After decades of drunken fights over frozen pizzas, semi-erotic mud-pit wrestling matches, and forbidden coach-bus trysts, 40 of the fiercest Challenge competitors are reuniting for the MTV mainstay’s historic 40th season. Beginning in 1998, The Challenge was originally an offshoot of the popular Road Rules series, which featured hot 22-year-olds causing a ruckus in an RV. It quickly expanded to include alums from The Real World .
Then it began integrating standouts from any reality show in the Paramount Global ecosystem (and that’s why we stan a merger). Unlike similar strategy-competition shows like Survivor or Big Brother , which introduce us to a brand-new cast each season, The Challenge rotates the same pool of outrageous characters year after year while “promoting” rookies to main players if they’re successful in the hard-won battle of pulling screen time away from the fan favorites. We’ve watched these Not Serious PeopleTM grow up in real time, from chasing each other around a mansion with a bottle of ketchup or hosting a funeral for a wig to maturing into semi-respectable, semi-functioning adults.
To celebrate the milestone season, The Challenge has assembled an all-star cast for the ages, including GOATs like Johnny Bananas and Cara Maria, newer faces like Survivor champ Michele Fitzgerald, and “retired” players like Emily, Leroy, and Aviv, returning to their roots for a last hurrah. On The Challenge: Battle of the Eras , these now-geriatric degenerat.