S01.E01: The United States of Challenge

[peachmangosteen]

Airs July 6th.

[Dewey Decimate]

I'm sorry, but did Enzo actually criticize the TAR guy for talking about his cats? Fuck off, MEOW-MEOW.

[mojoween]

This may be the eye-candiest show ever, except for Tyson and Ben because I just cannot.

Although never has an image been more apropos than when the big doors open, and Tyson and his ego are the first ones through.

But Danny and Xavier and David and Javonny (sorry dude) and OF COURSE Kyland.

Love Danny.  Love him so much.

Edited July 7, 2022 by mojoween

[AntFTW]

I only know all of the Survivor people and a few Love Island folks from the one season I watched of that show. Everyone else is Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Javonny talked so much shit only to lose elimination.

‘Knot so Fast’ is not that great of a partnered elimination game but whatever…

If they really wanted maximum drama, there would have been a house vote for elimination, rather than the losers going into elimination.

[Michichick]

I thought this episode was pretty good. I love all forms of The Challenge, even when populated by some people I don’t like. I was rooting for Kyland to lose that elimination because I can’t stand him.

Very happy to see Danny.

[bunnyface]

I'm glad they are changing teams.  I have problems with Danny/Shan because I like him and hate her. 

All we missed in the previews was a shot of TJ cackling.  

A solid opening, I thought.  Although I do wish they voted for elimination.

I have no memory of a Desi on Survivor.

Edited July 7, 2022 by bunnyface

[LadyChatts]

I don’t know any thing about the Love Island people, but that girl Shannon is super annoying (that cast was all annoying, but she was the worst).  I had forgotten some of the people who were cast, and remembered that there are some I didn’t need to see again.

I do believe that the Survivor and TAR people will ultimately have the advantage in this game when it comes to challenges.  I would have been terrible at that first challenge because math is my kryptonite.  Factor in the heights and I would have just sent myself to the arena.  I’m surprised only Kyland and Azah had to do it twice.

I don't remember seeing this much of Danny on Survivor, but I'm disappointed we didn't.  He even poked fun at Shan's little anthem she hums to herself (please don't let that stupid thing rear its ugly head).  I did laugh when he said his wife warned him to stay away from Shan, and they ended up partnered together.  Because of the whole Survivor/Big Brother mega alliance I'm glad that they are switching teams.

Nice premiere overall.

Edited July 7, 2022 by LadyChatts

[AntFTW]

6 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

I have no memory of a Desi on Survivor.

She didn’t last very long. She was on the season that Ben won. Healers Hustlers… something.

7 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

I don't remember seeing this much of Danny on Survivor, but I'm disappointed we didn't.  He even poked fun at Shan's little anthem she hums to herself (please don't let that stupid thing rear its ugly head).

I didn’t even get that reference. I didn’t understand what Danny meant. I completely forgot about her little tune that she hums to herself.

10 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

A solid opening, I thought.  Although I do wish they voted for elimination.

So do I. Maximum drama!

[choclatechip45]

Tyson's opening line was great. I enjoyed it. I was hoping Kyland would get sent home first even though I like Azah. 

[jsm1125]

31 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

She didn’t last very long. She was on the season that Ben won. Healers Hustlers… something.

I didn’t even get that reference. I didn’t understand what Danny meant. I completely forgot about her little tune that she hums to herself.

So do I. Maximum drama!

Desi made it to the beginning of the jury phase in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. I never thought we’d see her on TV again so I’m pleasantly surprised. And she’s gorgeous.

[Lantern7]

I need to get to sleep, so these are random thoughts.

Short story: I wasn't feeling it. I blame most of that on finishing off All Stars, which stumbled to its conclusion. It was supposed to feel better than the "regular" series, but the magic has worn off . . . and I'm thinking it'll happen faster here.

Just a bunch of people I've never seen or can barely remember, and no real evidence on why they'd revere TJ Lavin. I know that MTV is way easier to get than when I was a kid (didn't get cable until I moved at the age of 16), but I'd think CBS audiences would want to know how Teege could be a legend. He's probably better than Julie Chen0Mooves and whatever butthead hosts Love Island, but that isn't saying much.

48 minutes ago, Dewey Decimate said:

I'm sorry, but did Enzo actually criticize the TAR guy for talking about his cats? Fuck off, MEOW-MEOW.

I read a profile on him. My impression: he failed to make the cast of Jersey Shore after bombing on an essay on why he wanted to be on the show. Does that make sense?

I'm happy the Racers are still in there. I did not like the "Mine Five" alliance of TAR32 (long-ass story), but I'm good with rooting for James here. On Facebook, I commented on a clip that TJ has never seen TAR, and his partner Will liked like.

