The next season of The Challenge has been announced, and it’s our second Cutthroat season. No, it’s not Cutthroat 2, just a second season named Cutthroat.
Anyone who’s been watching The Challenge for years knows that season 20 was the original Cutthroat season. It was the first one to have three teams, though it had 30 contestants. It was also the first season to bring in mercenaries (aka Heavy Hitters), and it really doesn’t seem MTV is trying to ignore the first season.
While this is pure speculation, Brad is most likely on this cast because he won the original Cutthroat as a member of the Red Team. We also have Cara Maria, a finalist from the Gray Team, and Johnny Bananas, who was a pseudo captain on the Blue Team.
While Bananas didn’t make the final on the original Cutthroat, it’s impossible to tell the story of The Challenge without talking about that season, because Bananas Backpack.
So, why is this not a proper sequel?
It’s impossible to say for certain, but it’s likely because the show is looking to rebrand the theme. At this point, Cutthroat is 16 years old. Many Challenge fans feel a proper sequel is overdue, and the time lapse has broken any continuity between Cutthroat 2010 and Cutthroat 2026. Plus, the 3-team format has been used in other seasons (Spies, Lies and Allies and USA 2), so production may be trying to reclaim the meaning of “Cutthroat” in a Challenge context.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a rebrand in the Challenge world. We saw the original Battle of the Seasons in 2002, and then we saw the second Battle of the Seasons in 2012. However, the subtitle “Battle of the Seasons” has a clear context — teams are defined by cast members’ original shows. Cutthroat only has the meaning that production decides to give to it.
While this is most likely just an effort to refresh branding while the Challenge is moving to Paramount+, a skeptical mind might think this is an effort to bury some aspects of the original Cutthroat. The 2010 season had a tone-deaf theme, even by 2010 standards, and it’s aged even more poorly as culture has shifted since then.
Most likely, the original Cutthroat’s theme has nothing to do with the rebrand — after all, you can still stream it on Paramount+. But if that season magically disappears from the streaming platform, then this rebrand might be evidence of an attempt to hide the ugly parts of the original Cutthroat.
Stop Being Polite 