The Gauntlet (2003-04)

[Lantern7]

After Battle of the Seasons and Battle of the Sexes, Bunim-Murray Productions decided to switch up the format for elimination. Instead of contestants being voted out for good (mostly due to low scores), they would have one chance to prove themselves by winning a do-or-die game. Winner stays, loser goes home. This would be a major turning point for BMP, and it would make a heroine out of Sarah Greyson.

Sarah was a scrub . . . or at least she was on Road Rules: Campus Crawl. After underachieving in several missions, she was taken off by her castmates, most of whom were dicks about it (looking at you, Shane). Right off the bat, Darrell and Rachel immediately schemed to get her off the Road Rules team. Soon, they would be joined by the likes of Veronica and Adam . . . the latter being the ADD-addled jackass from RR: The Quest whose attitude sucked most of the time. Sarah would be voted into the Gauntlet five times, and she won all five times. She wound out taking out her best friend in one Gauntlet (Rachel the overgrown pixie from RW: Back to New York), she had major leg pain from hanging upside down in three Gauntlets, but she survived to join the final Road Rules team in their win over Real World.

Speaking of Real World, the focus usually shined on Coral, who had found success on the Challenge circuit in BOTSeasons. She wasn't quite as good in this round, to the point where even her bestie Mike wound up voting her into the Gauntlet, whereupon she had a crying fit over it. Coral would take out her discount clone Tina in the Gauntlet, and she'd make the final RW team . . . but before the final mission, she got bit by a spider, and she suffered a severe allergic reaction, costing her team in the end. Some say it was exhaustion, but I buy the spider bite story. It's more tragic that way. I hated how Mike and Nathan threw hissy fits over it . . . though it was excusable in Nathan's case, since he probably knew he was never going to come back.

There's a lot of other stuff to talk about here . . . like Rachel and Veronica lowering themselves to having a threesome with psycho Abram, Trishelle getting injured biking and going to "the medical place," Mike and Trishelle having a showmance (Mike's second for the show) much to Coral's chagrin, and Darrell killing the English language. Also, I'm still bitter than Trishelle upset Steve in the Gauntlet, and BMP didn't even give us footage of him leaving. But mostly, I'll remember Sarah hanging in there and winning. When BMP gave us a montage of her highlights in the finale, I almost broke down. No lie.

[larrybear]

What about Elka turning into a whiny brat? I was shocked at how entitled she acted and they way she spoke to Mike and Trishelle. And taking the cardboard check home with her lol

 

Sarah really was impressive. The road rules team should have stopped sending her in there and sent people that would have lost so they could split the pot with less people. 

 

It was also pretty funny in the first ep when all the people are giving an update on their life since their first season and half of them moved to LA and were taking acting classes - guess it worked out for Mike and Dave, but the others? hahaha

[Oholibamah]

To this day Steve remains my alltime favorite Challenger/RW/RR Alumni. It certainly is bizarre that somebody so strange is too "normal" for a show like this and got very little airtime and hasn't been brought back.

 

Maybe he can be on Rivals III paired up with Trishelle.

[TD3000]

I miss the days when the Challenge had great underdog stories like Sarah's. I remember most of her wins were in the hanging one (dead man's drop/hang?). Her win over Irulan was particularly shocking. It was funny when someone on RR talked shit after that which got Alton heated. Sarah also won a puzzle Gauntlet which I believe was against Trishelle. The way the Challenge is today makes those moments a lot less likely. The big team format has mostly been eradicated and the missions have become much more grueling. Devyn finishing last season's final (albeit in 3rd) is probably the most legitimate upset we've seen in awhile.

 

Question: Was this the season where "trimming the fat" became a thing or was that later? I think it might've been this one because Katie and Cara were also singled out on team Road Rules as weak players.

[choclatechip45]

 

Question: Was this the season where "trimming the fat" became a thing or was that later? I think it might've been this one because Katie and Cara were also singled out on team Road Rules as weak players.

I think that was Gauntlet 3. The biggest issue with Road Rules was they did a hidden ballot so people could vote for whomever. I think the one Alton flipped out on was when Irulan was against Sarah. I remember when this was airing there were a lot of online rumors that Irulan and Alton treated production badly.

[Lantern7]

Theo was jumping around, yelling for Irulan to go home after Sarah beat her in the Gauntlet (Deadman's Drop), and Alton took exception. I remember because other posters pointed out that Theo was . . . um . . . flopping around in his shorts. Like, a lot. And from what I remember from Sarah's blog, the production crew had taken to calling Alton and Irulan "Bobby and Whitney" because of their behavior.

[Princess Sparkle]

I just remember that straight up NASTY ice cream challenge, where everyone after the fact explained that because everyone's mouths were everywhere and people were getting sick, that there was also snot and vomit in the ice cream.  That is actually grosser than the chicken suit mission to me.

[luckyroll3]

Oh my god, the ice cream challenge was straight up disgusting.  I remember watching that and thinking that if I was a contestant, that would be the one to make me quit.  Total grossness.

[choclatechip45]

Completely agree about the ice cream challenge and I remember Norman wrote afterwards that Nathan had a cold sore.

[Zima]

Thanks for the re-cap of this season! Reading that certainly brought back memories. The only thing I'll disagree with is Rachel and Veronica "lowering" themselves by having a threesome with Abram.  I just have a huge crush on the guy, and that's what's coloring my view of the situation! 

[Way Wes Jr]

I just finished binge watching, and they are so young!  I'd never seen Mike on any of the MTV stuff - and as a current WWE watcher, it was really amusing to watch.  Coming to the show late (and show forums late,) I never understood why some contestants really brought out the hate in watchers/posters.  I'm starting to see how that happened now, (Rachel.)

 

My largest complaint, from a story perspective, is that Adam never received any comeuppance, other than having to share his money with a larger pool of (female) contestants than he would have liked.  (And, perhaps, never being invited back? No, according to wikipedia he came back for Gauntlet II.  Did karma smack him down there, hopefully?  I'd make a snarky punishment comment, but it wouldn't feel appropriate with Diem's passing.)

[Lantern7]

Way Wes Jr . . .  Adam was the first person eliminated in Gauntlet 2. My idea of comeuppance back then was Sarah running him over with her brand new car. While I understand where he was coming from, I still loved Sarah to bits. Oh, and Abram beat him up in Road Rules: Viewers Revenge. My memory is fuzzy, but I think Adam had it coming.

[Lantern7]

I'm up to posting old recaps of The Gauntlet on my blog. Rather than come here every time I do that, I'll just leave this link. I'd like to know what you guys think. Thanks to people like you, I had to see Theo's stuff under the shorts. I'll have to check to see if the blogs can also be retrieved from Archive.org. Sarah had the only consistent one. As much as I like Norman and Steve, their grammar needed so much work. And didn't Mike also have one with even less grasp of the English language?

[Lantern7]

After a long wait, I posted the one where Coral gets voted into the Gauntlet. I threw in a mini-essay on why I liked her throughout her Challenge career, even though she was a ballbuster.

[jsm1125]

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

After a long wait, I posted the one where Coral gets voted into the Gauntlet. I threw in a mini-essay on why I liked her throughout her Challenge career, even though she was a ballbuster.

Thanks! Do you have links for the first five episodes! When I click on that link, clicking each individual episode gets me an error.

[Lantern7]

Well, the site they were originally on has been dead for years. That's why I've been hitting Archive.org and bringing them back on my blog. Just click "The Gauntlet" at the end of the recap, and you'll get the preview special and the other episodes. And I'll update the link on the side soon.