily was basically a popularity contest/game of tag masquerading as a game of rugby. There are people who consider Landon the greatest competitor in Challenge history, and it’s hard to deny when you watch him perform on The Duel 2. Whether it was lifting, running, climbing, or plain-old carnival games, Landon felt like he was in a league of his own.

So what happened? Well, instead of having a final daily challenge where Landon’s odds of winning would’ve been decent, they did a twist where the 4 remaining men & women decided to vote/pick someone to go in, and then that person would call someone down for a final Duel. Landon went to grab a hat for them to put their votes in anonymously, and the second he left, Mark, Evan, and Brad all decided to vote him in. Random last-second eliminations that come down to social politics are among my least favorite twists in Challenge history. Landon then picked Brad as his Duel opponent, which was probably smart, as Evan was a more well-rounded player and Mark had a significant size-reach advantage.

Then the elimination happened, and chaos ensued. Landon’s loss was both a random lapse of judgment mixed with one of the most clever/lucky bending of a rule in elimination ever. While playing Back Off with Brad, Landon lost sight of himself and focused more on wrestling Brad than on the goal of the elimination (which was attaching a hook to a ring) and got docked a point. It was a bit reminiscent of when CT ripped the flag…against Brad on Duel 1. And then in the Final Round, Brad famously tossed Landon’s to sneak the win & pull off the upset. Now did production fuck Landon? A lil bit. But it was Landon’s fault he lost. If Landon had remained calm, he would have easily swept Brad and then gone on to the Final. At this point in his life, Landon was doing Iron Man competitions & marathon cycling in high altitudes. Nobody would have been able to touch Landon in that Final. It would’ve been a guaranteed Landon win based on the accounts of all other cast members.

If Landon gets that win, it’s not only the most dominant performance ever — he becomes 3/3 Champion with no losses ever on his record. Now, I don’t know if Landon would’ve had the itch to come back and return for Fresh Meat had he won The Duel 2. That said, if he’s 3/3 and never comes back, then we mythologize him as possibly the greatest ever. And if he did come back for Fresh Meat and went 4/4, then Landon would definitively be the greatest player in Challenge history.

Survivor just wrapped up its historic 50th season. The show debuted in the year 2000 and since its inception, Jeff Probst has been the host for every single season. Its difficult to imagine the show without Probst. However, Jeff is turning 65 years old this year and while he still looks great — it wouldn’t be insane to think at a certain point, he might want to wind down, especially if the physical toll of hosting becomes too much. 65 is not what 65 used to be in the past. But when you are trying to yell out play by play commentary for immunity challenges with the sun beating down on your head — it’s a lot to do in easier your 40’s than in yours 60’s.

Thus, I began to wonder, who is the most likely & best option to replace Jeff Probst as the host of Survivor one day. When creating this list, I tried to keep things semi-realistic and very much within the world of Survivor itself. Let’s jump into it.

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Honorable Mentions

Cirie Fields: Nobody understands the game of Survivor better than Cirie, and she would be an excellent host for tribal councils. I just don’t think she’d have the energy or desire to host all the other stuff in the games (challenges, twists, etc.).

Tyson Apostol: Tyson would be the funniest host ever, hands down. The reason I wouldn’t expect to work is that it would be a lot of work for someone who doesn’t enjoy working too much…and he would struggle dealing with the stupidity of some contestants.

10 Rob Cesternino

You could argue nobody else has done more work to build up the brand of Survivor & its players more than Rob Cesternino. He’s also been talking behind a microphone & camera for endless hours that he is prepped get thrust into a spotlight-like role as the host of Survivor. Rob would put in so much work to do the best job possible as an objective host & an entertainer.

Now, why is he is at #10? Well, I don’t know what happens to this world of podcasting & content creation if he were to become the host of Survivor. Would becoming Survivor host kill it dead or would it amplify it to new heights? If its the former, then it can’t happen — whereas if it were the ladder, then we might be cooking.

9 Kim Spradlin-Wolfe

Some might be caught off guard by this one, but Kim is an all-time great winner, one of the biggest comp beasts in Survivor history, is a strong strategist, and has chops as a TV host. While much different from Survivor, Kim has hosted multiple shows on HGTV now and that experience in front of camera leads me to believe she’d be a capable host. Kim is a professional and is someone who could give legit insight to the players.

8 Rick Devens

Continuing to trend of having an on-screen camera presence — news reporter Rick Devens would bring such a big energy as host of Survivor. Devens has so much playing & watching all the crazy moments in Survivor that he would bring an infectious energy as host. Now, I will say, for people who get annoyed at Jeff Probst’s commentary during immunity challenges, I think Devens would not only keep that same energy, he’d double it.

7 Sandra Diaz-Twine

Sandra has the obvious pedigree as the first-ever 2x winner of Survivor and notably, she’s been a lot of TV in the last decade. She appeared on Games Changers, Winner at War, the Australian version of Survivor, Traitors, Extracted, 99 to Beat, and notably as a non-player on Island of the Idols. The mentorship aspect from Island of the Idols is the closet thing we’ve had to a secondary host on Survivor. This is a job that I think Sandra would love to have — though I don’t know how amped she’d be to do immunity challenge commentary.

6 Jonathan LaPaglia

Look, I’ve never watched Survivor Australia, but I saw so much love outpoor when LaPaglia was ousted as the host of the overseas version. Based on all accounts, he’s quite good at his job and has more experience than literally anyone else at this.

5 Nick Cannon

There are not many people who work as much as Nick Cannon. Nick Cannon hosted 87 seasons of Wild’n Out, which is almost as many kids as he has now. Addition, Cannon has hosted America’s Got Talent for a decade, multiple game shows on the FOX network, and seems willing to do whatever is needed of him, besides wear a condom.

Plus, one day we could have a full season where all the contestants are Nick Cannon’s baby mommas and the winner not only gets a million dollars — they get the largest share of his estate.

4 Colby Donaldson

Watching Season 50 was a reminder that when Colby is locked in, he has such a likable presence. The guy respects the game & experience of Survivor. Importantly, Colby has hosted a plethora of reality shows/talk shows on the History Channel. He is someone who could capably take on the job tomorrow and we’d be in safe hands.

