Reaching the end of a Challenge is an accomplishment some people never achieve, and at the start of every season, some people have better odds than others.
The show is also full of underdogs, and some Challenge competitors manage to reach the final despite the odds being stacked against them. These people showed determination, strength, and grit, but it was accompanied by a lot of luck. This allowed them to reach the end in the most unexpected ways.
For this list, I am considering all Challenge seasons and competitors, but I’m factoring in Challenge history and statistics. That means competitors with strong track records are unlikely to appear, and seasons where many people make the final (like The Inferno) are less surprising than seasons where few people get to the end.
10. Arissa Hill (Battle of the Sexes 2)
The second Battle of the Sexes started seeing a shift in the Challenge landscape. The role of rookies and veterans started to become more defined, but it was still early enough that being a rookie wasn’t a death sentence. So, the girls’ team kept losing, and they voted out the veteran competitors who couldn’t lead the team to victory. This allowed Arissa to fly under the radar at the beginning of the season, but by the time the final approached, Arissa emerged as a perceived weak link. This should have been reason enough to vote her out, and she seemed fated to be the last girl sent home before the final. Then, Mark sacrificed himself, let the girls win the last mission, and Arissa made it to the final. She pulled her own weight, but the women couldn’t compete with the dominant boys’ team.
9. Sarah Rice (The Ruins)
Being a Challenger on The Ruins means you’d be fighting an uphill battle all season, and as a Challenge newbie, Sarah seemed like she’d have an especially hard battle. Add in the fact that she was fresh off The Real World: Brooklyn with an unproven athletic record, and Sarah seemed to be an easy option to leave early. Instead, she had a good attitude and accepted that she’d need to put in work. She was sent into two Ruins, but she won both of them. This gave her a little money and a lot of motivation, even though the Challenger team was imploding. Only two Challenger girls made it to the final, and while they couldn’t overcome the stacked Champion team, this accomplishment highlighted Sarah’s heart in the game.
8. Casey Cooper (Fresh Meat)
Being paired with a Real World: Austin alumnus seemed like a death sentence on Fresh Meat, and as Wes’ partner, Casey found herself on the chopping block five times. Wes was an athletic partner, but he certainly wasn’t the nicest person to Casey, and the two struggled at first. While Casey had to endure a lot of ridicule from Wes, there’s no denying that she wasn’t the strongest player. She could, however, follow Wes’ lead, and their experience in the Exile allowed them to develop a winning strategy. This help Casey get deep into the game, and by the time the final came around, Tina wanted to take her to the end because she was perceived to be weaker. As it turns out, Casey was strong enough to complete the final race… but she and Wes finished in third of three teams, so maybe Tina’s strategy wasn’t bad?
7. Jay & Jenna (Battle of the Exes 2)
The thought of Real World: Ex-Plosion’s Jay doing well on the Challenge with his ex Jenna seemed kind of wild… until you realize they were being used as “layups.” This strategy helped keep them safe for a while, but eventually, you’d expect these two to have to go into an elimination. If Wes had it his way, he would have put Jay & Jenna in the last Dome to ensure all the veterans competed in the final, but Wes didn’t get his way. Instead, the rookies (surprisingly) won a trivia challenge, Bananas & Nany shockingly returned to the game, and Sarah planned to backstab Bananas. All of these twists and turns allowed Jay & Jenna to avoid elimination when they should have been the most vulnerable, and they got to the final. Unfortunately, they proved why they were layups when they decided to quit the final due to a fishy drink during the race.
6. Derek Chavez (Battle of the Eras)
The Era 2 team on Battle of the Eras had an absolutely stacked roster of females, but the males were Johny Bananas and a bunch of underdogs. While it wasn’t super shocking to see the team excel in the first half of the season, once the competition became individual, it seemed like a prime opportunity for Derek to get picked off. Instead, he was a dark horse. He actually won a daily challenge, and he avoided most of the Arenas. When he was sent into an elimination, he took out one of the top dogs, Cory. In the final, Derek gave Jordan a run for his money. While Jordan was unstoppable, Derek earned a decent chunk of change with his second-place finish.
5. Dee Nguyen (War of the Worlds 2)
Coming onto War of the Worlds 2, Dee was the only Australian competitor, immediately making her an outsider. Plus, she was fairly new to the Challenge scene, and her only real connections were on the less-experienced UK team. Despite these obstacles, Dee seemed to find a new way to escape the Proving Ground each week. In the second half of the season, it appeared Dee was next on the chopping block on the UK team because she was perceived as weak. Surprisingly, her swimming skills and relationship with Rogan managed to help her skate by, and she made the final without ever entering an elimination. She won the season, and in retrospect, this would have been a fantastic way to wrap up her Challenge career.
4. Paulie & Natalie (Final Reckoning)
This may be the most unconventional path to a final we’ve ever seen on The Challenge. Paulie & Natalie lost the first proper elimination on Final Reckoning… then the first redemption challenge… then the second redemption challenge. Somehow, this didn’t get them sent back to the United States, and the Big Brother duo spent the bulk of the season in the redemption house. By the time they competed in the third redemption challenge, they finally won their way back into the main house and they weren’t going to give up that position easily. The team won a couple of daily challenges, but they landed in the last Armageddon of the season. After a long battle (and a happy accident), the pair made their way to the final, where they finished in third.
3. Luke Wolfe (Cutthroat)
On Fresh Meat 2, Luke was the last male selected in the draft — but he was lucky when he defaulted to having Evelyn as a partner. Though the team made it deep into the season, most people attributed their successes to Evelyn and failures to Luke. On Cutthroat, Luke showed that he was a pretty good competitor. He won an elimination on his own, and he kept up with the rest of his team, which was impressive because the Gray Team was doing fairly well. In the final, the gray team crumbled as Abe and Sarah got dehydrated. Luke was never a problem, and he was the only man on the team to complete the season’s final.
2. Devyn Simone (Free Agents)
This entry is really a two-for-one, because no one expected Devyn to go far when she debuted on Battle of the Seasons, but at least she had a team supporting her that time around. On Free Agents, she was all alone, yet she relied on a strong social game to keep herself safe. While Devyn comes across as a weaker competitor, she put in a strong effort that season, and she proved she wasn’t completely dead weight. By the time the final was getting close, competitors attempted to get the strongest players out of the game, which helped Devyn avoid the last few eliminations. But we can’t deny that Devyn had a lot of luck on her side. This helped her avoid the kill card five times and get to the final. While she didn’t win, she completed the final, which is a testament to her determination to finish.
1. Brianna Julig (Battle of the Bloodlines)
Brianna is not on this list because she was a rookie on Bloodlines — by design, three rookies were going to be in the final. She’s on this list because no one thought she could compete well enough to avoid elimination and survive until the end. Yes, Jenna had to step up and win three eliminations, but this dynamic worked well for the team. It was also a necessary system, because Brianna seemed like she could quit the season at any moment. The Challenge clearly wasn’t her cup of tea; she was only there to build a relationship with Jenna. But once the cousins started fighting, Brianna made it clear she was willing to leave the show and return to her job in the bakery. Eventually, Jenna learned to work with Bri, and they got to the final. They ended up in third place, but at least they finished and took home a little cash.
Stop Being Polite 