The Greatest Male Players in Challenge History: #5- Evan Starkman

Michael Alvey

5 min readFeb 7, 2019

6 Seasons: Fresh Meat, The Duel, Gauntlet III (Final), Duel II (Win), The Ruins (Win), Rivals

Final Efficiency: 3/5 (Excluding Fresh Meat Due to Injury) (60%)

Win Efficiency: 2/5 (40%)

31 Mission Wins, 4–2 Elimination Record

Individual Missions: 5/14 (31.3%)

Partner Missions : 8/24 (33.3%)

Combined: 13/38 (34.2%)

Average Times Voted In Per Season: .83

Seasons Making Final Going Into Minimum Amount of Elims: 1

There might not be a player with a better combination of competitive ability and political dominance than Evan.

Evan was almost the new age, Canadian version of The Miz. Right off the bat on Fresh Meat, he proved himself to be one of the show’s biggest personalities and one of the best competitors in the game.

Evan was the first guy off the board in the Fresh Meat draft, and he and Coral dominated the early part of Fresh Meat, winning five of the first six missions. But their injuries forced them to go home early.

Evan again was the top male in dailies on The Duel, racking up six daily challenge victories. He was in an alliance with the other top three males — CT, Brad and Derrick, and the four girls — Kina, Diem, Jodi and Robin.

But Evan failed to reach the final when he agreed to a deal with Wes to try and take out CT before the final. His attempt to cheat on the puzzle in Ascender was snuffed out, and he lost at the final four.

After taking off Inferno III, Evan came back on Gauntlet III and established himself as the leader of the vets, on a team with more seasoned guys like CT and Brad.

Viewed as one of the best competitors on the vets, Evan was thrown into the Gauntlet by the rookies, where he agreed to face Bananas. It’s hard to pin the vets failure to eliminate Big Easy on one player in particular, but Evan certainly deserves some blame. He was the biggest guy on the team other than Eric, and could have stepped up to take him out (even though it was still early in the game).

Evan took out Johnny in Sliders, but the vets not taking out Eric came back to haunt them, as he collapsed in the finals and cost them a win.

It’s pretty shocking that Kenny had two wins before Evan even had one, but Evan finally got his first win on Duel II. It wasn’t easy, as he had to take out Davis, Nehemiah and Derek M. in elimination and was constantly targeted for being the head of the snake in his alliance with Landon, Mark and Brad.

Evan also took heat from Paula changing up the order on the second vote to save Dunbar, and he had to dump her to get back in his allies’ good graces.

Evan didn’t dominate Duel II nearly as much as he did in the first incarnation, as he won just two daily challenges (and the first one was essentially handed to him), but in the final he was able to beat Mark and barely squeak by Brad at the very last second to pick up his first victory.

Winning Duel II earned him a spot on the Champions team on The Ruins, and once again he was the vocal leader of the team. Evan was not only the best competitor on the Champions team, but he also was the ringleader politically with Kenny. However, unlike Kenny I think Evan wasn’t flawless politically on The Ruins.

Evan got chummy with Veronica, who wasn’t really in the main alliance (Susie, Johanna and Ibis were all ahead of her in the pecking order). When it was time for Veronica to be sent in, there was a debate about whether she should go in against KellyAnne (the strongest female on the Challengers) or if she should be given her choice of who to face (Veronica wanted to go against Kim).

Evan changed his vote to having Veronica face Kim, resulting in a tie and causing the entire Champions team to have to vote. Madness ensued, and it resulted in a completely new matchup, with Ibis facing Kim. The move really didn’t affect Evan in the long run, but it did make him appear untrustworthy to his allies.

Still, Evan went the entire season without having to see an elimination, and the stacked Champs team defeated KellyAnne and Sarah in the finals.

The JEK dynasty’s last stand was on Rivals, and again they had total control politically. Having all the numbers, none of the JEK members would have to go into elimination unless they lost.

Evan was out of shape on Rivals and had by far his worst physical performance, but he still was in complete control politically.

He didn’t have to go into the jungle on the third guys day, but just like on The Duel, Evan felt that he needed to get CT out before the finals (he also was rumored to have to go home anyway to start grad school). And just like on The Duel, his attempt was unsuccessful.

It was only the second time in his career that Evan was eliminated, and when both of your losses are against CT, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Evan’s combination of leadership, physical prowess in daily challenges, eliminations and finals, and political influence make him one of the most well-rounded players in the history of the show despite only competing on six seasons.