The Challenge (TV series)

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox television The Challenge (originally known as Road Rules: All Stars, followed by Real World/Road Rules Challenge) is a reality competition show on MTV that is a spin-off of two of the network's reality shows, The Real World and Road Rules and originally featured alumni from these two shows. Casting for The Challenge has expanded over the years to include contestants who debuted on The Challenge itself, and other MTV franchises. Starting in 2018, new contestants were chosen outside of the MTV network programming. The contestants compete against one another in various extreme challenges to avoid elimination. The winners of the final challenge win the competition and typically share a large cash prize. The Challenge is currently hosted by T. J. Lavin.

The series premiered on April 20, 1998. The show was originally titled Road Rules: All Stars, and had notable Real World alumni participated in a Road Rules style road-trip. It was renamed Real World/Road Rules Challenge for the 2nd season, then later abridged to simply The Challenge by the show's 19th season. Since the fourth season, each season has supplied the show with a unique subtitle, such as Rivals. Each season consists of a format and theme from which the subtitle is derived.

The show's forty-first season, titled Vets & New Threats, premiered on July 30, 2025.

Overview

The Challenge casts are season-specific as the cast varies from season to season. The casts are made up of contestants originating from one of The Challenge's related TV programs and, in a few seasons, previously unknown contestants. The cast usually contains both "veterans" (or vets) and "rookies". Veterans are thought of as players that have won at least one Challenge season or have appeared on several seasons of the show; Rookies refer to newer players. Many recent alumni come from various reality shows including Survivor, The Amazing Race, Are You the One?, Big Brother, Ex on the Beach, Vanderpump Rules and Love Island as well as non-reality entertainment and sports programs.

A season's typical multitude of cast members are usually divided up into separate teams or pairs according to a certain criterion, which varies from season to season. The criteria that teams have been arranged by over the show's history have ranged from: gender, the contestants' original show, heroic or villainous status, rivals, countries, family members and ex-romantic partners. Contestants compete in numerous missions in order to win prizes and advance in the overall game. The format of the competition varies by season. In elimination rounds, contestants or teams compete against each other to determine who is eliminated from the season. Each season has its own, distinctive elimination round, distinguished from those of other seasons. Sporadically throughout the course of each episode, various contestants are seen privately expressing themselves through reality TV confessionals about the events taking place on the show.

Some seasons, however, have used entirely different formats from the typical ones: The Island is one Challenge in particular that adopted many features atypical to Real World/Road Rules Challenge, instead taking concepts like that of another reality television game show Survivor; as another example, the first season (Road Rules: All Stars) ironically, only included contestants from The Real World and consisted of a much smaller cast before the show was completely restructured in its second season. Except for season one, a monetary prize has always been the award for winning the final mission.

Hosts

The series initially used no hosts but instead a former cast member who had been kicked off his or her season, providing assignments as "Mr." or "Ms. Big" (David "Puck" Rainey, David Edwards, and Gladys Sanabria served this role). After one season without anyone in this role, the series began using hosts: Eric Nies and Mark Long co-hosted a season, and Jonny Moseley and Dave Mirra hosted various seasons before T. J. Lavin became the show's regular host by the 11th season.

History

Over time, a playful rivalry developed between the cast of Road Rules and The Real World, with the former occasionally attempting to prank the latter while it was in production. During the filming of The Real World: Boston and Road Rules: Islands, the two casts met while the Real World cast was vacationing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Producers set up a face-off where both teams would compete for a cash prize. The episode brought in high ratings and this set ideas in motion to produce the spin-off series. The series started airing in April 1998 as Road Rules: All Stars, and featured cast members from five seasons of The Real World. Another face-off called AquaGames, hosted by Kit Hoover and Mark Long, was between The Real World: Seattle and Road Rules: Down Under and aired as part of those shows later in 1998.

