With The Challenge: World Championship, MTV Celebrates the Past, Present, and Future of Its Most Legendary Franchise

The Challenge: World Championship, the latest incarnation of MTV’s The Challenge, is barely six episodes old and it’s already shaping up to be one of the most enjoyable seasons of the long-running reality TV competition franchise in recent memory. The gimmick this season involves a different Challenge newbie from either Australia, Argentina, the United Kingdom, or the United States teaming up with a franchise veteran and competing with rival duos for a $500,000 prize. In theory, the newcomers are meant to be representing their respective nations, like a sort of mini-World Cup but with fish smoothie drinking and pole wrestling instead of soccer. However, not only are the vast majority of Challenge mainstays featured on World Championship American (meaning that every pair of competitors on the show is at least half-American) but only one pair will be declared champions when all is said and done, so national alliances have, for the most part, already gone out the window.

Thankfully, having its key concept ignored from such an early stage hasn’t hindered the season’s quality—quite the opposite, in fact. Instead of being a show about geo-political alliances and inter-continental competition, The Challenge: World Championship is a celebration of (almost) everything that makes the franchise so great. Of course, it’s nowhere near as horny as previous seasons, and the cast members are no longer allowed to consume copious amounts of booze, but when it comes to endearing personalities, rascally villains, hilarious moments, engaging micro-narratives, and impressive displays of athletic prowess from a bunch of reality television stars, World Championship delivers.

Originally launched as a crossover between seminal MTV reality franchises Road Rules and The Real World, The Challenge (or Road Rules: All Stars, as it was originally titled) premiered in 1998 and recently wrapped its 38th season, The Challenge: Ride or Dies. Developed by reality TV pioneers Bunim-Murray Productions, The Challenge has outlived both of its predecessors. To date, 526 episodes (and counting) of The Challenge’s flagship show have been produced. When Road Rules and The Real World became relics of reality TV’s past, MTV began padding out its Challenge roster with contestants from their raunchy reality dating show Are You the One? in 2015, and started throwing MTV UK personalities into the mix in 2018. The international representation has only grown since then. In the past two seasons alone we’ve seen cast members from the likes of Love Island UK, Survivor Romania, and Warsaw Shore test their mettle on MTV’s legendary competition series. Over the years the show has evolved incrementally, switching up vibes, themes, formats, and hosts (until settling on its iconic and current host TJ Lavin in 2005). While seasons of The Bachelor and Big Brother look roughly the same now as they did when they premiered, The Challenge has evolved into a soapy serialized athletic workplace drama with semi-trucks, helicopters, and sled dogs.

The crop of Challenge veterans currently competing on World Championship features an exciting blend of discernable stalwarts who rarely miss a season of the show (like Bananas and Wes), well-respected legends who returned from lengthy hiatuses with the advent of The Challenge: All Stars (like Jonna and Yes), and comparatively recent additions to the Challenge roster who are just as formidable as some of their more-experienced counterparts—if not more so (like Theo and Tori). We’re not even halfway through the season, and the politicking has already been a joy to behold: it’s business as usual for the seasoned veterans, but this time they each have a less-experienced protégé under their wing, creating some fascinating political predicaments. While the protégés have a lot to learn from their more-adept partners, they’re no ordinary rookies: they’re all either winners or MVPs of their respective countries’ seasons (The Challenge UK, The Challenge USA, The Challenge Australia, and The Challenge Argentina). Needless to say, the customary butting of heads between “rookies” and “vets” is well underway on World Championship.

While it is every duo for itself, the newbies are more likely to go to bat for their compatriots than they are contestants from one of the three other nations. But The Challenge is a very American TV show that has featured a lot of American cast members and, historically, very few non-American people. As a result, Kansas City’s own Wes Bergman (who has competed in 19 Challenge seasons, winning 3) is representing Team UK after being selected as a partner by The Challenge UK runner-up Zara Zoffany. Meanwhile, The Challenge Australia winner Kiki Morris is representing her nation alongside multi-time Challenge champion Darrell Taylor. The only Challenge champ to win four times in a row, Darrell’s only connection to Australia is Crocodile Dundee, a movie he likes (or at the very least, can name). Englishman Theo Campbell (who is paired with The Challenge: USA female winner Sarah Lacina) is the one non-American Challenge veteran and, of course, a member of Team USA. It’s a glorious mess that doesn’t make much sense but, to quote Bananas (the Tom Brady of The Challenge) “all is fair in love, war, and challenges.”

With all of the above in mind, let’s take a look at the World Championship contestants who both embody The Challenge and ensure that the future of the franchise is a bright one.

