In The Challenge: All Stars 3, the OGs returned for the most intense season of the spinoff yet. The episode opened with the cast arriving in small groups at The Challenge house.
Veronica Portillo and Tina Bridges got their first. Veronica talked about their friendship since 2002 when they did other seasons together.
The Godfather Mark Long was next. In confessional, Mark said he will play this season like a “complete gunslinger.” In a scene in the bedroom, Veronica and Tina hilariously pointed out Mark left the price tags on the bottom of his shoes.
The OGs arrive, survey the cast and competition
Other members of The Challenge: All Stars 3 cast arrived in groups. Roni Chance hasn’t been on The Challenge for 20 years. Kailah Casillas and Sylvia Elsrode arrived together. Kailah said that she’s notorious for bringing the drama in a confessional about herself.
Wes Bergmann arrived in a car with Real World: Austin castmates Melinda Collins and Nehemiah Clark. Wes talked about how he’s considered “one of the most cutthroat, amazing competitors of all time.” He said he would take the niceness of All Stars and turn it on his head. In confessionals, some castmates gave their thoughts about Wes being manipulative and sneaky.
Tyler Duckworth arrived with Kendal Sheppard and KellyAnne Judd. In All Stars 2, he lost in Pole Wrestle to Laterrian Wallace. Tyler said he broke three ribs, fractured his right wrist, and his ribcage moved around a bit inside of him.
Champs MJ Garrett, Jonna Mannion, and Yes Duffy arrive together, ready to win again. Yes wants to prove winning the first All Stars wasn’t just luck.
KellyAnne hadn’t met Tyler before but said she loved his personality. Road Rules star Cynthia Roberts was a winner in the 1998 Road Rules: All Stars season. She said she’s now a “grown-a** woman with a lot of grown-a** responsibilities.”
Nehemiah and Laterrian talked about who’s single. Syrus Yarbrough said he got married since last time and is off the market.
Former Real World: Portland castmates Jordan Wiseley and Nia Moore were shown hanging outside together. Nia mentioned getting kicked off Battle of the Exes II in 2015. Since then, she feels she’s “grown tremendously.”
Jordan said his past with the show is “not the cleanest,” as he’s said and done some things he’s “incredibly ashamed of.” However, he said he’s committed to showing how he’s grown as a person. He and Nia had a dual confessional, saying they had a rough start on their Real World Portland season, but got to know one another better after the show. Things are much better between them now.
Ahead of their first daily event, Was was on a treadmill as footage played with highlights of some of his past incidents with castmates. Wes said his plan is the same one he uses every day: “To win” and “make everyone in the house squirm.”
OGs learn of All Stars 3 format, first challenge arrives
Host TJ Lavin greeted the OGs for their first daily challenge. He revealed everyone there had at least made it to a final. He said it’s an individual game, and the top male and top female this season will take home a share of $500,000.
Their first challenge was called Tunnel Vision and played in a men’s round and a woman’s round.
The competitors had to rush over to a large wall with vines on it. On the other side of the wall was a complex pattern to memorize. Competitors could only look through a small tunnel window on the wall to study the pattern. From there, they rush back to their game board and try to replicate the puzzle exactly.
The first competitors to get it done in the men’s and women’s rounds were safe from elimination. Whoever finished last went straight into elimination.
The men went first, and Wes had a super-fast call for a check of his puzzle, but TJ announced it wasn’t right. Yes called out for the review next and was also wrong. Brad and Derrick also called for it but were incorrect.
After fixing some pieces, Wes eventually called for another check and was declared the winner. He boasted about it in confessional, saying he noticed the second-place guy, Yes, staring at him with “unadulterated jealousy.” Wes felt that Yes was building a chip on his shoulder.
MJ came in third, followed by Darrell and Nehemiah. Jordan was sixth. Derrick, LT, Brad, and Mark rounded out the top 10. Tyler came in 11th place, with Syrus coming in last overall. That meant he automatically went into elimination.
The women’s round went, and they politely let each other look through the tunnel to study the puzzle. However, Sylvia Elsrode smoked the competition, getting a quick win after calling for the check.
KellyAnne finished second, followed by Veronica, Melinda, and Kailah. Jemmye was sixth overall. Jonna, Roni, Nia, and Kendal rounded out the top 10. It came down to Tina and Cynthia, with Tina avoiding getting last.
After the daily, TJ revealed the top three men and the top three women in the daily challenge formed The Authority. For the first daily, winners Wes and Sylvia were joined by Yes, KellyAnne, MJ, and Veronica. They’d choose one man and one woman to go into elimination against Syrus and Cynthia.
In another twist, TJ revealed the two daily challenge winners had the power to sabotage any other player at the next daily challenge. Wes loved having so much more power.
The Authority decides elimination competitors
The night after the daily, the cast had a fun jungle party in different costumes, including leopard, cats, safari hunter, and Tyler as a jungle queen. Sylvia spoke with Cynthia about who she wanted for elimination. She said she didn’t care who they gave her. Sylvia didn’t really want to decide.
Other cast members politicked to Authority members to keep them around. Tyler went with the “who do you want to hang out with?” angle to Veronica.
Jordan spoke with Tyler and Nia. He said he was curious to see if Wes would target him. Jordan said he wants to see Wes in the final, though.
The Authority convened to discuss who to send into elimination. MJ immediately brought up Jordan, saying he’d never want to compete against him in the final. Yes said the opposite, that he wants the best competitors there.
Veronica wanted to protect Tina, and Sylvia wanted to protect Kailah. Wes argued sending the bottom two people into elimination was the best move. He said those two individuals would win, and there’d be no hard feelings against The Authority.
They nominated Tyler and Tina as opponents for Syrus and Cynthia. Veronica tried to talk with Tina about her getting sent into the first elimination, but Tina was ready to win and “f**k things up” after. Tyler wasn’t happy his roommates KellyAnne and MJ voted him in either.
Who went home in the first elimination?
The four elimination competitors joined TJ at The Arena down on the ground level, with castmates watching from the upper level. They competed in Crawl Brawl for the event.
It involved a large steel tunnel with competitors on opposite sides of the tunnel and three sandbags for each competitor. They had to retrieve a sandbag and crawl through the tunnel, dragging the sandbag to the other side to ring a bell. The first one to get all three of their sandbags moved to the other side would win.
Tina and Cynthia competed first and had to dig through a large batch of sand in the middle before moving past each other. There were no quitters in this one, but ultimately, Tina got the win. Tina got emotional as she was sad to see her friend Cynthia headed home.
Tyler initially struggled with the carabiner on his sandbag for the men’s elimination battle but kept going. However, the 50-year-old Syrus was eventually the winner, transferring all three bags and ringing the bell.
After TJ and the cast said goodbye to Cynthia and Tyler, TJ revealed yet another season twist. He mentioned that Tina and Syrus now have stars on their shirts. TJ said the more stars someone acquires, the more power they’ll get in the game. Nothing more was revealed about that.
The Challenge: All Stars 3 episodes arrive Wednesdays on Paramount Plus.