After Road Rules: All Stars, producers decided to include former cast members of Road Rules in the series as well. In the next season, two six-member teams were sent around the world in a competition to see which show could best the other in head-to-head competition. The series followed the format for three years. Following the successful boom of reality television in the new millennium, from shows like Survivor, producers decided to add new elements to the series. 2002's Battle of the Seasons was the first season to depart from the previous six-member structure and brought in a large group of former cast members to compete in one location. The show added in eliminations, with earlier season incorporated voting off by majority, that eventually changed to elimination competitions between cast members.

Cast members

Contestants are various reality television cast members from different television shows. Originally the cast consisted of The Real World and Road Rules alumni, and cast who debuted directly on The Challenge, but eventually MTV expanded it to other alumni from other reality shows and networks.

Seasons

Order	Title	Host(s)	Format	Original Release	Location of the residence	Champion(s)
1	Road Rules: All Stars	David "Puck" Rainey	1 team of 5	April 20, 1998 - May 18, 1998	Road trip: Montreal → Lake Placid → Wellington → Auckland → Los Angeles	Cynthia Roberts, Eric Nies, Jon Brennan, Rachel Campos & Sean Duffy
2	Real World vs. Road Rules	David Edwards	2 teams of 6	November 9, 1999 - December 14, 1999	Road trip: San Francisco → Los Angeles → Las Vegas → Los Angeles	Road Rules (Anne Wharton, Kalle Dedolph, Kefla Hare, Mark Long, Noah Rickun & Roni Martin)
3	Challenge 2000	Gladys Sanabria	2 teams of 6	January 17, 2000 - April 3, 2000	Road trip: Las Vegas → Nashville → Miami	Road Rules (Carlos "Los" Jackson, Dan Setzler, Holly Shand, Piggy Thomas, Veronica Portillo & Yes Duffy)
4	Extreme Challenge	none	2 teams of 6	January 9, 2001 - May 22, 2001	Road trip: Portland, ME → Montreal → Boston → London → Hamburg → Prague → London → New York → Los Angeles	Real World (Dan Renzi, Jamie Murray, Julie Stoffer, Kameelah Phillips, Rebecca Lord & Syrus Yarbrough)
5	Battle of the Seasons	Eric Nies & Mark Long	2 teams of 8 pairs	January 28, 2002 - May 27, 2002	Cabo San Lucas, Mexico	Real World (Danny Roberts & Kelley Limp, Mike Mizanin & Coral Smith, Sean Duffy & Elka Walker)
6	Battle of the Sexes	Jonny Moseley	2 teams of 18	December 30, 2002 - May 12, 2003	Montego Bay, Jamaica	Guys (Colin Mortensen, Jamie Murray & Mark Long)
7	The Gauntlet		2 teams of 14	September 29, 2003 - January 26, 2004	Telluride, Colorado	Road Rules (Adam Larson, Cara Zavaleta, Darrell Taylor, Dave Giuntoli, Rachel Robinson, Roni Martin, Sarah Greyson, Theo Vonkurnatowski & Veronica Portillo)
8	The Inferno	Dave Mirra	2 teams of 10	February 2, 2004 - May 31, 2004	Acapulco, Mexico	Road Rules (Abram Boise, Christena Pyle, Darrell Taylor, Holly Shand, Katie Doyle, Kendal Sheppard, Timmy Beggy & Veronica Portillo)
9	Battle of the Sexes 2	Jonny Moseley	2 teams of 18	October 4, 2004 - January 31, 2005	Santa Fe, New Mexico	Guys (Dan Setzler, Eric Nies & Theo Vonkurnatowski)
10	The Inferno II	Dave Mirra	2 teams of 10	March 7, 2005 - June 20, 2005	Manzanillo, Mexico	Good Guys (Darrell Taylor, Jamie Chung, Landon Lueck & Mike Mizanin)
11	The Gauntlet 2	T. J. Lavin	2 teams of 16	December 5, 2005 - March 27, 2006	Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago	Rookies (Alton Williams, Ibis Nieves, Jamie Murray, Jodi Weatherton, Kina Dean, Landon Lueck, MJ Garrett, Randy Barry & Susie Meister)
12	Fresh Meat		12 pairs	May 29, 2006 - September 11, 2006	Myocum, Australia	Darrell Taylor & Aviv Melmed
13	The Duel		Individual	October 12, 2006 - January 18, 2007	Armação dos Búzios, Brazil	Wes Bergmann
						Jodi Weatherton
14	The Inferno 3		2 teams of 10	April 10, 2007 - July 3, 2007	Somerset West, South Africa	Bad Asses (Abram Boise, Derrick Kosinski, Evelyn Smith, Janelle Casanave, Kenny Santucci & Tonya Cooley)
15	The Gauntlet III		2 teams of 16	January 23, 2008 - March 26, 2008	Puerto Vallarta, Mexico	Rookies (Frank Roessler, Jillian Zoboroski, Johanna Botta, Nehemiah Clark, Rachel Moyal & Tori Hall)
