Inside MTV Reality: Welcome Back to The Challenge All-Stars, Part Four

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

May we say hello to all of you, and welcome back Inside MTV Reality at DCBLOG with the hope that 2024 has been good to you so far. As we wrote here Saturday, this site has been on a hiatus for most of the last year & a half to something more important to me than everything else: helping my family after our biggest heartache, and also growing my reputation as a YouTuber. But with a new appreciation for what's really important to me, we're set to resume regular activity and to properly mark our tenth anniversary of covering the shows you love and a lot more than that - although it'll be a little different.

The year as far as MTV Reality television is concerned has seen a first for that longtime staple of Thursdays in that everyone who has called Jersey Shore home is now under one roof, as we await what happens when Ronnie & Sammi see each other for the first time in forever as the franchise marks fifteen years young this summer. Also turning that age is the Teen Mom sorority, where they and the one who represents this world there of Cheyenne and her fellow MTV'ers, are out of country again for their third Vacation down in South America. And then, there's the one things that what we follow the most...

Poster & Pics: Paramount+/Andy Reeves

As much as this site is marking a belated birthday season here, fans like yourselves are marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the launch of The Challenge as a regular MTV series when alumni of The Real World and Road Rules went on that first cross-country road-trip. The show has changed quite a bit since then, and plenty has gone down in the course of what has been thirty-nine seasons of the MTV show, along with a slew of spinoff shows in its many and various forms. And we have been following this world ever since CT won his first career title, except for the past couple seasons including its second season on network television last summer on CBS with Big Brother, Survivor and Amazing Race alums competing alongside MTV Challenge alumni.

After that, this past fall and into the winter -- and prior to it eventually turning the same age as me, the show gave the opportunity for those who have not won one of these that chance to have the stage to themselves unabated. Battle for a New Champion saw a slew of new competitors and familiar faces take to the floor in search for win #1, and we saw plenty go down: a friendship of love show alumni going the way of the dinosaur, two who have mastered 39 days of outdoor captivity have control of the regular season until the finals, and even a few champions try to crash the whole thing without being mercenaries entering the game. And it was a Romanian who followed in the footsteps of a Big Brother champ in proving that those don't have to produce the big time drama and still be competitive enough to win it all.

What went down there will set up what should a most compelling battle for the ages when the fortieth season of the MTV Challenge comes our way once the autumn air hits after the heat of this summer. And this comes at a time where TV's longest-running reality competition franchise has once again hit the mainstream just as it did having the stage to itself when the world lost its mind. One GOAT and a fellow reality icon just claimed the season 2 crown of the streaming world's most buzzworthy reality show, coming after a 7-time champ also took his world tour to The Traitors just after joining fellow Villains elsewhere on the dial, one that will soon have a longtime nemesis joining in too. And we cannot forget about two other Challenge alums joining a battle of reality show GOAT's over at Jeff Bezo's place.

And it's also in the world of streaming, and in the entry of MTV's parent company into that world, that provides us with the stage to the main event of this spring... a bit later than planned, but it's one thing that's been in the rear view mirror of so many of you in Challenge Nation for some time. When Paramount+ launched back in 2021 the MTV Reality world was sure to be a major part of its offerings, and it's no surprise that The Challenge would play a big part of it. The result of that: the most exciting thing to happen in this world in years of the All-Stars spinoff series... and after the break, we bring you our first look at Season 4 as South Africa welcomes back legends, power players and more to a star-studded season that promises to be quite a season. And to Challenge Nation, welcome back again.

DC FORUM: Welcome Back Inside MTV Reality

A Word from the Blogger

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

This week officially kicks off the tenth anniversary season of Inside MTV Reality on DCBLOG -- something that's a little belated but still something that we have been looking forward to for some time. It is a celebration of sorts that, like what we had to go through just a few years ago at this time, was something we had to put off for various reasons. One is for matters that affected the showbiz industry when Hollywood was shut down during the dual writers' and actors strikes last year... but the most important one, for this one at least, was of gaining a better appreciation of what I have and for the people around me when family time has been needed after our ultimate of heartaches.

I might have been late to the party somewhat, considering that this fan has been watching these shows since 1998 -- and who has a vault of memories of watching over this world even before I join the social platform formerly known as Twitter. But the advice I got from a fellow fan and NorCal'er in Andrew Kirk gave birth to this very site back in 2013 (yes, this celebration is later than we had planned and now during the first full year of blogs)... and there was no better time to get ourselves initiated in this world than in the midst of what had to be one of the greatest times that any fan of these drama-filled, trash TV has ever had the pleasure of enjoying. 

