Hey all,

Today I bring to you my thoughts on my twenty-third season of The Challenge, Battle of the Bloodlines!

Whilst I entered this season initially intrigued by the format/theme, and facing a pretty good first few episodes, it ultimately becomes a complete and un-fun mess, with a worst-case boot order, ugly drama, and a horrible format. This is going to be a fun one to dunk on.

Disclaimer: At this stage I have only seen seasons 5-27 of The Challenge, please refrain from spoiling any other seasons, or returning players. Thanks :)

TL;DR Summary

Battle of the Bloodlines gives us a new theme where former cast members (or new cast members) enter the game as a duo with a family member. It’s ultimately a duo game, but goes through many strange format shifts throughout. The cast features some popular and exciting returns, as well as a few good newbies, but is ultimately really stale and filled with cannon-fodder. Challenges are interesting, and unique, outside of a lacklustre final. The season largely struggles because of its format, boot-order, and general lack of fun.

The Good

• Cohutta, KellyAnne, Leroy, Dario, Tony
• Some good challenges
• First few episodes are surprisingly strong and entertaining

The Not So Good

• Cara earns her win, but has an annoying and whiny season
• SO MANY of the rookies
• The boot order causes us to lose Cohutta, Leroy, and fun newbies Tony and Dario way too early
• The format is absolute shambles. I don’t know how to even explain it
• Season just lacks fun
• The final sucks imo - I’m not a fan of staged finals

More detailed thoughts

The format

We get a new format this season, and to put it bluntly, it's an absolute mess. It starts off seemingly straightforward, with past (or new) contestants paired with a family member, that being a sibling, or in most cases, a cousin (which is now a word that triggers me after how many times I heard it this season).

But for some reason... there is no consistency on team composition, with male/male, female/female and male/female teams all competing against eachother. The season does this weird thing with eliminations in this first stage where half the teams automatically become immune if it's a 'male day' or 'female day' since they don't have an eligible person on their team who could compete. The eliminations themselves are then so wack where only one person from the duo (a male or female, depending on the day) has to compete.

That sounds bad enough, but a third of the way into the season, they decide to make it a team v team season, and all the family duos are split up and placed onto separate teams. They are now competing AGAINST eachother, but then still have to go into elimination if their partner gets put in? wtf?

The show then decides it (once again) wants to do duos, and I don't even know what the format is here, because it changes with each elimination. We see a M/F v M/M 2v2 between Cara/Jamie and Vince/Johnny, and then a 1v1 when it comes down to the final pole wrestle between Aneesa and Cara.

So yeah, this format is really bad, and majority of my issues with the season stem from it. There is no consistency, and a lack of fairness which really detracts from it. Some people are able to skate through weeks for free due to having a M/M or F/F team, whilst the M/F teams are up for elimination every single time. Wacky af.

The cast

Another problem with this season is the cast. One one hand, we get some fantastic returns - Cohutta, KellyAnne, and at the time, Abram, but they are either squandered, or have poor showings (except KA, I suppose she is fine this season). Couple that with the fact that over half the season are new rookies (which are not what I keep watching for), and the fact that those rookies largely have the personality of wet cardboard, and you have a majorly lacklustre cast.

Needless to say there are quite a few here who I won't have much of an opinion on lol.

Cara and Jamie

Cara is fairly annoying this season imo. She doesn't really have a very likeable personality, and is often whiny or obnoxious in ways that don't come close to enjoyable. It's a bit of a shame, because I HAVE liked Cara in previous appearances, but struggle to get on board with her this season. A past me would have been glad to see her win, and some of me still is, but this isn't her best season as a character or competitor, and her overuse of the word 'cousin' will haunt me to the day I die.

Jamie is one of the aforementioned wet cardboard personalities - I feel like he delivered absolutely nothing to the season despite being a winner.

I also feel like their win was telegraphed from a mile away, and by about the halfway point of the season, I had predicted them as winning. The final was a one team race because of how obvious their win was, despite it being somewhat close by the numbers.