3 Parvati Shallow

If you want star power, Parv is the perfect woman to host Survivor. She is a 2x Winner, 3x Finalist, and has the aura that would draw in viewers & players. Now, Parv does lack the TV hosting experience that some of these other people have. Yet, what she lacks in experience, she more than makes up in charisma and overall respect & understanding of the game. Parv has played Survivor through so many different angles, perspectives, and phases of her own life that she is someone who doesn’t have a close-minded view on the game. She’s been a comp beast, a manipulator, part of big alliances, fighting on the outside, the pretty girl, the mom, the winner, etc. All she has left to do is host.

2 Boston Robert Mariano

I’ll be upfront in admitting that I’m not a huge Boston Rob fan, but he is the name most synonymous with Survivor to the general public. Boston Rob is the obvious choice to replace Jeff Probst in the same way Ken Jennings was clearly the right guy to replace Alex Trebek as the host of Jeopardy. While other players came and outperformed Jennings on the show — he was always the OG. Tony, Sandra, Parv, etc, have all come and outdone Rob, but when it comes to the history of the show — he’s someone who has given so much to the show and the franchise. Similar to Parv, Rob has played this game at so many different points of his life to where he would bring a great perspective to the game as a host.

Rob is also quick-witted and is someone who would be fun to see do commentary during immunity challenges and tribal councils. Now I do fear Boston Rob may impose too much of his own thoughts as a host, but…. Well, I have no but to that. It would suck if he did that. Regardless, if Rob took over as host, it would make logical sense.

1 A Genetically Cloned Version of Jeff Probst

Look, I’m already of the opinion that Jeff Probst is a highly intelligent cyborg whose lifelong goal has been to understand actual human nature & emotions. It’s why he is always asking questions at tribal council, struggles to land metaphors, and can’t seem to understand why people genuinely enjoy villains on television. On the off chance Jeff isn’t a robot, then I can say with certainty that he’s using the millions he’s made as host of Survivor to invest in cloning himself so that no other person will ever get to snuff out a torch on HIS Survivor. Nobody will ever outlast the Probst Overlord.

Five years ago, Natalie Anderson became the first woman to transition from Survivor to MTV’s The Challenge. It was a much-anticipated debut that opened the floodgates for Challenge fantasy casts as we began dreaming up all these different personalities making their way onto our favorite competition. Since then, 11 women from the U.S. version of Survivor have competed on either the flagship show or Challenge USA. With Survivor 50’s finale this week, I decided that a good way to celebrate is by embracing the women of Survivor who have appeared on The Challenge.

Now, this is not just a ranking of who is the best competitor. It is a ranking where I will be breaking down who has had the biggest impact on the franchise , to which winning & doing well matter. But also, who are the characters that you cannot tell the story of The Challenge without? Who was creating the most storylines, rivalries, doing the most politically & socially, or being entertaining & messy? Let’s answer that. Also, this list will not include anyone from the foreign version of Survivor. No offense to them.

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Let’s jump into the list.

11 Tasha Fox

If Tasha had debuted after Cagayan or Second Chances, she would have been a formidable Challenge competitor. She was doing a lot of lifting & CrossFit back then, and she is wicked smart. By the time Challenge USA came around, Tasha still looked great but was not in her peak shape, and she had an unceremonious run that ended with her & James losing an elimination to Dom & Cashay. Tasha was 3rd out and, sadly, had no impact on the season.

10 Shan Smith

I’m still shocked that Shan ever appeared on The Challenge because she has some health issues that led me to believe she would never be able to compete on such a physically strenuous show. Tragically, Shan made an early exit as she was a casualty of Alyssa’s move to blindside her former Big Brother ally Xavier. Shan had a short but cute run where she had some fun confessionals and the blindside led to her having a fun & messy run of postseason press.

Shan’s inability to compete physically at a high level limited her strategic potential in the game. It’s hard to make moves when you don’t have power.

9 Natalie Anderson

Natalie is one of the greatest “what if” competitors in Challenge history. After her runner-up finish on Winners at War, where she proved to be a physical force, Natalie debuted on The Challenge and was immediately seen as a mega threat. She partnered up with Wes, and they looked like they would be a super team, and for this reason, the house voted her & Wes against CT & Ashley into the first elimination of the season. Natalie then faced Ashley in a solo elimination and won a Gold Skull. Unfortunately, Natalie had to leave the game a couple of episodes later after discovering she was pregnant, and we’ve never seen her on the show again since.

If Natalie were to ever come back, it would move the needle and be one of the most anticipated returns ever.

8 Dee Valladares

The responses to Dee’s rookie season on Vets & New Threats have been a bit polarizing. I’m a bit biased as someone who has loved Dee since the moment I saw her on Survivor — but boy, I was shocked when I saw people say she was boring & brought no impact. From the get-go, Dee made her impact as a showmance threat, as not only did she get with Bananas , she had a pre-show hotel hookup in the little 3-day period before they started filming the show with Will. That in itself is messy, authentic, and it led to Will’s gigantic meltdown in Episode 2, which was one of the funnier moments in recent Challenge history. Watching Dee laugh, giggle, and have a good time while Will is imploding right beside was incredible television.

Had Bananas not exited so early, then I think Dee’s edit & game presence would have become much larger. Even then, I felt that every time Dee cut a confessional on screen, it was funny & she had a star aura. As a competitor as well, Dee proved to be fit and competent and was willing to cheat to win. Technically, she won her part of the elimination against Adrienne & Theo, as it was Derrick who couldn’t pillow fight to save his life. People might’ve been disappointed that Dee wasn’t the super force she is on Survivor; still, she is at least a very good role player on The Challenge, with potential to grow into something bigger.

7 Chanelle Howell

A testament to the strength of Survivor women is that Chanelle finished 2nd on Challenge USA 2, a season with a very strong female cast, yet I’m ranking her 7th out of 11. Straight up, Chanelle is a badass. Chanelle is highly educated, fit, athletic, and would be a threat to win any season she’s on. She is also a strong-willed woman who will stand her ground & not let her voice go unheard. There is potential there for Chanelle as a really provoking and interesting reality TV competitor & challenger.

The reason she ranks 7th, though, is because on USA 2, Chanelle was mostly in the shadows of the other Survivor women she was aligned with. Chanelle was able to coast through the game because her alliance controlled the numbers politically. Except Chanelle’s prowess as a competitor wasn’t able to fully shine as she was on the worst team in the opening portion of the season, and then when it became individual-based , she kept coming up short going against elite competition in Michaela, Tori, and Desi. Had Chanelle been at the bottom like Cassidy, she would’ve had more opportunity to be a star, but it wouldn’t have been a better game for her. Chanelle did beat Cassidy in a Hall Brawl elimination, taking the win in both the physical & mental aspects of the game. Then in the Final, she beat both Michaela & Tori. Now, the circumstances and design of said Final were janky as fuck. Regardless, Chanelle played as is and can say she came in 2nd in her rookie season! Additionally, in her defense, I have heard so much drama from USA 2 got completely edited out. I’d love to see Chanelle compete again.