That time in the first quarter of 2014 provided a glimpse of what the next generation of MTV Reality would offer over the rest of the decade and in the Twenties: the first-ever major alteration of the longest standing format in the reality genre and the channel's first entry into the modern reality dating show subgenre both here in the U.S. and overseas. There was Season 25 of a first of its kind reality competition series, more tabloid-friendly drama among the most scrutinized group of young moms, a pair who roamed the country to expose online love, and other samplers of the life of being young. And all of this took place while most of the OG's of the biggest MTV series ever were on their first hiatus.

What took place both that year and the one before that in the last half of 2013 in the last pre-twist Real World in Portland and the Rivals II Challenge helped set the stage for our amazing run that followed of covering the shows, the people, the moments and the stories that turned this person from just a fan who watches these shows like you, into going on a path of fulfilling a lifelong dream of being in the journalism and media worlds -- albeit for a fan blog like this and later my own YouTube channel documenting my annual trips to Las Vegas. Those two shows above would be joined by the aforementioned Are You The One, a few years later here by the U.S. version of Ex On The Beach, and by a few other shows that expanded my MTV horizons even further in this wild and wacky world.

Even before joining social media in the public form of it (this one had a MySpace to start out and joined Facebook for just his inner circle in the '00s) I've already enjoyed a wide variety of MTV content, which made getting into the sultry drama of the Florida version of The Hills and Laguna Beach of Siesta Key outside Tampa Bay more easier. The same held true for their wild party-hard counterparts in Floribama Shore up in Panama City Beach, which got me into the door of the global Shore franchise marked by the Jersey originals when their bromance of Pauly and Vinny went for love... and where anyone who has a P+ subscription can see its international versions too. And there's many other shows that might not have reached their level of being on multiple seasons, but we have covered them too in and around those.

It was only fitting that I signed on my presence on the social platform formerly known as Twitter on the night of a Real World season premiere a year before DCBLOG began in 2012. And in addition to getting to directly interact with cast members (which I did a lot of in the early years), it became the platform to see how everyone -- they, you and the fellow MTV fandom -- saw the shows take place online, and our Social-Pulse presentations in well over hundreds of them became a signature of this site. And we have seen a lot of memorable moments go down over the past decade: from two steals of the entire money Challenge prize purse, and the controversial final night of the only AYTO season to go broke, to when we comforted a Bronx ladies' man when he lost a parent half a continent away... and so many others that made our jaws drop, got us talking on social media, and made the next-day water cooler talk.

The people who we've met in the MTV world over the past decade have been many by the hundreds: there's the 7-time champ whose theft on the Rivals III finale cemented his legend status that's taken him beyond The Challenge the past few years. There's a leading lady of that show's new generation who was part of an AYTO cast who overcame the mightiest odds to the money, and made friends of the music world en route to her debut. And there's a man whose imprint is on virtually every MTV Reality show we've followed the past ten years, which has taken him from the Bay to Hawaii, to many Challenges and even the Teen Mom franchise. And Bananas, Nurys and Cory are a few of the plethora of personalities who we've followed over these ten years, both on these shows and crossovers into the mainstream that's helped to keep MTV relevant in a way even today.

The approaching of this summer's Paris Olympics sees not only my favorite sporting event and binge-worthy guilty pleasure, but also an aspect DCBLOG takes part of our inspiration from: the many human stories among the thousands of athletes competing told during the Games by the world's networks using a decades' old playbook by one of sports television's greatest icons of going "up close and personal." And the ExtraTime series has told so many of those stories over the years as we've gone beyond the shows to cover this world at large through the MTV Reality prism: from Cory's perfect match going for a dip with the world's most notorious "problem child", to an alum of a forgotten winter version of Jersey Shore and his quest to reconnect with his perfect match half a world away during the pandemic... and hundreds of others that have taken them to other shows, pop culture, and those stories sometimes that will make you laugh out loud, shed a tear, make you feel pressured to go after someone perhaps.