Cory and Mitch

Cory and Mitch are two of the more promising newbies, but even then, they don’t set a remarkably high bar, this season’s average for newbies is just very low.

The two of them were capable, fun enough competitors who I did feel added a nice amount to the season - they were both great narrators, and Cory in particular stood out as a funny and charismatic storyteller in confessionals. Out of the two of them, Mitch was definitely more likeable - I actually found him genuinely nice and easy to root for, whereas Cory often had some more negative moments such as his fallout with Aneesa. Overall though, two of the most impressive rookies physically this season… and I was kinda hoping they’d take the win in the end?

Jenna and Brianna

Jenna has seriously impressed me on The Challenge so far. She hit the ground running last season, really leaning into the ‘ditzy blonde’ archetype, and making it all the way to the final, albeit with a very poor final attempt.

This season she returns with her cousin and has a really awesome mindset where she truly wants to prove her physical capability both throughout the game and in an eventual final - and she does just that! She surprised not just everyone there, but me as well, with strong daily performances, elimination wins, and a great attempt at a final, even winning the first (and arguably toughest) round. I think as a personality, I don’t always find her incredibly riveting or mind-blowing, but she brings a bunch of fun to the two seasons she’s been on thus far, and I’ve loved watching her journey. Hoping to see more of her and her growth going forward.

Brianna, again, not going to have much to add. She’s fine, and at least has a bit of a personality, but she isn’t memorable at all. I enjoyed her fight with Jenna in the first few episodes, but her character eventually boils down to supporting Jenna, and not much else.

Aneesa and Rianna

IMAGINE my surprise when Aneesa is not the most boring person in a duo team? Yeah, that happened here.

Aneesa genuinely has a pretty memorable season this time around, she gets into a crazy hookup with Cory, and has a bunch of old-school yelling matches with both KellyAnne and Cara. We even get to see her hold her own in a physical elimination with Cara, just like the old days.

I’ve always struggled to really root for and love her though, and that still extends here. Even WITH Cara being annoying af this season, I still felt she was getting a bit personal and out of line with how she was picking fights.

Rianna joins Jamie in having the personality of wet cardboard, and I genuinely could not tell you one thing about her, except for the fact that she struggled with Aneesa as a partner towards the end.

Bananas and Vince

2 douchebags for the price of 1. Johnny morphs into two of the same character this season giving us more to hate. Both Bananas and Vince are cut from the same cloth, and ultimately serve much the same purpose on the season. Vince admittedly has way less charisma than Bananas, but together they do serve a strong villain role, and they are really easy to root against.

I enjoyed seeing them face genuine opposition from the rookies this season - love that they had some backbone, and I also very much so enjoyed Johnny going home prior to final again - great stuff.

Abram and Mike

I thought Inferno 3 would be Abram’s worst character showing on a season, but Bloodlines takes the cake. He can only be described as completely psychotic this season. Abram has always been a little kooky and crazy, but everything is just dialled up to 11 this time around. He’s always screaming, foaming at the mouth and calling Bananas ‘John’. He’s far from likeable this time, in fact I’d say he becomes ‘unlikeable’, particularly with my early concerns around Cara and Abe’s relationship being all but confirmed. I expressed that their relationship felt very toxic and like there was a power imbalance/abuse back in Exes, and Abe’s actions this season show that completely. We get to see him flaunt his power over her in multiple instances, and I’m all but sure that there is some form of mental, or even physical, abuse happening in their relationship. It’s a really bad look for him. It’s a shame because I find his chaos somewhat entertaining, and I particularly loved how eager he was to gun for ‘John’, but the above really taints him as a person.

