The Challenge War of The Worlds Episode 1 Recap and Power Rankings
Hello, and welcome to a new season of The Challenge! This season is called War Of The Worlds and opens with the alumni getting on ATV’s to ride to meet the new prospects coming in. We have a great mix of cast members on this season; with series cornerstones Johnny, CT, Wes, and Cara Maria; recurring names Nany, Leroy, Zach, and Jenna; rising stars Amanda, Ashley, Hunter, and Kam; and newer faces Kyle, Da’Vonne, Natalie, and Paulie. They arrive and meet up with the prospects; who are an even more diverse host of characters. In that group there are Big Brother alumni Josh, Morgan, Liz, and Julia; Brits Theo, Bear, Cain, Zahida, Georgia, and Dee; US personalities Chase, Ninja, Gus, and Mattie; and virtual unknowns Turbo, Alan, JP, and Shaleen. Quite the cast of characters to be governed by the illustrious TJ Lavin, and judging by the previews and how the cast has talked it up this season seems like it should be one of the best in some time.
TJ introduces the prospects and the alumni and immediately throws them into the first mission; called Impending Dune. The mission has the competitors chase after a set of balls that have fallen down a dune. Each competitor has to return a ball to the top of the dune and then grab puzzle pieces to use at the bottom. The last prospect in each gender will be eliminated immediately.
The guys are up first, and it is immediate chaos. Some balls travel all the way down the dune, so Hunter and Theo have to run all the way down to get them. While everyone is running down the dune, Alan falls hard and hurts his hand. Most people get to the table around the same time. The guys end up finishing in this order:
Alumni
Paulie
Johnny
CT
Zach
Leroy
Wes
Hunter
Kyle
Prospects
Cain
Bear
Theo
Alan
Turbo
JP
Chase
Gus
Josh
This sends Josh packing but we’ll get back to that later. The women are up next, and dust starts flying as soon as they start. Zahida says the reason she wants to win the show is that her ex-boyfriend left her, and she wants to prove she can live without him. Dee is the first to the puzzle, followed by a crowd of alumni and prospects. The order finishes as such:
Alumni
Da’Vonne
Kam
Nany
Smashley
Negrotti
Amanda
Jenna
Cara Maria
Prospects
Ninja
Morgan
Georgia
Julia
Dee
Mattie
Shaleen
Zahida
Liz
Liz is sent home, and she and Julia start balling. Not going to lie, I could get pretty confused trying to figure out which twin is which so I’m ok one is going home. Real strong start for the British prospects but team Big Brother is already losing spots. TJ dismisses the last place competitors, but we are yet to find out the pairs, so we’ll have to wait to find out the teams.
After this, we head to the house, where everyone charges to find the best room while Turbo and CT leisurely stroll to take whatever is left over. Kam and Da’Vonne start strategizing and say they would prefer British partners since they have a built-in alliance. Nany and Chase start flirting, and Nany addresses that she just got out of a three-year relationship. Johnny starts fraternizing with Morgan, and she says she is here to win. Johnny says he’s learning to select her if he has the opportunity to. Hunter tells Georgia that his last partner Smashley stole the money from her last final, while Smashley does the same to Turbo. Kam and Leroy start talking and address how their relationship broke down.
Some of the group gather together, where Leroy starts making fun of Johnny for always going after rookie girls. Nany sits on Johnny’s lap and starts twerking on him. They clearly have a vibe going, which is upsetting Chase. He starts grilling her, even though they’ve only known each other for a day. Chase seems really out of his element here and seems to be turning off some of the alumni in the house.
In another part of the house, people are joking around when Theo says Smashley reminds him of Eminem’s mom. Smashley, of course, gets furious about this and threatens to pick Theo and then just leave so he has to go home. Theo tries to calm her down but to no avail while Hunter tells him to just apologize and walk away. Wes and Amanda get her to walk away, but it is clear Smashley has come in full force this season.
The alumni and prospects meet up with TJ and he throws them all a curveball by saying the prospects will pick the alumni. The prospects will select in the order of finish from the mission. However, Alan ends up having a broken hand and he is unable to compete. The drafting goes as such:
Ninja-Paulie
Cain-Kam
Morgan-Johnny
Bear-Da’Vonne
Georgia-Hunter
Theo-Cara Maria
Julia-CT
Turbo-Nany
Dee-Wes
JP-Negrotti
Mattie-Kyle
Chase-Smashley
Shaleen-Leroy
Gus-Jenna
Zahida-Zach
Josh-Amanda
Since Alan could not compete, Josh was brought back to be Amanda’s partner. That rounds up the first episode, and the initial ranks are posted below! I tried to avoid overreacting to the first episode and go more based on how proved the veteran member of the pair was, but these could fluctuate greatly soon.
Disqualified
Alan: Feel awful for the guy, some of the alumni were terrible to him in his rookie preview and he seemed like a strong competitor. Hopefully, the producers do him a solid and bring him on some other time.
Eliminated
Liz: It will certainly make things easier for me, but it would have been nice to bring on two extra alumni so there wouldn’t have to be eliminations so early.
Power Rankings
16) Amanda/Josh: I’ve always felt like Amanda never gets the credit she deserves as a competitor but getting stuck with the guy who got eliminated and brought back again isn’t great.
15) Da’Vonne/Bear: Probably a mistake having them this low, but this cast is stacked and Da’Vonne and Amanda are the only alumni to never make a final.
14) Natalie/JP: Both were pretty invisible on the episode which is generally either a very good thing or a very bad thing. I’m betting on the latter.
13) Kyle/Mattie: These two are both huge so they should do great in eliminations, but Kyle’s made a fair share of enemies and I could see them struggling in missions.
12) Nany/Turbo: I’d have Turbo as the top male prospect coming in, but it remains to be seen if Nany is here to win or here to have fun. Hopefully both.
11) Paulie/Kyle: They could rocket up the list soon but Paulie rubs a lot of people the wrong way and just isn’t as proven as some of the other competitors.
10) Leroy/Shaleen: Leroy is one competitor I’ve never really bought as being a member of the top tier, but he has a lot of allies.
9) Jenna/Gus: I’m lower on Jenna as a competitor than just about anybody, but her political situation seems pristine so she should be around for a while if nothing else.
8) Smashley/Chase: Smashley is a flight risk at any point, but she’s also won twice which only Cara on the female side can claim too.
7) Hunter/Georgia: Hunter got robbed (literally and figuratively) last season, and he seems to have a strong partner at his side to seek redemption.
6) Zach/Zahida: Zach getting picked last was odd, but you could make the argument he was the best male competitor the past two seasons.
5) Kam/Cain: Kam has been outstanding the past two seasons and her partner played as a winger in soccer but looks like a linebacker.
4) CT/Julie: CT isn’t in the same shape he used to be, but he also hasn’t been thrown into elimination since Free Agents.
3) Wes/Dee: Wes is in as good of shape as ever and seems to have really turned around his likability in the house from the start of his career.
2) Johnny/Morgan: Johnny doesn’t have the number she used to, but his partner looks awesome and you can never count out the Banana man.
1) Cara Maria/Theo: Not the opening Cara wanted, but she traditionally has started slow and her partner is a 6”5 Olympic Sprinter.
Extra Notes
· There is still time to join the Fantasy League for this season! Follow the link and draft your players before next week’s episode. https://goo.gl/VsKrJF
· There was a lot of hubbub surrounding the puzzle. Supposedly, Wes forgot a puzzle piece, Chase claims the Brits cheated, and Chase also fails to understand a lot about The Challenge.