That first full year of our blog coverage ten years ago was also when we tearfully lost two Challengers in a span of just two weeks after they competed together on Exes 2. It's that same feeling that we all went through together saying farewell to Diem Brown and Ryan Knight that November of 2014 is one I also went lived through myself eight years later... and that has had a reason with me taking that hiatus. But if he can talk to me in my dreams, then my dad will obviously tell me to keep doing what I love doing... and I feel refreshed and ready to return to this hobby, which we are proud to do here this spring a decade after we started this thing.

For the last year & a half, I've enjoyed this relatively limited slate of the MTV schedule as just a fan and interested viewer before the idea of becoming a content creator came about... as well as broadening my viewing options by doubling the number of streaming services I've subscribed to compared to a year ago. But when we get this all restarted all over again, it will be as if we never left... but going forward as our original intent was to provide, it's the role we've embraced as storytellers that will become more of a focus on this site, while still offering timely and traditional episode recaps. We'll also expand our focus to my other passions of sports, music, other shows, Vegas and other things... and in every instance, we will maintain the high level of standards and quality commitment that this site has set forth over this run, even if I might be a bit too rusty getting back in the groove -- but just leave me some slack.

Ten years -- it has been quite the time in our world since early 2014 when the journey we've taken inside this fascinating world of reality television and its pioneer began to take full shape during that amazing time. When we all needed that escape from the chaos of everything going on in this world especially the past few years, watching this timeless genre has represented that ideal respite. And while there's a lot that has changed, others have weathered that storm to still be here... and we are, after some time away. And what does the next decade have in store? We'll find out when we preview The Challenge: All-Stars Season 4 in a few days... and Welcome Back as we once again go Inside MTV Reality on the BLOG.

- I AM DC

@DC408DXTR

The Look - The Caucus Challenge: Love and War

 CAUTION:  Videos Embedded Below Contain Adult Language and Content Intended for a Mature Audience. Viewer Discretion is Advised. 

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

This past month & a half has seen plenty to devour for those of us in Challenge Nation -- the fandom of MTV's longest-actively running series. There's the finale & ensuing reunion of Season 39 of the MTV show that crowned a new champ, the reveal of the cast and first look at the fourth iteration of the All-Stars spinoff on Paramount+, and the traditional speculation around the hotstove for its landmark 40th season... plus love for Nelson after his recent foot amputation surgery. But as you await the next chapter in the fifth major pro sport -- and for which our season preview of that comes next week, we'd like you to sample for your enjoyment the following made-for-YouTube goodie here on this Easter.

Instagram @dre.media

Though it is a year late for reasons bigger than this passion, this DCBLOG site will be commemorating the tenth anniversary of our first full year of going Inside MTV Reality this spring, coinciding with All-Stars IV which features many competitors who we have followed throughout the duration of our time together with you here. But our most recurring subject in these ten years is something that we first came across back in the summer of 2017 during the first $1 million Challenge... and it's something that doesn't have to do with an MTV show itself -- rather it's a show inspired by it, and whose most important figures got to meet those Challengers during premiere week in New York so very long ago.

Secaucus, New Jersey resident Andres Rodriguez and his clique of friends got to do a workout session with Kailah, Tony and the rest of the XXX: Dirty 30 cast just before the season premiere of what became one of the series' most controversial seasons. But what brought us to Dre was that he was the host, producer and sometimes competitor of his very own live reality game show entitled The Caucus Challenge. We have followed every step of the Dre.Media story ever since that original story on the franchise seven years ago, which also expanded into Real World-like series The Life We Live and a summer with his most important members of that group, six of his closest friends.

The most recent season of his magnum opus saw a harbinger of what we just saw on MTV with a Caucus Challenge season that gave those who haven't ascended to the top step of the victory podium a chance to have a season to themselves with no champion in sight to ruin their road to the top. And for this latest edition of the ultimate backyard battle: it's also a last stand -- Love and War.

Summer of Sports Special: The Big One, First Hand

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

As we embark on the next decade of DCBLOG, in our new generation we are broadening our focus to covering more of the other big passions of this blogger beyond our traditional focus on all things Inside MTV Reality. That includes our frequent posts on the sports world, which we plan to put into overdrive during this year's Summer Olympics and other events taking place this year... and that includes this following post that's been years in the making -- and fitting enough for what this blogger is going through as a Bay Area kid is looking forward to what's to come in around six hours from now.

