Every Season of The Challenge, Ranked: #28 — Vendettas

Location: Marbella, Spain

Host: TJ Lavin

Aired: 2018

Champion: Cara Maria

Overall Thoughts: In the second installment of the trilogy (that nobody yet knew was a trilogy), The Challenge decided to re-write the dictionary with Vendettas.

Instead of having a vendetta against each other, challengers were called each others “vendettas” in what is by far the lamest version of a “Rivals” season ever.

I know some people think of Vendettas as the best season of the trilogy, but I’m not really sure why.

Despite a couple iconic moments, this season is mostly boring, filled with a lot of forgettable daily challenges, some poor eliminations, and one of the least drama-filled seasons in recent years.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

• Cory and Nelson’s horrendous performance in Balls of Fire
• Kam and Melissa’s fight
• Tony’s performance in the Food Wars mission
• Sylvia and Melissa’s Oil and Water elimination
• The note scandal
• Pizza Gate
• Leroy’s fall in the Car Crash mission
• Joss and Derrick’s Crazy 8 elimination
• Kayleigh’s suitcase getting thrown from the top floor
• Tony voting in Bananas, where he lost to Devin in Not So Bright
• Cara Maria saving Kyle over Leroy and Brad
• Kam losing the high/low game in the final

REPORT CARD

Format: D

For the first time the show introduced the concept of the troika (later renamed to the tribunal)…and it was awful.

The worst part of it was the gender imbalance. Of the people who made it to the troika throughout the season, 22/30 were men (73 percent). There were three instances where only men made up the troika, while there were zero instances where only women were in it. The men were in the majority in the troika 9/10 times, including 4/4 times on women elimination days. The women only…