[AntFTW]

6 minutes ago, jsm1125 said:

Desi made it to the beginning of the jury phase in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. I never thought we’d see her on TV again so I’m pleasantly surprised. And she’s gorgeous.

I never thought we’d see her on TV again either… and yes, she’s absolutely stunning.

[healthnut]

5 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I never thought we’d see her on TV again either… and yes, she’s absolutely stunning.

Pretty sure she’s a pageant girl. 

Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode, I only know survivor people so I’m annoyed at all the Love Island people taking all the confessionals 😂

I’m glad they’re changing up partnerships each week, that should be fun. Some of people seem super out of their element, like  the Aska chick, but she pulled through. Honey, leave the fake eyelashes at home. 

[Kleav]

Was it really only two challenges in 90 minutes and the rest was yapping? Yeesh. 

[DEL901]

3 minutes ago, Kleav said:

Was it really only two challenges in 90 minutes and the rest was yapping? Yeesh. 

Standard for The Challenge.  

[leocadia]

1 hour ago, Michichick said:

I was rooting for Kyland to lose that elimination because I can’t stand him.

I was surprised to see that Ky had a fan, but then read the rest of the sentence and it made a lot more sense.   I can't believe he was blaming  Azah post-comp.  I could maybe see that she slowed them down, but he could have gotten the numbers right on the first try.  That loss is on both of them.  Sigh, I don't know if I can take another summer of Ky...the only bright side is maybe the KyComplains twitter feed will dig up some new material.

I don't really care that Javonny and Cely went home, but I would have loved to see it go the other way.  Sadly, I'm sure all the people I dislike will be there forever while the few I like will be fodder.  

[ByaNose]

Not a bad first episode with a good twist at the end. That said, the guys are going dread having to work with Azah. I thought it was a fluke on BB but alas it was not. I’ve always Tyson (he’s not my cup of tea) but he’s a great competitor. I don’t know anyone from Love Island so they can all leave accordingly. 

[mertensia]

I was pleasantly surprised how many people could do math on the fly like that. Also I, lied that they had different math equations.

I like Cely, but oh well.

[aghst]

Only show I watch is TAR and I barely remember the 3 TAR people.

BB and Survivor seem to be younger, more athletic and the TAR or LI casts.  The LI girls twerking at the bar probably didn't help the other challengers take them seriously.

Oh and I guess the pandemic is over, they're going out in public, unless they rented the bar or club for the night.  Would be interesting if some challengers are unable to compete because they test positive or have some noticeable symptoms which hurt their ability to compete.

I don't even think there are formal alliances but based on this first episode, it doesn't matter, only two people decide who to send into the Arena with the last place team.

Will it remain that way or will everyone get a vote, in which case alliances will matter?

I don't even know if  that politicking even worked.  Tyson said the guy owned him but not really, unless they vote or the TAR guy wins some daily challenges.

For this Daily Challenge, it looked good at first but later teams had an advantage and just went for it, repelled faster.  

The elimination was an old standard on the Challenges but this group is not used to it so they probably didn't knot it up real well.

We will see how the random team assignment works.  If everyone gets a vote, then alliances will become more of a factor.

The threshold for making the Final seems low, just win one Daily Challenge and avoid being eliminated.   

The previews for the season showed a lot of action, lot of climbing and running, swimming, etc. with wide shots.  So they're not limited to a specific area, so maybe more endurance challenges even before the Final, which tend to be heavily endurance.  Maybe it reflects a bigger production budget.

Could make for more telegenic Daily Challenges.

But why only $500k on a CBS show when MTV has already had $1 million prizes for several seasons?

Edited July 7, 2022 by aghst

[DEL901]

Diabolical stating Tyson and Angela now qualify for the final…and that of you win in elimination, get get the losers bank.   

[AntFTW]

21 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

Diabolical stating Tyson and Angela now qualify for the final…and that of you win in elimination, get get the losers bank.   

It seems kinda weird that they only need $5K to qualify for the final and they can win that in one challenge. That just doesn’t make sense to me.

[DEL901]

4 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

It seems kinda weird that they only need $5K to qualify for the final and they can win that in one challenge. That just doesn’t make sense to me.

Once you qualify, you are now playing defence, especially as the finale gets closer.  People will start WANTING to go into the elimination against those who have the $$$.

Edited July 7, 2022 by DEL901

[AntFTW]

If anyone remembers LaToya passing out on Free Agents on the flagship show after running up all those stairs (which I believe was the first episode of that season), this episode completely mirrored that with the two Big Brother people that lost.

1 minute ago, DEL901 said:

Once you qualify, you are now playing defence, especially as the finale gets closer.  People will start WANTING to go into the elimination against those who have the $$$.

I understand that but only after one challenge win?

