
The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 Episode 1 Recap and Power Rankings
The Challenge has returned for its 30th Season, and America’s unofficial fifth sport is looking to sustain the momentum from the Champs vs. Pros spinoff into the newest incarnation. For those of you not in the know, The Challenge is simply if one took the personalities from the Jersey Shore, put them in American Gladiator style events, had them in Amazing Race locations, and had Game of Thrones politics going on. The show has yielded many outstanding athletic feats, frequent crazy fights, countless backstabs, and numerous awe inspiring scenes. The show works by taking people from other MTV programs, such as Real World, Road Rules, and Are You The One?, and forcing them to live in a house and participate in a variety of competitions against each other. Each season has a different format and cast, but each retains the unique feel of The Challenge.

This season of the show is entitled The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 and boy do they make sure you know it (I personally counted the word “dirty” said in some fashion or another about fifty times during the premiere.) They also talked constantly about this whole cast epitomizing “dirty,” but I’m not buying it. Tori and Derrick both played the game very straight their last go around, Tony and Jenna re both more apathetic than anything, and the only things I could think of for Leroy were hooking up with Theresa right next her ex Wes (which happens literally all the time on the show) on Rivals II and flip-flopping from Wes’ side to Bananas’ side on Battle of the Exes II (which was more moronic than dirty.) Despite the lack of consistency with fitting the show’s theme, the cast does look fantastic. Tori is coming off her outstanding showing on Are You The One? Second Chances ad has the charisma, attractiveness, and athleticism to be a star for the show in the future. Her Second Chances Rival Devin is also here, and despite his relative lack of athleticism, his personality and mind games makes him a very entertaining character. This season also brings back two stars from the Road Rules era of The Challenge, Veronica Portillo and Derrick “The Diesel” Kosinski. Veronica was known for pushing people’s buttons to get to three championships and Derrick was a pit bull who shocked people by routinely besting behemoths twice his size. While players like Wes, Laurel, Sarah, Emily, Abram, and Frank would be great additions to the cast there are plenty of great personalities to go around. Johnny Bananas, Cara Maria, Camila, and other favorites are here as well for a season that promises to be epic.

The show opens with a cool montage of some of the more notable moments from the show’s history all framed as a collage of broken glass. The competitors then walk into what we are to assume is this year’s elimination house (previously known as Gauntlet, Inferno, Exile, Duel, Ruins, Gulag, and others) and are told by host TJ Lavin the show’s theme and are asked how $350,000 sounds. TJ then says in a confessional that in actuality the players are competing for $1,000,000 (by far the largest prize pool in the show’s history.) It’s new to see them make TJ a bigger factor than his usual commentary in challenges, but it should be interesting to see how it goes. Once the cast gets to the house, everything seems normal, with the usual partying, introductions, smack talking, and horrible Johnny Bananas opening toast going on. A big deal is made about Cory having three previous hookups in the house and he already claims to be gunning for more. Then all of the sudden the players hear they have to be at location for the first Challenge by 6:30 AM. It turns out Ashley “Smashley” Mitchell, winner of the 29th season Invasion of the Champions and certifiable insane person, lost her luggage and is freaking out. It seems pretty tame compared to her other meltdowns, but before you know it Cara Maria is talking to her and then she’s in a producer van and like that, she’s gone. Smashley is known to threaten to go home pretty much every other episode and was kicked off her season of the Real World, but has never delivered on it until now.