6 Cassidy Clark

We need more Reality TV characters like Cassidy. She is so authentically herself that it naturally creates good television as she’s not putting up a front for anyone. Some people got really mad at me when I tweeted during Challenge USA 2 that Cassidy was not part of the main plot of the game. They were incensed by that idea, as Cassidy had been voted into multiple eliminations, kept winning, and was thus getting the most screen time.

But the reason Cassidy got voted in wasn’t because people saw her as a mega threat or that she had done something bad. In reality, Cassidy got voted in due to the fact was so out of the loop when it came to the political & social side and was thrown in by default of everyone else being aligned & or very strong. Cassidy then took every vote very personally. Which was GREAT TV.

It was very KellyAnne Judd coded: Cassidy is this fun person you wanna hang out with, and yet whenever it comes to the social game, either on The Challenge or Survivor, Cassidy just doesn’t fully click with people. Yet, it’s what makes them so fun to watch because they are natural underdogs you can root for. Cassidy was not on the level of the top players from USA 2, but she was still a fighter and got elimination wins over Alyssa L, Alyssa S, and Michele. Watching Cassidy come up just short of the Final felt so coded in the way of other classic Challenge underdogs like Derrick, Cara, Nany, etc.

On top of her accomplishments, Cassidy developed beefs throughout USA 2 with Michaela & Wes. Then she might’ve had a flirtation/showmance with Josh Martinez. She is also bisexual, which, if she’s single on any future season, that doubles her hookup potential. Rumors are that Cassidy is going to be on Season 42, which, if that’s the case, I think she has the potential to move up these rankings.

5 Sarah Lacina

In two seasons, Sarah Lacina won Challenge USA 1, going against a stacked cast, won 2 eliminations, 2 daily challenges, and made the Final of World Championships. Objectively, that is a historically impressive start to a career. Sarah is a marathon runner & police officer, so when it comes to the physical side of a competitor, she is a threat in any headbanger or cardio-based.

Now, why is Sarah not higher? Well, it’s because I watched Challenge USA 1, and throughout the entire partner portion, Sarah never finished in the Top 3 in a single daily challenge. She did not wow me throughout the season until the final daily challenge & the final itself, which is when you really need to be good. At the same time, whenever there was a communication or problem-solving aspect to daily challenges , Sarah never had it. She reminded me so much of Ninja Natalie, where they were carried by their raw fitness & athleticism. I also believe Sarah benefited in her Final as Desi & Angela got DQ’d for critical portions in the Final due to their partner/absence of a partner. Had it all been an even playing field, I don’t know if Sarah would have won. Not to mention, there are semi-substantiated rumors that Sarah never even solved the Sudoku puzzle to win and won by default as other people quit first.

On World Championships, Sarah & Theo were completely unimpressive as a pair. They coasted off politics & relationships as they didn’t have to win any dailies or eliminations. They did win the final daily challenge technically — except that win was gifted to them as Jordan had made a deal that he & Kaz would not win the final daily under any circumstances. Which then led to the most awkwardly long struggle as Theo & Sarah tried to complete a daily challenge that was a guaranteed win. They didn’t even really get to run the Final due to Theo’s injury. That’s not on Sarah. Nonetheless, it was unremarkable season despite the outcome being another Finals appearance.

As a character, Sarah did have beefs with Angela, Tyson, and Bananas during her stints. If anything, Sarah vs. Angela & Tyson was probably the biggest storyline on Challenge USA. Sarah definitely carried herself like a big personality & threat. Do I wanna see Sarah again? Personally, not a fan of Sarah — however, I would like to see how she stacks up on another season with a more traditional format/cast.

4 Sydney Segal

I debated all of the 4 next women at #1, including Miss Sydney Segal. Before Season 41 even filmed, I very quickly declared Sydney as the favorite to win because she is both highly intelligent (a literal Ivy League-educated lawyer) and a mega athlete (collegiate & high school state champ cross country runner).

With how The Challenge has evolved into a game of cardio & puzzles, nobody is more built to thrive than Sydney. Watching Sydney compete reminded me so much of Evelyn, where in some daily challenges, she was moving at a speed no other woman could match. In the mini Final, Sydney was outpacing almost all of the men, and none of the women were close to her. She would’ve been the outright winner had she not helped Turbo. Her performance in that comp alone was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen on The Challenge.

It wasn’t just running either — Sydney was climbing & swimming at elite levels. She was crushing math & trivia challenges too. Synder got to the Final on her rookie season with Turbo as a partner, and she carried Turbo throughout that final. They were on the doorstep of winning had he not gotten hypothermia.

What really elevated Sydney is the fact that she walked into the game knowing & actively saying she is going to be the best competitor in Challenge history. Every confessional from her was arrogant, yet when you watched her…it didn’t feel fake or even wrong. I even pondered to myself whether or not there’s ever been a woman more naturally built to compete on this show. Something that does detract from Sydney is the fact that she was a bit of a confessional gangster. She did a lot of talking in confessionals, yet we never saw her get confrontational with her fellow competitors. Granted, she was put in a tough spot with the Turbo partnership — still, I want to see her get into it with people. If Sydney can do that, then she’ll easily take up #1 on this list. I’d even go as far as to say Sydney has real potential to be the greatest female competitor ever.

3 Desi Williams

Someone else you could actually make an argument as having potential to be the best to ever compete is the winner of Challenge USA 2, Desi Williams. Similar to Sydney, Desi was someone with the credentials to be an absolute force on The Challenge the second they set foot on the show, as they were highly educated (PhD), super fit (a personal trainer & therapist), and came from a competitive background as a pageant queen. Desi made her debut on Challenge USA 1, and while Angela was the person making more noise in the dailies throughout the season — Desi was more than holding her own. Truly, it was Angela & Desi as the two real threats to win all season among what was a very strong cast of women. Sadly, a dumbass man by the name of Enzo was Desi’s undoing, as his inability and unwillingness to swim with a life vest led to Desi’s swift DQ from the Final. It was a truly gutting way to lose.

