S05.E01: A Star Studded Ar-Rival

[AntFTW]

Quote

A group of twenty-six competitors are paired up with their enemy from seasons past; as bad blood resurfaces for some, the Rivals quickly learn that to win their share of the $300,000 grand prize, they must be able to work together to survive.

Air date: January 29, 2025 on MTV

[mojoween]

I just do not know (remember) half these people.

Edited January 30 by mojoween

[mojoween]

55 minutes with commercials?  What is this madness.

Beth is still a heinous cretin.  How has she been this way for two decades?  I’ve never watched the All-Star shows on streaming, so I didn’t know what she did to Jonna, but that is some shady ass shit.

Devin and LeRoy are rivals in the loosest sense of the word.  Devin will work with anyone who can win him sweet, sweet cash.

Shockingly enough, the two all male teams won and male/female teams came in near the top. 

[jsm1125]

I never thought I’d see Frank, Sam, DaVonne, Shane, Dario, or Ashley K back on a season of The Challenge. 

Am I misremembering, or were Adam and Steve never really working together in All Stars 4? So how did Steve betray Adam?

I’m curious who Veronica was referring to when she had the “I can’t stand the person” confessional? Beth? Because there’s no way that was about Katie, who she’s been fine with for like a decade and a half. 

[AntFTW]

Damn. Since it's airing on MTV, we get the censored episodes now. 😤

I need to know what Ashley's diet, skincare regimen, and exercise routines are. Nothing ages you like politics, disease and having kids. She pushed out a baby, snapped back... and she hasn't aged at all.

Also, Ashley K is lusting over Dario. Is she no longer married?

2 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

I never thought I’d see Frank, Sam, DaVonne, Shane, Dario, or Ashley K back on a season of The Challenge. 

Same, and on the same season.

[Lantern7]

Hey, a Challenge episode airing on MTV that runs less than an hour long! Pinch me!

Here's my main takeaway from the first episode:

"Shut up, Adam. Shut up, Adam. SHUT UP, ADAM! SHUT THE FUCK UP, ADAM!! YOU SCREWED STEVE, HE MADE A MOVE AGAINST YOU. FUCKING ADULT UP AND LIVE WITH IT!!!"

And he's shacked up with Averey. She seems nice, so I take that as evidence that we live in a cold, unfeeling universe.

Katie & Veronica being a tandem would've been awesome if it happened in 2004. It's so funny . . . I actually felt bad for the Verantula when Julie tugged at her safety harness in Inferno, yet I wouldn't have had a problem if Katie had straight-up murdered her. Also . . . has Veronica always been that stacked? I think her partner is prone to getting concussions from that chest. Ye Gods.

I was watching the episode on Facebook, and someone figured that Veronica was late because she was drinking wine. In my head: “Ms. Portillo, the plane landed two hours ago. At least take off your seatbelt.”

Nicole has a girlfriend now. That ain't gonna last.

Turbo continues to Turbo. I want to think of him from WOTW, playing Shohei Ohtani to Theo's Francisco Lindor. Here, he's just extra, and he barely tolerates Nany. You can practically read his mind. "Oh, lovely, the woman is close to tears once again. I would like to return home, where I can feast on human flesh and no one would be the wiser."

Say what you want about Aneesa, but at least she's completed seasons. SHANE.

My idea for a big twist: that's not Dario in the game . . . that's actually Raphy. Who would know? And who would actually care?

Has Sam always been that . . . buff? I feel bad that she's holding Frank back . . . then I remember him belittling her, smacking her and lying about doing that even with video evidence. I'm not a fan of Frank . . . .that's what I'm saying.

Why are you here, Leroy? You got a family now. You're basically Josh, in that the Challenge Gods (should they exist) salivate seeing you playing, getting ready to inflict all sorts of misery as you go for that first W.

[aghst]

The purse seems to be going down.  Wasn’t it $500k in earlier All Stars?  The charm of the first AS season seems gone.

They show clips of Bananas stealing Sarah’s prize money and Ashley doing the same to what’s his name.

Were those both Rivals seasons?  Was there stealing any other times?

Several Challengers talk about the possibility.  Did the producers prompt them to talk about it or did they think about the possibility themselves?

[AntFTW]

18 minutes ago, aghst said:

Were those both Rivals seasons?  Was there stealing any other times?

One was a Rivals season, but the concept of being partnered with someone they didn’t like was the same on both seasons. Johnny and Sarah was Rivals 3 and Ashley and Hunter was Final Reckoning.

Edited January 30 by AntFTW

[DEL901]

5 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Damn. Since it's airing on MTV, we get the censored episodes now. 😤

I need to know what Ashley's diet, skincare regimen, and exercise routines are. Nothing ages you like politics, disease and having kids. She pushed out a baby, snapped back... and she hasn't aged at all.

Also, Ashley K is lusting over Dario. Is she no longer married?

Same, and on the same season.

I’m in Canada, and we don’t have MTV up here any more   The show was on a channel called Slice  and was not censored.

[LaurelleJ]

My first impression of the Allstars on MTV is soured by the fact that I liked the unedited version on paramount, felt great and gritty. The "Devroy" magazine cover was hilarious. I don't think I will be able to tolerate Turbo very much. I like Amber but hate Fessy so I can't root for that team. I'll be rooting for Devroy for the time being. I like Jonna but Beth is insufferable so can't root for them. I like KellyAnne but can't stand Sylvia. Not a lot of likable pairs. Oh maybe Katie and Veronica, that's a nice OG pairing worthy of all stars. Oh maybe Ashley and Dario. Steve and Adam aren't bad too.Hope this season lives up to the hype that got it off of Paramount and onto MTV. 

