The 10 Best Seasons of ‘The Challenge’ Ranked

The Big Picture

• The Challenge brings iconic personalities into the industry and has created reality TV history.
• Season themes like Rivals and Vendettas added drama and intensity to the show.
• Memorable moments like Johnny Bananas’ moves and eliminations have made the show entertaining.

The Challenge has been a critical component of MTV‘s success. The reality competition show that started as a spinoff from The Real World franchise came to become its entity and has brought names into the industry that will be recognized for many years. With its 40th season coming up soon, it’s time to identify why the show is as great as it is; many personalities from this show have left their mark and made reality television history. Names like Johnny Bananas, Jordan Wiseley, CT Tamburello, and Cara Maria Sorbello have made their mark on the franchise and have named themselves some of the best players of the show with multiple seasons under their belt and showcasing what it takes to have a good game plan.

With the show introducing many new players that will eventually take over the legacy of older players, the new people need to take notes from the veterans and their past seasons to ensure they have the same impact. From exes to rivals to stealing the money and being the sole winner, many seasons have become cultural phenomena that can make it challenging to choose the best, but these seasons have created the most impact.

10 Rivals I

Season 21

Something that The Challenge is very well known for is creating rivals throughout the franchise. Many of the players at this point have known each other for years. Whether they met through The Challenge or during their time on The Real World, this show thrives on drama, which is why it was essential to create Rivals. This season was chaotic because of the influential personalities in it. The premise of this season was to have pairs of people who have blatantly told each other that they hate them and have them compete for a grand prize. Some of the pairings were CT Tamburello and Adam King since they had an altercation during their season of The Real World: Paris, Wes Bergmann, and Kenny Santucci because, throughout their time on the show, they have always said how much they disliked each other, and Cara Maria Sorbello and Laurel Stucky because they were not the best of friends during their breakout season of Fresh Meat II. By having pairings in which they hated each other, it would be challenging for the players to put their trust in each other when they wanted to rip each other apart. Ultimately, the winners were Johnny Bananas and Tyler Duckworth for the men and Evelyn Smith and Paula Meronek for the women. This show brought the drama, the altercations, and a heated finale in which no one knew who to root for because every player was in their prime.

9 Cutthroat

Season 20

Cutthroat has one of the most memorable moments in Challenge history regarding iconic moments of reality television that will go down in history. This season brought many fan-favorite challengers into one, and it became the first season in which there would be multiple winners since it was a team competition. What could go wrong if prominent personalities compete against each other for money and work in teams? The separation of the teams would be a critical factor in how the season would be handled, and the division would be perfect. Having Johnny Bananas and Derrick Kosinski in the blue team, they were the straight leaders of that team, Brad Fiorenzi and Tori Fiorenzi controlled the red team, and Abram Boise and Cara Maria were the leaders of the grey team. The gameplay of this season was fascinating because it was a veteran-run game. It would be easy to throw in a rookie if anyone went into an elimination. Still, once the competition started getting more demanding and challenging, they had to throw in vets for elimination, creating the best moment ever. Johnny Bananas was unfortunately thrown into elimination, but he may have thought he had it easy with his opponent until he saw he was going against a mercenary to move on to the final. It was C.T. After being on pause for physical altercations with Adam King, this was his big comeback, and he made an impression. They were strapped into each other during the elimination and had to drag the opposing player to a barrel to win. It seemed easy for a man’s elimination, and Bananas seemed formidable enough, but he did not expect C.T. to carry him like a backpack twice and lose right before the final.

8 Rivals III

Season 28

At this point, Johnny Bananas had made his mark on The Challenge and created many rivals throughout his time on the show. During Rivals III, it was the same as Rivals I, in which teams would be with their rival, but this time around, it was male and female rivals, which brought even more drama into it. This was an iconic season because it was one of the first times the show brought in people from another MTV show, Are You the One?, which created the rivalry between Devin Walker and Johnny Bananas. Of all the Bananas wins he has, this one was important and crazy because he was with his rival Sarah Patterson. At the beginning of the season, they thoroughly despised each other because of Sarah’s decision in the past season, and Bananas could not get over it. Still, as the season progressed, they became a powerhouse and the clear winners, but they were not expecting the twist of all twists. When they won, TJ Lavin allowed Johnny to choose whether to share the money with Sarah (he beat her at making the final in less time) or take the money and run. Many people thought he would share, but he made the crazy move of taking the money away from Sarah, which declared him the biggest villain in reality T.V.

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7 Free Agents

Season 25

With Free Agents, the show was taking a chance of having all the players go against each other and only having one winner. It was a fun season to see how everyone would use their skills and politics to get out of eliminations and make it to a final. The season also had an exciting elimination format by having contenders flip different boards until someone got the “kill” card and go into an elimination immediately. Having to decide their fate by chance only made the players more nervous, and having to scramble around who should go down to determine their fate. During this time, it was Jordan Wiseley’s second season, and after showing his skills in Rivals II, it would be interesting to see how he could handle his own game. He was coming in as a strong rookie. He was coming full force against Johnny Bananas, which led to one of the most excellent eliminations in which Bananas was waiting for his opponent, and Jordan decided to make the move of flipping all the tables and send himself to elimination to go against one of the GOATS of the show finally. Ultimately, he was all talk and was humbled quickly after Bananas went on to eliminate him and win the season.

