With The Challenge having just completed its Double Agents season and achieving great ratings for cable TV on Wednesdays, The Challenge Season 37 filming is already underway.
However, at least one former competitor has called the current Challenge show on MTV “unrecognizable” based on the current format and even mentioned aspects, including the production and casting.
Adding to that, the new spinoff series, The Challenge: All Stars, has received praise from many fans online for being a more entertaining version of the longtime reality series, and that former competitor seems to agree 100 percent.
Former Challenge competitor comments on regular season
Former Bad Girls Club and The Challenge cast member Angela Babicz may be speaking facts when it comes to what many fans of the MTV competition series think of the current show.
While MTV’s The Challenge: Double Agents had impressive ratings, some of the online feedback suggested that fans were unhappy with the format including Gold Skulls and what some of the daily missions included.
Angela tweeted on May 13 calling out the show as “unrecognizable” most likely due to how much the production has changed over the many seasons.
With Double Agents, the competitors were thrust into a season set in Iceland with a spy theme behind it. It included daily missions involving puzzles, drones, and hanging on ropes from helicopters. There were also elements of backstabbing or doublecrossing with secret voting, the ability to steal partners, and of course, pull shady in-game moves.
Despite negative online feedback, reports indicated that the show topped a key demographic for cable ratings on Wednesday nights. A Deadline report indicated the Double Agents finale scored the best demo share for the Challenge in 15 years.
Angela says The Challenge: All Stars format is ‘superior’
In an earlier tweet on that same day, Angela referred to Paramount Plus’ The Challenge: All Stars as “superior” and explained why “the main Challenge seasons ain’t it.”
“The format of The Challenge All Stars is superior. These movie themes with the focus being on cinematic special effects on the main challenge seasons ain’t it. We don’t care about pyrotechnics or drones…give us challenges, drama, and elimination in every episode or keep it,” Angela tweeted.
Many of the daily missions involved competitors completing a challenge and fire or pyrotechnics shooting off once they did. One of the daily eliminations, a Fire Escape event, featured competitors tied by their hands and wrists, trying to move quickly across horizontal beams that had fire on top of them.
In addition to that, the production of the Double Agents season clearly kicked things up a notch with how it was filmed, including movie-style footage of the competitors arriving at mission sites and competing in daily challenges.
In a follow-up reply to her tweet, she also mentioned “I won’t even get into the casting choices” which has been another point of debate amongst fans.
The most recent seasons of The Challenge have featured more cast members from reality shows beyond MTV including Big Brother, Love Island, Survivor, and even America’s Got Talent. The Double Agents season brought in Olympic athlete Lolo Jones, former WWE superstar Lio Rush, and Ultimate Beastmaster Nam Vo from Germany as some of their rookie competitors.
The All Stars spinoff features competitors who originally appeared on MTV’s The Real World, Road Rules, or Fresh Meat shows and transitioned to The Challenge over the years. It’s believed if the show continues on, it will keep that format, for now.
Angela Babicz appeared on MTV’s Ex on the Beach Season 1 and Bad Girls Club Season 15. Her first appearance of The Challenge was the Final Reckoning season which aired in 2018. During that season, she was teamed up with fellow rookie Faith Stowers. The duo was sent home via elimination in Episode 8 by Ashley Mitchell and Hunter Barfield, the team that went on to win the final.
That was Angela’s only season of The Challenge, but it’s clear she’s still a viewer of the show and a much bigger fan of its spinoff series on Paramount Plus.
The Challenge Season 37 is TBA on MTV for 2021. The Challenge: All Stars episodes are released Thursdays on Paramount Plus.