Out of the Box Casting Choices on The Challenge that Totally Worked
The Challenge over the years has brought on a lot of different players from a lot of different backgrounds. Often who they cast made sense, originally they brought only their stars over from The Real World and Road Rules. After Road Rules ended they did Fresh Meat where they specifically cast people they thought would be good on the show that worked well so they did it again several years later when the show was looking for new blood. Nowadays all bets are off and you never know for sure where rookie cast members will come from but Are You the One?, Big Brother, Love Island, Ex on the Beach and Survivor are shows they have gone back to over and over again. These are the players who I felt most came out of nowhere and were a big hit by casting.
This season we got a bunch of rookies from all over the world from as many or more different shows. The two who I feel came out of nowhere and have so far been big hits are Ed and Emy. Ed was both an alternate and the first player brought on from The Circle. Even on The Circle he was a bit of an afterthought being only on the show for four episodes. When I wrote about who I wanted from that season on The Challenge he was around fifth for me but Ed has been quite fun on the show winning a daily and an elimination and has done well in most of the other dailies, flirted with a couple of women, given some good confessionals and other funny moments. I think Ed will continue to be entertaining and perform well the rest of this season and is likely to be someone the show keeps bringing back. When I saw Emy initially on this cast I thought she was most likely to be fairly forgettable and an early boot. She has been anything but that. Emy has been one of the break out personalities this season and won 2 eliminations so far. I feel that it is likely we are going to see a lot of Emy in seasons to come.
Jo Rhodes (The Real World: San Francisco)
Jo was on just part of two episodes. of The Challenge but by god was it worth it. She came on to The Gauntlet 2 over a decade after initially being a replacement for Puck on The Real World: San Francisco and was completely unaware of what she had gotten herself into. She started off well being named the female captain of the rookies team but absolutely lost it on the whole cast and production team because of the drunken partying. She called the police to escort her off the property claiming that she had “been manhandled on the Island of Tobago,” that she was going to sue the whole island and to top it off she allegedly stole one of the cast cell phones. Though she was never back on the show her iconic blow up at the start of The Gauntlet 2 is the stuff of Challenge legend at that alone earns her a spot on this list.
Yes Duffy 2.0 (Road Rules: Semester at Sea)
Yes was the kind of person that had been practically forgotten about by the time The Challenge All Stars was getting off the ground, for example I did not see him on many people’s list of who they were hoping to be back. On the old school seasons he was well liked and a good guy but unfortunately went home early on Battle of the Seasons and Battle of the Sexes. It had been seventeen years since Yes was on a season however he proved that he could absolutely compete with the icons like Derrick, Mark, Darrell & Alton. He won two daily challenges, he was pretty good for entertainment in the house, played a great social game and then smashed the final to take home $500,000.
Ashley “Millionaire” Mitchell (Real World: Ex-Plosion)
Before Ashley became a two time Challenge champion and one of the faces of the franchise she was an out of nowhere casting choice. She was on a handful of episodes during Real World: Ex-Plosion where she was drunk and crazy. Ashley left after the house voted that they did not want her to stay. Production allegedly only brought her on Rivals III because they wanted to cast Cory and he needed a partner. She has capitalized on the opportunity appearing on 92 episodes (as of today)of The Challenge compared with just five on Real World. Ashley is an icon of the show. She won two seasons, has been in several messy fights and steamy hook ups, made plenty of big moves, and of course took the full million dollars from Hunter at the end of Final Reckoning. Love her or hate her casting hit a home run when they brought her on The Challenge.
Jay Starrett (Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X)
It is incredibly difficult to be the first person from any show on The Challenge and Jay was both the first person to come on from Survivor. Fans of both shows had been clamoring for players to make that jump from Survivor to The Challenge particularly since contestants from Big Brother were brought on starting with Vendettas. I was assuming production would bring in big names from the most recent season but instead they went with Jay who was 4 years removed from Survivor and undersized considering the physicality of the show. However, Jay came to play winning two eliminations including a massive upset of CT he has gained many fans from The Challenge and although he had a middling run on Double Agents he made a big move that blew up in his face and resulted in him getting in drama. I think he could be back to The Challenge again and if he is able to improve his social game he is the kind of competitor who is built for a final.
Tula “Big T” Fazakerley (Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands 2019)
Big T has become a massive fan favorite to the point where she is perhaps the most universally popular. She came to The Challenge from a lesser known show in the UK and going just based off her appearance she looked undersized for the physicality of The Challenge. Big T showed her heart by going toe to toe in an elimination against Georgia early on in War of the Worlds 2, then she came on Total Madness where she had one of the goofiest drunken moments in a while when she sliced her foot open and was shouting about “Fresh Cotton Pads”and asked producers if her foot was going to fall off. She really broke out during Double Agents where she win 2 daily challenges, won an elimination and was so likable of a character that fans have fallen in love with her. The show understands they struck gold with Big T and are using her on promotional material like billboards and as the image for the official Challenge youtube channel.