Desi would come back for Challenge USA 2 against an even stronger female class, and once again , while Tori & Michaela made more noise, Desi was right alongside them as the creme of the crop. While the design of The Challenge USA 2 Final itself was flawed, Desi cleanly won it by outpacing her opponents and then crushing every checkpoint. Like there were moments in the Final that cleanly & unfairly wiped out Tori & Michaela — except Desi went through the same checkpoints and didn’t fail when she easily could’ve! Is that lucky? A bit? But also not because, if you’ve watched Desi compete in her two seasons, she’s good at everything and was in 1st place the entire time.

Whether it be physical or mental, Desi is a threat. And what makes her so much more unstoppable is that she’s such a likable human with a social game that will never put her on anyone’s radar. Desi coasted through two seasons, only seeing one elimination, and it was a random Pole Wrestle against Amanda. If Desi is on any future season, she will be the favorite to win. Even over Sydney, because Sydney’s mouth could get her thrown in, and she’s got less weight to her in any size-based eliminations. Whereas Desi has arms that could open the toughest pickle jar imaginable.

There is a downside to Desi, and why she’s not #1 or 2, and that is she’s never going to be messy, and she’ll never be in a showmance. That said, Desi’s short career has already put her into a legitimate conversation as one of the best competitors the show has ever seen.

2 Michaela Bradshaw

Not many people have made as much noise & been as big a presence early into their Challenge career as Michaela Bradshaw. Alongside Michele, Michaela was the 2nd/3rd female to come from Survivor. Everyone was so excited for her debut on Spies, Lies & Allies, and then she was a first boot!! It was a messy first boot experience with so many variables, though. For starters, Michaela & her partner Renan ended up coming in 2nd Place out of like 17 teams in the opening daily and got nothing for it. Then there was a COVID break that halted filming and allowed the Vets to properly align against all the rookies, and they went after Michaela as the head of the snake after catching wind of her “list”. She then had to face Corey & Michele in the backpack elimination, where Corey weighed about as much as her & Renan combined. It was such an unlucky draw for Michaela.

Her second experience on USA 2 was a dream situation. This season featured so many Survivor women that they were able to align and have a stronghold on the game. Once given the space to compete, Michaela’s athleticism shone. As we’ve mentioned before with Sydney & Desi, Michaela was someone built for this show, as she was an honors student (worked in education) and a collegiate track & field runner. One of the best moments from USA 2 came from a leaping daily challenge where Michaela was terrified to participate because she was afraid of heights, yet won because her athleticism was on a level nobody else could touch. In an infamous oil pit challenge, Michaela outwrestled all the strong Survivor women for the win. Along with being the top competitor in the daily challenges, Michaela was the big dog in that house, actively calling the shots in the game, and dismissing anyone in her way, whether it be Wes, Josh, Michele, Cassidy, etc.

In the end, Michaela came up short in the USA 2 Final, where she made a gutsy yet fatal choice to skip a checkpoint, hoping Desi would fail it and Michaela would get ahead & win. Instead, Desi succeeded & won, while Michaela gassed out from having to go additional miles up hill, and got DQ’d before crossing the finish line. Had she not done so, Michaela still would’ve finished in 2nd, so I respect that she took the risk.

After USA 2, Michaela returned for Vets & News Threats and was once again a major threat. She accumulated the most daily challenge points in the first half of the game by a wide margin. She & Cedric then formed a power duo where they won 2 dailies and then the last two eliminations of the season by taking down strong pairs in Will/Aviv & Nany/Justin. Again, Michaela was someone calling the shots on so many of the votes throughout the game and was willing to play dirty, throwing a daily challenge to send CT into elimination.

Michaela is a very direct human, and that made her a terrible Survivor player, but it is what makes her an effective Challenge competitor & personality. She is unafraid of conflict and will always speak her mind. For better or worse. Michaela found herself in a direct rivalry & beef with Olivia & Theo throughout the season. Besides Will & Nany, Michaela vs. Olivia was the most interesting storyline on Season 41, and if Olivia didn’t get pregnant, they seem destined to be the biggest future Challenge rivalry. Ultimately, Olivia did get the better of her on Vets & New Threats, as she & Yeremi won. Meanwhile, Michaela’s ankles proved to be a continuous issue for her and led to her & Cedric finishing 3rd in the Final.

Her ankles have made Michaela such a deeply intriguing competitor to dissect on The Challenge. She’s had two seasons where she’s proven to be this dominant force in both daily challenges & eliminations. Michaela is a favorite to win any elimination, whether it be a headbanger, a puzzle, a climbing, or even something cardio-intensive. Yet, in these Finals, you can’t trust her ankles. It’s not an Aneesa situation where Aneesa has bad ankles and has no cardio. Michaela is actually a good/great runner who has this chronic issue. So can she ever win? I don’t know. It makes seasons so hard to evaluate because her impact is so large in every season she’s on, yet the end product doesn’t match the rest of the results. Michaela is a villain to many and a fan favorite to others. All I know is she’s someone who will make an impact every time she’s on.

1 Michele Fitzgerald

Given the way The Challenge existed for its first 20+ years, Michele Fitzgerald was not built to be an all-time Challenger. She’s not someone who loves confrontation, and physically, Michele didn’t have the brawn or raw athleticism to be some comp beast. With how The Challenge has evolved in the 2020’s, Michele has been a perfect addition to the show, and you could argue that not only has Michele been the best Survivor casting on The Challenge — she’s in the conversation of most important female Challenge of the 2020’s.

For starters, Michele is an elite confessional narrator, who is someone MTV has been able to rely on to tell the story of the season & the game, especially because she has so many interpersonal relationships. Which transitions us to the social & political game. When Michele first debuted on The Challenge, she got shell-shocked by how different & direct the game is versus Survivor. Michele got immediately targeted for early eliminations on Spies, Lies & Allies, and then her & Jay’s total utter misplays of power after winning on Ride or Dies put an entire house against her. It was a total disaster class of the social & political game that made you wonder how Michele won Survivor.

Ironically enough, what ended up shining was the amount of grit and fight Michele showed in the face of adversity. There was an early swimming challenge in Michele’s rookie season where she got a bloodied face from a botched dive, and yet she didn’t miss a beat as she still came in the 2nd in the daily challenge. That moment showed me that Michele had more bite than expected & she would continue to prove so. Over the years, Michele began training, improving, and eventually getting a handle on the social & political game.

