With the newest season of The Challenge airing, Ride or Dies became the final straw in the audience’s growing frustrations over the past few seasons about how the show is run. While the audience has consistently had issues with the casting of recent Challenge seasons, the sheer amount of rookies this season sent fans over the edge.
This led Redditors to discuss how they see The Challenge as having gone downhill as of late, trying to get to the bottom of what is happening with a show they love. These issues range from seasons being too long to the show's serious tone taking away the fun.
Where Are Returning Rookies?
One major talking point in the Reddit thread was The Challenge’s use of rookies. Runofthemillredditer stresses the lack of returning rookies, “I wonder how much potential some of the unimpactful rookies that production tossed aside after 1 season could have had if they were given another chance.”
Competitors like Bananas, Evelyn, and Cara Maria had lackluster first seasons. If that had been their only appearance, they wouldn’t be the Challenge competitors the audience knows them as. Without investing in rookies, eventually, there will be an issue when staple veterans retire because few rookies are beginning major Challenge careers.
Veterans Always Have The Numbers
The Challenge's one defining factor is its cast that returns season after season, allowing fans to grow attached to challengers and want to follow their stories. However, some players began as interesting show additions and have since competed to the point fans hope never to see them again.
Dramajunker its they don’t mind constantly seeing the same veteran players, but the vets have “been working together for a few seasons now…[giving] them a huge advantage when they come into each season with large voting blocks.” With essentially automatic alliances, the audience is less invested in the show because the math speaks for itself.
The Old Style of Drama Is Gone
Everyone has known each other for seasons at this point, and with the same veteran players constantly returning, there’s hardly the drama there used to be. With a more mature cast, the gameplay and interactions have changed, leaving some fans longing for the entertainment of earlier seasons.
This Redditor believes keeping veterans “sacrifices the fights and hookups that made the old show so entertaining… we don't even get to see the alliances being made anymore because they all already made deals…” With premade alliances and almost everyone being friends, the type of drama involved in the series has shifted to something less histrionic.
Stop With The Club
So many great moments, especially The Challenge’s best insults, happened within the house, but recent seasons have seemingly minimized the interactions within the house in favor of filming the club scenes.
NoNeedToBeCoyRoy misses these types of scenes that happened within the house, saying, “When we get them, it is most often those stupid club scene montages. Those are starting to make me hate these people. They are so set up and cheesy.” Seeing the in-house interactions and relationships gave the show a more authentic feel to the audience compared to the dancing and drinking montages frequently shown in clubs.
The Editing Style
Editing challenges, eliminations, and finals take away from the audience’s full understanding of The Challenge. Part of what makes The Challenge's finals most difficult is the audience feeling what the challengers are going through. That part of the viewing experience doesn’t exist with this editing style.
Crystalli0 believes, “You can't say this is ‘America's fifth sport,’ and then edit the actual challenges the way that they do.” To elaborate on this, they describe seeing a re-edited NFL play like a Challenge elimination and how it made a mockery of football. As seriously as The Challenge wants to be taken, it isn’t always easy considering the editing.
Where’s The Fun?
The Challenge has become a serious competition, in a major part because of the amount of money on the line and the caliber of challenges expected to be completed by contestants. With the show's change in tone, some fans miss when everything felt less serious but still important.
Redditor Iliketv25 thinks that “When it had a fun party vibe every year, it was best” because some of the show's levity left with the increased prize money. However, it’s unrealistic to believe that the cast would party the same as they first did as they matured over the seasons.
Prize Money Ruining The Entertainment
The Challenge's serious tone was mainly attributed to the increased prize money after Dirty 30. Some marked that season as the point that the series shifted to a significantly more serious competition.
PaneraHate maintains, “The show started to tank after Dirty 30 when they increased the prize by too much. The cast started taking the game too seriously, and all the entertaining drama disappeared.” The amount of money awarded to winners now makes it harder for any player not to take the game seriously. This has been especially true in recent seasons where night one, people drink less because the game has already begun.
Bring Brits Back
Among the many competitors that need to return because Challenge fans miss them are British cast like Theo, Georgia, and Rogan. In their few seasons, they and other British players impacted the audience, and now they’re nowhere to be seen.
Redditor xxcapricornxx says, "the Brits were simply a lot more likeable and entertaining." The British cast had outgoing and charming personalities that added value to The Challenge. And given how the recent seasons have been stern, bringing more British competitors may balance the show's current tone.
Seasons Are Way Too Long
There has been an increase in the number of episodes per season, from around 14 to roughly 19-22. Unfortunately, seasons with so many episodes may drag the show and diminish the quality. Some fans insisted that the prize money be reduced and increase the cast's pay to shorten the season and entice veterans who haven't returned in a while.
Survivor and go back to its seasons being around 14 episodes for maximum casting opportunities.
Fans Miss Reality TV Personalities
With increased stakes and decreased drama, the reality TV personalities that came from The Challenge in the past just aren’t the same. Either that or when the audience is gifted a fantastic personality, like in Big T's case, they are run off the show for not being a “real” competitor.
Crossstitchp highlights this issue as The Challenge does not have “any strong (not physically but reality) characters on the show. No one sticks out as a TV personality and an athlete on the show. I find myself having no one to root for!” Personalities give fans someone to root for, and focusing on pure athleticism in cast doesn’t inspire the same emotions in viewers.
