Every Season of The Challenge, Ranked: #38 — USA 2

Location: Pula, Croatia

Host: TJ Lavin

Aired: 2023

Champions: Chris and Desi

Overall Thoughts: Purely as a competition season, USA 2 functions pretty well. The missions and eliminations were mostly solid, and the politics were fairly intriguing, at least in the beginning of the season.

But this season couldn’t escape being lumped in with other recent seasons I haven’t liked — Spies, Lies & Allies, All Stars 3, Ride or Dies and World Championship — for the same simple reason.

They’re not fun.

The Challenge has felt soulless for a few years now, and while I liked USA 2 more than those other seasons, it still lacked in excitement.

There were a few bright spots on the cast but just as many duds, and the veteran crew of Tori, Cory, Fessy, Bananas and Wes didn’t bring much to the table in entertainment value.

USA 2 was a clear step up from USA 1, but it still fell flat for me.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

• Bananas and Tori blocking Monte and Michaela in Sideswiped, helping Red win
• Dusty’s blowup on Tiffany when he mistakenly thought she voted for him
• Wes’ shocking win over Dusty
• Michaela overcoming her fear and winning Go the Distance
• Josh voting for Wes
• The Micheltdown
• Josh voting for Bananas

REPORT CARD

Format: B

To start the season, three captains were chosen from the Hopper (Josh for Red, Cassidy for Blue and Desi for Green).

They picked the teams, which included a male and female MTV veteran.

In the team portion of the season, the winning team selected one male and female for elimination, while the rest of the house voted for anyone eligible.

At the Arena, TJ would pick a name (or two if it was a double elimination) out of the Hopper.