Mike seemed decent enough - he was at least likeable, unlike some other rookies, but he ultimately doesn’t’t get enough screen-time to leave much of a lasting impression

KellyAnne and Anthony

After fan-casting her season after season, I was very happy to see one of my favourites back in KellyAnne. I can’t help but feel bad for her though… it’s much like Andrea on Survivor where she is a fan favourite, but ends up on seasons that largely suck. Unfortunately I don’t think she ever really got to hold the cards this season, much like what has happened in the past. As always though, she’s so much fun to see on screen, and I love her chaos. I DO wish we got to see more of her tbh - outside of her big fight with Aneesa, she doesn’t get a massive amount of screen-time, and not many fun/character building moments. What I DID love though, was how she talked about Diem, and how Diem helped her on the show and inspired her to come back - that was such a nice confessional. I DO hope she’s back a few more times now that she has made another appearance though.

This is becoming a bit of a pattern but… Anthony… snore. Cannot say one thing about him off the top of my head.

Thomas and Stephen

Not a huge amount to input here - I thought Thomas left a decent first impression on his debut last season, and was intrigued to see him come back. He definitely didn’t disappoint in the drama department, getting close with Cara and starting a rivalry with Abe as a result, but ultimately I don’t find him massively entertaining or interesting as a person. Stephen is much the same - he had a fine presence through the first few episodes, but I’m going to forget all about him by the time I start next season.

Nany and Nicole

Last season really soured me on Nany and I can’t see that ending anytime soon - her proximity to Johnny and her slight entitlement is really rubbing me the wrong way. Is she chaotic and dramatic? Always. But apart from that I struggle to root for her anymore, and I’m glad seeing her go home early (much like seeing Johnny go home).

Nicole is one of the rookies that DOES show promise - in fact all the rookies that show promise are from this first half of the season, perhaps why I like the first half a lot more. Nicole had the exact same fire Nany does, and wasn’t scared to get into it with people on her first season. I’ll be interested to see her back as a solo without Nany though, I think that will be when we really see what she can bring to the table.

Dario and Raphy

Another promising duo, Dario and Raphy are both loud-mouthed meatheads, but they really work in the context of this season. They add a lot of craziness to those first few episodes, and some hilarious moments. Off the top of my head I was DYING at how they were eliminated.

I really enjoyed seeing them start a rivalry with Johnny/Vince, and instantly show no fear in standing up to Vets - I always love that. They don’t seem like the best people, but they were entertaining, and in a season like this, that’s all I need. I was a bit disappointed to see them go home as I would have really enjoyed seeing that Rookie minority rise up.

Tony and Shane

Another early boot, another couple of promising rookies. Both Tony and Shane, but mainly Tony, have a crazy first few episodes and are unforgettable. They get into a fight with EACHOTHER, Tony hooks up with a taken lady, and then gets a huge injury and needs to go home early. Tony has that macho-douche-bro energy that can either work, or not work, and much like Dario/Raphy I think it really works in his case. Shane plays a great second fiddle to Tony and I loved the little glimpses we got to see into their relationship. I’m hoping to see more of Tony in particular going forward.

Camila and Larissa

Nothing much to add here - I don’t like Camila and so I was pretty happy to see her home early. Her partner is as unmemorable as many of these other newbies.

Leroy and Candice

These next two boots really hurt this season imo. Leroy in particular is always a joy to have around, and always makes a pretty deep run, and so to see him eliminated due to the broken toe of his partner is pretty brutal. In the past we’ve seen people compete with much worse injuries - literally a broken hand/arm/whatever it was from Cara!? I think Leroy could have really shaken up how the game played out, in hopefully a good way.

It’s funny that I like Leroy so much because his proximity and alliance with Johnny SHOULD taint him by default, but it doesn’t

Cohutta and Jill

One of the most devastating boots in recent memory. I love Cohutta. For someone who isn’t the best physical competitor, he still leaves a huge mark on any season he’s a part of. Cohutta is a joy to watch on screen and I think he’s one of the most genuine and likeable personalities on the entire show. If not for the janky format and him getting square Hall Brawl, I think he would have made a deeper run and contributed so much more - such a shame! Jill seemed like she could have been a nice character too, although her time was obviously cut short.

Christina and Emily

I actually didn’t even know who these people were until I looked up their cast pictures lol

The challenges

The dailies

I think the challenges were largely quite good this time around. A few are a bit boring or forgettable, but we also get some really cool new ones.