Battle For a New Champion was a perfect showcase of Michele’s gameplay as she held together a major alliance despite Jay’s assholery. Which fans were not happy with the game she was playing because the best players kept getting targeted — but in a season with only one winner, Michele knew she wasn’t beating Horacio, Kyland, or Zara in a Final, and their group successfully got them all out before then. Not only was Michele running the game with Jay, but she had people under her thumb, like Corey & Berna, whose entire success in the game was directly tied to her managing their messiness. As a competitor, Michele’s puzzle-solving skills single-handedly won her team the Final, and whenever they had to work as a team, her communication skills always put her in a role directing people. Not to mention, Michele got a win over Cara in an elimination, which obviously the crowd influenced, but it was very clear from the onset that Michele knew what she was doing, and Cara didn’t.

Unfortunately, Michele’s lack of raw athleticism was her undoing as she lost the purge before the Final. Had she not come in last, Michele would’ve been in a Final that was water- and puzzle-heavy and been in a great opportunity to win. What was crazy, though,, wawas the amount of backlash Michele got for her game, especially from Vets who weren’t even on the season, which which led many to believe she would be dead in the water in any future game.

Then Michele went on Season 40, which had the most stacked female cast ever. The odds were heavy favorites for Michele to be a first boot, and instead, she went to her first fucking Final and would’ve finished 2nd had it not been for Karma Points. It was a bumpy road, but Michele never gave up. Her being one of the winners in the opening daily challenge was so crucial to her season , because if she hadn’t, Michele would’ve been voted into a Hall Brawl and been part of the first boot crew. Instead, Michele persisted, won three eliminations, formed the Ladies of Leisure alliance, feuded with Johnny Bananas, and hung in there with the best competitors this show has ever seen.

Those are all accomplishments & summaries of Michele’s game, because really, it’s her impact that is undeniable. Michele is a polarizing modern Reality TV character, where people either love her or hate her. They think she’s deeply authentic or believe she’s fake nice. In my opinion, Michele is such a kind person that it makes her one of the more naturally messy people we’ve ever seen on this show. Michele puts herself into predicaments caused by her not wanting to anger people, and instead drives them nuts. Given how The Challenge & social media have changed, I think Michele is the perfect new-age cast member and, in some ways, a newer version of Paula Walnuts or Nany Gonzlaez. Just someone who is not the best competitor, but she’s always going to be featured on screen and in the mix of the main plot, and is ALSO still there to compete & win even though they aren’t a dominant force. If anything, it makes them more inspiring to watch because they’re underdogs.

Similar to Nany & Paula, what illustrates Michele’s impact is the fact that you can toss her into any type of cast or format. If it were Rivals, you could immediately pair Michele with Laurel, Amanda, Michaela, Bananas, or even Horacio/Nurys. If it’s Exes, Michele has been a hookup queen, and you throw her in with Fessy, Jay, Callum, Emmanuel, or someone from the Survivor world. Ride or Dies, she’ll have Olivia or Devin. Whatever the format, Michele is a welcome addition to the show as either a role player or a legitimate star. People doubted her when she was a big fish in the small pond on Vets & New Threats, but she was equally, if not as big of a star, when on the most star-studded cast the show has ever seen on 40. It would be almost impossible to tell the story of The Challenge of the 2020’s without Michele Fitzgerald, and you definitely cannot tell the story of Survivor women on The Challenge without her.

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If this blog is familiar, it is because it is one of my old posts that I wanted to retool and use as a test subject to pilot my new Substack. Today, we rank the Top 10 greatest women’s eliminations in Challenge history. How did I define greatest? Pretty simply, I tried to create a mix of 10 eliminations that were entertaining, competitive, unique, historically relative, or all of the above. Importantly, I asked myself if it was an elimination that made you feel something, whether it be excitement or emotions.

It was a very difficult blog to write. I spent many hours rewatching eliminations, going through the seasons, redrafting and reranking this list a billion times, and did all of it knowing people would likely disagree and be angry with me. That’s the risk you have to take, especially when you can change some people’s minds on some eliminations or reaffirm some of their long-time beliefs.

For this blog, it is vital to note from the jump, whether it be 1 v. 1, 2 v. 2, or a threeway elimination, the rankings on this list only include Female vs. Female eliminations. Sarah & Jordan vs. Zach & Jonna won’t be on here because that’s a co-ed elimination. Kam & Kayleigh vs. Brad & Kyle won’t be on here because that’s an intergender elimination. The only scenario in which we include women from co-ed elimination is if they have a heat where it’s the two women going head-to-head with little to no male involvement. An example of this would be on Battle of the Seasons, when Cara Maria faced Lacey in a Hall Brawl while Big Easy faced Wes. In that scenario, Cara vs. Lacey would be eligible for this list, though, as you likely know, it’s not cracking the Top 10.

Now that we have explained the basic rules, let’s do some quick honorable mentions and jump into the list.

Honorable Mentions:

Cara vs. Nia (Free Agents): One of the most grueling eliminations The Challenge has ever seen and was physically dangerous; Cara pulled off a gutsy win.

Cara vs. Aneesa (Bloodlines): Shut up, Aneesa! It was just an excellent pole wrestle and final elimination of the season.

Veronica vs. Jodi (Inferno 2): As great of an athlete as Jodi is, Veronica proved to be a much fiercer opponent mentally.

Sarah vs. Katie (The Ruins): A really good, entertaining, and heated elimination.

Jenna vs. Tori (Total Madness): Tori thought Jenna would throw the elimination, only for Jenna to pull off the upset and for Tori & Jordan to meltdown before our eyes.

Jenn vs. Rachel (Inferno 3): Watching military veteran Rachel cry about losing an elimination to a “civilian” was hilarious.

Kailah vs. Sylvia (Invasion): A fun “upset” that put Sylvia on the map.

Kam vs. Natalie (Vendettas): Seeing Kam win a third elimination and one specifically set up for Natalie to win was pretty great.

Leah vs. Kendal (Inferno 1): An elimination with an incredible crowd atmosphere and intensity.

Kina vs. Cara (Gauntlet 2): Kina was the Elimination Queen of the Gauntlet 2. Her feud with Cara Z was fantastic; bra straps got ripped during the elimination, and Kina took home the W.

Tay vs. Blue (Vets & New Threats) & Jemmye vs. LaToya (Free Agents): Two fun & competitive physical eliminations from players you wouldn’t expect.

Onto our Top 10.

