Behind the Screen: Greatest Challenge Performance Ever

For over two decades, MTV's The Challenge has been the proving ground where reality TV's fiercest competitors come to cement their legacies. What started as a Real World/Road Rules spinoff has evolved into one of the most physically and mentally demanding competition series on television.

The franchise's expansion — with spinoffs in the USA, UK, Argentina, and Australia — speaks to a global appetite for the brand of cutthroat competition and alliance-driven gameplay that Vevmo's community has been tracking since 2007.

DUELI3G3BOTE;391660 wrote:I decided to make this thread. because I was wonderin what other people think was the greatest challenge season ever played...

— CHIblackhawk

CHIblackhawk;391661 wrote:I thought Landon's performance on Fresh Meat II was pretty special as well. He came into that season with a lot of heavy competition to deal with, while not having many prese...

— anon4981298798

Thread Summary

Discussion thread about Greatest Challenge Performance Ever with 30 replies from the Vevmo community.

Greatest Challenge Performance Ever

DUELI3G3BOTE ·
I decided to make this thread. because I was wonderin what other people think was the greatest challenge season ever played. This does not mean that they had to win that challenge. Some seasons that come to mind off of the top of my head include, Wes on Fresh Meat, Kenny on Fresh Meat 2, Alton on the Gauntlet 2, Wes on The ruins (just because of what he was able to accomplish), CT on Rivals 2, CT on the Inferno 1 and 2, Emily on Rivals 2 Johnny on The Island Jillian on the Gauntlet 3 Frank on the Gauntlet 3 Brad on The Duel Evan on the Duel 2 Evelyn on Rivals Darrell on any of his first three seasons and CT on Cutthroat, LOL But I was just wondering what you guys think the best season ever played by a single individual was, I think I would have to pick Kenny on Fresh Meat 2, even though he didn't win, what he was bale to accomplish was pretty incredible give the numbers against him. What do you guys think?
30 Comments
CHIblackhawk#2
DUELI3G3BOTE;391660 wrote:
I decided to make this thread. because I was wonderin what other people think was the greatest challenge season ever played. This does not mean that they had to win that challenge. Some seasons that come to mind off of the top of my head include, Wes on Fresh Meat, Kenny on Fresh Meat 2, Alton on the Gauntlet 2, Wes on The ruins (just because of what he was able to accomplish), CT on Rivals 2, CT on the Inferno 1 and 2, Emily on Rivals 2 Johnny on The Island Jillian on the Gauntlet 3 Frank on the Gauntlet 3 Brad on The Duel Evan on the Duel 2 Evelyn on Rivals Darrell on any of his first three seasons and CT on Cutthroat, LOL But I was just wondering what you guys think the best season ever played by a single individual was, I think I would have to pick Kenny on Fresh Meat 2, even though he didn't win, what he was bale to accomplish was pretty incredible give the numbers against him. What do you guys think?
I thought Landon's performance on Fresh Meat II was pretty special as well. He came into that season with a lot of heavy competition to deal with, while not having many preseason allies like Kenny or Wes did. He also got one of the later picks in the Fresh Meat draft, leaving him with Carley while Kenny was able to select an all-time great like Laurel. He was forced to pick a side in the whole Kenny vs. Wes saga, which eventually came back to bite him on multiple occasions. Landon just wasn't gonna be denied that season no matter how limited Carley's skillset was. I remember him impressively keeping his cool and willing Carley through that exile against Evelyn and Luke. It was really impressive that Landon was able to come away victorious on FM2 when you consider all the circumstances that he had going against him.
anon4981298798#3
CHIblackhawk;391661 wrote:
I thought Landon's performance on Fresh Meat II was pretty special as well. He came into that season with a lot of heavy competition to deal with, while not having many preseason allies like Kenny or Wes did. He also got one of the later picks in the Fresh Meat draft, leaving him with Carley while Kenny was able to select an all-time great like Laurel. He was forced to pick a side in the whole Kenny vs. Wes saga, which eventually came back to bite him on multiple occasions. Landon just wasn't gonna be denied that season no matter how limited Carley's skillset was. I remember him impressively keeping his cool and willing Carley through that exile against Evelyn and Luke. It was really impressive that Landon was able to come away victorious on FM2 when you consider all the circumstances that he had going against him.