6 Battle of the Exes

Season 22

Besides The Challenge constantly creating enemies, it has also had some luck at creating relationships that have flourished after the show or creating the downfall of terrible relationships. Enter The Challenge: Battle of the Exes, in which exes from throughout the franchise come together and work as a team to win the competition. This season had many iconic and sometimes questionable couples, but the drama it brought was intriguing for viewers because, in some partnerships, it was a will they not situation. The most iconic Challenge couple has always been C.T. and Diem Brown. The pair met each other during the show, and their chemistry was undeniable. After many ups and downs during their relationship, seeing them as viewers work together and make it to the final was a beautiful moment for the franchise and brought closure to the two of them. C.T. and Diem were the fan favorites to win the whole season, but had it not been for Johnny Bananas and Camila Nakagawa, they would have been able to win. This season has a great cast, but the final is a full-circle moment for viewers to see how well C.T. and Diem worked.

5 Invasion of Champions

Season 29

After an explosive season with Rivals III and Jonny Bananas deciding to take the money and run, MTV needed to keep the momentum going, but they created a season with a twist. Invasion of Champions is one of the show’s best seasons because it introduced rookies from different MTV shows, like Are You The One and the last seasons of The Real World. It’s hard to create a season full of rookies, but when the rookies are as explosive as the ones in this season, MTV knew they had it in the bag with this new class. They couldn’t just let the rookies think this would be an easy season for them, though; the twist was to bring in eight of the best veterans, which included CT Tamburello, Johnny Bananas, Darrell Taylor, Camila Nakagawa, Laurel Stucky, Cara Maria, Zach Nichols, and Ashley Kelsey to have been on the show and compete against all the rookies. It seemed like a disadvantage for the veterans, since there were around 20 rookies, but they were vets. They have to show what they are made of. Invasion is an excellent season for not only the rookies but also for seeing some vets nervous about the new class of rookies, especially with the women, since rookie Ashley Mitchell won.

4 Vendettas

Season 31

To keep the momentum from meeting new rookies, MTV created a trilogy surrounding the 30th season of the show. Season 31 was called Vendettas, and it brought different personalities from MTV back into a season where they could backstab anyone with whom they had a vendetta. This season would only have one winner since it was everyone against everyone, creating a lot of drama between the newer MTV class and the veterans. This season shines because it has one of the most complex and longest eliminations between Mercenary Derrick and British rookie Joss Mooney; it was a very intense elimination in which ultimately the winner was Derrick, but Joss was able to put his stamp on the map as a Challenge legend. Not only did this season have significant eliminations, but viewers could also see Cara Maria Sorbello at her best and being the sole winner of the season. Besides winning, Cara Maria created a love connection with Brit Kyle Christie, which started drama in the house but did not distract her enough to win.

3 Final Reckoning

Season 32

The final of the trilogy was Final Reckoning, and it brought the drama from Dirty XXX to this season by having the contestants partner up with their vendetta to win the season. This season was different since it had a mix of guy teams, guys and girls, and all-girls teams. What makes this season so great is that it was the first season that included people from the Big Brother franchises, Bad Girls Club, and Vanderpump Rules. It played out well for the network to start testing different people outside the MTV family. Not only was the introduction of players like Da’Vonne Rogers and Paulie Calafiore great, but this season had a redemption house for all the eliminated players, bringing a different aspect for viewers to see the eliminated players try to come back. At the height of this season was the drama between Cara Maria and Kyle Christie, and Paulie’s involvement created a vendetta that no one saw coming. Ultimately, the final challenge showed players who had never been in finals. Still, the most iconic moment was when winner Ashley Mitchell pulled a Johnny Bananas move and decided to take the money away from her partner Hunter Barfield.

2 War of the Worlds 2

Season 34

After the hype of the 30th trilogy, MTV needed to take its next step and decide the theme. Since it had been a hit to invite players from other franchises, the show created the War of the Worlds seasons, in which American Challenge players would go against players from the MTV UK family. This was a great point because many shows from the U.K. were doing well, and after seeing what great players Kyle Christie and Joss Mooney were, they could bring in people from other franchises. What makes this season great is the internal fight between the U.S. team. This team was divided into two alliances, and it showed clearly when Paulie Calafiore threw in his teammates Johnny Bananas and Wes Bergmann early on and created a plan to eliminate Jordan Wiseley. Still, it ultimately bit him when Jordan won his elimination and became a player for the U.K. team. Besides the drama, this season showed the first engagement on the show, with Jordan Wiseley and Tori Deal getting engaged after his elimination win. This season had the perfect amount of drama, and seeing other players manipulate the MTV veterans was very entertaining.

1 Dirty XXX

Season 30

When thinking of The Challenge and explaining to someone what it is, the season that is the best blend of drama and entertainment is Dirty XXX. This season was played as individuals, and in the end, there would be a male and female winner for the giant prize pot of $1 million. What could go wrong when people have backstabbed each other for years, and to what lengths would they go against each other for that amount of money? A moment that made this the best season of The Challenge had Tony Raines go against his “mentor” Johnny Bananas and blindside him to throw him into an elimination, which continued the curse of him not being able to win a season since Rivals III. The elimination rounds were the most intense, and they showed indeed who had each other’s back by having the same format of elimination as Free Agents and leaving it all up to chance.

The Challenge is now streaming in the U.S. on Paramount+.

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