Turabi “Turbo” Çamkıran (Survivor: Turkey 8)
War of the Worlds was in a lot of ways like another Fresh Meat season where they brought on a bunch of contestants several of whom were “Out of the Box” but one of the most surprising choices was Turbo. This was the first time in a long time that the show brought in contestants who did not have English as their first language and Turbo even though he was on Survivor Turkey was trying to be an action movie star. He was an exceptional athlete on the show winning the most difficult, he built some strong friendships in the house and had his moments when he was hilarious like when he said he would not hit Hunter because he was a chicken and it would be animal abuse . He won the most difficult final in the history of the show and was doing well on War of the Worlds II up until his removal after his fight with Jordan. A lot of fans really liked Turbo and have been asking for him to be brought back ever since the Jordan situation particularly on a season without Jordan. Turbo was someone that the show did not know what they were going to get out of but they rolled the dice on him and he was a big hit for the two seasons he was on so far.
Tori Hall (Road Rules: Viewers Revenge)
In 2004 MTV announced that they were canceling Road Rules which was one of the main feeder shows for The Challenge. However they briefly walked that decision back and did a season that was not like normal Road Rules where they brought back several All Stars who each had a “pit crew” of a few new people however the focus was much more about the All Stars they brought back. It was a surprise to me that anyone from the “pit crews” was brought over to The Challenge let alone they would become a two time champion. However, production brought a few people from Road Rules: Viewers Revenge on The Gauntlet III including Tori. She was one of the few bright spots on an abysmal rookies team that season where she also met and started dating Brad. Together they competed on The Duel II where she went far before being knocked out by Aneesa, she was a part of the majority alliance and her and Brad’s relationship was a major storyline. Finally, Tori came on to Cutthroat (again with now husband Brad by her side) they politically dominated the game and won the final that season. All of that for somebody who was a background character on the last attempt to keep Road Rules alive.
Shane Landrum 2.0 ( Road Rules: Campus Crawl)
The first time Shane was cast on The Challenge was not that out of the ordinary, he was coming off a really popular season of Road Rules onto Battle of the Sexes one of the largest seasons (36 players). He was in his own words “wall paper” on his first 4. seasons being a solid competitor but did not make a big impact in the drama or storylines those seasons. So it came completely out of the blue when he came back to The Challenge after fifteen years to appear on Invasion of the Champions. The show called Rachel Robinson to see if she could come back as one of the “Champions,” she was not available but mentioned that Shane was coming off of a divorce and looking for something impulsive to do. He was still a really solid competitor but instead of the mild mannered guy he was back in the day Shane came in ready to get into it with people all over the drama on the show and was the strategic leader of the Lavender Ladies alliance. He is one of the most out of nowhere casting decisions in the history of the show. Fans often are wanting old school players to come back but I don’t think anyone was thinking Shane. He ended being an excellent call to bring back making a much larger impact in his mid thirties then as a 22 year old.
Camila Nakagawa (Spring Break Challenge)
*I am in no way condoning the things she went on to do later in her Challenge career just trying to acknowledge that she was an unorthodox casting choice who became a star*
Similar to Tori coming from Road Rules: Viewers Revenge, Camila was brought on the show from the spin-off special Spring Break Challenge. They only did this once and it was a strange cross between spring break and a backyard set up of resembling normal daily challenges and she is the only person that they ever brought on The Challenge from that special. Camila went on to become a longtime face of the franchise. Competitively she was one of the most successful female challengers in the history of the show winning two seasons. Camila also got into plenty of drama during the show with hook ups and major fights particularly when she was drunk and the “Camilanator” came out. The show took a chance on her and although it soured at the end when she made indefensible comments about Leroy and did other things that crossed the line, Camila went from the obscure Spring Break Challenge to an infamous multi-time champion on The Challenge.
Kyle Christie (Geordie Shore)
MTV made a pretty big deal out of when they brought people from the UK on The Challenge for Vendettas. Several of the UK contestants were from the popular Ex on the Beach but Kyle came from the knock off British Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore, coming into the season he had no friends and a few enemies. Also when looking at the UK guys, Rogan & Joss stood out due to their sheer physical appearance while Kyle looked like a skinny party boy who could be knocked out early. However, Rogan crashed and burned in the opening purge and Joss was taken out by Derrick when he was brought in as mercenary (more on that here)but Kyle made it all the way to the end of the season finishing in third place despite having no clue what he had gotten himself into. Kyle has been a strong competitor, an all time guy in terms of hook ups on the show, got in to plenty of drama and consistently is one if not the funniest person on The Challenge. Kyle has the current record for most consecutive seasons with seven and is someone I am not getting sick of, where other players who have been on fewer seasons in a row I want to see take a break, if it was up to me keep bringing Kyle back.
