Recently, Wes came onto The Right Reality podcast to answer a question that many fans have: is the Challenge rigged?
Wes claims many cast members aren’t smart enough to articulate an answer correctly, but it’s a no. MTV has nothing to gain by rigging the show. In his opinion, production gains nothing from rigging the show. If a fan favorite wins, then it’s great because a lot of viewers will be happy. If a fan favorite loses, then it’s an opportunity for a new person to become a prominent figure.
Take a look at Spies, Lies and Allies. Kaycee won, and now she’s a badass in the game. Meanwhile, fan-favorite CT came into the show as the only male champion, and surprise he won again. It’s kind of boring.
He does acknowledge that production isn’t the smartest, and sometimes they make mistakes. The competition isn’t entirely fair, but it’s more of a game show than a sport. He’s felt the brunt of them, but he’s not the target of production manipulation. They’re just not that smart.
With very few exceptions, MTV hasn’t transformed its cast members into bigger stars. A few people, like Bananas, have moved onto other shows. But MTV hasn’t set up Challengers to have their own spinoff shows; they’re not trying to expand one person into a major reality personality.
By most accounts, I think Wes is telling the truth. Also, I’m a skeptic and I’m one of the people who would entertain the thought of The Challenge being rigged. Saying “no, the show is not rigged” is not that hard. Why does Wes feel people are incapable of saying this? But ultimately, I don’t think whole seasons are rigged. I do feel there may have been times when producers wanted a certain person to win an elimination and keep them around for a bigger moment. Would they have wanted Kenny & Wes to lose to Davis & Tyrie on Rivals? No, of course not, they wanted them to face CT or orchestrate his demise. I’m not saying that elimination is rigged, but that’s the type of scenario where production would want to skew the odds.
Stop Being Polite 
I don’t think the Challenge is rigged, but it certainly is an example of people unable to get out of their own way. Being in several challenges and not bothering to learn to swim is insane, and honestly insulting to people stuck with them. I’m 65 and a teacher and I want a quarter for every time I scream at the tv because a non swimmer is left in the game. For goodness sakes give a swimming test to contestants.
Being bright is fine, but bragging about it until a nun would hit you is insane. Crying men is fine but when it is a daily pity ritual. It’s infuriating.
I’ve seen all the Challenges and they’ve brought me a lot of pleasure, but I watched my first survivor this and it’s ok but it’s not the challenge. Liars on the challenge answer for their lies. It is not so on survivor…..there is no hall brawl.
if you lie answer for it
But kudos for the survivor as at least they can all swim.
I have a list of people I passionately root for on the Challenge because of how they play, but on survivor who cares…they are all different degrees of liars.
As a person who’s played sports for my entire life I root for people worthy of playing with and there are none on survivor.
best of luck