The Greatest Male Players in Challenge History: #9- Darrell Taylor
16 Seasons: The Gauntlet (Win), The Inferno (Win), The Inferno II (Win), Fresh Meat (Win), The Ruins, Fresh Meat II, Invasion of the Champions, Champs vs. Pros (Win), Dirty 30, Double Agents, All Stars (2nd place), All Stars 2 (Final), All Stars 3, Ride or Dies, World Championship, Battle of the Eras
Final Efficiency: 7/16 (43.8%)
Win Efficiency: 5/16 (31.3%)
47 Mission Wins, 9–9–1 Elimination Record
Individual Missions: 5/33 (15.1%)
Partner Missions: 3/51 (5.9%)
Combined: 8/84 (9.5%)
Average Times Voted In Per Season: .67
Seasons Making Final Going Into Minimum Amount of Elims: 5
For a long time the only person in Challenge history with four wins, Darrell is a bonafide legend. So why is he only number nine?
Four wins in his first four seasons seems remarkable, but when you look under the hood his record is a little less impressive.
He didn’t go into any eliminations in his first three seasons, and while that sounds impressive I think it was more lucky than political mastery. Although Darrell has a knack for flying under the radar, he benefited from being on seasons with big teams early in his career (however on The Inferno Real World was afraid of one of their guys facing Darrell in elimination so they nominated Timmy instead, and Darrell going for the life shield in the last guy’s day on Inferno II was a super smart move).
On his first three seasons, he was never considered higher than the third-most important guy on his team, behind Theo and Adam Larson on The Gauntlet, Timmy and Abe on The Inferno, and The Miz and Landon on Inferno II.
Frankly, Darrell’s first three wins just don’t mean a ton to me. He was a solid contributor on his teams (especially in finals, where he always excels with his cardio), but he was never super impressive in daily challenges (though he did do well on The Inferno).
You can call it great politics to avoid an elimination round on his first three seasons, but he benefited from playing in two Inferno seasons where the other team selected who went in (although to be fair he was only nominated once by his team in the first Inferno, which was less than Abe and Timmy).
His first real impressive feat was on Fresh Meat. He and Aviv won two daily challenges, won the only pardon of the season, beat the strong Derrick/Diem team in exile (they had a huge advantage of having 75 pounds less of weight) and defeated Kenny/Tina and Wes/Casey in the final.
If Darrell had just retired then, he might be higher on this list. Although he had an extremely impressive run on Invasion of the Champions (arguably his best season) with elimination wins over Zach and Bananas, and a solid season on The Ruins where he beat Danny and Cohutta and probably would have picked up his fifth victory had he not fought Brad, Darrell has failed to make the final on his last seven flagship seasons.
He was eliminated first on Fresh Meat II, where he and Cara Maria were thrown in by Kenny and lost to Pete/Jill. And on Dirty 30, Darrell was in the bottom four of the initial purge challenge and was sent to the Redemption House by Cory, and then he lost the Redemption House challenge to Tony.
He won the trivia challenge and beat Devin in a puzzle elimination on Double Agents, but got smoked by Cory in Snapping Point.
On Ride or Dies, he and Veronica only lasted four episodes, losing to Amber/Chauncey in Deep Web.
And on Battle of the Eras, he beat Tony in One Step at a Time before falling to Kyland in Boxster-Phobia.
However, spinoff seasons have helped bolstered Darrell’s résumé.
He and his Fresh Meat II partner Cara Maria got redemption by winning Champs vs. Pros. He lost his first-ever final on All Stars, but still had a solid second-place finish. He and Janelle beat Brad/Jodi in the final elimination on All Stars 2, but the Bay area duo came up short in the final to Jonna/MJ.
On World Championship, Darrell won the Flying Around mission with Kiki, and the duo beat KellyAnne/Tristan in elimination before falling to Kaycee/Troy in the second-to-last elimination.
Darrell is an elite competitor and a very solid political player. He’s one of the best competitors in finals of all time, and overall he’s pretty well-rounded other than being mediocre in daily challenges.
But he didn’t truly become an elite competitor until around Fresh Meat, and there aren’t many seasons where you can definitively say he was the best guy (although I do rate him as the top male on Champs vs. Pros and All Stars 2).
He has a few blunders later in his career, which knocks down a peg or two, but he remains a top-tier player on The Challenge.
Rankings
30. Turbo Çamkıran
