The Challenge

The Challenge (Formerly known as 'The Real World/Road Rules Challenge') is what you get when you take several people from sister shows 'The Real World' and 'Road Rules' and make them compete against each other for cash prizes. What usually happens is arguments, sex, fighting and then some eliminations leading to a cash prize. Each season is often mixed up however by a constantly changing rule-set and reward system.

Is often talked about thanks to its constant recycling of contestants with at least one openly admitting that they are there to avoid getting a real job.

The seasons (In order)

1. Road Rules: All Stars 2. Real World/Road Rules Challenge 3. Challenge 2000 4. Extreme Challenge 5. Battle of the Seasons 6. Battle of the Sexes 7. The Gauntlet 8. The Inferno 9. Battle of the Sexes 2 10. The Inferno II 11. The Gauntlet 2 12. Fresh Meat 13. The Duel 14. The Inferno 3 15. The Gauntlet III 16. The Island 17. The Duel II 18. Fresh Meat II 19. Cutthroat 20. Rivals 21. Battle of the Exes
 * Notable for, while being part of the series, has no Road Rules cast members participating and is more akin to a normal season of Road Rules, just with ex-Real World cast members taking part.
 * The first real season but the second actual season (If that makes any sense). Taking six Real World cast-members and six Road Rules cast-members and getting them to face off against each other.
 * Take the previous season and change the cast members for different ones and repeat.
 * Another season of six vs six, Real World vs Road Rules battles. Notable for having one episode Lost Forever which featured dressing up as famous couples in a fetish shop.
 * The first season of the show to place in elimination of teams. During this show, sixteen pairs of two (One male, one female) competed against each other to see if Road Rules or Real World were better. Notable for Emily (Road Rules) actively eliminating threats, much to the anger of everyone else. Also notable for Mike "The Miz" getting drunk and starting up his whole wrestling persona.
 * Take the format of the previous season and instead make the two teams "Men vs Women". Notable for Puck almost getting kicked off the show for a spit-fight, Puck getting married, Puck trashing the hotel and quitting because of his wife getting deported... Heck just anything involving Puck.
 * The first show to remove the points value of the previous seasons and the first to add elimination challenges. After each mission, both Real World and Road Rules had to vote somebody into elimination. The loser went home empty handed while the winner stuck around, often to their own teams annoyance.

This show provides examples of


 * Attention Whore: Several contestants appear to be this, if only to secure their place in future seasons.
 * Beach Episode: Several seasons have exclusively been set on beaches. Most notable ones being the Gauntlet 2 and 3 where every elimination took place on a beach.
 * Call Back: Given the shows spin-off nature and that almost all the contestants appear in multiple seasons, this is a given. Several challenges have even been made around this, quizzing cast-members about events happening on the shows.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: The first season wasnt actually a proper 'Challenge' and instead placed five ex-Real World cast members into the Road Rules show. Even the next three are this as there are no eliminations at all.