Is It the End of the MTV Era on The Challenge?

For the first time ever, no one who made their reality TV debut on MTV made it to the end of a main series Challenge final.

Vets & New Threats had 16 rookies — none of whom originated on MTV. This meant the only chance of an MTV rep making the final would have been through a veteran. Of the 17 vets (including Cara Maria and Jonna separately), 12 of them have origins that aired on MTV: 9 Real Worlders, 1 Road Ruler, and 2 Fresh Meat. This leaves five veterans with non-MTV debuts, and of those five, four of them made the final: Michaela, Olivia, Theo, and Turbo.

Now, we’re only going to see Era 4 veterans in the final. Nany was our last shot at seeing a veteran from an earlier era, but she was eliminated on episode 17.

So, what does this mean for the franchise?

Firstly, this is not the first time we saw no Real World, Road Rules, or Fresh Meat representation in a final. Battle for a New Champion had no competitors from those series on the main cast, therefore it was impossible for one to run the final. The season did have a couple of Are You the One? reps who debuted on MTV, and Nurys got to the end of the game. Of course, there’s a major difference here: that season catered to newer (i.e. Era 4) players. Vets & New Threats only had five of 17 competitors come from Era 4.

This paints a fairly harrowing picture for the veterans, and it’s been an ongoing discussion as Vets & New Threats aired. Many of the veterans cast this season weren’t in the best shape. This could be seen in CT’s performance, when Nia’s knee caused issues, or by looking at Derrick’s leg brace (though he still had some decent performances in daily challenges). We also had veterans like Aneesa, Leroy, and Nany who have done 10+ seasons without nabbing a single win.

You could argue that producers just did a bad job picking veterans, but it’s somewhat apparent that they made an effort to cast people with potential. Likely, this is why Derek and Aviv were on the cast. Both of them did well on Battle of the Eras, as did Bananas (though he’d get cast on the season regardless).

The outcome on Vets & New Threats doesn’t look good for the OG Challengers, and if we’re being honest, it’s not like they had it particularly hard this season. In fact, the UK alliance had smaller numbers, and Olivia and Theo managed to make it to the end while the “super alliance” got picked off one-by-one.

The truth is, most of the Era 3 players (and younger) are in their 40s now. The games on The Challenge really aren’t catering to this demographic, and they’re struggling. Meanwhile, the younger folks are able to do well in this environment.

Another notable outcome this season is the influx of CBS alumni in the final. Michaela and Sydney competed on Survivor, Cedric was on Big Brother, Yeremi did The Amazing Race, and Olivia won Love Island 3 (before it moved to Peacock).

This shows that competitors from other Paramount entities are likely to find a home on The Challenge (assuming it continues). That doesn’t mean we’ll only see alumni from Big Brother, Survivor, and The Amazing Race, but there’s a clear path from those shows to The Challenge.

It also seems MTV has put a huge investment in the same veterans for nearly a decade now. Aside from Battle for a New Champion, we haven’t had a season without CT, Bananas, or Wes since The Gauntlet 2 in 2005. It seems we’re finally reaching a point where these veterans’ abilities are declining and the rookies are savvy enough to get them out of the game.

This isn’t to say the Challenge OGs are leaving; they’re certainly not. But Vets & New Threats has shown us that there’s space for new people on the show, and production might be wise to invest in some of these newer personalities moving forward. They should also try to keep veterans off the show if they’re blatantly not competition-ready, but that’s probably a topic for a different day.