The Challenge (MTV Series, formerly Real World vs. Road Rules) TV Show • Page 23

For those that go back and watch old seasons, remember that these were filmed in a muuuuuch different time.

a few eps into The Island (season 16) and the amount of times “bitch” and the R word have been thrown around is quite startling. Be sure to brace yourself (for that and the horrid fashion) and some horrid, horrid sexism.

 

Man Wes bulks the hell up after Fresh Meat. It’s kinda crazy how much bigger he is, this was probably only like six months later, and he was already a big dude.

 

The Island is the worst of the worst as far as I can tell

 

Well... steroids have that effect on people haha

 

hah for sure that’s really what I’m alluding to, it had to have been roids. I just think it’s funny that Jordan later calls him out on using steroids on like Battle of the Exes 2 and he flat out denies it.

 

I hope so lol. I don’t recall this much cringe in seasons before or after. Maybe the lack of food really turned everyone into more of an asshole than usual.

I’m also realizing that this is basically a Survivor rip-off season lol. I wonder how pissed MTV (or Viacom) was at seeing how popular Survivor was/is The Challenge. Although they certainly knew that MTV has a much smaller target audience than what airs on CBS simply from the cable perspective that used to exist.

also interesting that in the last podcast Bananas did with Bill Simmons how Simmons talks about how people currently under 25 don’t know of The Challenge or watch it because that generation doesn’t have cable for MTV and Bananas talking about how the majority of fans he meets are his age that grew up with the show (so much of us in here I assume fit that bill)

 

Yup! I fit that demo for sure. I started watching The Real World in 2002. I don’t remember which Challenge season was my first. I know I’ve seen every season since Fresh Meat though.

One of my college roommates watched both shows when we roomed together. My cousin still watches the Challenge. Other than her I literally don’t know one other person who watches. If I bring it up to any of my friends they have no clue what I’m talking about.

 

same here. i started watching it in 6th/7th grade (same year as you as i see we're both 32) and i actually totally forgot about it until around 2014 or so. i've told this story before but i remember randomly thinking about it one day and looking on Amazon for it, assuming it wasn't still going on. i was shocked to see a new season (at that time) had just finishes in 2014/15 and fired it up thinking, "this will kind of be a trip down memory lane but i'm not gonna know any of these people" and was downright giddy yet flabbergasted that i recognized / remembered at least half the cast - i just assumed they'd be way too old to still be doing this, not knowing that most were only a few years old than me so yeah, they still could and would

i think the first season i watched was Cutthroat because Prime had it for awhile. then it was Fresh Meat 2 for the same reasons and then i started ponying up $15 or so for a season because i was hooked again.

but yeah, no one i meet or talk to now a days knows what it is. some older coworkers remember but don't still watch it, younger ones have no idea what it is. Bananas and Bill brought up a good point of trying to get it on Netflix or Hulu. people would eat that shit up if they knew it existed imo.

 

I was just talking to a friend of mine about how much it would benefit from being on Netflix or Hulu in full. I feel like people would binge it out of curiosity and eventually the word would spread how addicting it is.

I think I started watching this show when I was in like 7th grade because my (older) sister was watching it. I’m 27 now and I think the first season I saw was maybe The Ruins? I just remember having one TV and having to take turns who had control of the remote, and having to sit through this stupid show when it was her turn. But the more I watched it, it really started to grow on me and I realized I was developing an attachment to the characters.

I mentioned to her recently that I still watched it and she was pretty surprised and said that she stopped watching it like ten years ago lol.

 

haha a lot of them stuck around for quite awhile. It’s actually quite impressive considering how physically demanding the show has evolved to (even in 2014). I remember one final from back in the day where they were just running around a city doing tasks. I think it was like a couple miles? Lol like damn I could do that

I remember when Prime had past seasons! I would throw one on every now and then because the show is easily digestible. They should put it on Hulu/Netflix though. I know it’s on All Access or whatever now but honestly how much of a bump will the new seasons get from that?