Past: Bananas

Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio is arguably the most recognizable face of The Challenge. Some diehard fans might cite Christopher “CT” Tamburello as the greatest challenger of all time; others, Wes (Wes would certainly vote for himself). But Bananas has crafted the most enduring persona (with an online merchandise empire to match). On 2006’s The Real World: Key West, he was an affable and borderline forgettable frat boy whose initial portrayal has not aged particularly well. He made his Challenge debut on The Duel immediately after shooting his season of The Real World and was sent home in the first episode following a humiliating defeat at the hands of his former Key West housemate, Tyler. The Duel is considered an indelible classic Challenge season, but Bananas made an inauspicious first impression. Subconsciously or otherwise, Bananas seems to have forged an entire career devoted to rectifying that early defeat. Love him or hate him, he pretty much wrote the rule book for The Challenge’s complex political machinations. As an 8-time champ, he has more wins under his belt than any other competitor in the show’s history. But when it came time for the Global MVPs to choose their partners in the first episode of World Championship, Bananas, much to his chagrin, wasn’t picked first (that honor went to Bananas’ longtime foe, Wes). He wasn’t even picked second (Jordan was). Bananas was eventually picked third by former Love Island USA contestant and The Challenge USA finalist Justine Ndiba.

Past: Jodi

Jodi is essentially the antithesis of Bananas. She debuted on the final season of Road Rules way back in the summer of 2004 and competed in just three subsequent seasons shortly afterward. Despite winning two of her three Challenge seasons, Jodi took a lengthy hiatus from MTV shenanigans, before returning to compete in the second season of All Stars as a wife and mother in her early forties. On All Stars, Jodi was just as strong a competitor as she was in the early aughts—and equally as frazzled under pressure!

Present: Jordan

Historically, rookies on The Challenge are often exploited as sacrificial lambs, but Jordan Wisely’s uncanny athleticism took him all the way to the final during his debut season, 2013’s Rivals II. Though he and his partner finished third, Jordan would go on to win three Challenge championships. The former Real World: Portland housemate is a fierce competitor with a prominent know-it-all attitude and brash, combative personality. Jordan also found (and lost) love on The Challenge when he met Tori Deal during Dirty XXX—her rookie season. The pair got engaged on-air two years later during War of the Worlds 2 but broke up between seasons in November 2020. Their fraught journey from ex-fiancés to fragile friends provided one of the juiciest subplots on Ride or Dies that crescendoed when Jordan called Tori a terrorist. To add to the messiness, Jordan’s partner on Ride or Dies was Tori’s best friend, Aneesa Ferreira. On World Championship, Jordan is paired-up with Challenge UK champion Kaz Crossley. She, too, is competing alongside an ex: Theo.

Present: Tori

Looking for love on Are You The One? didn’t seem like a great predictor of Challenge success, but MTV producers struck gold with Tori Deal. Like her ex-fiance Jordan, she made it to the final on her rookie season and went on to win Ride or Dies (partnered with fellow Are You The One? alum Devin Walker). She’s one of the most formidable female competitors the show has ever seen and also lived out her formative years on MTV. The formation and dissolution of Jordan and Tori’s relationship embodies the serialized storytelling of The Challenge at its best. Her arguably misplaced loyalty to Jordan is currently causing friction between her and her partner Danny on World Championship. Survivor alum Danny might be Tori’s partner in the game, but he just can’t compete with nearly a decade of shared history.

Future: Zara

Had it not been for a stipulation that involved finalists switching partners at the beginning of each portion of the final, Zara Zoffany might have won The Challenge UK. Zara is a fitness freak who kicked off her reality TV career on MTV’s rather forgettable The Royal World but really stood out during her Challenge UK tenure. On World Championship, she won the season’s very first challenge and was rewarded with an opportunity to choose a veteran partner before any of her rivals. Zara picked the aforementioned Wes Bergman, creating what should have been one of the most impressive partnerships in Challenge history. Zara and Wes won the daily challenge on Episode 4, but a risky decision at the beginning of Episode 5’s daily challenge backfired, leaving the duo on the chopping block. Regardless, it seems inevitable that Zara will return to The Challenge for future seasons—she’s just too good not to.

Future: Grant

Grant Crapp is one of the most Australian men ever. The 27-year-old was a contestant on Love Island Australia’s first season and was eliminated from The Challenge Australia in Episode 8. Despite not making it to the final, Grant was chosen to compete on World Championship because he was a fan favorite who won three eliminations. He quickly proved that the producers were right to select him by winning two daily challenges in a row and selecting two-time All Stars champ Jonna as his partner. Grant is a grown-in-a-lab reality TV star who knows how to play the game in spite of his relative inexperience. He might be the most obvious future champion in the history of the franchise.

Norman Quarrinton is a tall person from South London who now resides in Southern California with his American wife. Follow him on Twitter @NormanQ

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