S01.E08: Independence Day

[peachmangosteen]

Airs August 24th.

[LadyChatts]

I liked how Desi compared this change in the game to making the merge on Survivor.  

Cayla’s adorable.  Her reaction to falling in the challenge and getting disqualified is how I would want to handle something like that.

Leo and Sarah need to get over it with Tyson and Angela.  I’m not even a big Angela fan, but it made me happy that she beat out Sarah by seconds in the challenge.  I could just picture Sarah in her head secretly seething.  Then trying to prove how bad ass she is by saying she wants to jump in the elimination against Enzo because she could take him?  At first I said 'big challenge that would be'.  But Leo wasn’t even the strongest competitor, but he was better than Enzo and he still got beat.  And I’ve been wanting Leo to get eliminated, but I will admit I’m disappointed Enzo didn’t go.  He’s not as strong at this as he thinks he is, either.

I hope Sarah goes next.  

[mojoween]

Kiki twice!  Make it a double!

If Danny ran Hall Brawl against Enzo, there would be an Enzo shaped hole at the other end of the partitions.

Has CT ever done Hall Brawl?

[Lamb18]

I thought Sarah was going to jump up and volunteer to take on Enzo. And then get smashed by him and go home. 

[DEL901]

Sarah assumes TJ would let her participate.   I felt bad for Leo.   He missed winning by seconds and then had to do hall brawl.  

[AntFTW]

50 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Kiki twice!  Make it a double!

Kiki is hilarious! She had the best commentary on this elimination.

[KeithJ]

Sarah hating on Angela is getting old.  Sarah said that Angela hasn’t proven anything yet (or something to that effect).  She’s won three times now and one was the individual challenge.  I would love to see Angela and Sarah go into elimination next week and Sarah gets her ass kicked.

[AntFTW]

10 hours ago, mojoween said:

Has CT ever done Hall Brawl?

Not that I can recall, but he's done those daily challenges that are Hall Brawl adjacent. Like this one:

They've had several iterations of this challenge throughout the years. CT and Wes did it (and I think they won) in season 24, CT and Adam in season 21, CT and Zach in season 25... and so on where people just run into each other. CT used to look forward to running into people. I think he tends to avoid it where he can now.

Edited August 25, 2022 by AntFTW

[choclatechip45]

I can't believe my hate for Sarah has me rooting for Angela who I found so boring on BB20

[Lantern7]

*sigh* CBS finally puts out details on the new season of The Amazing Race . . . and one-half of the Afghanimals (the team that has run the most legs in series history) goes home because Ben and Angela are punk-ass bitches and Hall Brawl favors a meathead like Enzo.

Yeah, nice to be reminded that Ben was in the military, and that he was dealing with the anniversary of his friend's death . . . but Leo shouldn't have been put in the Arena after he did so well in the mission.

Yea for players competing as individuals, boo for eliminations alternating between genders. Sarah offering to face Enzo was an epic idea . . . but if she had lost, she'd never be able to live it down. We're talking Josh levels of pity for her. As it stands, she's only sad because she keeps not winning missions.

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Has CT ever done Hall Brawl?

If you count the final Jungle in Rivals? Then yes. He did his damnedest to cremate Johnny and Tyler without using fire . . . and he would've advanced to the final mission had his partner Adam not sold out to their opponents.

[rr2911]

Sarah wanted to take on Enzo had me confused since I understood that it was a male elimination round only.  I guess fans of The Challenge probably understood Sarah?

Sarah should be targeting Cash, shince she was the one who wanted her out a few weeks back.

I'm rooting for Cayla and all of Survivor players!

[mojoween]

3 hours ago, rr2911 said:

Sarah should be targeting Cash, shince she was the one who wanted her out a few weeks back.

Sarah doesn’t know that though because Cash is a lying liar who lies.

Sarah could ask to go into the elimination, but it would be up to TJ.  But considering she was wearing regular clothes when they got to the arena, it sucked all the guessing about whether she was going to even do it.

[seacliffsal]

I was fine with Sarah's stints on Survivor but I'm really not liking her here.  Very dismissive of Angela who has, you know, actually won competitions while touting her own greatness.  It wouldn't surprise me if she already knew JT wouldn't allow her to compete against Enzo (it would throw off all of the remaining competitions [in terms of numbers of male and females]), so just pushed this as a way to make herself look competitive and tough to the viewing audience.  If you're so great, just prove it by, you know, winning.  She also just brushes off her own errors/mistakes but makes drama out of everyone else's.