Even though Fresh Meat 2 was not the greatest challenge, I think it was the last season where I was truly satisfied with the winners. Landon and Carley were a great team that gave it their all, the underdogs that came out on top.
Airjaros169#4
I have to agree that CT on the original Inferno was fantastic. It was his first challenge and he made it all the way to the finals. Rookies are usually targeted first but his name didn't come up all season and he only went into an inferno because he felt confident in beating Shane. He outperformed his whole team, which included the Miz, and won 4 lifesavers. He was virtually nonexistent in the house, yet dominated in competition. Under the radar and played the game perfectly.
EstimatedRoa#5
Derrick Gauntlet 2 Wes Fresh Meat Jodi Duel Frank Gauntlet 3 Ev Island Kenny Fresh Meat 2 Abe Cutthroat Cooke Rivals 2
dylan76#6
I think Veronica in The Gauntlet was pretty damn flawless. Even as her team tried to get her into elimination (unfairly), she shut them up by working her butt off & saving herself.
TexasFight88#7
CHIblackhawk;391661 wrote:
I thought Landon's performance on Fresh Meat II was pretty special as well. He came into that season with a lot of heavy competition to deal with, while not having many preseason allies like Kenny or Wes did. He also got one of the later picks in the Fresh Meat draft, leaving him with Carley while Kenny was able to select an all-time great like Laurel. He was forced to pick a side in the whole Kenny vs. Wes saga, which eventually came back to bite him on multiple occasions. Landon just wasn't gonna be denied that season no matter how limited Carley's skillset was. I remember him impressively keeping his cool and willing Carley through that exile against Evelyn and Luke. It was really impressive that Landon was able to come away victorious on FM2 when you consider all the circumstances that he had going against him.
Totally agree. And Landon got one of the lowest picks during the draft. I believe Darrell and Kenny had the first two picks.
Challenge 17#8
Jodi dominated the duel. No girl was even close to calling her out because she won so much.
TexasFight88#9
DUELI3G3BOTE;391660 wrote:
I decided to make this thread. because I was wonderin what other people think was the greatest challenge season ever played. This does not mean that they had to win that challenge. Some seasons that come to mind off of the top of my head include, Wes on Fresh Meat, Kenny on Fresh Meat 2, Alton on the Gauntlet 2, Wes on The ruins (just because of what he was able to accomplish), CT on Rivals 2, CT on the Inferno 1 and 2, Emily on Rivals 2 Johnny on The Island Jillian on the Gauntlet 3 Frank on the Gauntlet 3 Brad on The Duel Evan on the Duel 2 Evelyn on Rivals Darrell on any of his first three seasons and CT on Cutthroat, LOL But I was just wondering what you guys think the best season ever played by a single individual was, I think I would have to pick Kenny on Fresh Meat 2, even though he didn't win, what he was bale to accomplish was pretty incredible give the numbers against him. What do you guys think?
Pretty solid list! Great job! I may be in the minority, but I thought CT was better on Rivals I than on Rivals II. A few others: 1.) Tyler's performance on Cutthroat-He battled CT in the Gulag for 40 minutes, eliminated Derrick in the last challenge prior to the final, and he performed well in the final, and helped his team win by distinguishing the two words on the sign. A wrong answer would have meant they would have had to start over. 2.) Zach on BOTS-He was the best athlete on the best team, played a big part in his team winning multiple daily challenges, he won 2 elimination rounds. 3.) Emily on Exes
JL81790#10
