The Biggest Turning Point Seasons in Challenge History

The Challenge wouldn’t still be on the air after 33 seasons if the show didn’t constantly try to re-invent itself.

Whether it was bringing in a new crop of people, changing the rules of the game or franchise-altering moments by the contestants, The Challenge has had more twists and turns than a daytime soap opera.

Here’s the 10 seasons that altered the franchise the most.

10. Battle of the Seasons (2012)

This season was meant to be a resetting of the cast. With so many veterans from Cutthroat to Exes like Derrick, Brad, Tori, Kenny, Evan, Evelyn, Jenn, Mark and Robin leaving the show (some not by choice), the cast was in need of some new blood.

With no castmembers from the New Orleans or St. Thomas Real World casts having been on The Challenge yet and just Nate/Priscilla appearing from San Diego, it was time to bring in some new blood.

There was almost no veteran presence on Seasons outside of the Austin and Fresh Meat teams, plus Alton/Trishelle on Vegas and Sarah/Chet on Brooklyn.

The show cast 20 rookies on this season (first or second season), but just five (Zach, Nany, Jemmye, Marie and Jonna) did more than two seasons after. That’s a pretty terrible conversion rate. I would have wanted to see more appearances by Frank, Dustin, Devyn and Knight (RIP) but the rest of the cast was kind of garbage, and it failed in ushering in a new generation that the show was hoping for.

9. Fresh Meat II

The second incarnation of the Fresh Meat series wasn’t as successful in bringing in new blood than the first. Although it brought in legends Laurel and Cara Maria, the only other meat who came back for multiple seasons were Theresa, Mandi, Brandon and Vinny.

The fresh meat had a bunch of duds like Jeff, Sydney and Luke, and just like in the original Fresh Meat the female champion, Carley, never returned. I do wish we would have seen Pete and Noor again, though.

8. Invasion of the Champions

This season had the debuts of Hunter and Kailah, while Nelson, Ashley and Amanda came to prominence after relatively quiet rookie seasons (by their standards, at least).

Two major alliances formed on the Underdogs team — the Young Bucks of Cory, Hunter and Nelson, and the Lavender Ladies of Ashley, Amanda, Shane and Sylvia. All but Sylvia reached the final bloodbath on Invasion, and their combined alliance got all seven of them far on Final Reckoning. The feuds between Shane/Nelson and Ashley/Hunter caused them to be paired together on Final Reckoning, where Ashley pulled one of the most infamous moves in Challenge history by stealing Hunter’s share of a million dollars.

7. Vendettas

For the first time, people from non-US MTV shows were put on The Challenge, as the show pulled from Big Brother, Ex on the Beach UK and Geordie Shore. While Kyle is the only non-US MTV rookie from the season who has established himself as a star, Vendettas was the start of making The Challenge a global show.

Vendettas also was the unofficial end to Johnny Bananas’ reign of supremacy. Although he didn’t make the final of Invasion or Dirty 30, Johnny getting thrown into elimination by Tony and getting taken out by Devin took away a lot of the long-standing fear of the repercussions of sending the six-time champ in.

6. Gauntlet III

This wasn’t a turning point season, this was a turning point final. Big Easy’s collapse affected a lot of the Veterans’ legacies.

If the Vets had won, Kenny and Evelyn would be four-time champions (and Kenny would be the only player to win four consecutive seasons besides Darrell); Evan would be a three-time winner; CT, Paula and Brad wouldn’t have had to wait until their eighth seasons to finally win; and Diem, Robin and Adam would have victories on their resumes.

Also, The Ruins probably doesn’t happen if the Veterans win, as Brad, Adam and Diem wouldn’t have been eligible to be on the Challengers team, making an already weak team even more inept.

5. War of the Worlds

If Vendettas opened the door to international casting, War of the Worlds kicked the door down. With 18 new castmembers (and everyone but Gus coming from a non-US MTV show) the floodgates were opened to a brand new crop of people. Bear, Turbo, Theo and Georgia — all from across the pond — established themselves as stars.

