It’s rare to see a Challenge Champion emerge on a debut season. Turbo accomplished this on War of the Worlds, but we hadn’t seen a woman win her debut season since Sam and Ashley on Battle of the Seasons. Then, Amber Borzotra came around. She was an unlikely winner, but she emerged victorious.
Amber’s story on The Challenge: Double Agents wasn’t particularly remarkable. She won two eliminations, both Hall Brawls and they were against the two smallest girls in the house. Not to discredit her abilities, but she wasn’t put in positions where she didn’t have the advantage. Then, she ran the final with CT. He was a three-time champ trying to get win #4. Objectively, this is a great partner to have.
So Amber is our first female rookie champion in nine years and the first black female to win in fifteen years. These should be celebrated facts, yet it seems Amber gets little recognition. On the first part of the reunion episode the emphasis was on CT’s fourth win.
This will likely be the biggest component of her legacy. She won, but she also had seasoned veterans by her side. Darrell and CT are the super veterans in the game, the ones who helped create the game. Obviously, Amber is going to have strong resources on the show.
Depending on the future of the show, she may be acknowledged as the first Big Brother winner. This was barely discussed until the end of the season when she was the first person on the Big Brother alliance’s chopping block. When you think of Big Brother personalities on the show, Amber probably doesn’t come to mind. She doesn’t embody the negative traits we see in Fessy or Josh, and she’s one of the less offensive Big Brother transplants.
In my eyes, we didn’t see too much development from Amber. This is not a reflection of her character, but rather a reflection of her partners and the editing of the show. The rookies were massively ignored during the beginning of the season, and in the second half of the show she was defined by her partners. It would be nice to see how she performs in different environments, but allegedly she’s just an alternate for Season 37.
As of now, I don’t think Amber will get a lot of credit. Her victory is about as impressive as Jamie on Bloodlines, and people will still want her to “prove” herself.
Stop Being Polite 