Soon enough it will be the biggest sports event in the United States, as all of us are counting down the final hours to kickoff of Super Bowl LVIII. There, a dream matchup and a rematch four years in the making will go down when the Chiefs and 49ers will clash once again, this time in this blogger's happy place of Las Vegas. The first time they met came four years ago in Super Bowl LIV, San Francisco's apparent sixth title was snatched away in an epic comeback as Patrick Mahomes claimed the first of his two rings as Kansas City claimed their first title in fifty years -- the first in what would become a gradual power shift towards the next generation of rising star quarterbacks in the league... and his opposition was once "Mr. Irrelevant" -- Brock Purdy was drafted last in the 2022 NFL Draft, also held in Vegas.

   On the occasion of Super Bowl 50 eight years ago -- held in 2016 in Santa Clara, DCBLOG looked at the week of preparation an NFL team goes through before game day... which certainly isn't the case when it comes to the two weeks' buildup to Super Sunday and all of its assorted events leading up to it. We also looked at the long, great marriage of football and television, one that's far and away the most consumed piece of real estate in the broadcast universe. And we even delved into that time where The Challenge made its way to the big game when a Real World alum appeared in a Super Bowl commercial a couple years back. And now, we have a story that's been years in the making even before this rematch.

Pics 1 & 2 Courtesy: USA Today

There will be upwards of over 300,000 people who are coming to Vegas for Super Bowl week festivities that began with the teams arriving one week before the game last week on February 4th and continue all the way to game day Sunday, February 11th. It's even more so the case now when one of the player's girlfriends is the biggest pop star in the whole entire universe who is flying in from the first stop on her 2024 tour in Asia... and the possibility looms large that the Taylor Swift effect and her relationship with Travis Kelce will escalate this year's game into the most-watched program in American television history -- one that's further cemented the NFL's powerful position in sports, media and entertainment.

   However, there will only be some 70,000 people who will have the honor of possessing tickets to Vegas' biggest sports event on this Super Sunday. It will be played in a stadium that didn't even exist a decade ago when no one thought that the town could support a major pro sports franchise, let alone multiple among a slew of major events all perpetuated by an act of the high court to make betting on sports more accessible to fans on these shores. You can add Super Bowl LVIII to a Formula 1 Grand Prix, a Stanley Cup, back-to-back WNBA titles and a pending move of a baseball team to the stature Southern Nevada has gained in the sports world after sports betting became legal in the U.S.

   But while this one here got to experience what it's like to walk within walking distance of a Levi's Stadium that hosted Super Bowl 50 in 2016, it is nowhere in comparison near getting to experience, first-hand, the biggest sports event held in this country. That is, until this one found on social media through his fan connections with MTV's The Challenge one of those lucky people to have had possessed tickets to a Super Bowl that doubles as the sports fan's equivalent to a Willie Wonka chocolate factory pass. And he can tell all of experiencing a Super Bowl first-hand... and one that had a GOAT and a pop queen written all around his weekend in the Central Arizonan desert.

DC FORUM: Capping Off A Light 2023...

A Word from The Editor

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Back at this time last year, I was about to embark on the tenth anniversary year of this site with some ambitious plans for 2023. However on this last weekend of the year, some different plans were waiting for me... most especially in the house that I've called home almost as long as I've been alive.

It has been eighteen months since the seminal and earth-shattering moment that changed all of us in the Cueva household and in our close-knit inner circle, and me taking on the permanent role of man of the house has caused me to take a detour from this site... a much different 2023 than I had expected. We continue to feel the absence of my late dad every day since that summer's Saturday of a year ago when he passed away, and it has affected me more than I thought even though I'm one who always stays even-keeled in this imperfect world of ours.

Going into 2023, I had big plans for this site to mark a full decade since I started up this DCBLOG site this year, but the new family reality we are having caused me to take a step back when it comes to covering and following my favorite blog beat. For that reason, for the first time in a while I've been watching The Challenge as just a fan and interested viewer... and while this season of Battle for a New Champion is quite a bit different than the others that came before it in this generation of the show, it is always a nice and refreshed change of sorts.

This is the 31st and final blog post of 2023... but this is definitely in no way the last one ever on here. I still have some big plans for covering this MTV world on this site: changes in the platform formerly known as Twitter and my new situation has forced me to take on a new format for weekly episode coverage, and we hope to put that into play on a regular basis in the new year. Other than that, things won't change that much with those obligatory and must-do posts like previewing seasons, introducing rookies and storytelling... and it's the ladder that I plan to put greater focus in for our next generation.