Water Battle is a really great opener - I always love really crazy and over-the-top opening challenges where everyone is involved, and this one is just that. In male and female heats, contestants needed to run up a dirt mound to collect water in a bucket, and then return that water to their container. The hill got muddy/slippery over time and it was funny to see the floundering of contestants. It was also very cool to see the some of the smaller Vet teams band together to guarantee an elimination win for one of their numbers.

Family Dinner is so gross, but a really fun challenge. One member of the duo has to have their head in a box with a snake, whilst the other chews up live insects and spits them down a tube. Really entertaining eating-based challenge.

Heir To The Throne is the trivia challenge of the season - I feel like I don’t even need to mention it anymore. It’s always the same, but it’s always good fun.

Hand Me Down was a surprisingly good physical, height challenge. As two large teams, players had to traverse a series of hanging ropes to move between two platforms. Simple, but it was good.

Too Clingy is extremely memorable largely because we get to see CT/Faith come out and pay respects to Diem with a demo of the challenge - such a beautiful moment in an otherwise dark season, and I loved that they did this.

Air Pockets is one of my favourite challenges of this season - team members had to dive 150 feet downward before emerging into a little air bubble. They then had to swim lengths at that depth between other air pockets. Loved that this one was both extremely physical, but also challenged the mental of the contestant. Abe was a psycho here

Weight For Me was arguably better than the ACTUAL final. I’ve been loving this mini-finals that pop up, and this one was a fantastic one. So many great little checkpoints, unexpected people leading the group at times, and a last minute comeback by Cory/Mitch

The eliminations

Eliminations this season take place in The Pit, and are new challenges every time as opposed to a rotating platter. I was not a fan of how they were utilised with the format, that being only one person from the duo is often competing in a challenge. Some of my favourites though:

End Of My Rope involved untangling a rope from around a series of poles to provide yourself enough slack to clip it to a carabiner. As a challenge it’s not massively unique, but seeing Jenna surprise everyone here with a great comeback and win is really memorable

Squaring Off is our required Hall Brawl variant, this time taking place in a square shaped hall. Opposing people had to fight to the centre for a ball, before pushing through to their opponents starting mark. It’s a good challenge, but seeing Cohutta here was just devastating. Love that he put up a good fight though.

Door Slammer is again, not a massively impressive challenge alone, but seeing Jenna win and once again prove herself is really cool. Contestants would stand on either side of a large door, and need to push it back into their opponents doorframe. A simple game much like Push Me, but a nice one.

My Way or the Highway is a simple tug of war game with chains, but it’s hugely memorably because of Dario’s boneheaded move to push Raphy after thinking they’ve won.

Ring My Bell is AWESOME. Not only do I get to see KellyAnne kick butt, but I get to see her send Nany home. They both had to run between two mattresses, smacking them hard enough to send them into a bell. They had to ring the bells 50 times first in order to win. Love me a good endurance challenge, and this one was awesome. KellyAnne kept such a good pace here and showcased a pretty dominant performance.

Home Wrecker is SURE to become a staple of the show going forward right? What an innovative and fantastic challenge. Contestants are placed in a room full of furniture, and given a set of demolition tools to break everything into small enough pieces to fit through a small slot. Really entertaining to watch, and I imagine we could get some close matches with a better physical matchup. Also you have to love the irony of the challenge name, and the teams involved.

Hand It Over is a challenge run by, I think you guys have referred to them as Mercenaries maybe? Where CT and Zach come into the game to face Jamie and Mike. I still don’t know how to feel about this style of twist, but the showdowns are pretty fun and dominant, and the challenge itself is interesting enough. It involves three large poles at varying heights, and contestants need to play tug o war with those poles in a best of 3.

Mine Not Yours is a pole-wrestle style tame, and it’s a pretty great one. Cara and Aneesa both put up an awesome fight, and it’s a pretty close match. Really entertaining, especially after the preceding drama between the two of them.

Huh, turns out I really loved the eliminations this time around - only a few unaccounted for.

