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The Challenge: North America's fifth sport (spoilers within)


DanteGabriel

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  • 3 weeks later...
28 minutes ago, lady narcissa said:

Enjoyed the first episode! But so much going on and enough new faces that I will need re-watch before I can take everything in.

If you get a chance, watch the episode 0 they had on a couple days ago.  Gave a little more introduction to the players.

Thought this first episode was pretty good.  Definitely feel like there are too many new players - wish they had replaced some with older vets.  But I guess they're maybe using those on all stars now instead?  

I liked the chaos at the end, and liked the addition of a couple other survivor players.  

Are the skulls not being used this season?  If so that's a shame.  I think they could have done a better job implementing them in the last 2 seasons (maybe have fewer of them and/or run out of new skulls earlier but keep the game going long enough for more battles over the skulls people already had).  But still think they were an improvement to the game overall, in that they forced everyone into elimination and didn't allow anybody to coast.  Don't want things to go back to all of the strong players trying to dodge the elimination challenges.

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On 8/12/2021 at 12:26 AM, Whiskeyjack said:

If you get a chance, watch the episode 0 they had on a couple days ago.  Gave a little more introduction to the players.

Thanks! I wasn't expecting a whole additional episode like that but it did help get me clear on everyone.  And it was interesting to see that the non-Americans got to get those fact sheets on everyone and scope out who they wanted to partner with so it wasn't quite as random as Episode 1 made it look.

I was curious about what happened to Nam during Episode 1 so I looked at a couple of articles and it looks like its still a bit unclear but it unfortunately seems to be due to a Covid outbreak after the filming of the beginning of the first episode.  I guess they actually had to take a couple weeks break as a number of the players came down with it.  Either Nam got it and didn't recover soon enough or he had to leave due to schedule conflicts due to the delay - both reasons were stated in different articles.

One of the things that impressed me about last season was how they were able to successfully film the series while Covid was going on without vaccines in place then.  I read a few articles about how they handled it and it was really impressive how well thought out and run the whole process was.  So it was a bit surprising about the outbreak for this season but apparently vaccinations were not required for participants.

I was thinking with Episodes 0 and 1 there was a lot more focus on the personal relationships / possible hookups than last season.  It's more what I remember from earlier Challenge seasons.  Apparently while filming was on hold during the outbreak, the non-infected participants had to all stay in the house and it was very much the party house and drove the relationships forward.  So I guess we will be seeing more of that this season.

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Yeah EP 0 helped learn some of the new players. I read an article that said they wanted to include more global players to broaden the viewership of the show and the way to do that is more rookies from abroad. That and some of the vets just weren't available.

I think im gonna miss the skulls too, it's what drove the Fessy - Nelson fued, without the skulls that never would've happened.

Funny thing I totally agreed with from the article was about Kyle. First season I couldn't stand him, seemed so fake. Season 2 he started to grow on me and now he is one of my favorites. They mentioned how he is a sleeper, doesn't seem to do well in most challenges but is almost always there in the end.

And yes, more survivor players, they are the type that can give the Challenge Vets a run for their money. Didn't Michela exit Survivor the same way? I want to say she was doing good and then was talking w 2 people and she drew up a vote out list in the sand all the way to the finale and the other 2 were like, shit, she is good! So of course they voted her right out.

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17 minutes ago, dbunting said:

I think im gonna miss the skulls too, it's what drove the Fessy - Nelson fued, without the skulls that never would've happened.

While I liked the skulls, they need to switch up the format from year to year to keep things fresh.

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Watched the most recent episode today and have to say the daily challenge was kinda lame. They have a few clunkers each year.

The new format for the elimination challenge might be ok. You can't hide on a team with say a vet, because you can be picked individually by the power couple and the vet left safe.

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  • 9 months later...

Going to revive this topic to say that The Challenge All Stars is pretty good this season, added new younger all stars and every cast member has been to a final so no softies.

Also for those interested there will be a mainstream CBS channel The Challenge starting in July. Cast from across CBS reality shows, 500,000 grand prize, top female and male go on to compete in a new show, The Challenge world?, can't remember title, on Paramount+. It will pit winners from several different challenge shows across the world and the new CBS one. 

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10 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Going to revive this topic to say that The Challenge All Stars is pretty good this season, added new younger all stars and every cast member has been to a final so no softies.

Also for those interested there will be a mainstream CBS channel The Challenge starting in July. Cast from across CBS reality shows, 500,000 grand prize, top female and male go on to compete in a new show, The Challenge world?, can't remember title, on Paramount+. It will pit winners from several different challenge shows across the world and the new CBS one. 

Yeah, I'm digging All-Stars this season.

As far as the main show goes, I feel like the more mainstream it gets, the less fun it is.  I was here for the drama, the drunken insanity, and the fights between a bunch of alcoholic sociopaths competing for enough money to maybe buy a decent car.  

Now it's starting to just feel like any other reality show, albeit with a host who clearly takes great glee when the contestants suffer.  Honestly, TJ might be the only thing holding it together now.  His absolute joy when someone takes a header into water after a thirty foot drop is contagious. 

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12 hours ago, briantw said:

Yeah, I'm digging All-Stars this season.

As far as the main show goes, I feel like the more mainstream it gets, the less fun it is.  I was here for the drama, the drunken insanity, and the fights between a bunch of alcoholic sociopaths competing for enough money to maybe buy a decent car.  

Now it's starting to just feel like any other reality show, albeit with a host who clearly takes great glee when the contestants suffer.  Honestly, TJ might be the only thing holding it together now.  His absolute joy when someone takes a header into water after a thirty foot drop is contagious. 