DCBLOG has always been about covering my biggest passions, and going Inside MTV Reality has always been one component of that vision. With the coming Olympic year, I plan to put more focus into shining light onto the sports world... and that Summer of Sports series will be returning with plenty of content related to the Paris Games and other facets of that wide world. I also have a slew of other posts covering my two other big passions of music and Vegas... and I have even become fascinated of late with another TV show that's been around the lifetimes of all of us and there may be a post on it too.

The past several years have seen me evolve quite a bit as a well-round content creator... and outside of this Blogger page has been where I have put my best foot forward in that evolution, one that has now seen me devote my full-time energies to being as such. And there is no better example of that growth than with my YouTube channel... and to me, there is no better place to put all of that work together than in Las Vegas. Of late, creating the #DCVegas XII vlog series has been my primary focus... and the same amount of time and effort I gave to this site has been devoted to creating videos that have garnered me more traffic than my past efforts, and I am certainly proud of all that.

This year of 2023 was one where all of us can finally and safely say that things are back to normal... even if this one still has to have his mask on whenever he goes out for errands. For me, this year has been one where I am now taking on greater responsibilities of being both a creator and being the family man, all while still being that one who loves to live his best life -- most especially after turning the Big 4-O. What does 2024 have in store? We'll see... and Happy New Year to you.

- I AM DC

@DC408DXTR

DC VEGAS XII: Just Another One of Those Epic Sin City Weekends...

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Usually, the way things work at DCBLOG is that it takes a good deal of time, effort, thought and detail to put together the many posts and the outstanding content that this site has been able to offer on here the past ten years. But for someone who has put this passion project on pause for much of this year for tend to a new family reality but who has just got back from a city he loves so very much, this blogger decided that he did not want to wait to let it all out after letting it marinate a bit before it's published on here. Hence, this post began its draft just eighteen hours after he departed his favorite city on this planet and returned home back to reality, and now it sees light on my biggest weekend.

All Photos Courtesy of... ME!

On this long Veteran's Day weekend, I'm celebrating my birthday smack dab in the middle of the busiest time of year when it comes to celebrating the holidays: today, November 13, falls right in between Halloween and Thanksgiving with the ensuring Christmas season riding on its coattail. Off of this site, I've been marking it with the ones who I love the most, and who are my greatest supporters: my family and a few of my relatives who flew in from New Jersey. But in many ways more than you can count, the #DCBDay celebrations began two weeks early just two weeks ago -- as it normally is the case in this guy's calendar. And when it comes to getting the party started, there's no better place to get to celebrate an early birthday than in the ultimate of happy places that there is on this earth.

So much has changed in my life since the last time I went to Las Vegas: mid-November of 2021 came at almost a last-minute kind of trip being booked a month beforehand instead of two, and I got to go on my first big vacation since this world changed like night and day a few months after that tenth trip. But as I got to stay in the luxurious Wynn tower, did an all-nighter at the town's newest hotel across the street at Resorts World and paid my first visit to downtown, there was no hint that the perfect world of this blogger and his family would turn upside down. This was the last vacation my dad would ever go on in his 71-year-old life, and four months before the heartbreaking news that he had been diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer that would claim him the following summer.

Mariano loved going to Vegas as much as I did and go to the casinos as much as my mom... and as we continued to mourn his absence a year after his death, the feeling has always been there to recapture that Vegas feeling. Just that jealousy I had for those in my inner circle who flew there on weekend trips and gave me no advanced warning over the summer, and being a loyal viewer of the daily flood of Vegas YouTube videos only fueled the anticipation I had of going back once again. But fear not, earlier this summer my mom booked that flight for the pre-Halloween weekend... so started the 127-day leadup that culminated in that twelfth #DCVegas trip just like the anticipation sports fans like me have for an NFL season or most especially the Olympics: everything all leading up to a few weeks ago.

Inside MTV Reality: Welcome to The Challenge - Battle for a New Champion

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Hello to all of you out there, and we welcome you back Inside MTV Reality on DCBLOG... and if you'll understand, a blogger in chief who's put his heart & soul into this site the last decade has put this hobby on the backburner for most of this tenth anniversary year, and not just for a much-needed break from the grind. If you don't know, my family continues to go about life without the most important man in our house some fifteen months after my dad's passing -- and I've spent most of this year tending to being man of the house. But his absence will be most prevalent when the one event I look forward to the most out of everything else takes place in a few days from now... more on that in just a brief moment.