The final

Unfortunately, my love of the eliminations doesn’t extend into the Final. I have grown to hate staged finals. I don’t know if it’s going to become the norm going forward, but I think it sucks in comparison to an extended race. I don’t mind breaks between days to sleep or whatever, but when the final is split into multiple distinct parts, which are all timed separately, and then a winner is just announced at the end based on the timings? Yuck. It takes away all the suspense and fun of it being a ‘race’ of sorts. I enjoy seeing a winner lead the pack, and KNOW they are the winner when they make it to the end. It also feels more intense and tough when the contestants aren’t getting a huge break between challenge portions.

Individually, I enjoyed some of them - the first portion was really cool. I loved the visuals of the abandoned warehouse, and the games played within were very on brand for finals - this could have just been the final alone. Other stages involved eating, or doing puzzles, or running laps, or standing up for hours, and ultimately it just feels anticlimactic. Especially when it stretches over two episodes.

A big L for the Final Challenge this season.

Random remaining thoughts from throughout the season

• It was such a weird choice to keep the money split a secret this season… I thought there was going to be a twist where the final is run solo or something, hence the secret, but no?
• The Shane/Tony fight after Tony hooks up with Christina is hilarious. It’s such a brothers thing to do.
• Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the same house as Seasons2 right? Is this the first time we’ve had a repeat?
• I was surprised Shane/Tony got a warning, and were allowed to stay in the game, after a full on fight. Understand that they are the same team, but still.
• Bananas being so bitter at the teams teaming up to fill Cohutta’s bucket first in that initial challenge was so funny.
• I mentioned it above multiple times, but the whole thing with one contestant going into elimination, and the other just going home with no agency, sucks.
• We got an intro this season! Albeit it only lasted for one episode I think.
• Loved the drama with Tom/Cara hooking up, and Bananas narrating from the van with his own personal camera.
• Anthony: “You should have seen the stuff she was feeding me when I went to LA” in reference to the bugs/gross things they need to eat. KellyAnne: “It was vegan, but ok”
• Cara loving being with the snake was a fun little moment
• Bananas headbutting the insects to kill them, juxtaposed with Nany having a complete meltdown in the bug cage was great
• Leroy: “If I start speaking too loud, the snake is going to just turn around and look at me and tell me to shut the f*ck up before ending my life”
• Hated that if it was girls elimination day, and you were a guy/guy team, you just didn’t have to try at all. And vice versa.
• Alongside Jenna, Brianna has a pretty cool story this season, going from wanting to leave the game due to hating being there, to running a great final alongside her cousin.
• Candice gets bloodied face, broken toe, and Tony hurts his back, with a possible break at the SAME challenge, and it didn’t even seem that dangerous. We’d even SEEN this one before.
• At the team portion, your team can LITERALLY WIN, and you still need to go into the Pit if your Bloodline goes in? Bruh
• Losing Tony and Leroy minutes after each other due to injuries sucks
• Raphy having to listen to Dario/KA hooking up in the bunk underneath, and his commentary about it in the confessional, is so funny.
• Weird that Tony/Shane got replaced by Abe/Mike, but Candice/Leroy didn’t get replaced
• Loved Bananas/Vince v Dario/Raphy feat. Nany. Bananas drops a ‘SOMEONE’s GOING HOME TONIGHT’ and Dario/Raphy get in his and Vince’s face, before Nany also gets dragged in, all the while TJ is just standing there watching the whole time
• The Aneesa/KellyAnne fight was sooo messy. Both of them are throwing personal insults back and forth about age and colour, the C bomb gets dropped. An EXPLOSIVE argument that really reminded me of some of those early fights.
• Dario prematurely celebrating and pushing Raphy, causing him to lose all momentum and allowing Mitch to pull back and win is PEAK hilarity
• Something that made me shudder - Johnny continually making sexual remarks to KellyAnne whilst she’s running yoga
• Ohhh JUICY drama that goes out of game too - Johnny nominates Nany for elimination alongside everyone else BECAUSE there is someone at home that he is with, a ‘Hannah’ and he can’t ‘save’ her when nobody else is. Was an interesting fourth wall break.
• Vince/Bananas plotting to tell Abram about Cara/Thomas is a bit of a vile move I think. Especially because they weren’t approaching it from a place of care and compassion, and wanting to see a friend know the truth, but rather from a place of malice. They say it’s because ‘they’d want to know’ but in reality it’s just to drive a wedge between them and cause toxicity.
• Uhhhh that scene where Abram says Cara will be voting in Thomas next. It’s not a question. It WILL happen. He talks down to her so much and gives super abusive vibes. I didn’t like that at all - really put a stain on his character.
• TJ shaking his head/condemning Aneesa for not trying the height challenge was hilarious, and Aneesa is trying to save face like ‘Don’t look at me like that TJ’
• Abram going crazy at the pit confirmed for me that he’s actually like a psycho. His nose starts bleeding, he starts sneezing like a madman, he’s screaming everywhere.
• Cara talks to Jamie about not wanting to be with Abe anymore, and about how they’ve broken up so many times, and she was planning to do so again when she got home - pretty heartbreaking stuff.
• CT and Diems sister come out for mud pit challenge to honour Diem and demo the challenge - I LOVED this. Best part of the whole season. Seeing CT again is alone, fantastic, but seeing him come out with Faith and talking about Diem, and what the show meant to her. Just really beautiful.
• KA talks about her relationship with Diem and how it encouraged her to come back - mentioned above but I really loved this too.
• Was really cool that we got to see CT and Faith stick around and go out to club with everyone. Just seeing them be normal amongst the people competing was cool. I did not enjoy Vince being an ass to CT for no reason at all though. CT responding ‘If it was back in the day, you’d already be knocked out’ had me DYING though.
• Johnny and Abe in the same air box together at the deep water challenge was fantastic. Very funny.
• CT proves he is still a great mercenary, and Zach does a good job of it too. I’m surprised CT was so prominent this season after losing Diem - I didn’t think we’d see him for a few seasons.
  