I do think it was smart to invite these new players from other reality shows to try and grow their viewership. It just doesn’t feel as organic to me. Maybe if I watched those shows I would feel differently?

 

Yeah I’m not a huge fan of the newer players from other reality shows, but since I don’t watch other reality shows (besides Survivor) for me personally I wouldn’t like new people at first so it doesn’t matter where they come from I guess lol

and with Real World no longer being a thing (from what the podcast talked about) as a way to bring new players in, they gotta get them from somewhere I suppose.

 

Lol so much this. On Fresh Meat 1 TJ says the final is 10 miles and everybody starts freaking out before and during the challenge (to be fair they had to carry a lot of weight throughout). But now the challenges are like 30-50 miles in total and multiple days long with just grueling challenges like eating insane shit or standing up all night long with small naps in between. It’s apples and oranges.

 

It’s insane how much it changed. I always thought of CT as this unstoppable force but in Battle of the Exes 1 he is basically dying on a snow covered mountain. The season is like ten years old but i can’t remember if anyone said they were watching old seasons they hadn’t seen before?

 

I (currently 30) remember watching a few episodes of RW: Chicago (2002) but didn't get into the series as a whole until RW: San Diego (2004) aired simply because I knew some of the locations as a kid.

My entry into The Challenge was Battle of the Sexes (2003) because of the Midtown theme song.

I'm re watching The Island and I don't remember watching this one. Likely because it aired the fall of my freshman year at K-State. But I know I've watched all the other ones since 2003.

 

I don't remember exactly when I started watching, but it was some point with The Real World before the Challenge was a thing I believe. First RW season I watched live was probably somewhere around Boston or Seattle (6 or 7). Can't remember if I started watching The Challenge immediately from day one, but I know I've since watched all of the seasons.

 

Anyone know why season 14 (Inferno 3) isn't on CBS All Access? From what I could tell, it's the only season missing (between 11 and 31, that is).

 

how are you accessing All Access? Through Prime on FireStick or a different way? I ask because for me through Prime on the FireStick I can’t get anything before season 16. It literally doesn’t even show any options when I click on the seasons. Just says “season 16 of 34” or whatever the last one was and when I search “Fresh Meat” neither season shows up anywhere just some other MTV show by the same name. It’s strange.

 

Yeah it doesn’t work through Prime for whatever reason, you have to use the CBS app. If you have an Xbox you can watch it through that or maybe a PS4. I was watching it on my phone before I realized the app was available on my Xbox. Also you have to make a new account, the amazon prime one won’t work.

 

jesus lol

I have an Xbox one somewhere but god knows how many updates that would need before I can get to download new things lol and I have All Access as an add-on to Prime for like $7 a month so that’s weird that I’d have to make a new account and download another app to watch some of the seasons. That’s frustrating and not gonna happen. But good to know I wasn’t just missing something super obvious on my end.

 

Lol I don’t blame you, it was a big pain in the ass. Took me a while to figure it out, lurking the Challenge subreddit lol.

 

I didn't even realize All Access through Prime was a thing, haha. As @Signifire said, the full slate of seasons they released (11-31) are on the main app itself. Except for 14 as I mentioned before. So weird. Also the All Access app kinda sucks. There's a continue watching section, but no section to save items like shows and movies. I guess I can't complain though. This is the most Challenge in one place I think ever.

 

Are you guys paying for All Access? I'm mad this isn't free with some other service. I have Netflix, Hulu, Prime, HBO, etc. I'm not adding something else.

 

I already got it a while back because I started getting into Big Brother and wanted to go through all of those seasons. Then I started going through some old seasons of Survivor. So basically I only use it for reality/competition shows, haha.

 

They have a 30 day free trial so I did that

 

I got the 0 day trial when Survivor was wrapping up and kept it as I was going back and watching older seasons. I was about to cancel it but they have the rights to a soccer tournament that I want to watch. So yeah. I currently don't have HBO Max so that make sit easier