Over the past five years, the Challenge has experienced significant changes. Viewers have watched people outside of the MTV universe join the show, and Josh Martinez has emerged as one of the most prominent additions.
Love him or hate him, he continues to get cast on the show, and he’s brought a lot of drama with him. While many people call him weak or overly emotional, he also tends to make it quite far on the show. He’s managed to become a central figure to the “Big Brother”( or “Vacation”) alliance that has dominated the social landscape of many recent seasons.
After Battle of the Eras, he has seven seasons under his belt and zero appearances in finals. Despite this underwhelming record, it also feels like people are quick to discredit the improvements he’s made and his achievements in the game. Not every season has been a success for him, but some seasons are certainly better than others.
7. Total Madness
Josh made it quite far this season, but for the least impressive reason possible. Due to the Red Skull twist, people were fighting to get sent into Purgatory. Josh was the last male to get an opportunity, and he lost once he was in elimination. This is also the season where the pseudo-rivalry with Wes originated, which continues to be mocked on USA 2.
6. War of the Worlds
Josh’s appearance on War of the Worlds is defined by a stroke of luck. He lost Impending Dune and should have been purged, but returned as a result of Alan getting medically DQed. After that, he was an alright performer and made it midway through the seasons with Amanda. Debateably, the should have won their elimination against Kam & Ashley (allegedly production told teams they couldn’t used the back-to-back strategy in Uphill Battle), but Josh does have one impressive achievement. Somehow, he & Amanda defeated Turbo & Nany in Arms-a-geddeon Tired. It makes no sense on paper, but it did happen.
5. Double Agents
Double Agents isn’t Josh’s worst-rated season for one reason: It contains his only elimination win. Other than that, people mostly remember this season for Devin taunting the Big Brother alliance, which riled Josh up, and the fact that Josh was skeptical of Jay for no real reason. Fans also remember that CT eliminated Josh by asking to face “the goof” in elimination. But in all fairness, Josh’s alliance kept him safe. Production magic allowed CT to get Josh in The Crater.
4. Spies, Lies and Allies
People will remember this as one of Josh’s most dramatic seasons, and that’s completely fair. His fight with Faysal was super messy — and while his actions were way over-the-top, it’s hard not to take Josh’s side of the argument. Josh was defending Amber, who has historically been mistreated by the Big Brother players, and he wanted Faysal to maintain his loyalty to the veterans by sending in a rookie. Later in the season Josh was part of the Emerald Cell and won multiple challenges with the team, which ensured his safety for a while.
3. Battle of the Eras
Josh had a lot of praise coming into this season. Not only has he continued to improve his physical strength, but he had more social connections than ever before. It got to the point where he struggled to maintain relationships, but as soon as the Vacation Alliance began to question his loyalties, he was able to jump to a different alliance. However, we didn’t see anything overly spectacular from Josh. He gave a middle-of-the-road performance in most daily challenges and he was eliminated due to a klutzy showing in Coming from Behind.
2. The Challenge: USA 2
This season was Josh’s most impressive social game, at least until episode 13. His allies kept him safe, and he walked the line between two alliances: the veterans and Big Brother players. At one point, he even swayed the votes to keep Amanda out of elimination by threatening a stalemate. This was probably his calmest Challenge appearance yet (though production might have just edited the drama out), and he had a lot of people rooting for him. Throughout the season, he got very few Hopper votes — even when he did go into The Arena he only received a quarter of the votes.
1. War of the Worlds 2
The fact that Josh was even cast on this season is seriously impressive because there were so few positions on the cast for Americans that weren’t super veterans. This is where production saw his protential, and it’s hard to deny that he didn’t deliver. He played a critical role in the blindside that got Wes out of the game, and he had an important role in his alliance. He ended up losing in the final male Proving Ground of the season in a tug-of-war against Jordan, who has one hand. But, he did demonstrate his strengths as a swimmer when he helped Nany avoid getting purged in Puzzling Swim.
Stop Being Polite 