If the flagship show is any guide with the skulls, there probably won’t be many takers wanting to go into elimination regardless.

[DEL901]

15 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I understand that but only after one challenge win?

If the flagship show is any guide with the skulls, there probably won’t be many takers wanting to go into elimination regardless.

…until the end and then they started panicking IIRC.    Will be interesting to see when that point comes for all of these rookies. 

[LakeGal]

I don't like Kyland or Cely.  I was good with either pair going home.  

[yourdreamer]

3 minutes ago, LakeGal said:

I don't like Kyland or Cely.  I was good with either pair going home.  

That would've actually been the perfect pair to go home! I like Javonny (I mean, he was an ass on Love Island to Cely, but I don't hate him for some reason - probably because she was so naive about him), and I like Azah, although a stiff wind will knock her down.  Kyland is pretty but annoying to listen to.

[bunnyface]

7 hours ago, aghst said:

But why only $500k on a CBS show when MTV has already had $1 million prizes for several seasons?

Survivor and TAR have always had $1 million winners also.  I have no idea what the other two shows give as winnings.  This just seems cheap.

[peachmangosteen]

15 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

Survivor and TAR have always had $1 million winners also.  I have no idea what the other two shows give as winnings.  This just seems cheap.

BB used to be 500,000 but it was upped to 750,000 and google tells me the winning Love Island couple gets 50,000 each.

[fishcakes]

5 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

the winning Love Island couple gets 50,000 each.

One member of the couple gets $100K, and they can choose to keep it all or split it evenly with their partner. So far, everyone (on the USA version anyway) has split the money, which is boring.

[AntFTW]

I hate having to learn all these names and alliance names too. Oh my! What is the "The Cookout"?

[jsm1125]

39 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I hate having to learn all these names and alliance names too. Oh my! What is the "The Cookout"?

The Cookout was the dominant alliance in Big Brother 23. All of the Black players saw how disenfranchised and easily targeted past Black players were in previous seasons, so they took advantage of the new 50% BIPOC CBS mandate to form and stick with their alliance of 6. They also each formed specific individual relationships with one other person outside of the alliance so it wouldn’t seem as obvious an alliance to the rest of the house (Xavier with Alyssa, Derek F and Azah with Brittany, Kyland with Sarah Beth, Hannah with Derek X, and Tiffany with Claire). Xavier, Azah, Kyland and Tiffany from this season of the Challenge were all part of the cookout.

Edited July 7, 2022 by jsm1125

[choclatechip45]

Angela describing her time as a villain on Big Brother made me laugh. I just remember her lounging in bed with Tyler.

[Silver-hyren]

I’ve never seen The Challenge so had no idea what to expect. My initial opinion is way too many people playing, and the sets and uniforms give off serious Hunger Games/Squid Game vibes.

[hjmugillecuty]

When Sarah started talking about being a cop and how that would help her in this game, I just rolled my eyes. She has clearly never seen the Challenge.

[Lantern7]

57 minutes ago, hjmugillecuty said:

When Sarah started talking about being a cop and how that would help her in this game, I just rolled my eyes. She has clearly never seen the Challenge.

In her defense, this format will probably differ vastly from the "regular" version. I wouldn't write her off. This time  she doesn't have fellow cop  Tony running around like a lunatic.

[aghst]

1 hour ago, hjmugillecuty said:

When Sarah started talking about being a cop and how that would help her in this game, I just rolled my eyes. She has clearly never seen the Challenge.

12 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

In her defense, this format will probably differ vastly from the "regular" version. I wouldn't write her off. This time  she doesn't have fellow cop  Tony running around like a lunatic.

Supposedly she ran marathons, trained in MMA?  She said she's repelled down buildings in her training for SWAT but she still didn't win or even place in the top 3.

[AntFTW]

34 minutes ago, aghst said:

Supposedly she ran marathons, trained in MMA?  She said she's repelled down buildings in her training for SWAT but she still didn't win or even place in the top 3.

I assume they don't do math in the SWAT training.

[iMonrey]

So this show has been on the air for nine seasons already? Where, MTV? I've never heard of it before - or the host.

The contestants range from players I've never heard of before, to players I only vaguely remember, to players I actively dislike. There is literally nobody I'm jazzed about seeing again. And I've never watched Love Island and you couldn't pay me enough to do so. Aside from the fact that it's another CBS reality show it doesn't seem like it belongs in the mix. There is also a strange imbalance of players from the four different shows. I'm not sure how this all works but that doesn't seem fair right off the bat.

I'll give it another episode or two but so far it's not grabbing me. A whole hour of people rappelling down the side of a building isn't something I find particularly interesting. It also feels over-produced with the slo-mo entries into the elimination arena. It's not The Hunger Games for Pete's sake.

