The Challenge Total Madness Episode 1 Recap And Power Rankings
After a long offseason, The Challenge has finally returned! The timing could not be better, with every sport outside of Belarussian soccer being canceled and everyone hungry for some TV. Airing in the exact same time slot as Survivor is a bizarre choice and the fact the show was filmed last September and used a quarantine theme which hits all too close to home make for some strange hurdles to entry, but here’s hoping for a strong season to carry us through these hard times.
The episode opens with the cast emerging through the woods from a helicopter. We get our usual cast intros, including Johnny and Wes exchanging insults as some of the rookies introduce themselves. Some notables are Bayleigh and Swaggy, a married couple from Big Brother 20; Kaycee, a female professional football player who won that Big Brother season; Fessy, a collegiate football player who barely missed on the NFL due to injury; Jay S, the first American Survivor crossover character; Asaf, a reality show veteran who has appeared on everything from Big Brother Israel (which he won) to Worst Cooks In America; and Jennifer L, who was the first boot on The Amazing Race.
TJ says this is “the toughest season ever” (never heard that one before) and intros the first mission as Battle Lines, which seems a lot like a combo of Arms-a-geddon Tired from War Of The Worlds and Pirates’ Treasure from Dirty XXX. The cast has to start by retrieving a barrel by pulling a rope, then solving a math puzzle, then pulling the barrel back the other way. The first player to put their barrel on a crate win.
A solid mission this week. The fog was a bit much; but certainly, made for some good camera shots and also tested a diverse array of skills in the mission which I appreciate. The only rookie to last for the guys was Fessy, who finished just behind Rogan. Jenny won for the girls with Dee in a close second. TJ announces Dee and Rogan form he first two parts of the Tribunal, and now get to pick one other person to join them. They decide on Cory, due to him performing well in the mission and being “neutral.” The way the Tribunal was formed was very Vendettas-esque; we’ll see how it carries forward but hoping they don’t also get to pick teams or pairs in future missions.
We get back to the house, which turns out to not actually be much of a house. The living arrangements for the season are a traditional nuclear bunker, seemingly more from Chernobyl than MTV. The cast runs through the house, confused as to what is going on before stumbling onto a few bedrooms and the main living area. It looks nice, with a pool, couches, and fully stocked gym. However, having the cast so locked down will be strange particularly when the people watching it will be as well. I’ve never really cared for formats that put the cast in such adverse conditions, there are other sows that do that already and those struggles can distract from the relationships and gameplay that have people coming back to the show.
We get another brief mention of the Wes/Johnny rivalry, with a little bit of backstory. The Wes/Johnny rivalry has seemed difficult for the show to explain, as it dates a while back and to fully flesh it out you have to bring up characters that aren’t involved in the show anymore. Jordan mentions that Johnny and Wes have become too preoccupied with grudges and has been the reason for their struggles. While I understand the point he is getting at, Wes made the final two seasons ago and a big reason for that was disposing of Johnny as quickly as possible, so it does yield benefits at times. After the discussion of the rivalry, we get a clip of an alliance playing as Kailah discusses the bond she feels with Jenna and Nany. This alliance seems pretty doomed as none of the three are great in missions and to have significant power this season mission performance would is a priority.
After discussing things with her alliance, Nany finds another friend in Asaf. It seems every season one rookie feels uncomfortable in the living dynamics, although coming from Are You The One along with all his other shows one would think Asaf is adapted to this type of environment. Nany makes some flirty comments and Asaf is seeming to buy in before we cut to Kyle and CT. CT tells Kyle that playing the middle politically can make sense for a time, but eventually, you have to pick a side. Kyle is the Michael Clayton of The Challenge where politically he performed very well his rookie year but since then has never made the right strategic decisions. It’ll be interesting to see if he can reverse course this year or if it is more of the same for the Bandana Loving Brit.
On his way to bed, Bear begins some inebriated flirting with Kailah. She’s not buying it, but we’ll see if her tune changes soon here. Asaf actually makes out with Nany before heading to bed with her, scoring the ultra-rare hookup points for the pair. Jay, Bayleigh, Fessy, and Swaggy C are playing pool and discussing the situation of the house. They agree one of the rookies will likely be going in and there isn’t much they can do.