The season also was Justin Booth’s return to running the show, resulting in more focus on competition, which fans had been complaining was lacking in the trilogy of Dirty 30, Vendettas and Final Reckoning. With some of the toughest missions ever, headbanger eliminations and the hardest final of all time, War of the Worlds shifted more into a healthy mix of competition and drama.

This season could move up in the rankings in the future, but we’re not far enough removed from it right now to know exactly how big of a turning point it was for the franchise.

4. The Gauntlet

This season is as high as it is for one main reason — the implementation of elimination rounds. The show went from being a goofy knock off of Survivor (as Battle of the Seasons and Battle of the Sexes featured vote offs) to having a unique way of sending castmembers home.

The elimination between The Miz and Abram was the first one-on-one battle between two titans of the show, and set the stage for countless more classic battles in the elimination ring.

3. Inferno 2

The Challenge became The Challenge on Inferno 2.

The first season that Justin Booth executive produced, the show drastically stepped up its competition. The dailies got harder, as evidenced by the classic first mission, Surf Torture, and the eliminations got more physical, most notably Balls In between Brad and Abe.

Inferno 2 is just noticeably different than previous seasons. There’s just a night and day difference between the intense nature of Inferno 2 and the hokey season that came before it, Battle of the Sexes 2.

The season also was the first to not divide the cast between Real World and Road Rules or men and women. Slowly, the show was becoming less of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge and becoming more of The Challenge, period.

2. Fresh Meat

There’s never been a more impactful group of rookies than on Fresh Meat. The season introduced legends like Wes, Kenny, Evan, Evelyn and Diem, who were mainstays on the show for years.

All of them made an impact right away — Evan dominated the beginning of the season before having to leave due to an injury, Wes won five exiles and finished third, Kenny placed second and Diem made it to the final exile. Ev…well she was partnered with Danny, let’s give her a pass.

The Fresh Meat cast, along with Johnny and Paula entering the scene the next season, was truly a changing of the guard with the cast and ushered in a new era of The Challenge.

1. The Island

For a season generally reviled by the fans, there’s no denying how important of a season The Island was.

The Island was the first season in Challenge history that was filmed for hour-long episode formats (Gauntlet III had one-hour episodes, but it was filmed to be half-hour episodes and changed in post-production). This change, along with the terrible format which had no elimination rounds, moved the drama aspect of the show more to center stage.

Drama had always been a part of the show, but The Island was almost more of a Real World season on steroids than a season of The Challenge. Nothing that came before it could compare drama-wise to The Island, and it set a precedent for the show to dedicate as much screentime to that aspect (or more) compared to competition.

The season was the rise of three of the biggest characters in Challenge history — Bananas, Evelyn and Kenny.

Evelyn and Kenny had already established themselves (they both won Inferno 3 and made the Gauntlet III final, while Kenny also finished second on Fresh Meat) but they became even bigger stars — Evelyn became a a legend on The Island with her famous speech against the controlling alliance, and Kenny became a kingpin, completely running the game politically.

After making just one final in his first three seasons, Johnny was close to getting voted out in the second episode, but survived his vote against Abram and went on to be the star of the season thanks in large part due to his shitty behavior and season-long feud with Evelyn.

Bananas got his first win, beginning his path to be the winningest challenger of all time.

No other season spawned as many storylines as The Island.

Arguably no other action in the history of the show had as much of an impact as Kenny having sex with Johanna. The hook-up led to one of the biggest rivalries in Challenge history between Kenny and Wes, and led to three seasons (The Ruins, Fresh Meat II and Rivals) being focused on their rivalry.

When Kenny was forced out of the show, Bananas took over the mantle and became Wes’ chief rival, and the feud still exists today.

The rivalry between Johnny/Kenny and Evelyn also continued on multiple seasons. Johnny and Kenny got Evelyn thrown into the second elimination on The Ruins against her best friend KellyAnne, where Ev let her win.

On Fresh Meat II, Evelyn and Wes drew a line in the sand early against Kenny, and the entire season was a power struggle between the two factions in the house, with Kenny ultimately coming out on top.

No matter what your feelings are on The Island, it can’t be overstated how important it was for the future of the franchise.