The Challenge [MTV]

Mr E wrote: »

Just watched the first episode of last season. Jeez it's trashy (typical MTV).

I like it.

I think the trashiness is what really makes it so damn watchable, and also the fact that they celebrate their villainous players so much - Johnny Bananas is like the Russell Hantz (Survivor) or Evil Dick (Big Brother US) of this show, but his ruthlessness hasn't held him back because he's done about 15 seasons of the Challenge and is easily the most popular player, despite his twirly mustache villain-like moves.

Hope the new fans here are still enjoying the show. I'm very much enjoying Vendettas (Season 31; although I see a lot of links listing it as Season 32, because people have yet to realise that Champs VS Stars is a Spin-Off rather than just another season of the Challenge, but hopefully people are managing to figure that confusion out ok) and looking forward to seeing how the rest of this season plays out. As usual I can't help but find myself rooting for Johnny Bananas to win, even though I also think he's a dick.

The Execs of the show did an Interview for Rolling Stone yesterday which is quite an interesting read...
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/inside-mtvs-reality-show-juggernaut-the-challenge-w515559

pooch90 wrote: »

Yes, we're watching Vendettas. Bit of confusion with Champs V Stars but we figured it out. I actually quite like that they put the Brits in. Kind of rooting for them, even though I wouldn't have liked them in their original shows. Good to see Victor from BB USA there too. I hope he does well.

Champs vs Stars is well worth watching too by the way. The format is slightly different, but still very enjoyable.

Yeah, I'm hoping going forward they pull in more people from BB USA and also possibly Survivor and The Amazing Race at some point. It's great seeing Victor and Natalie adapt to this game having seen their season of Big Brother. I don't know any of the UK people because I never watched any of those shows, but there's some decent competitors amongst them, which is really all that we want.

pooch90 wrote: »

I would have seen Kyle in GS and Kayleigh was in Ex on the Beach a few times I think but she did CBB too. Kayleigh is a whackjob!
I agree more from TAR,BBUSA and Survivor would be great. I've no clue what the Are you the One is like, and only knowledge of Real World is about 20 years ago!
Will check out CvS, can't handle waiting a week per episode! Just binged watched Survivor NZ in a week haha.

I watched the first 2 seasons of Are You The One? It's a decent enough concept for a reality series, but unless they shake up the formula in later seasons it started to feel a bit repetitive to me, so I wasn't interested in watching season 3 onwards. I'd recommend watching at least a season of it, as its enjoyable to see at least once.

The New Season looks like its gonna be class. Lots of familiar faces from other reality shows too, so its a good jumping on point for people not so familiar with The Challenge...

pooch90 wrote: »

Really excited!
Stephen Bear is in it. Hope he gets his ass handed to him 😂 be good to see Kyle v Paulie too. So much bluster in the last season but they spent very little time in the same house or competing.

I only know Stephen Bear by reputation, having not seen any of the shows he's been on, but can see him getting his arse kicked by some of the Challenge vets.

As much as Kyle annoys me, I can't stand Paulie and I've liked Cara Maria a whole lot less (she used to be my favourite Challenge contestant aside from CT) since she got involved with either of them. Hated Paulie on his season of Big Brother (he was so misogynistic and abusive) that I can't look past that - even though he's far less awful on The Challenge... and that's saying something, because he can be pretty awful here too.

There was a preview ep on MTV (US & Canada) the other night where we got to know all the new contestants and briefly catch up with the vets for the season. Its worth checking out. The production budget for this season seems to have increased quite a lot too.

pooch90 wrote: »

I saw Bear on his original Shipwrecked forever ago and then when he was on CBB. He's abhorant. If you haven't seen the clip of him on CBB going ape in the diary room and quickly shrink when a massive security guard came in, you need to check it out. Hilarious! Nasty little git.

Paulie is nasty. I don't think he's actually into CM. Just saw it as his way to be kept on for another season. He was awful in BB. Which is a shame because his brother Cody seemed like a decent guy.
The promo seems good. Definitely higher budget. But some of the tasks seem like they've no health and safety team. Like the one last season with Davonne in the freezing water.

There's definitely a health and safety team and there's always ambulances on site - we've seen them show up in the past when things have seemed really bad. It's kind of like Survivor, you know there's a good medical team there, you're just not supposed to see them unless necessary.

Paulie and Cara Maria broke up recently (think it was after the filming of this season) and while I don't know the details the backlash from the other Challenge cast to Paulie has been extreme, so he obviously did something unforgivable for them to be that mad, because none of them are saints when it comes to relationships.

pooch90 wrote: »

I know they've medical teams etc, just some of the tasks look so dangerous and ill thought out sometimes. Whereas in Survivor you don't think someone will get properly hurt.

Yeah I know what you mean. I guess I just look at at it a bit differently; while I see Survivor as more of an every-person's game, I tend to think of The Challenge as more of a Extreme Sports type of game, despite many of the contestants being far from top athlete's. I just see it as being as risky as any contact sport really.

I'm loving this season. It's good that they're keeping to the format of challenge and elimination in one episode - they had been dragging things out just a tad too much for a few seasons there.

Honestly the only person who I can't stand this season is Cara Maria - she used to be one of my absolute favourites but she's just way too much and acting a bit gross at the moment. As much as I despised Paulie on his season of Big Brother, I think he's a very good addition to The Challenge, and really the only negative thing about his game at the moment is his relationship with Cara Maria. Kinda rooting for Da'vonne or Turbo to win at this stage, and would like to see Wes and Kam make it to the end too. I don't dislike the UK crew, but I also haven't warmed to them much, except for Kyle who's been around for a couple of seasons and I actually think is great for The Challenge - again his biggest downfall is the whole Cara Maria thing.

I don't think the producers are willing to drop either Cara Maria or Bananas out for a season or two at this stage, but I wouldn't mind having a break from Cara especially. Bananas is always good to have around and I do enjoy him, but he's doing a couple of other things on the side so its obvious his focus isn't on The Challenge right now and it does no harm for the likes of CT or Wes to disappear for a season here and there, so don't think it would hinder his popularity in any way.

Wes used to be one of the biggest names in The Challenge and his rivalry with Bananas is one of the most prominent in the show's history. He took a few years off there recently to go back to college and get a Masters or something like that. He's always been cocky, but to be fair he's got one of the best track records for winning competitions and more elimination wins than anyone else, and he's also one of the best strategists when it comes to the game. If Wes, Bananas, CT, Leroy, etc would all actually work together for a season instead of going after each other constantly, they'd be fairly unstoppable.

Total Madness is already the best season in years because Paulie and Cara Maria are not on it. Was so sick of them the last few seasons.