The cast heads to nominations, and Johnny lets CT take the first shot. CT says he doesn’t want to put in Fessy due to him likely coming back, Swaggy comes with Fessy, and Asaf comes with Nany so he is voting for Jay. Jay makes a point about how if he isn’t much of a threat why would he want him gone, but that doesn’t land with CT. Wes votes for Asaf, and the votes go down the line pretty even until it is 7–6 with Jay ahead (or behind). Bayleigh is next, and she asks Jay if he was going for Swaggy C with his comment to which he says he was not trying to throw him under the bus. Asaf ends up going in 15–9, with Asaf throwing a burn vote at Wes. Wes starts to chirp back at Asaf and the two get into it a little bit. Asaf asks Wes why he took this so personally, but I think Wes just wanted the fantasy points.
Johnny gives Wes a hug to help him cope with the emotional turmoil, and Cory and Nany are perplexed at the two playing nice. This clearly seems like a producer fed question as the two have often had fun with their rivalry. However, via confessional, Wes and Johnny do reveal an alliance this season. While a partnership between the two is not without precedent (see Rivals, Season 21); it is certainly different than recent history. I do think particularly with how this season is set up, where the house gets to vote one person in and outside of Jordan I don’t think Wes or Johnny is scared of seeing anybody in particular in a final, a secret alliance between the two could be mutually beneficial.
We head to the Tribunal where Cory, Jenny, and Rogan plot who they will bring in. They decide to call in Wes, Kyle, and Jay. Jay is first up and asks them why they wouldn’t keep an unattached rookie around as an alliance member and layup for later in the game instead of getting rid of him early. Again, Jay seems to have a smart head on his shoulders, but logic doesn’t always move Rogan, Cory, and Jenny. Kyle is next and tells Rogan if he keeps him around then he won’t throw Rogan in the rest of the year. Wes is last to go and says if they keep him around, he doesn’t have many friends in the game so he would be open to working with them. Wes straight-up asks them if he will be going in, to which they say he’ll found out at the elimination.
Jay and Nelson are playing chess and talking strategy before we head to elimination. TJ asks the Tribunal for their votes, and it is a unanimous decision for Jay. TJ introduces the elimination of Air Strike. Each competitor hangs on opposite sides of a glass plane and kicks the plane into their opponent. The goal is to use the plane to knock the opponent off, with the best two out of three winning.
The elimination opens, and it is pretty clear from the onset that the competitors have pretty different strategies. Asaf is rapidly kicking the plane as quickly as he can, while Jay is being much more sedentary. Asaf eventually falls down and gives Jay a point. The next round, both competitors kind of chill for a while before Asaf falls again, giving Jay the win.
TJ dismisses Asaf and then congratulates Jay on his win. TJ also makes some announcements. He says each competitor will have skulls and daggers on the back of their helmets; with skulls indicating elimination wins and daggers indicating final wins. If a competitor wins an elimination on the season, they get a red skull. Only competitors that get a red skull are allowed in the final. TJ also announces this as the biggest twist in the show’s history, to which I’m sure Sarah Rice and Hunter Barfield disagree. That closes the episode and sets up what should be an exciting season.
Two notes about the twist. One, many people are saying this twist removes strategy. I disagree completely as I think it increases it tenfold. Now, not only do you have to try to keep yourself out of elimination; you also have to pick when would be a good time to go in. While this puts a halt in someone like CT’s plans who simply tries to avoid elimination, it also could cause problems for a player like Jordan who tends to go wherever the winds take him and not make a point of when he will be going in or who it will be against.
Secondly, I also am a bit concerned with how this will be implemented. While I think there are many ways this can work for an interesting game, it also could go wrong. I’m not quite sure how the math on this will work (and considering there was no order of operations on that math puzzle, the producers and math seem not to go together) as there isn’t a clean way to get to a final based on the cast setup. If we get to the end of the season and there are two competitors remaining with red skulls while five do not, do we get a bunch of eliminations piled into an episode to get the required number of red skulls? Will there come a point in the season where there are only a few eliminations remaining and only non-red skulls will be let in? Could someone like Jordan or Smashley who is perceived as a finals threat just not be let into elimination? My hope for this style of format would be a tournament style setup where there would be 16 men and 16 women; where the winners of the first eight rounds would gain a red skull (once a red skull is gained, only those without red skulls can go in). After only red skulls remain, then the winners of the next four rounds would get green skulls with upon acquisition of the green skull the competitor is guaranteed a spot in the final. A third round could even be added to trim the final to two competitors of each gender, or a purge to trim to three competitors of each gender. Unfortunately, I am not a Challenge producer, so let’s hope they figure this out and don’t just fly by the seat of their pants and end up with thrash situations like Nelson being randomly eliminated on Vendettas.