I think the drama is still there but MTV edits some of it out, we didn't see the Ashley - Josh issue last year. But yeah, now that its serious money they are drinking a little less and making better decisions, dammit!

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I'm like a season behind you guys because I've been watching them slowly with a friend. My friend had never seen the Challenge before but was quickly sucked in. We went back to Dirty 30 and started watching from there so we've got to see the introduction of people like Kyle, Josh, even Tori. Currently in the middle of Spies Lies and Allies. I enjoyed some of the international Survivor people, especially the Romanians, but I agree it's getting watered down. I have no interest in seeing more reality show corporate synergy.

It's funny how much TJ matters to the show. I didn't think of him as a critical part of the show before but it seems like his role has evolved too, and there's a lot more... moral leadership, I guess, coming from him?

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1 hour ago, DanteGabriel said:

I'm like a season behind you guys because I've been watching them slowly with a friend. My friend had never seen the Challenge before but was quickly sucked in. We went back to Dirty 30 and started watching from there so we've got to see the introduction of people like Kyle, Josh, even Tori. Currently in the middle of Spies Lies and Allies. I enjoyed some of the international Survivor people, especially the Romanians, but I agree it's getting watered down. I have no interest in seeing more reality show corporate synergy.

It's funny how much TJ matters to the show. I didn't think of him as a critical part of the show before but it seems like his role has evolved too, and there's a lot more... moral leadership, I guess, coming from him?

Yeah it helps to have him ripping them sometimes, calling them out on their bullshit. Hope to see you never!

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2 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

It's funny how much TJ matters to the show. I didn't think of him as a critical part of the show before but it seems like his role has evolved too, and there's a lot more... moral leadership, I guess, coming from him?

He's part of what makes it fun.  He's basically spent the past twenty years of his life traveling the world and torturing alcoholics and he clearly takes great joy in doing so.

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56 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Hard to imagine this show would still be on the air if he didn't come back after his accident. I'd bet it would have ended years ago.

The Challenge hit the perfect balance of a host who is clearly not just there to collect a check, a cast of absolute psychopaths that are constantly pumped full of alcohol and who, due to the nature of the game, come back year over year, and a handful of awesome games every year like Hall Brawl, trivia/spelling, and any time they have two people fighting over a stick or a ring.

I think the biggest part of the success is the way they always bring people back, though.  There aren't really any other competitive shows like it where you get to know the cast over the course of years and, like wrestlers, they go through a series of face and heel turns and become friends and enemies with one another. 

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On 6/11/2022 at 10:07 PM, briantw said:

The Challenge hit the perfect balance of a host who is clearly not just there to collect a check, a cast of absolute psychopaths that are constantly pumped full of alcohol and who, due to the nature of the game, come back year over year, and a handful of awesome games every year like Hall Brawl, trivia/spelling, and any time they have two people fighting over a stick or a ring.

I think the biggest part of the success is the way they always bring people back, though.  There aren't really any other competitive shows like it where you get to know the cast over the course of years and, like wrestlers, they go through a series of face and heel turns and become friends and enemies with one another. 

Very very accurate. When I was into the UFC at my peak it was because I watched The Ultimate Fighter season 1 and I was invested in seeing these guys fighting going forward. TUF unfortunately turned into The Real World and every other reality show in subsequent seasons though and I stopped watching and now barely watch UFC

BTW, on All stars this is trivia week. You know TJ loves it if he announces it with his evil laugh.

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1 hour ago, dbunting said:

Very very accurate. When I was into the UFC at my peak it was because I watched The Ultimate Fighter season 1 and I was invested in seeing these guys fighting going forward. TUF unfortunately turned into The Real World and every other reality show in subsequent seasons though and I stopped watching and now barely watch UFC

BTW, on All stars this is trivia week. You know TJ loves it if he announces it with his evil laugh.

The old seasons of The Ultimate Fighter were awesome.  I forget the names of the two guys in the season one finale fight but that was one of the all time great UFC fights if I recall correctly.

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2 hours ago, briantw said:

The old seasons of The Ultimate Fighter were awesome.  I forget the names of the two guys in the season one finale fight but that was one of the all time great UFC fights if I recall correctly.

Yep, Forrest and Bonner. One of the greatest slug fests ever.

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31 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Yep, Forrest and Bonner. One of the greatest slug fests ever.

I remember watching that live.  Was a lot of fun.

I was in college right as the UFC was taking off in mid 2000s and we'd always go to bars to watch the big fights.  That was when Anderson Silva was in his prime.  That dude was incredible.  I actually had a bunch of friends over after I'd moved to Charlotte to watch the fight where he snapped his leg in half.

My fondest UFC memory, though, was when Michael Bisping got knocked the absolute fuck out by Dan Henderson and the entire car I was at started chanting USA USA USA.  That was a hell of a lot of fun.  Bisping was such a prick.

That second punch when he was already out was goddamn brutal.

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3 hours ago, briantw said:

I remember watching that live.  Was a lot of fun.

I was in college right as the UFC was taking off in mid 2000s and we'd always go to bars to watch the big fights.  That was when Anderson Silva was in his prime.  That dude was incredible.  I actually had a bunch of friends over after I'd moved to Charlotte to watch the fight where he snapped his leg in half.

My fondest UFC memory, though, was when Michael Bisping got knocked the absolute fuck out by Dan Henderson and the entire car I was at started chanting USA USA USA.  That was a hell of a lot of fun.  Bisping was such a prick.

 

Yeah I never liked him much, Bisping seemed to get more hype than he deserved.  I also had people over for the Silva leg break, quieted everyone down quickly!

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