The Challenge is going global! Paramount+ just released all of the details about their upcoming event, The Challenge: World Championship, and it looks like it is going to be epic. As the flagship show wraps up its 38th season, the long-running competition reality show is upping the stakes and launching a world tournament for the first time. The first two episodes are set to drop on March 8, 2023.
As reported by People, The Challenge: World Championship will feature legendary competitors from MTV’s The Challenge and pair them with “global MVPs,” originally featured on international versions of shows like The Bachelor, Love Island, and Survivor. The teams of two will face off in challenges each week, fighting for a grand prize of $500,000.
The Challenge: World Championship is actually a culmination of four international The Challenge shows. First, there was The Challenge: USA, which aired on CBS last year. It featured alums from the CBS reality TV world, like Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and Survivor. In addition to that, Paramount created three international versions of The Challenge in Argentina, Australia, and the UK. The Challenge: World Championship will pull together competitors from all of the franchises.
Although World Championship is pulling in a lot of new faces from around the world, Paramount is pulling in some heavy hitters from the classic MTV version of The Challenge, too. Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio will return for, what seems like, his 500th appearance on the show. Other familiar faces from MTV include Wes Bergmann, Tori Deal, and Jordan Wiseley. Once The Challenge: Argentina and The Challenge: UK wrap their current series, additional competitors from those shows will be announced for the World Championship. It’s literally like the Olympics of competition reality TV.
News of The Challenge: World Championship comes among an explosion of spinoffs for the long-running competition series. Although The Challenge originally started as a spinoff of the Real World and Road Rules, it has outlasted its predecessors and become a powerhouse franchise in its own right. When Paramount+ launched in 2021, they announced The Challenge: All-Stars as part of their opening lineup. Since then, they’ve released three seasons of that spinoff in addition to this upcoming World Championship. They also recently aired a docuseries chronicling the history of the show. At this rate, host TJ Lavin is never getting a day off from work.
TELL US – WILL YOU BE WATCHING THE CHALLENGE: WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF LONGTIME CAST MEMBERS LIKE WES AND JOHNNY BANANAS RETURNING FOR YET ANOTHER COMPETITION?
[Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for MTV]
