You know you’re near the final when the location changes on The Challenge. Since Rivals 1, many of the flagship seasons have incorporated this twist into the show, and it’s been known to add an extra dose of excitement to the end of the season.
Over time, this twist has turned more into a “staple” of the show, and not every location change is created equally. So, we’re going to look at every time the cast relocated and rank it from worst to best. The only real qualifier: To be on the list, the cast must have actually voyaged to a new country. Rivals 2 won’t count because the finalists never actually went to Tokyo, despite teasing the transition.
11. Free Agents: Chile
You’d be forgiven if you forgot that Free Agents started in Uruguay and ended in Chile. While the final did embrace its mountain setting, the fact that it was in Chile was more of a passing comment. The “extreme” part of this final was climbing an active volcano, but as a viewer, it just felt like another mountain.
10. Dirty Thirty: Argentina
It feels like Argentina is MTV’s go-to spot to film a final. Does this location work? Yes, but by season 30 a lot of the elements in the final were getting repetitive. It felt like Dirty Thirty embraced its original location, Cartagena, Colombia, way more than the location of its final.
9. Total Madness: Austria
The funny thing is, this season never even mentioned its location change. But, the snowy setting made it clear that the cast left the bunker, and the trip to Vienna was significant enough that Melissa named her daughter after the city (she found out she was pregnant at the final). Despite the lack of acknowledgment, this terrain offered a change of pace, and that makes this location change more memorable than some that were formally acknowledged.
8. Battle of the Exes 2: Norway
When you hear that The Challenge is going to Norway, it seems like they could do a lot of cool things in that environment. But the most memorable thing about this location change was Nia getting kicked off, Sarah getting bullied, and Theresa coming back — so, not the environment itself. The final race did try to embrace trolls, part of Norse mythology, but most people just remember TJ trolling Jay when he quit.
7. Vendettas: Czech Republic
This season should be noted for its cool locations, but its open sequence on the Rock of Gibraltar is probably better-remembered than its endpoint in Prague. The cast played Outside the Box, the last daily challenge in the Czech Republic, then they ran a knight-themed final. Prague isn’t the first place I think of when knights come to mind, but at least the final had a more comprehensive theme than the rest of Vendettas.
6. Rivals 3: Argentina
By season 28, the location change was entirely expected. Argentina wasn’t even a fresh location, but producers knew it would be a decent spot for a challenging trek. It really feels like the final elimination, Don’t Whine for me Argentina, embraced the environment more than the final itself. However, this location did give us the image of Sarah crying atop a mountain. So if that’s what MTV wanted, they got it.
5. Battle of the Eras: The Philippines
By this point in Challenge history, location changes had taken us to mountains, glaciers, deserts, and even big cities — but islands, that was new. It was cool to see a different environment, even if the watery challenge settings weren’t drastically different than what we saw in Vietnam earlier in the season. The final daily, Fortress Bricks, had a cool nod to local history. However, the biggest downfall was all the swimming that the island setting forced into the final.
4. Battle of the Seasons: Namibia
This was the third location change, so fans and cast members likely expected it, but it was still a fun one to watch. Moving from Turkey to Namibia allowed production to embrace two entirely different climates, and the desert environment created some cool visuals. While the final itself didn’t have any wild twists, the sandy trek was very memorable.
3. Battle of the Exes: Iceland
If there was ever a final that looked miserable to compete in, it would be this one. After Rivals, fans may have anticipated a location change this season. So production upped the ante by moving to an entirely different climate. This was a smart move because it added snowy elements that cast members weren’t expecting while still allowing them to incorporate parts of the final we’ve come to expect.
2. Rivals: Argentina
The location change on Rivals was a true surprise and a twist the cast wasn’t expecting. Being the first one, it felt like a big move, and it led to some very memorable episodes. After the cast left Costa Rica they arrived in Argentina where CT, Adam, Tyler, and Bananas played the fan-favorite T-Bone elimination. Then, the final six teams competed in the first two-day final ever. While MTV tried to recreate this magic with future location changes, very few had the same impact as the inaugural one.
1. Battle of the Bloodlines: Germany
By this point, The Challenge had seen many location changes, and the cast kind of knew what to expect when they entered the final. Then, Bloodlines came and delivered a different experience. Being in Berlin, we saw the cast finalists in the city — something we very seldom see on the show. It felt like the final embraced its atmosphere because they wanted to be there. In most other cases, it felt like production was just trying to make a grueling final and the location was secondary.
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