16	The Island		Individual →2 teams of 4	September 10, 2008 - October 29, 2008	Colón Island, Panama	Red Boat (Derrick Kosinski, Evelyn Smith, Johnny Devenanzio & Kenny Santucci)
17	The Duel II		Individual	April 8, 2009 - June 17, 2009	Queenstown, New Zealand	Evan Starkman
						Rachel Robinson
18	The Ruins		2 teams of 14	September 30, 2009 - December 23, 2009	Phuket, Thailand	Champions (Derrick Kosinski, Evan Starkman, Johnny Devenanzio, Kenny Santucci & Susie Meister)
19	Fresh Meat II		13 pairs	April 7, 2010 - June 9, 2010	Whistler, British Columbia, Canada	Landon Lueck & Carley Johnson
20	Cutthroat		3 teams of 10	October 6, 2010 - December 22, 2010	Prague, Czech Republic	Red Team (Brad Fiorenza, Dunbar Merrill, Tori Hall & Tyler Duckworth)
21	Rivals		14 pairs	June 22, 2011 - September 7, 2011	Dominical, Costa Rica → Buenos Aires & Bariloche, Argentina	Johnny Devenanzio & Tyler Duckworth
						Evelyn Smith & Paula Meronek
22	Battle of the Exes		13 pairs	January 25, 2012 - April 4, 2012	Sosúa, Dominican Republic → Reykjavík, Iceland	Johnny Devenanzio & Camila Nakagawa
23	Battle of the Seasons		8 teams of 4	September 19, 2012 - December 19, 2012	Bodrum, Turkey → Swakopmund & Windhoek, Namibia	Team San Diego (Ashley Kelsey, Frank Sweeney, Sam McGinn & Zach Nichols)
24	Rivals II		16 pairs	July 10, 2013 - September 25, 2013	Phuket, Thailand	Chris "CT" Tamburello & Wes Bergmann
						Emily Schromm & Paula Meronek
25	Free Agents		Individual Pairs Teams	April 10, 2014 - June 26, 2014	Punta del Este, Uruguay → Pucón, Chile	03  Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio
						24  Laurel Stucky
26	Battle of the Exes II		13 pairs	January 6, 2015 - March 24, 2015	Pedasí, Panama → Ørsta, Norway	Jordan Wiseley & Sarah Rice
27	Battle of the Bloodlines		14 pairs → 2 teams of 12 → 5 pairs	December 2, 2015 - February 17, 2016	Bodrum, Turkey → Berlin, Germany	Cara Maria Sorbello & Jamie Banks
28	Rivals III		13 pairs	May 4, 2016 - August 3, 2016	Huatulco, Mexico → Mendoza, Argentina	Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio & Sarah Rice
29	Invasion of the Champions		Individual → 2 teams → Individual	February 7, 2017 - May 16, 2017	Krabi, Thailand	Chris "CT" Tamburello
						Ashley Mitchell
30	XXX: Dirty 30		Individual Pairs Teams	July 18, 2017 - November 28, 2017	Cartagena, Colombia → Salta, Argentina	Jordan Wiseley
						Camila Nakagawa
31	Vendettas		Individual Teams	January 2, 2018 - April 17, 2018	Gibraltar, BOT & Marbella, Spain → Prague, Czech Republic	Cara Maria Sorbello
32	Final Reckoning		17 pairs	July 10, 2018 - December 4, 2018	Hermanus, South Africa	Ashley Mitchell & Hunter Barfield
33	War of the Worlds		16 pairs → Individual	February 6, 2019 - May 29, 2019	Swakopmund, Namibia	Turabi "Turbo" Çamkıran
34	War of the Worlds 2		2 teams of 16	August 28, 2019 – December 18, 2019	Chiang Mai and Phuket, Thailand	Team UK (Chris "CT" Tamburello, Dee Nguyen, Jordan Wiseley & Rogan O'Connor)
35	Total Madness		Individual Pairs Teams	April 1, 2020 – July 29, 2020	Prague, Czech Republic → Central Eastern Alps, Austria	Jenny West
						Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio
36	Double Agents		15 pairs	December 9, 2020 – April 21, 2021	Reykjavík, Iceland	Amber Borzotra & Chris "CT" Tamburello
37	Spies, Lies & Allies		17 pairs → 3 teams of 6 → Individual → 3 pairs	August 11, 2021 – December 22, 2021	Vrsar, Croatia	Chris "CT" Tamburello & Kaycee Clark
38	Ride or Dies		17 pairs → 2 teams of 8 →7 pairs	October 12, 2022 – March 1, 2023	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Devin Walker-Molaghan & Tori Deal
39	Battle for a New Champion		Individual Pairs Teams	October 25, 2023 – March 6, 2024	Pula, Croatia	Emanuel Neagu
40	40: Battle of the Eras		4 teams of 10 → Individual	August 14, 2024 – January 22, 2025	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam → Palawan, Philippines	IV  Jenny West
						III  Jordan Wiseley
						I  Rachel Robinson
41	Vets & New Threats		16 pairs	July 30, 2025 – December 17, 2025	Santiago & Andes Mountains, Chile	Template:Diagonal split color box Olivia Kaiser & Yeremi Hykel

