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The Challenge: All Stars Rivals blasted by fans for big change from previous seasons

the challenge all stars host tj lavin face shot from rivals season
TJ Lavin returns as host of The Challenge: All Stars Rivals season. Pic credit: MTV

Fans of The Challenge voiced their frustration with the upcoming All Stars 5 season, which features a return for the Rivals theme.

Viewers previously saw several Rivals seasons of MTV’s The Challenge, with the first premiering in June 2011.

Johnny Devenanzio and Tyler Duckworth won for the men’s side, while Evelyn Smith and Paula Meronek won for the women.

Rivals II came to MTV just a few years later, with Chris “CT” Tamburello and Wes Bergmann winning. On the women’s side, Paula Meronek won again, this time with Emily Schromm as her partner.

In 2016, viewers got a third Rivals season on MTV, which featured one of reality TV’s most infamous and memorable moments. Bananas left his partner without any prize money due to a twist after they finished in first place.

While many fans likely loved those particular editions of The Challenge, plenty disapprove of a significant change to All Stars.

The Challenge revealed the All Stars 5 trailer

Just days ago, The Challenge uploaded its full-length trailer for All Stars 5, which features highlights from the upcoming spinoff season.

“For the first time ever, The Challenge All Stars is coming exclusively to MTV, but with a twist,” host TJ Lavin said in his narration.

Footage showed TJ welcoming cast members to All Stars 5 before revealing it was called “Rivals.” That quickly turned everyone’s excitement into horrified expressions and remarks.

The trailer showed off the Rivals pairs, including Katie Cooley with Veronica Portillo, Nany Gonzalez with Turbo Camkiran, Ashley Mitchell with Aneesa Ferreira, and Faysal Shafaat with Amber Borzotra.

“This is a disaster,” Tula “Big T” Fazakerley says in a confessional interview.

“It’s gonna be a long season,” Da’Vonne Rogers says in her interview.

TJ indicates that no other season involves this much tension as the competitors try to win daily challenges, eliminations, and the final for significant prize money.

In a dramatic scene, Nany loses it and yells at Turbo, telling him it is “too early for this s***, enough!”

Based on the trailer, it appears to feature a lot of aspects of The Challenge that fans love, from intense competitions to heated arguments. However, one of the early details in the trailer upset many fans.

Here’s why fans aren’t happy with Rivals

Many of The Challenge fans took to X to comment on the new trailer, expressing their dissatisfaction with All Stars moving “exclusively to MTV.”

“Still don’t get why they moved this show off paramount plus,” a commenter wrote.

Others asked, “How does someone watch MTV these days?” and “how do I watch the next day!!”

Screenshot of x comments about the challenge all stars 5 on mtv
Pic credit: @wwefan362, @zbrad812, & @AliRose1_/X.com

Another fan called the season “a skip” and told The Challenge, “You should have just stayed on Paramount and stuck to the original formula.”

“Y’all casted people that we watch All Stars to get away from. Congratulations on sinking the franchise,” the commenter said.

“Should’ve kept it on paramount. The shows already edited to s*** now they’ll be extra edits for tv restraints and ratings,” a Challenge fan said on X.

Screenshot of the challenge fans on x commenting about all stars rivals on mtv
Pic credit: @KingStaxx91, @TJbravo808, & @Neverpanik95/X.com

Another fan requested they “make it available next day on paramount plus or something.”

The first four seasons of The Challenge: All Stars appeared on Paramount+, with weekly episodes available to stream. Those episodes were also available on-demand through the platform.

However, so far, it seems that this All Stars season will not have any episodes available on Paramount+, at least not until after MTV finishes airing the season.

In addition to that change, this is the first All Stars season to deviate from the original formula, in which only MTV stars appeared in the cast. All-Stars 5 includes Challenge stars who previously appeared in CBS shows like Big Brother and HBO Max’s 12 Dates of Christmas.

The Challenge: All Stars Rivals premieres Wednesday, January 29, at 8/7c on MTV.

Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!

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Carol Wengraitis
Carol Wengraitis
21 days ago

cannot wait for some of these pairings. I wonder how many of them will survive through the show.. Hopefully there is no Karma or other popularity votes. Give them a real challenge not the baby challenges in the last All stars and Season 40