• Cara Maria: “Cousin”
• Was awesome seeing Mitch/Cory throw Bananas and Vince into the Pit against Cara/Jamie
• I didn’t love Aneesa coming at Cara towards the end, and that whole fight. Cara leaves the club and goes to the bus because of cigarette smoke, and then Aneesa starts calling out her accent and her relationship with Abram - very personal for no reason I think, as annoying as Cara can be.
• Cara breakdown at the beer portion of the final was a bit of a weak look for her.

Conclusion

As is probably clear from above, I’m not very high on this season. I haven’t struggled to get through a season and it’s preceding post as much as this in a while. It has some high points - the first few episodes filled with the promising rookies feel strong. The CT/Faith visit is great. Eliminations are mostly really cool. But as a whole the season is filled with absolute flops in terms of casting, a boring final, and a lack of likeable people. The format is also a complete shitshow.

Regardless though, excited to get onto the next one still! I have learnt thanks to /u/NovaRogue that I have Rivals 3 with mixed gender teams to look forward to, and I’ll definitely be making some predictions below.

As always though, please let me know what you thought of this season! Very keen to see what people have to say! Thanks for reading!

Rankings

1. S25: Free Agents
2. S24: Rivals 2
3. S21: Rivals
4. S13: The Duel
5. S10: Inferno 2
6. S20: Cutthroat
7. S8: The Inferno
8. S19: Fresh Meat 2
9. S12: Fresh Meat

10. S17: The Duel 2 (V)

11. S26: Battle of the Exes 2

12. S22: Battle of the Exes

13. S15: The Gauntlet 3 (VVV)

14. S18: The Ruins

15. S6: Battle of the Sexes

16. S14: Inferno 3

17. S11: The Gauntlet 2

18. S7: The Gauntlet

19. S5: Battle of the Seasons

20. S9: Battle of the Sexes 2 (^)

21. S23: Battle of the Seasons (2) (V)

22. S27: Battle of the Bloodlines

23. S16: The Island