MTV’s ‘The Challenge’ Season 39 Format and Twist, Explained
MTV’s The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion is finally here, and we can’t wait to see how it all goes down with a cast full of contestants who’ve never won. This season, players who’ve never become Challenge champions get their fair shot at winning — and there’s an entirely new format they’ll have to follow. Here’s how The Challenge Season 39 works, plus information on the season’s biggest twist.
MTV’s ‘The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion’ has a new format
MTV’s The Challenge Season 39 brings an entirely new concept, format, and twist. As a longtime fan of the MTV series, I enjoy seeing veteran players take on newbies, as it’s always nice to see familiar faces and old feuds burn brightly in a new season. However, fans (myself included) must get used to an entirely new cast with season 39, Battle for a New Champion. And with fresh faces comes a fresh format.
So, how does The Challenge Season 39 work, and what’s the new twist? A clip from the premiere shows T.J. Lavin explaining the game to the cast members.
“This season will be divided into three levels,” Lavin explains. The levels are Control, Chaos, and Conquest.
“During Control, I’m gonna give you the opportunity to earn more money,” Lavin adds. This likely means that the contestants can participate in challenges that allow them to add money to their bank.
“During level two, Chaos, you’re gonna be fighting to protect that money,” the host continues. While the cast has all players who’ve never won, they’ll have to go head to head with past season veterans to keep the money they earned in their bank.
“And Conquest,” Lavin noted. “During level three, Conquest, you may earn even more. Each of you must make it through all three levels in order to become a Challenge champion.” Given what the clip shows, Conquest will involve more physical and mental challenges against other players.
Here’s ‘The Challenge’ Season 39 twist
MTV’s The Challenge Season 39 format is something we haven’t seen before, and multiple twists are at play from the start of the season. While speaking to the new cast members before they start level one, Control, host T.J. Lavin explained how the cast would work together on one team to accrue money.
“In a Challenge first, never been done, you will all be competing together as a team,” Lavin told the competitors. “If you’re able to assume control and succeed at the challenges, you will also add money to your final prize pot. But, if you fail, that opportunity to make the money, it’s gone forever. You are in total control of how much money you’re gonna be playing for in the final.”
In addition to the twist of every player working together to create a team bank, there’s another twist. Veteran “mercenaries” will take the core cast members on in eliminations. If the veterans win the eliminations, they take money from the group pot. And they also send the contestant they’re competing against home.
The male mercenaries joining the season are reportedly Brad Fiorenza, CT Tamburello, Darrell Taylor, Devin Walker, and Jordan Wiseley. The female mercenaries are Cara Maria Sorbello, Kaycee Clark, Kaz Crossley, Laurel Stucky, and Tori Deal
‘The Challenge: USA’ Season 2 winners won’t join this season
Desi Williams and Chris Underwood are hot off their win in The Challenge: USA Season 2. So, will they join The Challenge Season 39 as mercenaries? While fans would love to see them in back-to-back seasons on different networks, it’s not happening. Desi and Chris spoke to E! News about returning in the future.
“Never say never,” Desi said about playing again. “I don’t know that next season is in the cards for me. I’m getting married next year and it would be too close to the wedding to justify it. And I also have a business I would be leaving, so the stars would have to align. It would have to be the right timing, but we’ll see.”
“Coming back, it would have to be the stars aligning, perfect once-in-a-lifetime, like, you-cannot-say-no-to-this-season type of format because things are good back home and I have a lot going on,” Chris said. “People need me, I have a daughter and a wife, and I’m not 25 and single and living off of my Challenge career. I have a real career, so it would have to be something really big for me to come back.”
The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion premieres on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
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