At The Challenge, we learn that instead of the usual daily challenge with winners and then a vote for who is up for elimination and then an elimination round, six competitors will be eliminated at the end of The Challenge. The Purge, as the challenge is called begins with each competitor having to race down the fortress and grab a barrel to push back up to the top. The first four of each gender to finish are safe. Bananas absolutely kills the competition, finishing first by a mile. He’s followed by Hunter, Jordan, and Derrick K. Kailah wins for the girls, and Camila, Aneesa, and Tori are behind her. The next portion sees the competitors split into two teams, and having to carry two cannons to the top of the fortress. The Pink Team is Latoya, Darrell, Jenna, Cory, Amanda, Tony, Jemmye, Shane, Simone, and Devin. The Blue Team is Leroy, Cara Maria, Nelson, Marie, Derrick H, Veronica, Dario, Britni, Ammo, and Nicole. Pink gets its first cannon into position first, but the second group lags behind and Blue wins. For the final stage, each competitor must grab a cannonball and carry it to the top of the fortress, and then fire one of their team’s cannons. The winner will get to choose one competitor of the same gender to stay and the rest will be sent packing. Cory and Jenna dominate this portion, winning for their respective genders by a healthy margin. Jenna decides to save Jemmye, and send Simone, Amanda, and Latoya out. This would seem to be a smart move by Jenna, as Jemmye isn’t very good but saving her placates the Veterans and Amanda and Latoya both were on opposite sides of the house during Invasion of the Champions. Cory has a much harder decision, but decides to let Tony stay and let go of Devin, Shane, and Cory. Although some may say keeping Darrell around in an attempt to forge an alliance with the Veterans would be the move, I actually agree with the decision here. Tony and Cory are friends and keeping a pretty guaranteed vote in your favor is generally a good move, and Tony is also generally someone who won’t backstab people. Darrell, on the other hand, is an all-time competitor and Cory even acknowledged he probably wouldn’t beat him in a final. Saving Darrell also in no way guarantees Cory a spot in the Veteran alliance, as Darrell, Bananas, CT, and the rest of the vets are where they are because they prioritize winning for themselves first.

Before we continue to the twist at the conclusion of the episode and the power rankings, allow me to voice some complaints about The Purge. First off, if it’s supposed to be a way to trim the fat and have everyone earn their right to stay, there shouldn’t be teams during any portion. Jemmye did literally nothing during the cannon carrying portion, and as a result Darrell and Tony, who dominated this portion, had to go into the third round. Also, the entire Purge was who can run down an incline, grab something, then movie it back up the incline the fastest. The Challenge is an exceptionally complicated event requiring a myriad of skills. If players are going to be eliminated based on one multi-tiered challenge, why not have it test a variety of them? They could have kept the first event as is, but then made the second event one where competitors had to swim to four different locations, with each having a puzzle that needs to be completed before the player continues. Then they could have had a stage similar to The Pit from The Gauntlet 2 or The Over/Under from Invasion of the Champions, which would require teamwork to an extant but eventually screwing people you worked with over, which would tie in nicely to the Dirty theme the show is trying to so hard to propagate. Unfortunately, I am not a producer of The Challenge, so we’ll have to live with how it played out.

This brings us to the first major twist of the season, the Redemption House. It’s not certain how this will play out but I would assume it’s similar to the Battle of the Ex-iled from Battle of the Exes II. I was not a fan at all with how it was implemented there, but we’ll see how it works this time around. During the next season on, TJ mentions enemies returning and it cuts to a shot of Darrell and Latoya in yellow uniforms while Amanda and what appears to be Devin are in pink, but for now all we can do is guess as The Challenge is known to cut things so they are not actually as they seem. Now, on to the ranks:

Quit
Ashley: It was sad to see a good competitor leave so early on her own decision, and judging by TJ’s mercy towards her quitting, it appears legitimite issues may have been behind her departure. Stay healthy and hope to see you soon Ash.
In Redemption (Until it is revealed how Redemption works, I will be doing a separate power ranking for those in redemption from those in the actual house.)
6) Simone: Simone’s never proven to be competent at anything Challenge related, so unless there is a talking competition to get back in (and it’s not like Latoya and Amanda are mute either) I don’t like her chances here.
5) Shane: Shane seems fit, but without Challenge experience or brawn I don’t see him emerging from anything against Devin and Darrell victoriously.
4) Latoya: Latoya hasn’t done much at all on the show, but it looks like she will be paired with Darrell for at least a portion of the Redemption competition which would be a huge boon to her chances.
3) Devin: Devin’s got a great brain on him and is great for the show, but I don’t like his chances in an athletic competition against Darrell.
2) Amanda: Amanda is one of the smarter competitors on this season, and despite her lack of athleticism her mind would make her the favorite for the girls.
1) Darrell: If it’s anything athletic picking Darrell is like picking the Patriots to win the AFC East for the past few years. If it’s anything else, it’s more like picking the Patriots to make the AFC Championship.
In Game
24) Briana: It’s clear she enters the house along with CT from the This Season On preview, and 2nd year rookie with no friends + unimposing athlete + enters the game late = shocked if she lasts three episodes.
23) Ammo: Rookie who already earned his status as a person who can’t be trusted and one housemate from Real World doesn’t seem to like him doesn’t promise for a good future for this rookie.
22) Britni: While others appear to be worse competitors, her rookie status and loose cannon personality would make her an easy target.
21) Derrick H: While his track record suggests he’s an exceptional athlete, he’s still a rookie and the rest of the guys cast is stacked. Plus he really reminds me of Tyrie for some reason, which is never good.
20) Marie: Marie has size on the other girls and is going be causing plenty of nonsense for as long as she is on, but she has bad endurance and is known to cause problems.
19) Nicole: Nicole was brought on as Challenge favorite Nany’s cousin on Battle of the Bloodlines, and that could help her for a little bit. But only a little bit.
18) Tony: Despite his size, he’s never been great on the show and having to be picked for safety could be an excuse to throw him in. (There’s also a 99% chance Cara’s condom remark is about him.) Bananas does seem to like him however which should help.
17) Cory: He absolutely killed the last section of The Purge but the girls seem to collectively hate him and his final performance on Invasion of the Champions was putrid.
16) Dario: He seems to have really gotten his head on straight as of Invasion of the Champions and knows how to lay low, but has yet to really impress in the athleticism department and has made plenty of bone headed decisions in the past.
15) Jemmye: Is a vet with good relationships with the power players in the house but didn’t show anything during the first challenge.
14) Veronica: She knows how to politick, but the only players still in the game she has relationships with are Derrick and CT and she couldn’t work her way into the inner circle on her last appearance.
13) Aneesa: Very impressive in the first challenge, and being a vet helps, but I still need to see more before I rank her higher.
12) Nelson: A great competitor and is featured heavily in the This Season On preview, but we’ll see if he has the composure to stick around again.
11) Hunter: Close between him and Nelson, but getting second in the first daily of the season makes him the highest of the Underdog crew.
10) Tori: May seem high for a rookie but her performance on Second Chances was fantastic and her main enemy in the house (Devin) is already gone.
9) Jenna: I’ve always been a skeptic of Jenna, but she has a lot of friends in high places and her size really comes in handy during the challenges.
8) Kailah: She was awesome in the first challenge and is a strong athlete, but we’ll see if she’s put her crazy ways from last season behind her.
7) Leroy: Leroy is Bananas’ closest ally in the game and is the best male competitor to never win the show, the problem is there a few great competitors who have won the show above him.
6) Jordan: We’ll see how his relationship with Bananas plays out, but he’s always been a fantastic competitor and I don’t see why that would change.
5) Derrick K: Derrick’s always been well-liked on the show and is a superb competitor, and seems to be in better shape now than ever.
4) Camila: She’s known to make a lot of enemies, but she has worked her way into being a top tier athlete on the women’s side.
3) Cara Maria: While it was weird not seeing her in the top four for the first portion of The Purge, she’s by far the most proven athlete on the women’s side and pushing Ashley along to leave showed she is here to win.
2) CT: CT has been immune to negative attention as of late, and seems to be in way better shape now than he was on Champs vs. Pros.
1) Bananas: While he’s certainly going to be a target, he also killed the first portion of The Purge and has the best track record of anyone on the show.