I was shocked that only one person would be going on-after Angela's performance in the challenge what was the incentive for any of the other women to try?  Also, it makes it seem like this season will never end.  This is my first season of the Challenge and I'm really not impressed with it thus far.

[rr2911]

I was disappointed that Leo didn't go for the Enzo's legs.  Even if Enzo's leg wasn't injured, I was hoping Leo would dive, chop blocking Enzo.  Leo is fast enough to get up and ring the bell. 

[MMLEsq]

When Sarah claimed that no woman had ever volunteered to do a guys' challenge, I immediately thought of Evelyn on The Island season of The Challenge. Her season-long feud with Johnny culminated in her volunteering to go up against two guys (Dan and Tyrie), both of whom she beat in the Bridge It Face-off to earn her key. 

[bunnyface]

In good news for no one, I nodded off while Angela and Ben were talking and woke up to find Leo in elimination with no idea how he got there.

Perhaps I'm not as good at the Kiki drinking game as I thought.

And please, Sarah, close your obnoxious pie hole.  After you actually win something, then you can brag about how good you are and how bad the others are.  The others being people who are actually winning against you.  Being "the only girl" not qualified for a final isn't exactly a bragging point concerning your skills.

[Lantern7]

2 hours ago, MMLEsq said:

When Sarah claimed that no woman had ever volunteered to do a guys' challenge, I immediately thought of Evelyn on The Island season of The Challenge. Her season-long feud with Johnny culminated in her volunteering to go up against two guys (Dan and Tyrie), both of whom she beat in the Bridge It Face-off to earn her key. 

I brludce believe that Sarah meant a woman going into elimination that was supposed to be for men. The crap in The Island had players from both genders going in. Someone tweeted that Sarah Greyson beat two guys in The Gauntlet, but that was before the genders were regularly alternated.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Lantern7

[MMLEsq]

2 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I brludce that Sarah meant a woman going into elimination that was supposed to be for men. The crap in The Island had players from both genders going in. Someone tweeted that Sarah Greyson beat two guys in The Gauntlet, but that was before the genders were regularly alternated.

Yes, I agree that technically there is a difference in the two situations.  Although Sarah's comment seemed -- to me, at least -- to suggest more broadly that the idea of a woman volunteering to go up against a man or men was something that hadn't happened.

Completely non-substantive, but I'm not sure I'm following "brludce"...?  I've spent the last five minutes trying to figure out what word that was meant to be.  🤷‍♀️🙂

Edited August 25, 2022 by MMLEsq

[Lantern7]

2 minutes ago, MMLEsq said:

Yes, I agree that technically there is a difference in the two situations.  Although Sarah's comment seemed -- to me, at least -- to suggest more broadly that the idea of a woman volunteering to go up against a man or men was something that hadn't happened.

Completely non-substantive, but I'm not sure I'm following "brludce"...?  I've spent the last five minutes trying to figure out what word that was meant to be.  🤷‍♀️🙂

I am really not that good posting from my mobile phone.

[aghst]

4 hours ago, rr2911 said:

I was disappointed that Leo didn't go for the Enzo's legs.  Even if Enzo's leg wasn't injured, I was hoping Leo would dive, chop blocking Enzo.  Leo is fast enough to get up and ring the bell. 

You have to really be trained for that though.

In football, even smaller players will know how to go after the legs of bigger players.  They train their neck muscles and know how to lead with the head.  Otherwise, you could suffer a concussion if you get kneed in the head.  You might do some damage to the other guy's knee but head injury as well as cervical injuries are a real risk.

Why is this one of CT's favorites?  They ALWAYS match up two players of very unequal size and weight.  It's rarely an even fight, don't think it goes to 3 rounds because one guy is bigger and does better on the collision.

In football, smaller players are coached to know better than to take on a guy directly who outweighs him by 40 or more pounds.  Either go low for a low tackle or chop block or use speed to evade the collision.

I don't know how they chose who did the water cannons.  It was always an ally, not really trying to knock out the players running on the platform.

It was great idea but either don't have the water cannons at all or have someone who is going to make it tougher for the competitors, not washing out the soap for them.

You have to give credit to Angela and Tyson, they smartly made alliances and Leo was small and also not in an alliance.  He potentially could have won and sent Tyson in.

BB and Survivor teams came into the game with greater numbers and they retained or increased their numerical advantage so even without everyone voting, now alliances have a greater effect on who gets sent into elimination.

But if the alliance is too big, they have to know, especially on the men's side, that those at the bottom of the totem pole will get sent into elimination.  They don't know how many people will go to the Final, maybe at most 10-12.  But maybe as few as 6 if it's a completely individual game and only one person wins the big money, rather than a pair.