10 Katie vs. Julie on The Inferno 1

Let’s kick off with a classic. Julie and Katie had itching powder applied to their bodies, and then they walked slowly on a treadmill for three hours. After that, they jumped rope until one gave up, leaving the other as the winner. It was such an incredibly simple and basic elimination, yet everything else around it made it entertaining.

Context is crucial. Going into the elimination, both Katie & Julie’s teammates desperately wanted them to lose as they all wanted a strong team going into the Final. The Road Rules team went as far as throwing the Lifesaver challenge and $10,000 to ensure that Veronica would win the comp and Katie would go in. Katie was rightfully pissed and went into the elimination wanting to win not only for herself but to spite her team. She had to go against the absolute crazy person that is Julie Stoffer. As a franchise, The Challenge got built off its great personalities; having people like Coral, The Miz, and Veronica going crazy in the crowd as you have Julie and Katie chirping each other back and forth as they leisurely walk on the treadmill is Reality TV goodness. I wonder how fans would react if we got this type of elimination today.

The elimination is hysterical. Katie was ripping cigs while walking the treadmill, something unimaginable in a modern-day elimination. Then you had Julie saying she could jump rope for hours, only to fuck up after less than 20 seconds. And the cherry on top was Katie’s curse-out celebration and rant after winning. Katie vs. Julie was a perfect snapshot of what The Challenge used to be and why it initially gained such a wide-ranging audience.

9 Tori vs Jenny on War of the Worlds 2

Shifting tones from an OG comedy to a modern headbanger, Tori & Jenny was a total curb-stomp of an elimination. War of the Worlds 2 was a season formatted as US vs the UK, but as it evolved, the storyline by the end of the season was Tori & Jordan against Cara’s Cult. Tori & Jordan decided they didn’t want to help Cara & Paulie win, so when they got thrown into elimination against beasts in Georgia & Theo and won, they chose to turncoat to Team UK.

Tori’s path to the final wasn’t over, though. She got put against the muscular, mega-fit rookie Jenny West in a Hall Brawl. Going into the elimination, everyone in the crowd expected Jenny to win based on size/strength alone. TJ blew the horn, and Tori pulled out a close first-round win; many were still a bit skeptical. In the 2nd round, everyone was shocked as Tori flattened Jenny. People were ready to anoint Jenny as the next Emily Schromm, only for Tori to take her down a peg. Regardless of how you feel about Tori now, this was a badass Challenge moment that put Tori in the discussion as one of the top females of the current era. Seeing Jenny dominate Total Madness the following season made the moment even more impressive after the fact. The electrifying shock factor of this elimination gets it on the list because it had me out of my seat in excitement.

8 Sarah vs. Irulan on The Gauntlet 1

Sarah Greyson, the OG Queen of The Gauntlet, had to be on this list. In the first Challenge season with eliminations, Sarah won 5 solo eliminations, a record that still stands to this day. The eliminations were intergender, where Sarah took down both men and women.

We are celebrating her record-setting 5th win, which was against Irulan Wilson from The Real World Las Vegas. The elimination was Dead-Man’s Drop, a game where players got suspended 10 feet in the air over a pool with only a thin swing/pole to hang onto. Sarah had already won the elimination twice but faced much stiffer competition against Irulan. The two players went for over 45 minutes before Sarah eventually won out.

If you didn’t know, Sarah got voted off the RV on Road Rules Campus Crawl in part because she wouldn’t commit during the missions. Sarah felt like an outsider both on Road Rules and The Challenge. On The Gauntlet, Sarah had a DQ in a daily challenge or two which got her labeled as weak and thus thrown into endless eliminations. Sarah kept fighting and fighting in The Gauntlet. At the end of the day, Sarah won the season and built a character arc-type that many would follow on the show for generations to come.

7 Laurel vs. Ninja on War of the Worlds 2

In terms of chaos, there aren’t many eliminations crazier than Laurel vs. Ninja. This was a marquee match-up. Ninja was coming off finishing as the top female on War of the Worlds 1, and she got put up against Laurel, the greatest elimination competitor in show history and, at the very least, a Top 3 female Challengers All-Time. The elimination looked like production set it up for a Ninja win as it was a climbing-based elimination.

Then Laurel, as the superhuman she is, went toe-to-toe with Ninja. It all came down to finding the final hole to put a peg in… Laurel found a hole at the top of her tower, put it in, and TJ blew the horn…

To this day, I think TJ blowing the horn means it’s over, or we have to do a completely new elimination and reset. The way the elimination continued after, with Ninja getting the win after being told where the final peg hole was, didn’t feel right. That’s on TJ.

Of course, we must mention the best part of this elimination debacle, Laurel’s ludicrous celebration that included multiple “Suck It” crotch chops. When they reversed the outcome, I thought Laurel was going to combust like the Human Torch. It was a shitshow of an elimination that dominated social media, as everyone had an opinion about the outcome. You probably still have an opinion about it now. While I know it’s a controversial elimination — this one makes this list because it had fans engrossed and caring about the show.

Importantly, the elimination swung the game’s direction and numbers towards the Cara/Paulie cult alliance. It would have been a much different season had Laurel won this elimination.

6 Theresa vs. Nany on Battle of the Exes 2

This one does feel like cheating a bit as part of this elimination did include a male Pole Wrestle between their partners (Leroy & Bananas). Nonetheless, Nany & Theresa is on here because they are one of the best rivalries in Challenge history, and it came to a head with the final elimination of Exes 2.

The animosity began on Free Agents as Theresa threw shade behind Nany’s back in confessionals, followed by them getting into it at the reunion. Then things got amped up when they got partnered with Wes & Bananas, respectively, on Exes 2. Theresa and Wes exploded with joy when Nany & Bananas got eliminated earlier in the season; they also looked like ghosts when the two returned from exile. After their return, Nany laughed loudly when fortunes got reversed as Wes lay hurt on the floor while he and Theresa got eliminated.

It looked like Nany had won the war. That is until Nia’s DQ before the last elimination. Theresa had already taken a long flight home back to America when MTV gave her a call and one last shot to come in as Leroy’s replacement partner. As tired as Theresa was, she got on another cross-continental flight to compete in a win-or-go-home elimination against Nany.

The elimination itself is fantastic. Both women got down and dirty in this elimination, and what was great about this specific Pole Wrestle was that there were no stoppages. Even with the kicking, dragging, and elbows, they played until one person came out the victor. Ultimately, Theresa took home the win and made her first Final.

5 Jonna & Jasmine vs. Sarah & Katelynn on Rivals 1

I’ve talked about this elimination on multiple platforms in the past, and it’s because it is truly one of the all-time great Challenge eliminations upsets that’s only aged better with time.

