S04.E01: A Sky Full Of Stars

[AntFTW]

Quote

An elite group of 24 Challenge All Stars reunite to play for $300,000 in a fierce individual game where relationships matter, and anyone can win. A comeback player makes a splash in their long-awaited return, but fears that with success comes a target.

Air date: April 10, 2024 on Paramount+

[AntFTW]

1) Ayanna looks like she has lost a lot of weight since her last All Stars season. Those Greek Salads are working for her.

2) The winners are pretty powerless as they don’t choose who goes into elimination. That’s interesting.

3) The elimination winner gets to steal a star from someone that has a star. This is how I imagined the Skulls would work on the flagship show if two people without skulls were to go into elimination. They would get to steal one from someone who has one. That’s a much more interesting concept to me than someone with a Star having to go into elimination to defend their Star.

[luckyroll3]

This star business is so interesting. I love that the winners can go in and steal a star for an ally AND that the winner of the elimination can take a star from the opposite sex and give it to an ally of that sex. Cause if I was Steve, there was no way I was letting Rachel keep a star!

I definitely questioned Steve's squirreling technique, but then all of a sudden he literally pulls all these stars from somewhere...including that last one that he had just "forgotten about"! How the hell did he know exactly where it was????

Also, Tyrie clearly hasn't watched the show since he was last on. I had to chuckle when he said he was safe because other people clearly came in laugh so he didn't have to worry. Oh dude, if only it was that easy!

 

[AntFTW]

8 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

This star business is so interesting. I love that the winners can go in and steal a star for an ally AND that the winner of the elimination can take a star from the opposite sex and give it to an ally of that sex. Cause if I was Steve, there was no way I was letting Rachel keep a star!

I agree with that. Who would take Rachel's star? She's been out of the game all this time and it's like she's still the untouchable popular girl.

I assume people aren't gonna let Cara and Rachel keep their stars, and only trade the third one around.

Edited April 11 by AntFTW

[luckyroll3]

14 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

I agree with that. Who would take Rachel's star? She's been out of the game all this time and it's like she's still like the untouchable popular girl.

That's why it would have been a perfect opportunity for Steve. Given the way people play now, Steve will always be voted in since he has already and folks will use it as an excuse to not rock the boat. He's going back in regardless, unless he wins a daily. If he has stolen star, he could have used it as an opportunity to ingratiate himself into one of the alliances to build his social capital while weakening a potential powerhouse. 

[AntFTW]

31 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

Also, Tyrie clearly hasn't watched the show since he was last on. I had to chuckle when he said he was safe because other people clearly came in laugh so he didn't have to worry. Oh dude, if only it was that easy!

I laughed too. I don't even think that applied when he last played the game. I was like "that don't mean a damn thing." The fact that they showed Tyrie saying that, that was the biggest clue he was going in.

[Lantern7]

I’m between episodes at the moment. Who knows what happens in the second episode. The start was fun . . . but isn’t that always the way?

I’m happy for Steve. I think he’s going to be “the hand guy” for the rest of his “career,” but I still remember his time in RR10. I feel bad for Tyri, since he always went out early. I thought Steve was toast, but he worked smarter.

BTW, since when is his name spelled. “Tyri”?

Is it petty that I still don’t like Adam? He was an ass throughout his tenure, with the ADD and toxic showmance with Ellen. I vaguely remember Viewers’ Revenge, but I know he deserved his beating from Abram. Maybe I should let things go. But then that means I’d have to forgive Rachel, Tina and Veronica for their petty actions.

I’m also happy Kefla survived the first episode. I don’t think anyone remembers him. Ditto Flora, and that might cost her next episode. Hearing that she’s 51 at the time of filming makes me feel old.

Edited April 11 by Lantern7

[Giuseppe]

When the show played the Mexican Radio song (I think that was this episode), I flashed back to Road Rules season 1, when Los got all excited when that song came on the radio and nobody else seemed to know it. I wonder if the editors were thinking of that as a bit of a call back.

[realitytvfan1017]

On 4/10/2024 at 12:56 PM, luckyroll3 said:

This star business is so interesting. I love that the winners can go in and steal a star for an ally AND that the winner of the elimination can take a star from the opposite sex and give it to an ally of that sex. Cause if I was Steve, there was no way I was letting Rachel keep a star!

I definitely questioned Steve's squirreling technique, but then all of a sudden he literally pulls all these stars from somewhere...including that last one that he had just "forgotten about"! How the hell did he know exactly where it was????

Also, Tyrie clearly hasn't watched the show since he was last on. I had to chuckle when he said he was safe because other people clearly came in laugh so he didn't have to worry. Oh dude, if only it was that easy!

 

Love this whole twist with the stars. 

Steve's technique in the elmination was great! 

