5 Daily Challenges that Should be Brought Back as a Throwback on a Modern Challenge Season

Shows like Survivor and Big Brother which have a set of the same competitions that they normally draw from season to season only introduce new competitions from time to time. Unlike its reality show competitors, The Challenge only repeats daily challenges once in a while. However, one of the daily challenges on The Challenge USA, Wreckreational Driving, happened to be very reminiscent of a daily challenge that was played all the way back on Challenge 2000. Both daily challenges saw the competitors taking part in a pairs demolition derby. Early in this Ride or Die season we also saw a daily challenge reimagined in a new way with Balancing Act having a similar goal to Well-Balanced from The Gauntlet III, even if the execution was more extreme like things tend to be nowadays.

I have been happy to see more throwbacks to competitions from the past, and in the case of “Wreckreational Driving” was not expecting to see one from all the way back from the third-ever season of The Challenge. So, assuming this trend continues, here are five daily challenges from back in the day that I would like to see brought back and played in the modern iteration of Challenge.

Click here to see what I have written about for this same topic except in regards to elimination rounds that I want to see back.

The Pit (The Gauntlet 2)

This is one of my absolute favorite daily challenges in history from The Gauntlet 2. Each team was placed at the bottom of a fifteen-foot-deep pit with a bunch of inherently useless supplies such as yoga balls, pool noodles, pantyhose, and duct tape and then they are tasked with getting their entire team along with all of the junk out of the pit in under 30 minutes. The fastest time won. An important rule was that a player cannot touch the bottom of the pit again once they have made it out. The “solution” to getting the entire team out, used by The Rookies on The Gauntlet 2, was hanging a player who had already got out safely have the final remaining player use their body as a ladder in order to get out.

It has been a long time since they played this game and it would be great to see modern players take on this challenge, especially because I would be floored if any modern player knew the “solution” used on The Gauntlet 2. It also could be really entertaining having today’s big personalities fighting over how to approach this problem. Unfortunately due to this challenge kind of being a riddle, it can only realistically be brought back once. Another consideration for bringing The Pit back is that it would need to be brought back either on a bigger team season or one formatted like Free Agents or Total Madness which would have the flexibility to use team challenges.

Roller Derby (The Duel)

One of the most straightforward and incredibly fun daily challenges from The Challenge history was simply called Roller Derby. They set up a roller derby track and had the players fight it out in a ten-lap sprint to the finish, allowing full physical contact on the straightaways. I really enjoyed that this could be played in two ways. Some players had success just by taking advantage of speed and avoiding physical contact with others whereas others succeeded by fighting off the rest of the people and being the last man standing. There was also good balance, because if players spent their time fighting and they were off the track for more than three seconds they were also eliminated.

Back in the day, this was a physically grueling daily challenge and also a great one to watch. I also like that it would still be really good physically and would let the players fight outside of an elimination round and instead in a daily challenge. I think bringing this back for a daily on the modern show would be great. It has the fortune of being flexible enough that it could be used in most season formats including individual, pairs, or even teams.

Reversible Climbing Wall (The Inferno 3)

Reversible Climbing Wall was a daily challenge from Inferno 3 where players from the same team were paired up and set on opposite sides of a 40-foot climbing wall. From there, they had to climb to the top and exchange colored flags while navigating pieces that were shared by both sides of the wall by pushing them through to their partner on the other side. The team had to then get back down to the bottom without falling, and the fastest time won. I really like that this daily challenge gives players the opportunity to show their speed and agility as well as test their communication and teamwork.

I am a pretty big fan of daily challenges that involve climbing and it was an old staple of The Challenge that I feel has diminished a bit over time. The Reversible Climbing Wall Challenge from the Inferno 3 was a great example of a well-designed climbing daily that could be brought back and played again on a modern season.

Chill Out (The Gauntlet III)

Chill Out was one of the final daily challenges on The Gauntlet III and one that I feel would be fun to be brought into the modern game. The Rookie and Veteran teams had to stay in a freezer and one by one go into a tank full of ice water, eventually having to dip their head under the water and stay there for ten seconds. It works well as a test of endurance and is brutally difficult.

Bringing this daily challenge from back in the day over to the modern show presents a few complications, mainly that it is a team challenge, and the Challenge as a show has moved away from regularly being played as a big team game. However, there are still sometimes team portions (like with the second half of Spies, Lies & Allies) and I think that the Chill Out could be adapted to a pairs or individual game very easily. In addition, it is a unique kind of test that I think would be a good substitution for a few kinds of challenges that often get used. For example, some challenges require teams to stay up all night or compete in eating challenges. Chill Out serves the same kind of point where it forces contestants to do something grueling in order to win. So, Why not bring this daily challenge back on for a future season of The Challenge?

Rotary Club (The Ruins)

Initially, this challenge was not one that jumped into my head (probably because I tend to avoid reminiscing about The Ruins due to its controversial moments) but upon going through Rotary Club it stuck out to me as a daily with a lot of potential to be brought back. This challenge from the late game of The Ruins initially appears to be one that is purely silly as it had the contestants getting in a giant tractor tire and rolling down a giant hill. In reality, it was actually a pretty physically demanding challenge since after going through the disorientation of flying down a hill in a tire the players then had to push that same tire back up a steep hill, with the team with the fastest average time winning.

Seeing the modern competitors take on this kind of daily would be a lot of fun. It could easily see it fit in many formats including a teams season (like it was on The Ruins), pairs, or individually. Since it is a demanding challenge that would be up to the level of modern competitions seen on the modern show it would not feel out of place if it were used on season 38. Additionally, this challenge provides such natural comedy with how absurd it is. I would be excited to hear confessionals about this from today's contestants (like Kyle or Amanda). Them commenting on their friends and/or their enemies flying down a hill could be a riot.