On Rivals 1, Jonna & Jasmine were the lone female Rookie team in the game and thus had their backs against the wall. They were the season’s underdogs and got set up to face Sarah & Katelynn in elimination. At that point in time, Sarah was already a 2x Finalist in three seasons, with her lone loss coming to Laurel. Sarah was uber confident about her chances of beating Jonna in any elimination and felt it was a certainty if the elimination was a puzzle. It wasn’t just Sarah having a sense of confidence — she literally told Jonna to her face and in front of others that she knew she could beat Jonna in a number of games. Now, what did the elimination end up being?

A PUZZLE! Not just any puzzle, it was the Tower of Hanoi, a classic puzzle you can find at a Cracker Barrel or 7th Grade Honors Math Class. While the puzzle itself is not the most complex, one simple error could ruin a player’s entire progress. Sarah worked too hastily, something even her partner Katelynn was realizing in the moment; meanwhile, Jonna was in total control the whole time. Jonna had the puzzle on lock, Jasmine listened to her orders, and they stunned the crowd as they pulled off the upset.

What makes the upset so remarkable is that this was the last time we ever saw Sarah Rice lose a Challenge elimination — she’d go on to win her next 4 Eliminations in a row, make it to 3 Finals, and win 2 Championships from then on. For Jonna, this was the greatest moment of her Challenge career prior to All-Stars. Jasmine never won an elimination again. Over time, this all looks more and more impressive.

4 Laurel vs. Cara Maria on Free Agents

I might be a crazy person because this is essentially a non-elimination that I’m rating as the fourth-greatest women’s elimination in Challenge history. Laurel easily defeated Cara Maria in Wrecking Wall as Cara competed in the elimination with a fractured hand. If you have to punch holes through a wall to win, it’s tough when you only have one hand — especially when facing the most dominant elimination force in Challenge history.

I stand by ranking this #4 because this is one of the most important moments The Challenge has ever had as a franchise.

Entering Free Agents, Laurel was already known as one of the greatest Challenge competitors ever. Laurel had done 3 Seasons, made 3 Finals, put up historic daily challenge stats & performances, was undefeated in eliminations, and was an absolute physical specimen. All that said, Laurel was still missing a Challenge Championship. On Free Agents, Laurel was the clear alpha dog in the house, where it felt like anyone beating her would be a colossal upset.

Her “best friend” entering the season was her former Rival and partner, Cara Maria. Cara had done 6 Seasons, made it to 3 Finals, and totaled a bunch of elimination wins. Despite Cara’s success, there was a shadow over her where people viewed her as someone who had gotten carried by stronger teammates (Laurel, Cooke, etc.). At the same time, as the number of people in the house against Cara grew, fans became more invested in her as an underdog/misfit they could root for. After a solid showing with Cooke on Rivals 2, Cara went into Free Agents in the best shape of her life. We watched Cara win three eliminations on Free Agents, including a reverse tug of war against the 6’ tall Nia. Even though she was overmatched size-wise, Cara showed so much heart, pulled out the win, and gained the love of many fans. Straight up, the Cara/Nia elimination would be on this list if I wasn’t spending 8 billion hours talking about Cara right now.

By the midseason of Free Agents, everyone Cara viewed as the clear #2 to Laurel, and once she got up there, fans began to wonder whether Cara could pull off the impossible. During the season, the best friend relationship between these two fractured. The divide between these two made Cara the lovable underdog, and Laurel became the “villain.” Let me tell you, Laurel was scary in that role because she felt unbeatable in eliminations.

Things ramped up when Cara faced Jessica McCain in a Balls In elimination. Cara broke her hand while scoring her first point, slamming the ball into the basket; she still stayed in there and won the elimination (all while Laurel cheered for Jessica). Following the elimination, production asked Cara to remove herself medically; instead Cara waived medical liability to keep herself in the game — it was an all-time badass move. Then in one of the biggest shiteater moments in Challenge history, Johnny Bananas voted Cara into the subsequent elimination with the broken hand; Laurel pulls the Kill Card, and now these two best friends turned enemies get pitted against one another.

Honestly, had these two faced off when 100% healthy, I’m pretty confident Laurel would have won. Even assuming their physical strength was equal, Laurel had a clear reach advantage over Cara and is a better strategist when it comes to eliminations/challenges. That doesn’t matter.

The outcome of what happened is what matters. Laurel wins against Cara; she then beats her nemesis/hater, Theresa, in the surprise elimination before the Final and goes on to win the season. Nobody deserved a Challenge Championship more at that point in time than Laurel. Laurel is one of the greatest competitors the show has ever seen, and winning in an individual format is fitting as Laurel deserved to stand alone.

Yet that’s almost secondary because the lightning in the bottle moment that was the fanfare Cara got from the heartbreak of watching her go out there and try to punch a wall with a broken hand was something you couldn’t script. Everyone was behind Cara Maria at that exact moment. That scene is why so many people are still fans of Cara to this day. This elimination turned Cara Maria from the plucky underdog to one of the female faces of the franchise. When Cara returned for Bloodlines, fans wanted to watch Cara continue to grow and become a Champion. As the years went on, Cara was not only the female face of the franchise — at a certain point, when Bananas hit a rough patch, Cara held down being the overall face of the show with a ton of hate coming her way (a good amount warranted).

Fuck, I feel like I have to take a drag of a cigarette after all that. The Challenge is not what it is today without this elimination between Cara & Laurel.

3 Sylvia vs. Melissa on Vendettas

When discussing pure entertainment, few eliminations get as down and dirty as Sylvia vs. Melissa.

On Vendettas, Melissa was one of the five OG Brits to debut on The Challenge, and she made the most noise from the jump. Within the first few episodes, Melissa had injured her foot, won an elimination, had a showmance with Nicole Z, was polidicking throughout the house, and got into multiple blowups, notably an explosive one with Kam & Jemmye. Melissa was public enemy #1 in the house, and for that reason, she got thrown into elimination and had to face Sylvia. Sylvia got tossed into elimination by Brad & Joss as they threw her under the bus to avoid a guy elimination day. It was a cowardly move as Sylvia had stepped up to eat rotten cheese during the daily challenge as Brad & Joss didn’t have the stomach for it. Sylvia was rightfully pissed off. Both women were heading into the elimination arena angry and wanted to come back to get some revenge.

