Monday, August 26, 2024

The DCBLOG Challenge WRAP: Battle of the Eras - The Premiere Part 1

BY DC CUEVA 

Photo: Instagram @TheChallenge
Hello and we have sadly arrived at the last week of these dog days of summer '24, and for many of you -- we hope you are going through things just fine after summer vacation from your hometown school or college. And after this blogger got to enjoy the world's best in Paris, the focus for those who love competition have turned their attention to many other things -- football of the oval & sphere varieties, baseball (and its overseas cousin of cricket), The W, and the fifth major pro sport of MTV's The Challenge, and the fittingly titled Season 40 of Battle of the Eras.

This year marks a quarter-century since the very first proper edition of this Real World and Road Rules spinoff series began when alumni of those two pioneering shows faced off while traveling the country, and things have changed quite a bit since. This year's MTV Challenge is marking its fortieth iteration as those from that first era of the series are joining those from other generations for this ultimate version of the show... a true all-star cast where the most recent rookies of this group - Nurys, Horacio and Olivia - were so young back then when the likes of Mark, Katie and Darrell first competed.

And as they and the rest of the forty competitors come to Vietnam for this historic season, they are about to embark on a journey that has the largest cast in Challenge history with $1 million going to the victor once the winter comes around. But first up, they have to navigate their way through something that has been a rarity throughout this series but for the first time it's a night challenge that kicks off this season - a paired challenge taking place on the lake. Whoever comes away not with power will face the ultimate prospect of being sent home first -- and this time, there will be a handful that will ultimately fly home.

Though it's later than planned due to my high priorities away from here, DCBLOG is properly marking our tenth anniversary season of Inside MTV Reality with this fortieth Challenge. And we are entering a new era here as we are reimagining the way we cover the episodes every week: yes, you'll still see the best of the reax from the former Twitter to the episodes and big moments... but we're combining that with looking in at the week's top moments and other things as we present this first proper edition of The DCBLOG Challenge WRAP. Well make that, the first two weeks of this season -- see you after the break as we kick things off with part 1 of a two-parter as we kick things off.

Although this is our actual first Challenge WRAP (we did do a trial one during The Challenge USA spinoff), we still continue to abide by our policy that if a cliffhanger occurs, our blog post on that episode gets held over. Hence, we pushed back covering the first daily challenge and assorted events to after the first elimination... that's why last weekend we did in its place a review of the most recent season of The Caucus Challenge on YouTube and an appreciation for NBC Sports after their Paris Olympics efforts. And also, blog work was pushed back even further after an eventful weekend where I went on a casino hop with my mom, followed the next day by her car being burglarized... yes, it was quite a penultimate August's weekend. But now, on with the show and our very own new era.


     THINGS TO KNOW     
Eras Invitational - Part 1
(and the Launch Special, too)

⭐ IT ALL BEGINS • First, a cliff notes version of the preshow: this one was so busy with the Paris Olympics that I only watched the launch special after the fact. The cast dresses down at a nightspot to mark Season 40 before competition begins, and then make their way to their homebase of a castle... and a lot has been made of production conditions but that's worth the chatter for another day. Along with learning about all of the cast's varied backgrounds, we also tear up watching all the memories of years gone by... but not everyone is there for launch night -- only after does Jordan arrive after other matters.

⭐ ERAS INVITATIONAL • As the players arrive to where their opener takes place next to a beautiful fountain display similar to Bellagio's, TJ lays down the law for the opening daily: the forty are split up into twenty pairs with five per Era, and where they will be competing within their own teams to find out who will advance onwards to the team portion. Just the top man & woman from each team are immune, and where they will have control of who gets chosen to compete against the last-place finishers from their Era. That's right: eight are in power, eight will be on the cut, and the rest will be on edge.


⭐ LIGHT IT UP • This is the first time in recent memory that a season's first challenge is taking place after dark, and the rivalry of that Rivals I pairing continues just as it left off on AS4 with Laurel taking top Era 2 lady followed by Bananas for the men... but the Era 1 story is different as CT earns safety as does Rachel. While Tori and Michele take their respective three & four female spots as does Horacio for the Era 4 men, there are some surprises: Cory solving his puzzle helps him overtake the master of that category Devin for the Era 3 men, while Nurys finishes last for E4 which sends her to elimination.


⭐ THE DELIB'S • Joining her down in the arena are KellyAnne, Ryan, Mark, Katie, Nia, Devin and Paulie... and the most-intriguing part of any episode is the politics and wheeling & dealing that takes place in the house. Era 1 faces a big prospect of who to put in on the men's side, as Derrick, Darrell, CT, Mark and Brad each have titles but the bulldog decides to go in with Aneesa, while Era 2 opts for Cara & Brandon. Era 3 sees Tori & Cory face a big dilemma, but ultimately choose Tony & Amanda.

⭐ UNFINISHED BUSINESS? • War of the Worlds II began five years ago this month, and if your memories are still there from Thailand then it's what happened with Theo and Paulie that riled things up the last time they were both under one roof. And the same goes for what we had last year on Battle for a New Champion, and the fallout that took place with Olivia and Nurys... and it's no surprise that the most tense of the deliberations take place with the Era 4 group. And while that female matchup is set up like Hollywood, it's what happens with the two men above that boils over at the deliberation table that it's their drama alone is more than worthy of settling it down on the floor.



         THE 'PULSE         
The Best of Week One

As we got to do for another MTV show that left us in our time away (but the kids in Siesta Key are still enjoying the sun with more time to chill -- and in the case of a few, getting to babysit their new kids with wedding rings on their fingers), we're embedding the cast Twitter reax to cap matters off. And we've shortened the name of this section to just, The 'Pulse... two small words and two syllables this time.















































                     last call                      
A Toast to Diem & Knight

There is the matter of what will go down next in the arena -- and there will be four of those battles to come here then... but prior to that, we'll be joining a Challenge alum as he takes his talents to a new reality show that premiered a week ago tonight. But lastly for now, we carry over from our previous iteration something that if it meant anything from the week in Challenge Nation, this is what those in the TV biz refer to as a "kicker." It's perhaps best popularly known as "...and finally," but here it's last call.

Ten years ago at this time during that historic MTV Reality year, Battle of the Exes II was filming down in Panama... and we absolutely didn't know in that late summer of 2014 that it would be our last time seeing Diem Brown and Ryan Knight. They passed away within two weeks of each other before Thanksgiving that year, and had they were not taken away from us before Exes II premiered then they could have been with the gang for this fortieth Challenge and many more in between that.

Anyone who knows this world knows that it not officially a Challenge until Bananas says so... and we have seen many a toast by the seven-time champ that officially began many of his 20+ seasons in earnest. So in this scene that was cut for time in spite of the 90-minute length of these episodes, Johnny pays an ode to our fallen heroes... and on this Monday that marks two years since my family waved farewell to our patriarch, this is a fitting way to cap off this first edition of the DCBLOG WRAP... and there's much more to come here. But on a personal note, we all still miss you Papa Mar.




- I AM DC
@DC408DXTR
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