[mojoween]

I did laugh when everyone was yelling “go low, Leo!” and he ran at Enzo practically completely vertical.

[LadyChatts]

7 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

I was fine with Sarah's stints on Survivor but I'm really not liking her here.  Very dismissive of Angela who has, you know, actually won competitions while touting her own greatness.  It wouldn't surprise me if she already knew JT wouldn't allow her to compete against Enzo (it would throw off all of the remaining competitions [in terms of numbers of male and females]), so just pushed this as a way to make herself look competitive and tough to the viewing audience.  If you're so great, just prove it by, you know, winning.  She also just brushes off her own errors/mistakes but makes drama out of everyone else's.

I was shocked that only one person would be going on-after Angela's performance in the challenge what was the incentive for any of the other women to try?  Also, it makes it seem like this season will never end.  This is my first season of the Challenge and I'm really not impressed with it thus far.

This is what I don't understand about Sarah.  For someone who talks a big game she sure isn't backing it up.  Maybe that's what's so frustrating to her is that she sees herself as this big bad ass competitor who works in a tough profession, and yet is getting beat by an influencer.  It's one thing to say Angela's a threat, but she doesn't even seem to make it about that.  It seems personal to her that she isn't top dog.  And I don't get why the other girls are so onboard with her line of thinking when it comes to Angela.  All of this makes her comments directed at Tyson for only winning Survivor once even more ridiculous.  I listened to a podcast Tyson did last week with Johnny Bananas, and he said he thinks Sarah wants to be liked and validated like a lot of earlier, former Survivor players were (he didn't say himself but he probably meant it).

[DEL901]

Leo ended up in the hospital with a concussion. 
https://ew.com/tv/the-challenge-usa-leo-temory-elimination-exit-interview/

[aghst]

4 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

Leo ended up in the hospital with a concussion. 
https://ew.com/tv/the-challenge-usa-leo-temory-elimination-exit-interview/

Leo said they put in an interview from a different day so they faked it to make him look upset and called others snakes.

He also said he thought he won the Daily.  That's what was always shady about The Challenge, there's no transparency so you have to take their word who actually won these close Daily challenges.

[Jobiska]

2 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

This is what I don't understand about Sarah.  For someone who talks a big game she sure isn't backing it up.  Maybe that's what's so frustrating to her is that she sees herself as this big bad ass competitor who works in a tough profession, and yet is getting beat by an influencer. 

An influencer who pole vaulted on an elite level.  Which maybe Sarah doesn't know, but still, shut up Sarah.  

Poor Leo.  At least he got the "previously on the Challenge" with Enzo holding up a cute cat.  LOL that his next cat is going to be named Alyssa, but I think after she sent him in he is no longer naming his one after that Angela.

[AntFTW]

How many episodes is this season?

[ozziemom]

3 hours ago, AntFTW said:

How many episodes is this season?

Too many?

[RockShrimp]

How is that elimination challenge not just called the CTE Express? 
 

annoying that most of the challenges have had a mental or balance component as well as brute strength and this one is just “have experience in high school or college being a linebacker” 

[peachmangosteen]

14 hours ago, AntFTW said:

How many episodes is this season?

TVDb is saying 11.

[DEL901]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

TVDb is saying 11.

So, only 3 more episodes and 13 people left.  I know Sarah is the only women without enough money to run the final, but there are several guys???  

[rr2911]

I'm questioning why the women ran the challenge since it was an elimination challenge for the men only.  Are they getting the women's results from this challenge to decide which female goes to the elimination challenge next week?

[DEL901]

10 minutes ago, rr2911 said:

I'm questioning why the women ran the challenge since it was an elimination challenge for the men only.  Are they getting the women's results from this challenge to decide which female goes to the elimination challenge next week?

They ran because the fastest woman had a hand in choosing who went into the elimination challenge.   They wouldn’t carry over results unless they state in advance.  There will be a new challenge next week.  

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, DEL901 said:

So, only 3 more episodes and 13 people left.  I know Sarah is the only women without enough money to run the final, but there are several guys???  

Just the way I like it. I would like to see some people go home because they don't qualify for the final. I want to see people scramble for that reason.

I feel like we were robbed of the scrambling on the MTV show when they had the skulls. Competitors had to go into elimination and win to get a skull, which qualified them for the final. The season went on for so long that everyone had a chance to get a skull. In season 36, there were 10 skulls but only 8 people were ultimately going to the final which means 10 skulls was too many.