[AntFTW]

52 minutes ago, LaurelleJ said:

I like Amber but hate Fessy so I can't root for that team.

If the possibility of stealing money is on the table, I can root for Amber. Same for Nany, Leroy, Kellyanne, Ashley K and Jonna.

Edited Sunday at 12:17 AM by AntFTW

[LaurelleJ]

17 hours ago, AntFTW said:

If the possibility of stealing money is on the table, I can root for Amber. Same for Nany, Leroy, Kellyanne, Ashley K and Jonna.

LOL, do you think she would do it though? I don't think she would. I could only see Turbo doing it. I don't even think Jonna would do it. 

[MMLEsq]

Kind of sad that they showed Nany talking about needing money for her wedding with Kaycee when they announced they had broken up the weekend before this episode aired.

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, LaurelleJ said:

LOL, do you think she would do it though? I don't think she would.

(Sigh) No. I don't think so either... unfortunately.

[aghst]

7 hours ago, MMLEsq said:

Kind of sad that they showed Nany talking about needing money for her wedding with Kaycee when they announced they had broken up the weekend before this episode aired.

Nany is just so desperate to win, maybe goes beyond money for her by now.

She'll try to appeal to Turbo because that's the only way she can have a chance.

She needs to work a big alliance to protect her and Turbo because the natural tendency is for people to vote him in because he's such a PITA.

[ljenkins782]

So the show moved back to MTV? Is there a way to stream the episodes? 

Also, I guess this is more on me for not having watched the show since like season 20, but so many of these names are unfamiliar to me that I'm not even sure I'm interested. Feels like a long way from the original premise of OGs competing. 

I wonder if they'd made the filming just a week and made the challenges just fun, silly things and not potentially bone-breaking exercises, if they could have gotten some more real OGs. Even with a short filming schedule, they could easily fill the episodes with nostalgia and drama among castmates.

Since this was Mark Long's brainchild and he's so proud of his continued physical prowess into his 50s, I wonder if he assumed he'd win if the challenges were physical enough, thinking his fellow old-schoolers might not be in shape enough to beat him. 

[aghst]

Mark's main advantage would be physical contests like Hall Brawl, not anything involving running long distances or dealing with puzzles.

But did that little squirt Derrick beat him in Pole Wrestle in one of the All-Star seasons?

[snarts]

2 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

I wonder if they'd made the filming just a week and made the challenges just fun, silly things and not potentially bone-breaking exercises, if they could have gotten some more real OGs. Even with a short filming schedule, they could easily fill the episodes with nostalgia and drama among castmates.

Since this was Mark Long's brainchild and he's so proud of his continued physical prowess into his 50s, I wonder if he assumed he'd win if the challenges were physical enough, thinking his fellow old-schoolers might not be in shape enough to beat him. 

The first season of All-Stars was light & fun, with many of the real OGs returning after years away. I remember laughing so hard during the first challenge, something to do with math + swimming. Most were out of shape but it was light & fun. Not sure if I'm remembering correctly but I recall it was filmed in 3 weeks.

I remember reading somewhere when they released the cast for season two and people were disappointed that it was hard to get folks to commit due to the filming schedule. Most of the older OGs are entrenched with families, kids, school, work etc.

So All-Stars has become just another Challenge variation. The casts are no different, it's the same damn people every time and all the nostalgia from Mark's original vision is gone.

[aghst]

But the previous AS seasons were on Paramount Plus so they had like 10 episodes at most?  That's less than half the number of episodes in a typical MTV Challenge season.

So are they going to stretch this one out to 20 episodes or stay at 10?

The award money is only $300k.  I think all the previous AS seasons were $500k?

So you'd think it would be a short, streamer-length season.

 

Edited Monday at 11:53 PM by aghst

[ljenkins782]

1 hour ago, snarts said:

The first season of All-Stars was light & fun, with many of the real OGs returning after years away. I remember laughing so hard during the first challenge, something to do with math + swimming. Most were out of shape but it was light & fun. Not sure if I'm remembering correctly but I recall it was filmed in 3 weeks.

I remember reading somewhere when they released the cast for season two and people were disappointed that it was hard to get folks to commit due to the filming schedule. Most of the older OGs are entrenched with families, kids, school, work etc.

So All-Stars has become just another Challenge variation. The casts are no different, it's the same damn people every time and all the nostalgia from Mark's original vision is gone.

Honestly, even the swimming in that swimming + math challenge was a smidge more difficult than I thought they should have made it. I was thinking more like the silliest tasks of way back challenges from the glory days, like when teams had to figure out a slide puzzle by moving stick shift cars or teams had to eat a giant ice cream sundae without using their hands, or sit on a spinning disk without flying off (this one could be extra entertaining with older folks, spinning shit hits different after 40). 

These types of tasks wouldn't wear people out so they could do one every day and truncate the filming time to something manageable for people with work and families. If there's an appearance fee, that could be a nice chunk of change for a week's work.

I personally don't need all the drama between people, the best parts of the RW Reunion seasons was old favorites just catching up and reliving old times, so Mark's original vision of All Stars was a perfect extension to the Reunion seasons, but it lost its way so quickly.