The Challenge: Final Reckoning Preliminary Information
Sources Credit:
PinkRose from Vevmo
xSuicialPanda from Reddit
Skull26374 from thechallenge.wikia
lizchallenge_ from Instagram
Details for the 32nd Season of The Challenge have been slowly emerging as of late, and we now have the cast list and a few minor details. The title, location, and cast (with origin season) are listed below, as well as some of my thoughts. The cast is still liable to change but everyone on the list will most likely be on the season in some capacity.
Below, there is some information about the cast, format, twists, and other details about season 32 of The Challenge. Nothing is given out about eliminations, disqualifications, drama, or any of the other actual results of the season, but if any of the prior information concerns you do not read below.
Title: The Challenge: Final Reckoning
Location: Hermanus, South Africa
Cast:
Amanda Garcia Are You The One: Season 3
Angela Babicz Bad Girls Club: Twisted Sisters
Brad Fiorenza Real World: San Diego (2004)
Britni Thornton Are You The One: Season 3
Cara Maria Sorbello The Challenge: Fresh Meat II
Chris “CT” Tamburello Real World: Paris
Chuck Mowery Are You The One: Season 3
Da’Vonne Rogers Big Brother 17
Derrick Henry Are You The One: Season 5
Faith Stowers Vanderpump Rules
Jemmye Carroll Real World: New Orleans
Jenna Compono Real World: Ex-Plosion
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio Real World: Key West
Joss Mooney Ex On The Beach
Jozea Flores Big Brother 18
Kailah Casillas Real World: Go Big or Go Home
Kam Williams Are You The One: Season 5
Kayleigh Morris Ex On The Beach
Kyle Christie Geordie Shore
Marie Roda Real World: St. Thomas
Melissa Reeves Ex On The Beach
Natalie Negrotti Big Brother 18
Nelson Thomas Are You The One: Season 5
Paulie Calafiore Big Brother 18
Shane Landrum Road Rules: Campus Crawl
Sylvia Elsrode Real World: Skeletons
Tony Raines Real World: Skeletons
Tori Deal Are You The One: Season 4
Veronica Portillo Road Rules: Semester at Sea
Zach Nichols Real World: San Diego (2011)
Thoughts:
o There have been a lot of smoke and mirrors around this season’s rumored cast. Many prominent names from previous seasons and even shows on other networks such as ABC’s The Bachelor (Chad Johnson was the primary target there) or CBS’s Survivor (Malcolm Freberg and Jessica Figueroa had been heavily speculated as well). However, perhaps the biggest disappointment was that Landon Lueck appears to no longer be on the cast. Landon only appeared on four seasons of the show but has won three of those seasons and is thought by many to be the greatest male competitor in the history of the show. His performance in the final of Fresh Meat II is my pick for most impressive in the show’s history; although his best performance on a season may be the only one he did not win, when he won five of the nine missions on the Duel II. He had actually been “confirmed” for the season (I had originally had him in Zach’s spot for the season title); but was then removed before being added back and then removed again. Hopefully something unexpected happens and he appears on the season; or at the very least this leads to him returning to the show in some fashion at some point. While he’s not a drama starter, his unique abilities as an athlete and unknown political affiliations would make him a complete wild card and welcome addition to the cast.
o Another interesting note about this season is there appears to be a twist which seemingly combines the Mercenaries twist from previous seasons with the Redemption House twist. It is speculated that a group of competitors will be given the opportunity to enter the game mid-way through the season in a combination of two of the primary twists from the past two seasons. Players speculated for this group of mercenaries have been Madison Walls of Real World: Skeletons, Nicole Zanatta of Real World: Skeletons; Ashley Mitchell of Real World: Ex-Plosion, and Laurel Stucky of The Challenge: Fresh Meat 2 for the women; as well as Darrell Taylor of Road Rules: Campus Crawl; Cory Wharton of Real World: Ex-Plosion; Hunter Barfield of Are You The One: Season 3; and Abram Boise of Road Rules: South Pacific. The exact details of this twist are unknown; but I would speculate the mercenaries would be given the chance to battle eliminated competitors with the winner given the chance to join the actual game. My preference would be to split the overall cast in half (mercenaries and actual cast included) and have two separate houses playing the game at one time, with the two eventually converging halfway through the season. However, due to financial and logistical limitations this probably won’t happen.
o This season has been rumored to be a pairs season; where competitors are put together based on previous history (Exes or Rivals). The speculated pairs are below:
Pair 1: Veronica-CT
Pair 2: Da’Vonne-Jozea
Pair 3: Marie-Cara Maria
Pair 4: Kyle-Brad
Pair 5: Kam-Melissa
Pair 6: Paulie-Natalie
Pair 7: Angela-Faith
Pair 8: Sylvia-Joss
Pair 9: Shane-Nelson
Pair 10: Kayleigh-Kailah
Pair 11: Zach-Amanda
Pair 12: Derrick H-Tori D
Pair 13: Chuck-Britni
Pair 14: Bananas-Devin
Pair 15: Jenna-Jemmye
While I enjoy pair/team seasons and would like to see them implemented again; mixing them in this way is something I not optimistic about. I’ve made my opposition to mixing male and female competition pretty apparent with how it was executed this season; and do not have high hopes for it in this format. The primary issue with mixing male and female competitors is it either results in MTV/BMP having to significantly reduce the physicality of the missions the cast is competing in; or having woefully imbalanced teams. Another problem that comes about is how eliminations are handled. This means they probably will have to alternate elimination weeks between male and female like they did on Battle of the Bloodlines. Not only does this remove one competitor from the pair completely from the competition; it also means that mixed pairs are at a huge disadvantage compared to the same-sex pairs since they are up for elimination every week while same-sex pairs are given every other week off. The only other option I could foresee is a return to the eliminations of The Gauntlet/The Inferno era primarily, when they were more equivalent to bad dares rather than the physical brawls that we enjoy now. Battle of the Bloodlines was the last season to implement jumbled pairs, and it was rated as the worst season outside of the ones that did not feature eliminations at all in the Seasons Rankings poll given out in between Dirty 30 and Vendettas. Hopefully, this rumor turns out not to be true and perhaps the Love and War theme is used instead; or something unexpected happens and the season overcomes the jumbled pairs flaw.
o One final note about this season is some issues with the location. While Hermanus is a beautiful location that should be a nice break from the usual South America/East Asia locations that predominate Challenge seasons; there have been some difficulties. First off, there are a lot of riots over issues with land currently going on in the city. This has apparently caused some problems with production of the season and has really caused it to slow down. Another issue is the lack of clean water for the location. Water is hard to come by in Hermanus, and due to the physical nature of the show this has also risen some issues. Hopefully these difficulties don’t ammount to much, but it is worth noting as this season may take a bit longer to produce than normal.
