Every Season of The Challenge, Ranked: #36 — Battle of the Seasons (2012)

Location: Bordrum, Turkey

Host: TJ Lavin

Aired: 2012

Champions: San Diego (Frank, Zach, Ashley and Sam)

Overall Thoughts: This might be the most polarizing season in Challenge history. Some people love that a fresh class of rookies came onto the show, ran the game and were extremely messy in the process.

I’m not those people.

When this season came out, I was at the height of my Challenge fandom. I was very active on Vevmo, which was pretty much the only real way to discuss the show online (I got kicked off the night of the finale for arguing with Devyn Simone’s mom, who was pretending to be a random fan. True story.)

I absolutely loathed Battle of the Seasons in the realtime. I thought the cast was incredibly unlikable (save for a few bright spots), I hated the lack of veteran presence, and the drama felt mixed between rookies getting in fights trying to get invited back and legitimately ugly (and in some cases psychopathic) behavior.

This season is the Frank show, and I was legitimately concerned for the future of the franchise during this season. It was obvious that Frank was…