Ten years ago, Johnny Bananas decided not to split the Rivals 3 prize money with his partner Sarah. It was the first time The Challenge introduced this prize-stealing twist, and it solidified Bananas as a reality TV villain.
Johnny Bananas created a buzz-worthy moment, but he only took home $275,000 on Rivals 3. In 2016, that was a single-season Challenge record, but it didn’t take long for that record to be broken.
In 2018, Ashley “Millionaire” Mitchell outdid Bananas when she refused to split the Final Reckoning prize money with Hunter. While the prize-stealing twist wasn’t exactly new, Final Reckoning nearly quadrupled the Rivals 3 prize. As such, this was also a buzzy moment for The Challenge.
For a while, it felt like MTV knew they couldn’t top the million-dollar steal, so they relied on other twists (like the awful karma points on Battle of the Eras). The prize-stealing twist was reintroduced on All Stars: Rivals, but that season felt low stakes. Most rivalries weren’t too deep on that season, and the grand prize was only $250,000. Predictably, no one stole the money — it was almost like MTV was trying to convince us that Challengers could split the prize money.
So, here we are: Cutthroat 2026. The Challenge is bringing back the prize-stealing twist… with a twist. Each team has a captain, and the captain could take the prize money from all the other teammates on their final team.
But is this actually exciting?
At this point in Challenge history, this doesn’t feel like a big deal. While most seasons don’t allow competitors to steal the entire grand prize, veterans always know a prize-stealing twist could be implemented. We even saw Aneesa talk about the possibility on Vets & New Threats, even though the season did not implement this type of twist. Plus, Cutthroat’s grand prize is only $500,000, half of Final Reckoning’s total.
In most situations, this twist is unlikely to create a viral moment. It certainly would not happen if the winning captain chose to split the grand prize. Maybe it would get attention if Bananas split the money, but that probably wouldn’t even be that big of a deal.
There are only three scenarios where this twist could be mildly shocking:
- Bananas is the winning team captain and steals the money, AGAIN. Viewers would be shocked that he duped competitors for a second time.
- Bananas is a member of the losing team and gets a taste of his own medicine — his share of the prize pot is stolen.
- CT gets his money stolen. There’s no reason CT deserves this, especially because he voluntarily shared the Spies, Lies and Allies prize money. But CT has so much unwavering support from Challenge fans that they would be outraged to see him lose money.
I really can’t see another scenario where anyone outside of the Cutthroat viewers care.
So, this twist kind of feels like a lazy attempt to create a moment. We know The Challenge is going through a rebranding phase, so it would have been a good time to try a new twist. Instead, we’re getting more of the same, and it seems uninspired.
Stop Being Polite 