Inside MTV Reality: Welcome to The Challenge World Championship

BY DC CUEVA 

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Pic: Paramount+/MTV

Just two months out from something that, except for our grandparents who are lucky to be alive, most of us have never experienced in our lifetimes in the upcoming coronation of King Charles III, we have just witnessed the ascending to the throne of a new pair of Challenge champions. But instead of dwelling a bit on the crowning of Devin & Tori as the King and Queen of Ride or Dies, there is this to comprehend... and one-half of that duo isn't quite ready yet to take a break to relish in that win.

This is the fifth anniversary of The Challenge's expansion to a global game than just an American MTV invention, and we're a long way from Vendettas and when the first crop of overseas players taking aim at the establishment veteran group. We have seen a slew of competitors from the four corners of the world join in on the fun ever since, and to coincide with the launch of Paramount+ last year & the early part of this year have seen the show expand much more with the addition of four all-new incarnations of the series that came after the very first one of the All-Stars trilogy.

Those local versions of The Challenge at Paramount's corporate sisters in Argentina, Australia and the United Kingdom, together with its American network television debut on CBS last summer, have helped to bring the show outside of our borders while we have been watching Ride or Dies. And it offers the context for the next chapter in this franchise: a World Championship that sees top performers from the four versions of the show pair up with the main MTV show's greats... and it was as if the MVP's first times on here were just freshman outings compared to what they have to deal with this time: Challenge legends and staples of the show we love will now be their partners.

In the country that hosted a memorable World Cup tournament a baker's dozen years ago, The Challenge has come to the nation of South Africa -- itself host to a few Challenge seasons of many years past -- for this latest franchise spinoff... and after the break, our first look at The Challenge World Championship.

 WHAT TO EXPECT... 

  & MEET THE CAST  

As part of the expansion of The Challenge to encompass the entire array of assets that the combined Paramount company has in this new streaming age, the big wigs upstairs ordered that quartet of seasons consisting entirely of Challenge newbies/reality TV alumni that has set up this World Championship. Of course, we here at home had to go through a Challenge USA season that started out with so much promise and gave us just as much buzz and potential as any regular season... but of course there was that final. Still, last summer gave us a good indicator for the next generation of Challengers who aim to follow in what their fellow alumni from Big Brother, Survivor and others from the CBS part of the reality community have gotten to accomplish on the MTV front.

While we got to watch Ride or Dies here at home, the three other iterations of the foreign Challenges took place in their respective countries: first, the Australian series on Network Ten (which has been the leader in the reality genre down under) brought together those from the Aussie reality scene spanning local editions of just about every franchise you can think of plus a few with no TV experience -- that includes one of interest to me we'll explain below. Next came Britain's turn to have its own Challenge series (on its young-skewing Channel 5), which included one-half of Ex On The Beach's only engaged couple (Callum from Peak of Love) among the competitors that, like the others, included familiar reality faces to the British audience. And there's the only non-English language version in this system that just wrapped down in Argentina that wrapped just over a week ago on Telefe... but the field in that season in the home of the world champs consisted just of random celebrities along the lines of Champs vs. Stars.

On the topic of Challenge spinoffs... how different or how similar will this World Championship be to everything else we've had during our time covering The Challenge on here? Not much will deviate, other than that of the makeup of how this will all work: each of the MVP's from the global versions that fed into this tournament will eventually be paired off with a Challenge legend -- essentially a veteran & rookie being paired up, and they will all compete in the quest for the $500,000 that will be handed out once the finale goes down right as we knock on the door of summertime.

Below - and without the usual bios we offer (we are pressed for time), the cast... right now, you should know the veteran players by now, but only a certain number of those reading know the MVP's. That will be the task of this site in introducing the international competitors to come in the days ahead.

► CHALLENGE LEGENDS             

● AMBER B.  CHAL36 CHAMP

● DARRELL  4X CHAMP

● JODI  2X CHAMP

● JOHNNY BANANAS  7X CHAMP

● JONNA  AS 2 & 3 CHAMP

● JORDAN  3X CHAMP

● KAYCEE  CHAL37 CHAMP.

● KELLYANNE

● NELSON

● NIA

● THEO

● TORI  CHAL38 CHAMP

● WES  2X CHAMP

● YES  AS 1 CHAMP

► THE GLOBAL MVPs                  

● BEN (“The Challenge: USA”)

● DANNY (“The Challenge: USA”)

● JUSTINE (“The Challenge: USA”)

● SARAH (“The Challenge: USA”)

● BENJAMIN “BENJA” ALFONSO (“The Challenge: Argentina”)

● CLAUDIA ALBERTAIRO (“The Challenge: Argentina”)

● RODRIGO CASCON (“The Challenge: Argentina”)

● SOFIA “JUJUY” GIMENEZ (“The Challenge: Argentina”)

● EMILY SEENOHM (“The Challenge: Australia”)

● GRANT CRAPP (“The Challenge: Australia”)

● KIKI MORRIS (“The Challenge: Australia”)

● TROY CULLEN (“The Challenge: Australia”)

● KAZ CROSSLEY (“The Challenge: UK”)

● NATHAN HENRY (“The Challenge: UK”)

● TRISTIAN PHIPPS (“The Challenge: UK”)

● ZARA ZOFFANY (“The Challenge: UK”)

🌎   🌍   🌏

DCBLOG will once again be covering this new Challenge series and season... but as it is with us seeing through the ongoing love dramas that we're also watching this spring, we will be handling our coverage of this World Championship a bit differently than usual. Our Challenge WRAP will return for this season in us covering the top moments from each episode, but as my increasing family responsibilities are taking over my time my recaps may not be delivered in the timely manner as at other websites & podcasts -- and it may be offered on a weekly to biweekly basis... being balanced out with the other non-episode related content that we offer on this site. Our episode coverage covering the first three weeks of this season will be up in due course.

- I AM DC

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