Every Season of The Challenge, Ranked: #46 — Battle for a New Champion
Location: Pula, Croatia
Host: TJ Lavin
Aired: 2023–24
Champion: Emanuel
Overall Thoughts: Despite ranking this so low, I didn’t hate this season.
That’s the nicest thing I can say about Battle For a New Champion.
As someone who has always favored veterans over new players, this season was never going to be in my wheelhouse, but I tried my best to have an open mind and see the bright spots in this season.
Unfortunately, bright spots were few and far between.
I’m going to be doing a lot of comparing Battle for a New Champion to Battle of the Seasons (2012), because they both have natural similarities.
Both seasons felt necessary at the time, as there was a glut of new faces who deserved a chance to shine.
Battle of the Seasons didn’t work for me because of how unlikable the cast was. Battle For a New Champion didn’t work for me because of how boring the cast was, and because it featured some of the worst game mechanics in the history of the show.
I don’t even dislike Emanuel like most people do, but I think I’m with the masses in…