Edited August 26, 2022 by AntFTW

[Lantern7]

23 hours ago, aghst said:

Leo said they put in an interview from a different day so they faked it to make him look upset and called others snakes.

He also said he thought he won the Daily.  That's what was always shady about The Challenge, there's no transparency so you have to take their word who actually won these close Daily challenges.

Honest question.  . . had TAR ever manipulated stuff like that? I get that every reality show screws around with editing, but I can't think of the level of skulldugery shown on The Challenge. And yeah, transparency would be nice.

Leo might have gotten off lucky with the concussion. He should talk to Ace and/or Tyler about playing Pole Wrestle with Laterrian.

[AntFTW]

15 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Leo might have gotten off lucky with the concussion. He should talk to Ace and/or Tyler about playing Pole Wrestle with Laterrian.

or Kyle in a Hall Brawl with Fessy and in a Pole Wrestle with Ed. Both looked painful for Kyle.

[Dewey Decimate]

After all the anticipation for Hall Brawl, shit, that was boring. (I haven't watched The Challenge since waaay back in the old days when it was Real World vs. Road Rules or somesuch. I think I remember... Coral?)

Sarah is supremely annoying and unwarrantedly braggadious, but I cannot get behind Angela's cooler-than-thou smugness either. (Maybe she's just feeling herself these days, since it looks like she took care of that pesky moustache.)

[Never Again]

7 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Honest question.  . . had TAR ever manipulated stuff like that? I get that every reality show screws around with editing, but I can't think of the level of skulldugery shown on The Challenge. And yeah, transparency would be nice.

TAR can’t really manipulate who wins a race. Instead when the producers aren’t happy with who won they just say hey it’s a NEL and gives the team that lost a whole new chance. 

[millennium]

We have seen bitter, brutal Eliminations on the flagship show, between players who truly can't stand each other, who have feuds dating back years but the losers have always stood beside the winner at the end for TJ's send-off.   Leo's poor sportsmanship was disgraceful.   Good riddance, jerk.   Thanks for nothing, hope to see you never.

P.S.  This Hall Brawl seemed smaller and more narrow than the standard model, leaving less ground to build up momentum.

Edited August 27, 2022 by millennium

[millennium]

On 8/25/2022 at 4:51 PM, aghst said:

Leo said they put in an interview from a different day so they faked it to make him look upset and called others snakes.

He can go home to his cranky girlfriend and they can commiserate about how it was really The Challenge that made them look like assholes, not their own words and deeds.

[DEL901]

2 hours ago, millennium said:

We have seen bitter, brutal Eliminations on the flagship show, between players who truly can't stand each other, who have feuds dating back years but the losers have always stood beside the winner at the end for TJ's send-off.   Leo's poor sportsmanship was disgraceful.   Good riddance, jerk.   Thanks for nothing, hope to see you never.

P.S.  This Hall Brawl seemed smaller and more narrow than the standard model, leaving less ground to build up momentum.

In the article I posted a link to, Leo said he wanted to stand next to Enzo, but he was taken to the hospital for a concussion instead. 

[millennium]

5 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

In the article I posted a link to, Leo said he wanted to stand next to Enzo, but he was taken to the hospital for a concussion instead. 

I don't believe him.  We have seen poor sports dubiously try to rehab their images after leaving the Challenge before (Lolo Jones, for example).

Edited August 27, 2022 by millennium

[AntFTW]

6 hours ago, millennium said:

I don't believe him.  We have seen poor sports dubiously try to rehab their images after leaving the Challenge before (Lolo Jones, for example).

I don't either.

Generally, the only chance the eliminated player gets to say good bye to everyone is when they're leaving the elimination arena. From listening to previous podcasts of the players, it seems they don't see or interact with the other competitors after they get eliminated. Once TJ gives his "see in the future" speech and the eliminated person leaves, they are whisked away to the Challenge house to pack their stuff before the other cast members get back and taken to a hotel, or go straight to a hotel if their stuff is already packed. They offered him a chance to go back and say his goodbyes to whoever he wanted and he refused. Given how past players have described what happens after they get eliminated, I can't make Leo's explanation make sense.

[millennium]

56 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

They offered him a chance to go back and say his goodbyes to whoever he wanted and he refused.

This.  He said something like "It won't make a difference."   But we're supposed to believe a) the medics were holding him back, and b) TJ Lavin -- who had a BMX accident several years ago and was put into a medically induced coma due to bleeding in the brain -- clowned someone who had a head injury.