I want to say Kenny on FM2 here, but I can't. Personally, I don't feel like you can have a greatest performance ever without a win. Had Kenny won that season it would've been, in my opinion, far and away the best overall performance all time. But, even though he played an amazing game, he still lost in the final to a guy who had a partner that was substantially worse than his. I don't know what I'd pick as the best but I'd put Johnny on Exes up there. Johnny won 3/8 challenges and intentionally lost 2 of them...so he should've won 5/8. He won a tough elimination and had a political lock on the house from the beginning. And regardless of whether or not he "stepped in CT's footprints" he still had the endurance to get there. I don't think I'd call it the best ever, but I'd put it as the best Johnny Bananas performance.
Challenge 17#11
JL81790;391699 wrote:
I want to say Kenny on FM2 here, but I can't. Personally, I don't feel like you can have a greatest performance ever without a win. Had Kenny won that season it would've been, in my opinion, far and away the best overall performance all time. But, even though he played an amazing game, he still lost in the final to a guy who had a partner that was substantially worse than his. I don't know what I'd pick as the best but I'd put Johnny on Exes up there. Johnny won 3/8 challenges and intentionally lost 2 of them...so he should've won 5/8. He won a tough elimination and had a political lock on the house from the beginning. And regardless of whether or not he "stepped in CT's footprints" he still had the endurance to get there. I don't think I'd call it the best ever, but I'd put it as the best Johnny Bananas performance.
He didn't win a tough one, Robin confirmed Mark Threw it. What 2 missions did he lose on purpose?
CHIblackhawk#12
JL81790;391699 wrote:
I want to say Kenny on FM2 here, but I can't. Personally, I don't feel like you can have a greatest performance ever without a win. Had Kenny won that season it would've been, in my opinion, far and away the best overall performance all time. But, even though he played an amazing game, he still lost in the final to a guy who had a partner that was substantially worse than his. I don't know what I'd pick as the best but I'd put Johnny on Exes up there. Johnny won 3/8 challenges and intentionally lost 2 of them...so he should've won 5/8. He won a tough elimination and had a political lock on the house from the beginning. And regardless of whether or not he "stepped in CT's footprints" he still had the endurance to get there. I don't think I'd call it the best ever, but I'd put it as the best Johnny Bananas performance.
Which challenges did Johnny intentionally lose? I can't say I remember him losing any of those missions with intent that season.
27502#13
TexasFight88;391698 wrote:
Pretty solid list! Great job! I may be in the minority, but I thought CT was better on Rivals I than on Rivals II. A few others: 1.) Tyler's performance on Cutthroat-He battled CT in the Gulag for 40 minutes, eliminated Derrick in the last challenge prior to the final, and he performed well in the final, and helped his team win by distinguishing the two words on the sign. A wrong answer would have meant they would have had to start over. 2.) Zach on BOTS-He was the best athlete on the best team, played a big part in his team winning multiple daily challenges, he won 2 elimination rounds. 3.) Emily on Exes
I thought they stopped the CT/Tyler Gulag after 18 seconds? Because that was one second longer than Johnny. I got Landon on FM2 as an easy #1. Not sure about the rest, i would have to think about it. Jodi on the duel and Emily on Exes comes to mind. CT in either inferno as well. Wes was very good on FM, but he got crazy lucky that they had significant less weight than everyone Good thread though, TS
JL81790#14
Challenge 17;391700 wrote:
He didn't win a tough one, Robin confirmed Mark Threw it. What 2 missions did he lose on purpose?
He lost to Mark/Robin on the jumping one (Mark did a ;) ;) to him on twitter at the time I believe) and he lost to Sarah and Vinny on purpose on the 2nd one which Johnny and Camila alluded to on twitter. The Vinny/Sarah one is particularly obvious and Johnny and Camila housed in when the platforms were unstable. On the second round they locked the platforms to each other so they wouldn't wobble and Johnny and Camila were clearly stopping to watch them go at certain points. I also don't remember Robin confirming anything. She said she heard a rumor about it.
stuufman#15
TexasFight88;391698 wrote:
Pretty solid list! Great job! I may be in the minority, but I thought CT was better on Rivals I than on Rivals II. A few others: 1.) Tyler's performance on Cutthroat-He battled CT in the Gulag for 40 minutes, eliminated Derrick in the last challenge prior to the final, and he performed well in the final, and helped his team win by distinguishing the two words on the sign. A wrong answer would have meant they would have had to start over. 2.) Zach on BOTS-He was the best athlete on the best team, played a big part in his team winning multiple daily challenges, he won 2 elimination rounds. 3.) Emily on Exes
I agree with you, CT was better on rivals 1 than 2, I wouldnt put zach there though, I think frank was superior, zach coudlnt handle dustin, CJ was by far superior on that elimination, zach just follow frank during the whole challenge.
JL81790#16
Thinking about it I'd probably pick Frank on Gauntlet 3 as one of my 3 best all time. Performed well on the challenges despite being on a crap team, won 3 Gauntlets two of which were high degree of difficulty and it was said on the reunion that after the rookies found out they won that the four girls and Nehemiah didn't even want to dig the chest out of the sand and Frank did it all himself.
TheCloser#17
The greatest performance on the challenge of all time has to be Ruthie Battle of the sexes. Honorable Mentions: CT: Inferno and Inferno 2. Mark Long: Battle of the sexes Landon: Duel 2 Theo and Dan: Battle of the sexes 2. Veronica: 2000 Challenge There are more but I'm blanking.
TexasFight88#18
27502;391705 wrote:
I thought they stopped the CT/Tyler Gulag after 18 seconds? Because that was one second longer than Johnny. I got Landon on FM2 as an easy #1. Not sure about the rest, i would have to think about it. Jodi on the duel and Emily on Exes comes to mind. CT in either inferno as well. Wes was very good on FM, but he got crazy lucky that they had significant less weight than everyone Good thread though, TS
On the Cutthroat reunion Tyler got into an argument with Johnny, because Johnny believed that had Tyler faced CT first, the outcome of the Gulag would have been different. Tyler got really upset and said something along the lines of, "You lasted only a few seconds, I lasted 40 minutes against him." He said that he was really mad that his battle with CT was edited in a way that made it look like he and CT only lasted 1 second longer than Johnny. Paula confirmed this during the reunion, and I believe on one of Derrick's podcasts, and Tyler said he quit after 40 minutes because he knew that the Red Team was going to throw him into the next elimination, and he wanted to save some energy.
Youssarian#19
TheCloser;391711 wrote:
The greatest performance on the challenge of all time has to be Ruthie Battle of the sexes.
Yes!!! Ruthie was AMAZING on BOTS1. Shout out to Colin too - even when he injured his foot, he was still consistently in the inner circle.
27502#20
I do not remember that. It would be impressive if true because I was amazed at how quickly CT dispatched Johnny and Brad (even though he lost) in strength eliminations that seem to take every one else at least 30 plus minutes. Neither Tyler or CT seemed totally gassed. Curious as to what really happened now
mph922#21
Yeah, Ruthie on BOTSexes is the first thing that comes to mind for me. Her performance in the last challenge before the final was crazy.
DUELI3G3BOTE#22
I just thought that what Kenny was able to do on FM2 was amazing, do you think they'll ever let him on another challenge, hopefully if they do a duel 3, they will let him back, i mean hell, he hosts the pregame shows.
PinkRose#23
DUELI3G3BOTE;391724 wrote:
I just thought that what Kenny was able to do on FM2 was amazing, do you think they'll ever let him on another challenge, hopefully if they do a duel 3, they will let him back, i mean hell, he hosts the pregame shows.
I highly doubt it, hosting aftershows, online aftershows and pre-shows is way different that being on the show. By what I heard by an actual cast member is that production consider both huge liabilities to have them as participants for the challenges. Plus, correct me if I am wrong but didnt V1man wrpte that Tonya settlement stated that neither of those guys could participated on future seasons. CT was back after The Duel 2, but he never got MtV/BMP sue. But then then again they banned Adam Royer for damaging MTV relationship with the Hard Rock and Knight got dropped from challenge 25 after slapping Frank on the reunion.