 

[AntFTW]

On 4/10/2024 at 12:56 PM, luckyroll3 said:

This star business is so interesting. I love that the winners can go in and steal a star for an ally AND that the winner of the elimination can take a star from the opposite sex and give it to an ally of that sex. Cause if I was Steve, there was no way I was letting Rachel keep a star!

18 minutes ago, realitytvfan1017 said:

Love this whole twist with the stars. 

Steve's technique in the elmination was great! 

 

This is the "skull concept" done correctly IMO. It seems like they finally got the execution right this time.

They limited the amount of stars to 6. They gave them all out in the beginning. The elimination winner gets to steal a star from anyone that has a star without having to face that person in elimination. Therefore, everyone doesn't get to skate by once they have a star by avoiding elimination.

On the flagship, one scenario we never got to see is if two people without skulls go into elimination and all of the skulls are already taken, how does the elimination winner get a skull? My guess had always been that the elimination winner gets to steal one. We finally see that play out with these stars. The elimination winner gets to steal a star from anyone that has a star.

Edited April 12 by AntFTW

[ljenkins782]

I can't believe Flora is back, I thought she'd been permanently banned. Also never realized she was Ukrainian, I always thought she was Russian. She has had a whole lot of work done, but she still looks relatively the same. Also, hearing her say she was 51 definitely made me blink hard, ouch.

Seeing this older, larger version of the Veronica/Rachel/Tina clique also made me feel some type of way. I figured Rachel would still be in fighting shape, but that face, oof. Earning that Butterface nickname since her very first challenge appearance.

RR Adam was another one I didn't think we'd see again, I'll be curious to see how Adam 4.0 shakes out, he was a phenomenal competitor back in the day, but quite an ass too. 

Ayanna just makes me sad, I don't really enjoy watching her struggle to connect with people. Steve too, to a lesser degree, he's much quieter about it and doesn't have the meltdowns that Ayanna has, but it doesn't seem like genuinely connects with much of anyone. Having Adam here could help him this time around, but there must be something a little off-putting about him in real life.

[aghst]

Main thing about this episode is that they pushed the prize money down.  No more million dollar prizes?

It must cost money to fly down so many to South Africa.  That Challenge house looks expensive.  Did they build the water slide just for this season?

Maybe also filming so many variations and releasing/broadcasting each year — feel like we’ve been Getting 2 or 3 seasons of the different flavors each year — they have to spread the prize money more.

Or maybe TJ is wetting his beak into some of the prize money.😊

The Daily and elimination were good.  It wasn’t about running up and down that hill more than others, looks like the star winners studied the next box and then went back and looked for the right configuration of pegs.

The elimination didn’t necessarily favor the stronger guy but they will probably spring Hall Brawl and Pole Wrestle at some point.

Though I’m not sure how Tyri built up a big lead unless he muscled Steve out of them.
 

i recognize a lot of the faces and names but some of these people haven’t been on any of the Challenges in over 20 years so I don’t recall their antics at all.

Averey couldn’t have been on the show that long ago.  She must be at least 5-7 years younger than any of the others.  Well maybe not Leroy and Cam, and Derek and what’s his name the guy who quit the Final because he couldn’t eat.

 

[AntFTW]

4 hours ago, aghst said:

Main thing about this episode is that they pushed the prize money down.  No more million dollar prizes?

They've never had million dollar prizes for All Stars. It's always been $500K.

4 hours ago, aghst said:

Averey couldn’t have been on the show that long ago.  She must be at least 5-7 years younger than any of the others.  Well maybe not Leroy and Cam, and Derek and what’s his name the guy who quit the Final because he couldn’t eat.

Jay, and Nicole, and Tony. Cara is younger than Leroy. With the exception of Jay, all of them have made more recent appearances than Averey.

[millennium]

On 4/13/2024 at 9:09 AM, aghst said:

Averey couldn’t have been on the show that long ago.  She must be at least 5-7 years younger than any of the others.

I've always thought Averey was one of the prettiest girls to compete on the Challenge and time has not changed my mind.    The only thing I could never understand is how she wound up with that guy Johnny on Real World (the one who looks like Charlie Brown).

Can we talk about Cara's lipstick in the first scenes?  She looked like she was wearing those wax red lips we used to buy along with our penny candy when we were kids.

That was one huge playing field for the first daily.

I enjoyed this first episode more than all of Season 39.   And the reason is simple: these folks have personalities.   The new Challengers don't.

Plus, it was so nice to see a Challenge without Jay and Michele.

[millennium]

Some further thoughts: the vets are more enjoyable because they aren't wrapped up in their looks or worried about the impact their words and actions will have on their social media.  They're here to relive old times, see old friends, have fun and maybe win some money.   Aside from the latter reason, that's why I'm here too.