Ooh ooh! The new season of MTV’s The Challenge premiered last night and O-M-G it was absolutely spine tingling. If you’re not a fan of the popular MTV series (it’s currently in its 25th season) it’s basically a bunch of Real World people mixed with some randoms. Historically, The Challenge was a blend of two shows on MTV, The Real World and Road Rules. Now they usually take people from all seasons of The Real World, and sometimes throw in some randoms they find on the street. Anyways, it’s basically survivor but they live in a gigantic mansion, Jeff Probst isn’t the host, and they’re all 21-35 year old adults or children, depending on the episode.
So lets get right into this new season. It’s called ‘Free Agents’ because all the contestants are fighting for themselves. Unlike past seasons where contestants are either paired up with their ‘rivals’, ‘exes’ or just put into teams based on their real world season, this one forces the contestants to face each battle on their own. There’s a catch, since they are ‘free agents’ that technically means they can be thrown around anywhere (to any team), so before each challenge, TJ announces what type of challenge they’ll be doing and with whom. It could be a solo mission, an entire team, or just with another female/male.
This week, contestants were separated into two teams (Red vs. Black). It was sort of like a relay race, certain sections of the challenge were given to certain contestants, some players had to run up 42 flights of stairs being chained to one another. The others were waiting at the top of the highest building in Uruguay to get the key from their stair master teammates and solve a puzzle. Once the puzzle was solved, the left over teammates had to walk across a giant beam hanging in mid air. Sounds exhausting right?
I already noticed the editing in this first episode was different. I’ve seen a lot of these seasons and this first episode is definitely one that stands out in terms of production value. I loved that slow motion camera they had on the contestants walking across the beam. Amazing. Also, how cool was that lit up Challenge sign at the pit or whatever it’s called this season.
To say this first challenge was uneventful is completely underrated. Blood and sweat weren’t the only things flying around, Swift (Real World: St Thomas) had the great idea of literally flying through the air to save his teammates who were being trapped in the stairwell. He jumps over Johnny or someone and gets the key out from under the carnage. It was amazing. LaToya (Real World: St. Thomas) felt sick after her stair climb, apparently she hit her head and was rushed to the emergency room while everyone commented on how ‘weak’ she was. Oh boy, how quickly they should’ve regretted saying that one.
Meanwhile, the fate of her teams victory lied in Jess’ sturdy legs and when she ran over that log and rung that bell it was like a light went off inside of her and every single bad childhood memory she had playing sports was wiped away clean because she won for her team! She did it! Dreams really do come true!
After the black team wins the challenge, the team is forced to vote in two players from the red team. They choose to vote in Chet (Real World:Brooklyn) and LaToya. It wasn’t over yet, because everyone’s names who had at least 1 vote against them were still in the running to be sent into eliminations. At the pit, the contestants with votes against have to lift a card and if there’s a skull on it that means they have to go into eliminations. This week, the guy and girl who saw the skulls were: Jemmye (Real World: Back to New Orleans) and Frank (Real World: San Diego)
The elimination game was a simple five rounds of put the ball into the hole. You were either offense or defense…you get the point. Honestly, the guys match up was so anti climatic. After 3 rounds, Chet cut his chin wide open. It was bleeding pretty bad but the medics taped him up and TJ asked him if he wanted to continue and get stitched up later or just forfeit. I really didn’t see it coming, but apparently Chet makes money from his gorgina face and chose to forfeit, he admitted that his face and body were worth more than the idea of a large sum of untaxed money. Is it untaxed though?
The girls on the other hand, went HAM. H. A. M…LaToya definitely put up a fight. I think everyone was expecting her to get blown over by Jemmye, but that first round she literally did a circle around Jemmye and put the ball in the bin. The girls ended up fighting until the last round, but LaToya pulled through and she tossed Jemmye out of the ring ending the match. Jemmye’s a good player though and she gave Toya a huge hug and congratulated her on her well deserved victory. See, this is what all women should aspire to!
In the end, Nany reminds us that last season Jemmye was in the finals and this season she’s going home first. That can only mean this challenge is the biggest and baddest season yet! Stay tuned!
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So here’s the list for the upcoming MTV’s The Challenge. It is a spoiler, but I have a feeling it’s true since some of the cast members went MIA on my Twitter feed for a few weeks. I had a feeling they might be on the next challenge, and sure enough they are! Check it out.
The Hollywood Heroine 