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.

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Ride or Dies - The $1 Million Final: Part 3

 ADVISORY:  #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. Enjoy...

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

And welcome back Challenge Nation... if you can stretch back last fall, that was when it all began for The Challenge: Ride or Dies when seventeen teams began Season 38 underneath that scorching Argentinean sun. Now, here we are in the first week of March to put a wrap on all of this as far as DCBLOG's coverage is concerned -- and we're not yet at the finish line to this latest MTV affair.

When we left you back earlier this afternoon (as we talk to you just before midnight on the West Coast before we reach March 7th & a day before the next chapter of this franchise kicks off), the rookie pair of Olivia & Horacio were on their way out after that now-infamous golf ball contacted with her eye, ending their bid to shock the three established veteran teams. That didn't mean that Aneesa & Jordan or Bananas & Nany struggled to make ends meet in the first day or so of a final that will have taken 100 hours to complete by the time this one wraps up. And they all had to look up to Tori & Devin, whose partnership has blossomed a bit during this season including during the time that matters the most: before the final.

But after what we saw with all those three teams having to put up with the most-excruciating component of any Challenge final of having to consume several courses of food like it's Thanksgiving night, now they have to muster whatever energy is left in their tank to tackle the last third of this Ride or Dies final... and let's face it: there's a certain reason why they stretched this final over the last three parts -- just ask anyone who works in the TV business & they'll tell you it's all a numbers game. But on another note, a few other numbers are popping up: around 30 hours remain in this four-day & four-hour ordeal, and $1 million awaits who wins. And all that separates the final three is a rite of summer & autumn: a corn field that serves as their final destination, two final eliminations and a last test of strength and intelligence.

Ahead, Aneesa & Jordan, Bananas & Nany and Devin & Tori decide amongst themselves who are the ultimate Ride or Dies as DCBLOG brings you our last installment of the Season 38 Challenge 'Pulse, along with our parting shot on these final 100 hours. Thanks for joining us this Monday night...

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Ride or Dies - The $1 Million Final: Part 2

 ADVISORY:  #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. Enjoy...

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Twitter @TheChallenge

We bring you all back on what will be quite the week ahead for those of us who follow this MTV world in one big world championship to take place just a few weeks after another one of those was determined out in the desert... but more on that will be forthcoming on here. As for what we got between now and then, we have a doubleheader to bring you to wrap up Season 38 of The Challenge: Ride or Dies.

When we last left you on here back on Friday night, we commenced the longest final by length of time that the fifth major pro sport has ever had: Aneesa & Jordan, Bananas & Nany, Devin & Tori, and Horacio & Olivia. They gathered at the start line to begin the 100-hour finale, and through the first day it has already tested each and every one of them... but one choice to sabotage the rookie pair of Olivia & Horacio set up one of the most memorable moments in Challenge history: a golf ball got slingshot off of her face, leaving her with both her hand and her face in ruins as did their chances to cap off the greatest rookie season ever with an ascent to the throne as part of the show's next generation. 

With Olivia & Horacio sent off, the spotlight is now on just on the veteran teams to duke it out for the money: two champion men with multiple championships looking to add to their trophy case once again, together with their female partners desperate for their first titles, and a scrappy pair who haven't won one of these yet but who have already established themselves in this world over the past half-decade. They've just survived the first 30 hours of so of this 100-hour final, but what lays ahead will test them quite a bit as only a Challenge final can... and that includes everyone's least-favorite finals checkpoint: a dinner table full of food that would want to make them not look forward to next Thanksgiving.

Ahead, DCBLOG brings you part two of the Challenge Pulse finale special as Ride or Dies enters the midway portion of the $1 million, 100-hour final... and we'll also let you in on something big coming up this month. We're glad you're here with us again...

DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Ride or Dies - The $1 Million Final: Part 1

 ADVISORY:  #DCSocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content and spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're viewing this top to bottom. Enjoy...

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Twitter @TheChallenge

It's now the month of March: it's been a few weeks since Patrick Mahomes collected his second Super Bowl, Mac McClrug and Jason Tatum rule NBA All-Star Weekend, and we're now onto the Road to the Final Four which will take both the men's and women's fields to Texas. But as far as the fifth major pro sport is concerned, as far as the timeframe this site has on this third day of the third month a season 38 of The MTV Challenge that has seen plenty go down has reached its climatic point which, by the time we wrap this month's first weekend will have reached its conclusion.

When we last were in Argentina -- and it has been a long time since we last spoke to you just after that Super Bowl (real life & family responsibilities as the man of the house have something to do with it), it was what we at this site refer to as "Semifinal Week" -- our definition for the episode that features the season's last regular daily challenge and elimination that set the field for the final. There in the kind of freezing conditions of sorts that those out here in California have had to put up the past week, Tori & Devin won their way into the final and then opted to put Bananas & Nany into the last elimination against Feysal & Moriah. In the end, the former came away victorious -- and that has usually meant that it would lead to a Bananas title -- a few of his seven rings came by way of carrying that momentum from that last "Win or Go Home" battle to winning the whole box of crayons.

Those two teams have joined with Jordan & Aneesa and the unqualified Rookies of the Year of Olivia & Horacio, who have all emerged out of that pack of seventeen pairs that began this thing back in October, to becoming the four finalists who have made it to the season's final stage. They will all have to endure not just an ordinary Challenge final that will test everything that they learned in the game itself and also testing the bonds of their relationships with their partners. In this case, this is a final that is double the length of what five of our finalists have been used to in the past of it taking place over two days... it is the same length as most any golf tournament. And it's not just one that will take place over four days, it's exactly four days & four hours... which equates to 100 hours -- easily the longest final ever.

After the break, DCBLOG and our Challenge 'Pulse presents Part 1 of our coverage of the Ride or Dies Final, which includes one game-changing moment where one team doesn't have their eye on the big prize -- quite literally. And welcome to the weekend, folks...