The elimination they played was a variation of balls in which TJ would drop the ball down a plinko-esque board; the two would race to grab the ball and then put it in their respective goals. First player to three wins. It was a physical headbanger; they could tackle, wrestle, or do whatever in their path to their goals. They also competed in an oil pit, which added to the visual aspect of the elimination and affected how the players combated each other.

The actual elimination was a fantastic back-and-forth. Even though Sylvia had the size/weight advantage, she also entered the elimination with a 100+ degree fever that evened the odds between them. Along with that, Melissa played a much more vicious dirty game, throwing knees and elbows. It was brutal and fucking awesome to see two women go at it and give 110%. Melissa took the early lead, but Sylvia wasn’t backing down. If anything, Melissa’s physicality brought a beast out of Sylvia to fight back. In the end, Sylvia took home a 3–1 win. Sadly, both players’ games were over after this elimination, as Sylvia’s fever led to her getting medically removed.

2 Ashley vs. Nicole vs. Amanda on Invasion of the Champions

On Invasion, they made history as the final Underdog elimination was the first ever three-person elimination in Challenge history. To this day, the initial three-woman elimination is still the best there’s ever been.

After Jenna Compono got knocked in Part 1 of the Underdog Bloodbath, two spots in the Final remained for Ashley, Amanda, and Nicole. The opening was a threeway reverse tug-of-war elimination. We had seen eliminations like this in the past, including a great 1+ HR-long battle between Cara Maria & Nia. The added third person to this elimination created much more chaos as all three tried to sprint to their bell for victory and immediately got knocked back by the momentum of two opposing forces at once. From there, we watched each player try to drag themselves forward while the weight of two opponents pulled them away in differing directions. The players were all tightly harnessed, which led to excruciating pain as the weight and pressure of pulling forward and getting pulled back squeezed their limbs.

Nicole was the clear favorite physically, and if they ran the elimination straight up, she would’ve eventually won out. Ashley sounded like she was going to die for the majority of this elimination. Although Amanda was the smallest person there, she kept digging, getting low, and clawing forward. Every time Amanda got somewhat close, Nicole would turn around and use her upper body strength to reel her back in. It looked like it was going to be a never-ending stalemate, that is, until the Lavender Ladies decided to team up. Ashley & Amanda moved in one direction together, and Nicole could only play defense from there. In the end, Nicole decided she disliked Amanda more than Ashley, leading Ashley to take the victory. This was a critical moment as Ashley was very clearly struggling the most in the elimination, and it was amazing to watch her take advantage of the situation at hand. Looking back, there was a real possibility we wouldn’t have ever gotten 2x Champion Millionaire Mitchell if Nicole chose to hold down Ashley instead of Amanda.

This now leads us to an additionally entertaining Part Two of the elimination. Nicole & Amanda played a physical elimination where they got tethered together inside a dirt pit circle where the first person to get two feet outside of the ring wins the round; it was a best 2 out of 3 game. Even though Nicole could squat-press Amanda, the elimination was thrilling because Amanda used her brain. Amanda waited for the perfect moment to use momentum to try and scramble out the circle first. Nicole won Round One by literal inches, where Amanda’s second foot stumbled on the rope that was the circle boundary. If Amanda had gotten the edge of her foot out, she would’ve won the elimination 2–0 as she took Round Two using the same strategy. In Round Three, Nicole finally figured out what Amanda was trying to do and used her physicality to keep Amanda from getting anywhere near the outside to pull out the win.

The elimination was a big moment for all three players involved. Ashley snaked and outsmarted both her ally and her enemy to build the path to victory that turned her into a Challenge legend. Nicole got to eat more peanut butter in the house. Amanda got to show many that there is both a lot of grit and intelligence behind the big drama persona.

1 Susie vs. Kim on The Ruins

Susie vs. Kim on The Ruins is the best fucking elimination this show has ever seen. I previously ranked this as the best “Pole Wrestle” type elimination The Challenge has ever seen and was hoping not to rank it #1 so that I could show some variety. Then I rewatched the elimination and went, “Yeah, this is fucking awesome.”

For context, The Ruins was coming to a close, where Susie was the only remaining female Champion, meaning she would have to go into elimination. Susie was playing to survive, and Kim was playing for a guaranteed spot in the Final. The extra wrinkle was the player bank accounts, where the winner of this elimination would have 25k dollars — the most of any player entering the Final. If we’re truthful, the stakes of the elimination are only a bonus because the elimination itself was a spectacle of brutality.

The elimination was Rag Doll — a Pole Wrestle variation, where they used a rope instead of a pole. I cannot understate how different the rope makes the elimination. The positions players can maneuver into with the rope make it 10x more dangerous and 100x more entertaining.

Visually, the elimination was an intense physical battle, and here’s a play-by-play breakdown copied from a previous blog of mine:

Early into the elimination, Susie has the upper hand and punishes Kim throughout. At one point, the rope is behind Kim’s neck and is 20% away from being entirely around it, choking her. She maintains her grip at the bottom of the rope despite it possibly burning her neck.

At one point, they both stand up, and the rope goes from under Susie’s legs to between them. Kim is trying as hard as she can to pull the rope from both Susie’s arms and legs. Meanwhile, Susie’s inner thighs are feeling the pain of a rope getting pulled through them. Can you imagine a robe burn on the inner part of your legs that close to your private parts? On top of it all, IT IS RAINING. Except it’s not, MTV used a rain machine to make it more intense. Simply wow.

Susie gets the upper hand again by knocking Kim to the floor, ties a mini two-hand grip to start lifting and smashing a grounded Kim and bringing her back to the ground. Kim is not having a good time at this point.

Now that Kim is making noises that sound like she is dying, Susie attempts to wrap the rope around her arm to limit Kim’s grip and pull out the win. Kim sees this and quickly grabs the top of Susie’s rope that she is leaving open to now constrict Susie’s arm.

As you can see, Susie does not take kindly to this move. The two white women are now bright red. Kim is nearing purple.

After a long battle in the rain and many rope burns, Susie pulls out the win.

I don’t think this elimination has as much historical relevance as some of the others from this blog. Yet, if you asked me to pull up an elimination between two women to sell the intensity of The Challenge to a random person on the street, it would be Kim vs. Susie. What’s so amazing is that these two women look like they could have gotten pulled out of a Nordstrom Rack or a fucking Hobby Lobby, yet you throw them into this elimination, add some rain, and they become badass gladiators. That’s the beauty of The Challenge right there.