With the premiere episode of The Challenge: All Stars, longtime fans got to see many of their favorites back on the show they appeared on years ago.
Viewers were reintroduced to competitors including Beth Stolarcyzk who originally rose to fame on the second-ever season of The Real World.
During the premiere, viewers also saw many of the competitors struggle with their first challenge back on The Challenge. In addition, the 52-year-old Beth learned that one of her castmates had a crush on her back in the day.
Beth speaks about her swim on first All Stars mission
The Challenge viewers last saw Beth on the show in 2003 with Gauntlet III. Now she’s back for All Stars, and looks like she’ll make the season super interesting as she has in seasons of the past.
Upon arriving for the show, many of the competitors realized that this spinoff edition of The Challenge wasn’t going to be all fun and games. The first mission in All Stars Episode 1, called Deep Blue Dive, involved a combination of swimming, diving, and solving math puzzles.
It was a team event, with two teams of 11 trying to solve their equations first. However, that also required each team member attempting to swim out into the water, dive underneath, and retrieve a block with a number on it to bring back to shore.
Beth was among the many competitors who tried to swim out but ended up unable to grab a puzzle piece. That resulted in a five-minute penalty for her team.
Just like The Challenge: Double Agents has an Aftermath show, so does All Stars on Paramount Plus, with Devyn Simone as host. During the first Aftermath episode, Beth explained she was using a wise strategy rather than wasting time.
“I haven’t been on a Challenge in like 13 years, and I made it there and back,” Beth bragged during the clip below. She also said she doesn’t think some of the current Challenge stars could have done the swim.
Beth’s castmate Derrick Kosinski reminded her she didn’t bring a numbered block back, though. He brought up effort and how some competitors gave it their all attempting to do the dive to the point they needed medical help to get back to shore.
“Derrick, let me tell you something. Part of being a good team player and time management, is knowing your strengths and your weaknesses, and I knew that I was not gonna be able to dive down and get a puzzle piece, and I did the best thing I could. I swam back and I made it on my own and I didn’t have to get rescued and I didn’t almost die,” Beth shared.
Castmate revealed crush on Beth in Episode 1
With The Challenge: All Stars, there are no secret votes like on the Double Agents season. Instead, it’s more of a public meeting where everyone talks things over outdoors to come up with which competitor will go into elimination.
The first episode was a men’s elimination, with the male captain from the losing team in the mission, Laterrian Wallace, automatically having to go in.
Ahead of the Episode 1 meeting to choose an opponent, Laterrian spoke with Syrus Yarbrough and said he wanted to go against Ace Amerson.
Things were difficult at the team meeting when Syrus announced Laterrian’s request as Ace wasn’t happy that he was the one being thrown in. However, he made an interesting revelation during the meeting, admitting Beth was the reason he even went on The Real World because he had a crush on her.
Ace originally appeared on The Real World: Paris in 2003 alongside none other than Chris “CT” Tamburello. Coincidentally, that was the year of Beth’s final appearance on regular seasons of The Challenge.
Devyn Simone asked Beth during the Aftermath episode on Paramount Plus how she felt about Ace’s revelation.
“Aw, that’s sweet. He’s a sweetheart and I felt so bad that he was going into elimination. When somebody gets so upset that they’re going into elimination where it’s like affecting them personally, it just breaks my heart,” she said.
Ace ended up going into that first elimination to take on Laterrian in a Pole Wrestle, and as viewers saw, he had a tough time of it. Still, he seemed to enjoy the time he got to be around his friends and former castmates, as well as his Real World crush.
The Challenge: All Stars episodes arrive every Thursday on Paramount Plus.