Eliminated
Asaf: He at least made an impression before he left.
Power Rankings
27) Jennifer L: First boot on Amazing Race and doesn’t seem prepared at all for The Challenge.
26) Swaggy C: Swaggy was surprisingly quiet this episode and having a deadset ally can make you a target more than it can help sometimes.
25) Bayleigh: She certainly has more upside than Jennifer L, but she could be a throw-in for the vets if they think she could be competitive.
24) Big T: Making friends with Smashley should help for a bit, but she only hung around for two episodes last season.
23) Melissa: I think Melissa is a pretty capable competitor, but with her track record there is only so high I can put her.
22) Bear: Bear’s a scrapper, but he’s undersized and a preference for being a showman over winning the show puts him down here.
21) Fessy: He’s a titan in size but could be used against some other strong players to try to thin the herd.
20) Josh: He has some allies but an individual game works against his competitive strengths.
19) Jay: It will be interesting to see if the red skulls are targeted (I would if I was in the game), but he has a good mind for the game and the creativity needed to overcome the size discrepancy.
18) Aneesa: She can use veteran savvy to make it by a little bit, it will be interesting to see how she approaches the elimination.
17) Jenna: I’ve never bought in much to Jenna’s competitive track record, and I worry this Holy Trinity alliance could drag each other down if they don’t branch out more.
16) Kailah: She’s a little better than Jenna in missions so she gets a half step up.
15) Nany: Out of the three Holy Trinity gals, she seems like the one that could make the easiest pivot to another alliance.
14) Cory: Good showing from Cory and hopefully he keeps his cards closer to his vest this time around.
13) Kyle: He would seem to be a logical inclusion in the Johnny/Wes power duo, and on this cast, he shouldn’t be at an athletic disadvantage either.
12) Kaycee: Might be a bit high, but she has as strong a pedigree coming on the show as any female since Ninja.
11) Rogan: A nice job in the mission but without Kayleigh, Paulie, and Kam to guide him around I’m worried his political inadequacies may be exposed.
10) Nelson: He has a sterling elimination record and gets along with a lot of the cast so he’s in a good spot with this format.
9) Mattie: She was one of the harder competitors to rank, she has the size to win some eliminations and connections so she could thrive if things break her way.
8) CT: Really don’t think this format plays well for CT, his whole game the past few seasons has been avoiding eliminations and stay under the radar, so he’ll have to pick his spot well here.
7) Jenny: Her political game is not great but perhaps one of the guys uses her as a wingman and her natural athleticism can win the day.
6) Jordan: He’s an amazing physical competitor, but similar to fellow returning champ CT, I do not like this format at all for him. The other competitors could conceivably just not throw him into elimination or wait until he gets an elimination specifically targeting his weaknesses and put him in an unwinnable situation.
5) Tori: I don’t love Tori’s spot here, Jordan seemed to really stilt her political game last time around. However, she showed to be a monster physical competitor and perhaps some new connections (Dee, CT) can help her out this time around.
4) Johnny: I’m of two minds about Johnny this season. On the one hand, he hasn’t won an elimination since Rivals 3 (and hasn’t won one not paired with Sarah Rice since Free Agents). He also has been a disaster politically recently, from decisions that made no sense such as throwing the mission on War Of The Worlds 2 which turned things from his alliance being in power to putting his top female ally on the way out the door to being on the wrong side of the numbers all game on Final Reckoning. However, he also is surrounded by unproven competitors and is showing increased awareness by aligning with the bearded ginger.
3) Smashley: She has no real allies this season but has the most extensive track record of any female on the season by far. If anyone can find a way to work herself into the power alliance on a season, my money is on Smashley finding a way to do so.
2) Dee: People like to underestimate Dee, but outside of her elimination loss to Da’Vonne she’s performed well whenever asked to. She is clearly in great shape, good at puzzles, and showed last season she can be a political wizard as well. With the level of allies she has this season, she should be set up for a long run all the way to the final and possibly taking home the money,
1) Wes: Wes seems built for this format. While he lacks the size of some other competitors, he was dominant in missions on War Of The Worlds and if he didn’t talk himself into elimination against Bear he seemed set up to go far in War Of The Worlds 2 as well. He also has shown an adaptivity in terms of political strategy that Johnny has lacked, putting him at number one for the time being.
Fantasy Scoring