Challenge 17#24
JL81790;391709 wrote:
Thinking about it I'd probably pick Frank on Gauntlet 3 as one of my 3 best all time. Performed well on the challenges despite being on a crap team, won 3 Gauntlets two of which were high degree of difficulty and it was said on the reunion that after the rookies found out they won that the four girls and Nehemiah didn't even want to dig the chest out of the sand and Frank did it all himself.
You know a team sucks then the other team as Casey & Big easy and they still win pretty much every mission.
Debut Album#25
Ah..So many People on these shows have good preformances..Where do I start? I'll Go Recent. Team Brooklyn(Battle of the Seasons 2) Team Cancun(Battle of the Seasons 2) Marlon/Jordan(Rivals 2) Paula/Emily(Rivals 2) Now some Retro Preformances. Alton(Gauntlet 2) CT(Inferno 2) Ruthie(Battle of the Sexes 1) Jodi(The Duel) Wes(Fresh Meat 1) Frank(Gauntlet 3) Darrel(Fresh Meat 1)
TheFeedMachi#26
People who say that Kenny on FM2 was impressive are wrong. His partner was one of the three best female competitors of all time. 2 people were impressive on FM2, and they are Landon and Laurel. Landon established himself as without a doubt the best ever with his performance on FM2 and Laurel established herself as an elite female competitor. Kenny did nothing that was impressive other than get lucky with the selection order.
Debut Album#27
TheFeedMachi;391746 wrote:
People who say that Kenny on FM2 was impressive are wrong. His partner was one of the three best female competitors of all time. 2 people were impressive on FM2, and they are Landon and Laurel. Landon established himself as without a doubt the best ever with his performance on FM2 and Laurel established herself as an elite female competitor. Kenny did nothing that was impressive other than get lucky with the selection order.
This Post Reminded Me about Landon. I agree that his Fresh Meat 2 Preformance was Amazing. They way he preformed and Handeled his partner was one of the only good things about that season.
27502#28
Debut Album;391747 wrote:
This Post Reminded Me about Landon. I agree that his Fresh Meat 2 Preformance was Amazing. They way he preformed and Handeled his partner was one of the only good things about that season.
It could have been the power of editing, but it certainly looked like Landon had that heavy bag on the same shoulder all the way up the hill while dragging his partner. Kenny and Pete (who are both big guys) dropped it over and over and needed help from their partners. Not to mention him taking ALL the weight in blackout elimination.
WESANDNANYFAN#29
Jodi on the duel and Landon on Fresh Meat 2. Landon is one of the best of all time.
JL81790#30
TheFeedMachi;391746 wrote:
People who say that Kenny on FM2 was impressive are wrong. His partner was one of the three best female competitors of all time. 2 people were impressive on FM2, and they are Landon and Laurel. Landon established himself as without a doubt the best ever with his performance on FM2 and Laurel established herself as an elite female competitor. Kenny did nothing that was impressive other than get lucky with the selection order.
How about stalemating Landon "the best ever", on that log for an hour and a half and then beating Wes and CJ with no rest? I agree that Laurel was a tremendous asset but to imply that he was basically just a warm body that Laurel carried along with her is silly. Especially when she weighed him down in the final.
27502#31
JL81790;391773 wrote:
How about stalemating Landon "the best ever", on that log for an hour and a half and then beating Wes and CJ with no rest? I agree that Laurel was a tremendous asset but to imply that he was basically just a warm body that Laurel carried along with her is silly. Especially when she weighed him down in the final.
I believe it was Kenny/Pete vs Landon/Ryan. Ryan was by far the weakest guy of the four. It was very impressive they beat Wes and CJ after though. I thought it was hilarious how Ev called it pathetic. Agree with you though, Kenny is a good competitor and an even better performer in the finals

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