Wes Bergmann is still a fan of The Challenge, even as Season 39 airs without him or many of his longtime castmates as part of the main cast.
The latest season, Battle For a New Champion, features a main cast of non-show winners who have done mostly four seasons or fewer.
Along the way, ten Challenge champions arrived for single-episode elimination appearances, trying to take out one of the main cast members and take home $10,000 of the cast’s prize money.
The season has received some harsh criticism regarding the cast due to it not involving MTV regulars and fan favorites.
It’s also been criticized over a lack of physical eliminations and for the format of the game.
Wes recently gave his take on the current season, defending it from the backlash it’s received online.
Wes addresses critics of The Challenge Season 39
Taking to Twitter after the release of Season 39, Episode 14, Wes Bergmann let fans and critics know that even though it hasn’t been the best season of The Challenge, it’s “10X better than the Twitter consensus.”
“We needed a season to see who drops vs swam, and we got it. The cream has risen & is ready for 40,” he tweeted.
“The vets needed a break & they needed to be reminded they can be replaced,” Wes wrote.
His tweet received over 2,600 likes and various comments from those agreeing or disagreeing with his remarks.
“Wes you will never be replaced by these knockoffs,” one commenter wrote.
Another called Season 39 “boring” and said “it’s so hard to root for anyone” with only “a few standouts.”
Another commenter wrote, “I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed this season with no real vets. This is a solid group of challengers. I can’t wait for them to be mixed in with the vets. “
One individual mentioned cast members Kyland Young, Horacio Gutierrez, Ed Eason, Zara Zoffany, Melissa Reeves, Ravyn Rochelle, Nurys, Coleen Schneider, and Olivia Kaiser as “the only ones that should come back if we are talking about competition and not drama.”
“I do agree that we need these kinds of season but they make the same mistake every season lately of it being unnecessarily long and multiple weeks of no one going home,” another commenter wrote.
One individual said they enjoyed the season as some cast members “will be the face of The Challenge for years to come once the GOATS have decided to hang up their Challenge shirts.”
The Chaos phase recently ended for the season
As mentioned, ten champions were briefly involved in Season 39, but Wes was not among them. The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion Episode 14 featured the final champion to enter The Arena, Chris “CT Tamburello.
Ahead of his appearance, the Season 39 cast could not break a stalemate vote even after voting twice in deliberation. Due to that, only one guy was nominated for the elimination, rather than two, and host TJ Lavin wasn’t pleased.
CT was allowed to face the nominated player, Horacio, or choose any opponent besides Kyland and James Lock since they were on the winning team. CT opted for Asaf Goren, indicating he didn’t know him as well as other guys he saw there.
Ultimately, CT defeated Asaf but in a math puzzle elimination. He also teased his return for Season 40 before leaving The Arena.
According to Spoiler TV, the recent Wednesday television ratings showed that 497,000 viewers watched the recent episode featuring CT’s return. The episode scored a 0.19 rating in the 18-49 demographic and finished seventh among cable programs in primetime.
That was a slight dip from the viewership stats of the previous two episodes, which featured Brad Fiorenza and Cara Maria Sorbello returning to battle cast members in eliminations. They were two of the season’s highest-viewed episodes.
With CT as the final Challenge winner to arrive at The Arena, there will be no more vets to help with ratings or viewership. Cast members will now compete individually in the Conquest phase to reach the final and win their first season.
Meanwhile, Season 40 rumors suggest the return of several veteran cast members for what some feel could be the final MTV season.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.