Spin-offs

The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars

The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars (originally known as The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros) is a special recurring mini-series of The Challenge. In each multi-week event, alumni from The Challenge compete against celebrities to win money for charity.

Order	Title	Host	Format	Original Release	Location of the residence	Winner(s)
1	Champs vs. Pros	Victor Cruz	2 teams of 10 → 3 pairs	May 16 – June 20, 2017	Los Angeles, California	Cara Maria Sorbello & Darrell Taylor
2	Champs vs. Stars I	Mike "The Miz" Mizanin	2 teams of 10	November 21, 2017 – January 9, 2018		Champs (Chris "CT" Tamburello, Emily Schromm & Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio)
3	Champs vs. Stars II		2 teams of 10 → 7 pairs	April 17 – June 26, 2018		Chris "CT" Tamburello & Tony Raines

The Challenge: All Stars

In 2020, Road Rules: USA – The First Adventure alumnus Mark Long started asking his social media followers if they'd be interested in seeing former cast members of The Challenge coming together for a new version of the series. The movement was titled "We Want OGs." After his idea went viral, he announced a partnership with Bunim/Murray Productions to further develop his project and began gauging interest from potential former cast members. On February 24, 2021, the show was officially announced as The Challenge: All Stars.

Order	Title	Host	Format	Original Release	Location of the residence	Winner(s)
1	All Stars	T. J. Lavin	Individual Pairs Teams	April 1 – May 27, 2021	Andes Mountains, Argentina	Yes Duffy
2	All Stars 2		Individual → 8 pairs	November 11, 2021 – January 13, 2022	Cancún, Mexico	Jonna Mannion & MJ Garrett
3	All Stars 3		Individual Pairs	May 11 - July 6, 2022	Panama City & San José Island, Panama	Wes Bergmann
						Jonna Mannion
4	All Stars 4		Individual Pairs Teams	April 10 - June 19, 2024	Cape Town, South Africa	Laurel Stucky
5	All Stars: Rivals		13 pairs	January 29 - April 16, 2025	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Adam Larson & Steve Meinke