[Jobiska]

Well, I'm a minority, I think, in always liking Tyson (while recognizing that he can be a jerk sometimes, but his dry humor is just my style), always liking the Afghanimals (did Leo really say his cats were named Leo and Leia, or did he say Luke and I misheard)? and Leo is cracking me up with the cat references, and not minding James from TAR.  TAR is my favorite reality show bar none, so I'm rooting for those three.  I watch Survivor but am not keen on Ben or Shan or Tasha, and not really Sarah either--in addition to Tyson, Danny's fine.  Oh I also liked Dom in his season.  But he was mostly invisible here.  And I don't really remember Desi.

Tiffany's a good narrator and she cracked me up with "TJ always thinks everything is funny.  It's not funny" or whatever she said.  It was also interesting to see X saying Alyssa had his back and her countering all that in her talking heads.  I mean, I get the cast still all liking each other as people but her and Derek wanting "revenge."

Not really surprised, but pleased, that this group all had basic math skills.  The math, puzzles, trivia challenges on the regular Challenge generally depress me with how few people are even semicompetent at them.  

[peachmangosteen]

52 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

So this show has been on the air for nine seasons already?

37 seasons lol.

[DEL901]

53 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

So this show has been on the air for nine seasons already? Where, MTV? I've never heard of it before - or the host.

The original is now filming season 38.   And the All Star version finished broadcasting season 3.

[AntFTW]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

So this show has been on the air for nine seasons already? Where, MTV? I've never heard of it before - or the host.

The original show on MTV has had 37 seasons and on its way to 38. It's been on since the late 90s.

This show on CBS is separate from the MTV show. The contestants on the MTV show are generally from other MTV shows (and international MTV shows). Over the past few seasons, maybe since season 33, the MTV show has been including contestants from other Paramount/Viacom/CBS networks and shows like Big Brother (one of winners from the most recent season on MTV was Kaycee Clark who also won Big Brother) and Survivor (the most recent season had two Survivor USA winners Michele Fitzgerald and Tommy Sheehan and a few other nonwinners). They have also been including people from international versions of those shows also.

Edited July 8, 2022 by AntFTW

[Jobiska]

Oh, I wonder if Cashel and Cashay like cashews.  I know they hope they cash in big on this show.

[AntFTW]

11 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

The original is now filming season 38.   And the All Star version finished broadcasting season 3.

TJ is busy. Nonstop flying all over the world to shoot All Stars, this CBS version, and the MTV flagship.

[KeithJ]

Maybe I'm getting a bit on the older side but that's how those Love Island women act in a bar?  That's college drunkenness behavior.  I'd be embarrassed to be out with any of them.

[lilabennet]

The first challenge was a terrible idea.  They really need to think more about how interesting the challenges are for the viewers watching vs how difficult/scary they are for the challengers.  That challenge was not a good introduction to the show for new viewers.  And I'm tired of Knot So Fast.  They should go back to Spool (the version they used in The Ruins).  

[AntFTW]

20 hours ago, healthnut said:

Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode, I only know survivor people so I’m annoyed at all the Love Island people taking all the confessionals 😂

Me too, plus 1 season of Love Island. It seems like everyone from the one season of Love Island that I watched is on this show... and they weren't particularly entertaining.

I really hate getting to know all the people I don't know. I can't remember names... FOR SHIT!

1 hour ago, lilabennet said:

And I'm tired of Knot So Fast. 

I expected a new elimination game. Since they are seemingly promoting this as a separate show from the MTV show, I expected different elimination games.

Edited July 8, 2022 by AntFTW

[kaygeeret]

I despise Big Brother and Love Island.

I watch Survivor intermittently, if at all.

The only show I watch is TAR.

So, I knew almost no one and I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of people, none of whom seemed to be memorable.

I'll stick with it for a bit more (emphasis bit) but really this was a bore.

The LI folks were unimpressive and that is kind!

Sigh!

[susannot]

I enjoyed this first episode.  Rooting for Danny but, failing him, any of the Survivor alums.  Or after them, the amazing Race alums.  Will did a great job tonight. 

The Love Island people can all leave any time and soon.  Do they have any pretense at athletic ability?  No, they just look pretty and make out with each other.  Ridiculous.

I was interested to see The Cookout people from Big Brother.  If Azak was one of them she is painfully thin and looks like she will sweep away in a strong wind.  Her partner Kyland is very cute though.  He didn't win, did he?  Didn't a guy named X win?  I saw him briefly but don't know who he is yet.

[DEL901]

2 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I expected a new elimination game. Since they are seemingly promoting this as a separate show from the MTV show, I expected different elimination games.

Looks like the mothership is filming season 38 in….Argentina.