All Stars: Rivals marks a long-awaited return of the Rivals format, but many viewers aren’t feeling the excitement. This season is the first time All Stars has shifted away from its primarily Real World and Road Rules-dominated cast.
The cast features 13 pairs, 26 people total, and nine of them didn’t originate on Real World, Road Rules, or Fresh Meat: Amber, Big T, Corey, Dario, Da’Vonne, Devin, Faysal, Melissa, and Turbo.
These aren’t the first non-RW/RR/FM people to get on All Stars. Kam appeared on season 4, but most people felt she was more of an extension of Leroy. In retrospect, it’s become clear that this was the beginning of a shift. Now, there really are no limits on the All Stars casting pool.
Originally, the idea for All Stars was born out of Mark Long’s effort to get more OGs to compete on The Challenge. While he initially called for “OGs only,” Paramount+ gave us a show called All Stars. From that moment, it should have been clear that there weren’t going to be any casting limitations. There’s really no way to define an “All Star,” and any prior criteria was just based on assumptions.
Season 5 in the All Stars franchise has some of the most obvious changes. It moved to MTV, implemented a more-structured format, and of course it expanded the casting pool. It’s quite fitting that this is the season that adopted the Rivals format because Rivals 1 marked a shift on the main series: It was the first season without any Road Rulers.
Why did production move in this direction? It’s anyone’s guess, but there are a few key factors to consider:
- All Stars films for a shorter period than the main series. Production isn’t going to prevent a big name (like Da’Vonne) from appearing just because she didn’t do a RW/RR/FM season.
- Now that the show is on MTV, securing viewership is more important than before. This season has the “Rivals” tagline, which has historically been a successful Challenge series. It’s adopting an all-star theme rather than relying on legacy cast members.
- Likely, some people are on this cast because they couldn’t fit on the season 40 cast. Battle of the Eras only had room for 10 people on Era 4. Likely, more people from the newest generation wanted to compete, but they may have fit better on All Stars because they have story lines that Battle of the Eras wouldn’t showcase as dominantly.
- A decent number of cast members have moved from All Stars back to the main series, especially with Battle of the Eras. It shouldn’t be surprising to see this transition is moving in both directions.
- Eventually, we’re going to run out of fresh faces for the All Stars series. Expanding the casting pool isn’t a bad sign at this point, as it makes it possible for All Stars to continue.
Of course, the influx of newbies will be off-putting for true Real World and Road Rules fans, but Paramount doesn’t seem too concerned with those franchises nowadays. We never got the Road Rules reboot, and Real World: Homecoming is long gone. As Paramount focuses on CBS as its primary network, it seems unlikely that they will adhere to a format that strictly benefits MTV alumni. Moving forward, I’d expect to see a mix of Challenge eras on All Stars. MTV alum will make up a considerable portion of the cast, but debuting on MTV will not be a requirement.
Stop Being Polite 
The whole appeal of All Stars, especially for old timers like me, is to see only our old faves from Real World and RR’s back in the Challenges. I have stopped watching most of the newer Challenges because all these foreign and new entrants have no appeal to me. I would think the well is deep of former RW and RR players that would love to come back. Mark was right with his original ideas, it even got an old timer like me to subscribe to Peacock just so I could watch the first few All Stars seasons! Why ruin the format with Fugazi’s like BIg T and other fabricated new Challengers? Just my opinion.