Poster Courtesy: MTV

On the MTV front, this summer & early fall has seen the unlikely return of Sammi Sweetheart to Jersey Shore, while the Teen Mom franchise continues to offer those many twists and turns. This year the iconic Love & Hip Hop franchise came to the channel for the first time, while the party vibe of All-Star Shore is into its second season. But it isn't all just about just what happens on that cable channel that's kept all of us who follow TV's most-talked about reality programming talking: fans just like you have spent the last few months analyzing every move in the Big Brother house and now with the new season of Survivor. This has even stretched to a rival streamer as news has been abound of late of the addition of familiar faces to Peacock's U.S. adaptation of The Traitors and the just-launched House of Villains on E!.

And that brings us to the one thing we have covered the most on this site: MTV's The Challenge, which is marking a quarter-century this year as the first of its kind reality competition-based series. This past week, we crowned the second set of winners on the show's first spinoff to network television as The Challenge: USA on CBS played host to not only alumni of those two aforementioned Eye network shows above as well as their relatively lonely global comrades of The Amazing Race. The ones who garnered the most buzz of the entire cast were five previous Challenge champions who've won on MTV and a sixth who won the most on the All-Stars spinoff on Paramount+.

One of those who competed on that just-concluded second CBS season also doubles as one-half of the defending champions of the mainline MTV series, but that one will not have the chance to put on the line that first title she worked hard to win last spring on Ride or Dies. But Tori is, though, among the many veterans who will be taking part in the thirty-seventh MTV season of this show, but in a totally different capacity than usual: she will be out to take out those who have a chance to join her and those in the winners' circle -- and this fall's competitors will be composed entirely of those who have never ascended to the top step of the podium... and who are motivated to follow in her footsteps to becoming champion. All they have to do is to get over both them and their fellow competitors to get there.

In a moment, DCBLOG will bring you our first look at The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion... and premiere night this time around will take on added spice of sorts as, less than 24 hours after it kicks off -- and in some 60 hours from now as this post goes up on this late Monday night October 23rd -- this blogger will not be in front of this screen getting to do a new traditional recap of the premiere in the all-new Challenge WRAP, but will instead be doing something else. That would be of roaming the streets of that happy place that doubles as the hometown of the show's host... and if this one runs into TJ Lavin in Las Vegas, NV this pre-Halloween weekend, then this blogger & #DCVegas vlogger will have fulfilled an item on that sacred bucket list. Anyway, we're glad you're with us once again to get this all started.

DCBLOG Challenge WRAP: The Challenge USA Season 2 - Week One

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Whether it's that hurricane that soaked L.A. and Vegas or living through all of that heat, then congratulations to you... you've survived those dog days of summer. But with that taste of fall in the air stretching from Not So Scary Nights with Mickey & co. in Florida to football about to kick off in Kansas City, it's also back to school season for those who follow the fifth major pro sport... as The MTV Challenge has just kicked off a new cycle. And we at DCBLOG are back to covering our primary beat.

When we last covered The Challenge back in March earlier this year, Ride or Dies saw a classic confrontation in the $1 million final that pitted four teams with two multiple champions, a worthy rookie team and a pair of all-out veterans who duked it out for 100 hours in the European wilderness. In the end, it was Tori & Devin that took their first title rings... and as for one of those six runners-up who fell to them in that marathon, her ex Jordan came back on the World Championship that followed on Paramount+ and added that honor to his three titles.

And after that long offseason of sorts, we begin anew again with Season 2 of the CBS version of this longstanding MTV staple... and we all know what happened last time out with that controversial final, but other than that, it was an eventful season. This time around, another all-star cast of alumni from Big Brother, Survivor and The Amazing Race have heard the call from TJ Lavin to suit up... but just as they think that this is just a season for themselves to prove themselves, an invasion of jet skis will tell otherwise. And that more than breaks the ice for an opening act that will set to the tone for this summer and fall, including a titanic battle off the bat in the elimination chamber.

After the break, DCBLOG kicks off not only a new cycle of covering The Challenge in Season 2 of The Challenge USA and its double-hour opening act... but also a brand new tradition of sorts on here as we relaunch our weekly MTV episode posts with the all-new Challenge WRAP. We hope you like it.