The Challenge: Rivals - Episode 1

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The Challenge: Rivals is a reality competition that airs on MTV Wednesday nights at 10 pm et. Below are my thoughts on the premiere episode which aired on Wednesday June 22, 2011

I decided to watch the first episode of The Challenge: Rivals because a very strong season of the real world (in Vegas) had just ended that I had a pleasure in watching (Real World seasons are very hit and miss, its either a very good season or its unwatchable, there’s no in between), Game of Thrones’ first season finished (can’t wait for season 2) and most importantly, I was bored. My history with this reality show is spotty at best so I am basically going into this with little to no knowledge about the show other than that TJ is the host, that his catchphrase is “you killed it” and that Kenny and Wes usually win. Here are my thoughts on the first episode.

The Setting: Costa Rica

The Premise:

28 people (14 men and 14 women) are paired into two person teams to compete for 100 000 dollars (runner-up gets 50k). The catch is that your partner is your rival or “your worst enemy” based on events that happened in previous seasons of the show or in shows related to this one such as The Real World: Las Vegas, Cancun, etc. (Btw, what would the worst city for a Real world season to be in? My vote is for Cleveland or Minneapolis). Each week, the men or the women are up for elimination while the others compete for cash and/or prizes. If this seems confusing, it is not. Watching the show makes it very easy to follow along with the rules.

The Teams:

Adam K & CT – From the first episode I gather that this is one of the presumed strong teams in the competition and that CT is somewhat of a loose cannon especially when he is on the losing end in a competition (the way that Adam was talking about being afraid to disappoint CT in competition makes me think of him as some sort of deranged Kevin Garnett, I think this team’s one to watch)

Laurel & Cara Maria – they weren’t in this episode much although Laurel wasted no time in throwing her teammate under the bus questioning her competitive nature as soon as they got paired up.

Johnny & Tyler – not much to say because they didn’t do much in this episode. Although Johnny’s nickname is Johnny Bananas so they have that going for them.

Theresa & Camila – Same as above minus the nickname.

Evan & Nehemiah – It seems that the only reason these two are rivals is because Nehemiah doesn’t like how Evan plays “the game” (the fact that some of these people believe that this reality show should be played with honour at all times should tell you why it is so interesting. Also, they get drunk and do stupid shit. That helps too)

Paula & Evelyn – They take part in the Jungle in this episode (more on that later)

Davis & Tyrie – I didn’t see these two the entire episode other than when they were being introduced. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing because the quiet people tend to do well in reality shows.

Jenn & Mandi – Not much to say on this pairing yet so quick side-note: I had to sit through several advertisements for the new Kevin James movie; The Zookeeper as I watched this and they were by far the worst part about this experience. Why do people keep hiring him? When’s the last time he made a watchable movie? How many obscure occupations (mall cop, zookeeper) does he have to ruin before he gets banned from making films?

Adam R. & Leroy – My personal favourites as they are from the recent season of Real World (Adam is one of the most insane drunks I have ever seen on tv and/or in real life. Putting him in a house with plenty of alcohol and several obnoxious personalities will lead to something bad (or good, depending on if you’re there or watching from home), no surprise that he’s here.

Sarah & Katelynn – Only interesting fact I got from this team is that Katelynn is a trans-gendered woman.

Brandon & Ty – After watching this episode I am fairly certain that Ty is either insane or really smart (I’m leaning towards insane)

Jasmine & Jonna – Another team from a real world season I watched (Cancun). They have a successful first episode (my friends and I actually met them in Montreal a few years back, they look better on TV than in real life.. take it however you want it)

Aneesa & Robin – They get eliminated in the Jungle in this episode.

Kenny & Wes – the two powerhouses of the challenge on one team echo another team of superstars that were joined in order to win it all (the Miami Heat for you non-sports fans). The one big difference is that Wes and Kenny are somehow likeable as they seem to enjoy manipulating the game and making fun of each other and the remaining contestants, both entertaining qualities.

The Episode:

Once all the teams were introduced and everyone got a chance to interact with each other the 14 teams went to this waterfall for their first challenge which was basically a long jump off a platform suspended over a waterfall. The women’s team that cleared the most hash marks in the quickest time would be safe from elimination, for the guys 2000 dollars was at stake. A lot of the teams ended up DQ’ing (stepping over the line) including Kenny and Wes. The two winning teams were the rookies as Adam R and Leroy were the best male team and Jasmine and Jonna took it for the women. One surprising thing about this was how everyone else seemed to be genuinely surprised that the rookies had won this challenge. This makes no sense seeing as how the winning team was simply the one that jumped the furthest and yet the rest of the teams were in shock at how two teams with no prior knowledge of the game could somehow win a challenge. Strange stuff.

After the challenge, the teams went back to their house where the women debated on who would face Paula and Evelyn (they were the only female team that had both players step over the line and because of this they were the losing team). Now the way that this works is there is one losing team that’s in the jungle, the other 13 teams vote another team into the jungle (not counting the team that won the challenge of course). In this week’s show, the two teams that were the main candidates for going in were Aneesa + Robin and Laurel + Cara Maria. The voting process had a rambling speech by robin which was very entertaining before Laurel spoke up first and got Aneesa and Robin voted into the Jungle because of “the bandwagon effect” which is basically once one team’s name is said, no one wants to be the one to change the course of the vote so they all stay on the bandwagon. Entertaining and educational, I love this show! After the vote, the castmates got to chill and party it up with each other which led to Jasmine hooking up with Tyrie literally two seconds after professing her love for her boyfriend (I never understood the people who go on these shows with a relationship, what are the odds of you remaining faithful and remaining with that person? These shows have to have at least a 90% success rate in breaking up relationships), this also gave Kenny one of his gems of the night – “Tyrie is disgusting, the guy sleeps with his sneakers on, Jasmine’s gonna smell like bacon for the rest of her life”, stay classy Kenny. Ty became the focus of the show after that; first, he confessed he hadn’t had sex in a year and a half because he lives in L.A. (probably not the actual reason) and second, he started verbally abusing everyone in the house. This caused Adam who seemed sober by his standards to stand up and attempt to fight Ty. A punch was thrown but it didn’t connect and Mandi got what seemed to be a concussion in the process. As a result of this, Adam R got thrown off the show in what has to be a record 2/3 into the first episode.

At the Jungle, Leroy thankfully got a replacement partner (Mike from Real World: Las Vegas) who unlike everyone else’s partner on the show also happens to be his very good friend. Finally, in the Jungle, Aneesa and Robin were eliminated after they fell first off their platforms that were moving further and further apart (this seemed unfair at the time I saw it because wouldn’t the taller team always win this type of competition?). The episode ended with CT threatening Kenny and Wes to watch their backs (anyone else notice that everyone calls everyone else “kid” in MTV shows). Overall this first episode was fairly entertaining, both the challenge and jungle weren’t that inventive but it did have a member getting thrown off the show. I will be continuing to do write-ups on each episode this season and I hope you enjoy watching the show and then reading these posts.

Watch The Challenge: Rivals on MTV Wednesdays at 10 PM ET

Or watch full episodes at http://www.mtv.ca/tvshows/challenge/

Luka Milanovic

@Luka_M91 on Twitter