The Challenge (Formerly known as The Real World/Road Rules Challenge) is an MTV reality show that has aired since 1998. The show is what you get when you take several people from sister shows The Real World and Road Rules and make them compete against each other for cash prizes. What usually happens is arguments, sex, fighting and then some eliminations leading to a cash prize. Each season is often mixed up however by a constantly changing rule-set and reward system. As the series went on (and The Real World and Road Rules have been canceled), the show has added contestants from several other MTV reality shows and beyond, from Are You the One? to Big Brother.
Is often talked about thanks to its constant recycling of contestants with at least one openly admitting that they are there to avoid getting a real job.
This show provides examples of
- Action Girl: Plenty of the females on this show could qualify, particularly girls like Laurel, Cara Maria, Emily, Sarah, Kelly Anne, etc. Some older examples would be Paula, Aneesa, Rachel, Coral, Veronica, Jenn, Evelyn, and Tina.
- A House Divided: Fresh Meat 2 could have basically been called "Wes vs. Kenny'' because of this taking effect.
- Attention Whore: Several contestants appear to be this, if only to secure their place in future seasons.
- Ax-Crazy: A handful of people, but Abram and CT are notorious for being this. (CT especially.)
- Beach Episode: Several seasons have exclusively been set on beaches, the most notable ones being The Gauntlet 2 and 3 where every elimination took place on a beach. The Island showed the cast living on the beach, similar to Survivor.
- The Berserker: CT, whenever anyone gets him mad enough.
- Berserk Button: TJ hates people who quit - part of this is because he had to go through physical rehab after a very bad injury. However, as time went on, he's become way way more understanding to people who are quitting citing health concerns and/or injuries.
- Born Unlucky: Olivia in the final leg of "Ride or Dies" where she ends up severely injuring her finger... then the slingshot backfires (like in The Amazing Race) which hits her straight in the face and breaks her nose.
- Call-Back: Given the show's spin-off nature and that almost all the contestants appear in multiple seasons, this is a given. Several challenges have even been made around this, quizzing cast-members about events happening on the shows.
- Can't Catch Up: This seems to happen a fair few times, the producers seemingly having little idea on how to balance out competition.
- In Battle of the Sexes 2, the Men won all but two of the normal competitions and wound up far ahead of the Women in the final mission too.
- The Ruins as well, with the Champions team winning all but one competition and managing to eliminate every single male contestant on the Challenger side.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Disposable Woman: Seems to happen every few seasons, where teams will single out female competitors and even throw challenges just to get rid of them.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first season wasn't actually a proper "Challenge", instead placing five ex-Real World cast members into the Road Rules show. Even the next three are this, as there are no eliminations at all.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Desi got eliminated for reasons beyond her control in The Challenge USA: Season 1. In Season 2, without the team mechanic to hold her back she pulls off a near flawless final run to secure her well-deserved victory
- Everybody Has Standards: TV host TJ can be a real jerk at times, but he was absolutely appalled when Johnny Bananas cheated Sarah out of her share of the prize money. TJ even goes as far to sincerely apologize to Sarah over it.
- Failure Is the Only Option:
- Real World Austin cast member Danny Jamieson has failed to win a single individual or elimination challenge at any of the six challenges he's competed in, has never competed in a final, and is often among the first contestants sent home.
- Several other recurring cast-members fit this bill as well, from Real World Brooklyn's Sarah and Key West's Paula. They experienced a long string of defeats, though they did eventually find their big win
- Aneesa, on the other hand, has played in 19 challenges but has never been challenge champion. This in spite of being considered a beast when she was younger.
- Fanservice: Nearly every person on this show is relatively attractive. Some of the challenges themselves could even qualify, when they have the contestants either strip down, or complete a task that involves some compromising positions.
- Foe-Tossing Charge/Unstoppable Rage: CT during his fight with Adam. The entire house attempted to get between the two, only for CT to simply shove his way through everyone. Even when the production crew came to back them up, they still couldn't stop him.
- Funny Background Event: In an earlier season, Aneesa was yelling at Cara across the stage... and right behind her you can see Timmy mocking her, getting more and more bold with every moment. By the end, he's flat out waving his finger just like Aneesa is.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Happens all the time - often leading to many a Non-Gameplay Elimination where someone breaks a bone, gets a concussion, etc.
- Girl Posse: In some of the older seasons, Rachel, Veronica, and Tina were referred to as the "Mean Girls" because of their close friendship with each other, and because they had no problem backstabbing the other women in the house.
- Hypocrite: Enzo repeatedly talked about wanting to set a good example for his children, only to repeatedly quit when he had to swim.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: Happens whenever someone gets a Game-Breaking Injury.
- Jerkass: Plenty. Johnny 'Bananas' and Ty Ruff are arguably the most prominent examples.
- Lady Drunk: Katie Doyle. John Devenanzio claimed on an episode of the BS Report that she was a major factor in production's decision to stop providing the Challenge houses with an open bar.
- Lightning Bruiser: CT is feared in challenges due to his mix of size and athleticism. Nehemiah, Wes, and Abram also fit the bill for this trope.
- Naïve Newcomer: Many new contestant has appeared in these in the early seasons hoping everyone will be fair and nice. Nope.
- Nasal Trauma: Poor Olivia in "Ride or Die" got hit right in the face with a backfired slingshot a la The Amazing Race - which broke her nose.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The infamous brawl between CT and Adam
looked like it was going to go down like this, big time. Adam barely got in one decent push before CT proceeded to tear him apart, and the shots he threw in while CT was being held back only served to spike the big guy's temper. The rest of the cast (and even the production crew) had to get between them out of the fear that Adam was going to end up in the hospital. - Non-Gameplay Elimination: From Battle of the Sexes 2 onwards, there has yet to be a single season without one of these. These include quitting before eliminations and being automatically DQ'ed from elimination rounds for drinking, fighting, health issues, and family emergencies.
- Product Placement:
- The TJ Lavin era has seen contestant uniforms morph from simple T-shirts to the contents of the most recent Under Armour catalog.
- This isn't new, though, as often prizes, challenges, and whole gameplay mechanics would be named after brands.
- During older seasons, the contestants would always get a clue on their T-Mobile Sidekicks, and they would always have to announce it and show the phone to the camera.
- Twisted Ankle: A frequent Game-Breaking Injury that happens, due to a lot of people running on unstable terrain or mud.