[Lantern7]

35 minutes ago, millennium said:

 He said something like "It won't make a difference."   But we're supposed to believe a) the medics were holding him back, and b) TJ Lavin -- who had a BMX accident several years ago and was put into a medically induced coma due to bleeding in the brain -- clowned someone who had a head injury.

Honestly, I wouldn't put it past TJ. Even if he's really a nice guy, I can see how he could be affected by the jagoffs he's been tending for ages. I'm taking Leo's side on this.

14 hours ago, Never Again said:

TAR can’t really manipulate who wins a race. Instead when the producers aren’t happy with who won they just say hey it’s a NEL and gives the team that lost a whole new chance. 

I mean manipulating events to make people look extra bad.  An extreme case would be Survivor and "Purple Kelly," which you can read about here.

[AntFTW]

Is this the first episode where we got a bar/club scene?

This episode was the best so far, for me, because this episode had the most game talk of all the episodes so far. I feel like this is the first episode where we had a lot of game talk post-daily challenge.

I think before it was just getting the losers into the room with the winners and going through names, which was pretty boring.

[millennium]

1 hour ago, Lantern7 said:

Honestly, I wouldn't put it past TJ. Even if he's really a nice guy, I can see how he could be affected by the jagoffs he's been tending for ages. I'm taking Leo's side on this.

I can only go by what I've seen in the past, and that's TJ never casting shade on anyone who was seriously injured.   Chet was as close as it gets -- he got a cut on his chin and didn't want to risk scarring his pretty face so he quit the elimination.  Even then, TJ's sole comment was "Come on, everybody I know has a scar there."

[LadyChatts]

On 8/27/2022 at 4:03 PM, AntFTW said:

Is this the first episode where we got a bar/club scene?

This episode was the best so far, for me, because this episode had the most game talk of all the episodes so far. I feel like this is the first episode where we had a lot of game talk post-daily challenge.

I think before it was just getting the losers into the room with the winners and going through names, which was pretty boring.

Since the first episode, yes.  In Tyson's podcast he did he said they went to the bar/club every night but so far we've only seen those scenes twice.

[Taeolas]

On 8/27/2022 at 4:10 PM, Lantern7 said:

Honestly, I wouldn't put it past TJ. Even if he's really a nice guy, I can see how he could be affected by the jagoffs he's been tending for ages. I'm taking Leo's side on this.

I mean manipulating events to make people look extra bad.  An extreme case would be Survivor and "Purple Kelly," which you can read about here.

TAR isn't above manipulating how teams appear; but I don't think they usually go to extremes. Still some teams have gotten the Angel edit and many teams have gotten the Villain edit through the years. Often times the edits seem to be correct, but other times, it's obvious manipulation to make us cheer/jeer for certain teams. 

One thing with TAR though, is that they don't have as much slack to make these edits as they go. The film crews are constantly on the move, and the teams rarely have any down time together (on or off camera) during the race. The only time teams tend to interact is when they're at a challenge or on a common transport (ie bus between locations), so that's where most of the drama tends to be cooked up. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Taeolas

[lasu]

Sarah wanting to go in against Enzo was beyond stupid, just like Dom a few episodes back.  You don't go into an elimination with nothing to gain.  Dom won his elimination, but he still didn't get his money for the final.  He still needs to win a daily or another elimination.  Stupidity.  And then humorless Sarah being an even bigger idiot wanting to go against Enzo because she thought it would make her look bad ass and prove something to little girls everywhere.  Prove WHAT?  Prove that women can serve up toxic masculinity as good as anyone?  Prove that you should needlessly put yourself in danger to because you're worried about what people think of you?  I don't think Sarah realizes what is painfully obvious to the rest of us, it's her total and utter INsecurity that made her want to go down. 

I'm not an Angela fan, and she certainly got a leg up from the get-go being paired with Tyson and winning the first challenge.  But while I think Angela is boring and bland (and GOD do I think she's boring and bland), I don't think she's insecure.  I think if she heard me call her boring and bland, she'd shrug her shoulders and keep it moving.  And I think it's that smug/serene mix that is driving Sarah completely fucking nuts. I think Sarah thinks (and probably correctly, lol) that Angela sees her as a gnat not to be bothered with.  Again, Angela got her money on day one, but I still can't see her needlessly throwing herself into an elimination just so everyone would oooooh and aaaaah over what a billy badass she is.  I'd rather not be stuck with either of them, but I'd take boring and bland over humorless and self serious every time.  At least with Angela I could just ask her to teach me yoga and we could be boring and bland and smugly serene together in cow's pose.