The Challenge: World Championship & International versions

In February 2022, different series of The Challenge were announced, this included three international adaptations for Australia, Argentina, the UK, as well as The Challenge: USA, another American series which aired on CBS with CBS reality show alumni. All editions of the series aired locally on a Paramount-affiliated network and were available globally to stream on Paramount+. These four series were followed by The Challenge: World Championship, which features winners and notable players from the international adaptations and the main series of The Challenge competing for a grand prize. On May 22, 2023, following the conclusion of World Championship, CBS announced that a second season of The Challenge: USA would premiere on August 10, 2023. On June 27, 2024, it was announced that a Swedish version of The Challenge would be airing on TV4 starting on August 12, 2024, marking the first series in the franchise to be produced outside of Bunim/Murray Productions.

Versions

Country	Title	Host(s)	Network	Format	Original Release	Location	Winner(s)
United States	USA	T. J. Lavin	CBS	Individual Pairs	July 6 – September 14, 2022	Buenos Aires & Patagonia, Argentina	Danny McCray
							Sarah Lacina
	USA 2			3 teams of 8 →Individual	August 10 – October 19, 2023	Pula, Croatia	Chris Underwood
							Desi Williams
Australia	Australia	Brihony Dawson	Network 10	Individual Pairs	November 14 – December 13, 2022	Buenos Aires & Pilar, Argentina	Kiki Morris
							Troy Cullen
Argentina	Argentina: El Desafio	Marley	Telefe	Individual Pairs	February 13 – March 7, 2023	Buenos Aires & Pilar, Argentina	Sol Pérez
United Kingdom	UK	Mark Wright	Channel 5	Individual Pairs	February 20 – 24, 2023	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Kaz Crossley
							Tristan Phipps
Global	World Championship	Brihony Dawson Marley Mark Wright T. J. Lavin	Paramount+	14 pairs	March 8 – May 17, 2023	Cape Town, South Africa	Team UK (Jordan Wiseley & Kaz Crossley)
Sweden	Sverige	Pischa Strindstedt	TV4	Pairs	August 12 – October 10, 2024	Larnaca, Cyprus	Jens Rönnqvist & Sandra Cucarano

Specials

Spring Break Challenge

In March 2010, prior to the airing of the 19th season, MTV aired a special spring break spin-off of The Challenge filmed at the Playa Suites Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico. The five-episode spin-off was titled Spring Break Challenge and aired from March 22–26, 2010. The season featured seven Challenge alum who coached teams of college-aged friends through various challenges and elimination rounds in an attempt to win $50,000 in cash and prizes. Fresh Meat alumnus Evan Starkman and The Real World: Key West alumna Paula Meronek served as broadcasters, with T. J. Lavin as the host. Camila Nakagawa, a contestant of the winning team, went on to appear on future challenges, with her debut season being Cutthroat. Nakagawa is the only player to appear on the main series.

Coach	Original season	Finish
	Road Rules: Down Under	Winner
	Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat	Runner-up
	The Real World: Austin	Third place
	Road Rules: Campus Crawl	Episode 4
	The Real World: Philadelphia	Episode 3
	Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat	Episode 2
	Road Rules: Campus Crawl	Episode 1

The Challenge: CT's Getting Married

The Challenge: CT's Getting Married is a two-part special revolving around the wedding of Challenge star Chris "CT" Tamburello and Lilianet Solares. MTV released the trailer and premiere date on November 20, 2018. The two-week special premiered on December 11, 2018, and concluded on December 18, 2018.

The Challenge: Untold History

The Challenge: Untold History is a six-part documentary about The Challenge. It featured over 30 former competitors and several celebrity fans, discussing the show and telling behind the scenes stories. It premiered on September 21, 2022, on MTV. A sneak preview was shown during the Unscripted portion of the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards.

The Challenge: Home Turf

The Challenge: Home Turf is a YouTube docuseries which premiered on January 29, 2024. The docuseries focuses on eight cast members visiting their hometown and sharing stories about their career and upbringing.

External links

• MTV's Official The Challenge website
• MTV.ca's Official The Challenge website
• TV.com series reference page Template:Webarchive
• TVGuide.com series reference page
• Template:Trim/ Template:Trim at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck