Challenge 35: Total Madness

**Byrd** · 2020-05-28 15:48

Originally Posted by Moss

The daily was pretty solid, elimination was meh. Nice from a desire/competition perspective but not much (any) strategy involved and definitely not viewer friendly.

Agreed. I feel like they could have come up with a similar system that was more photogenic.

Originally Posted by Moss

Big T really has no place on this show... she's just not in the same athletic stratosphere as the other girls. And it's not fun to watch her or Melissa plead for themselves by admitting that they are weak players.

Agreed. Big T just doesn't belong, although I have nothing bad to say about her, really. But when, after two seasons, your biggest contribution is creating a bit of a meme with FRESH COTTON PADS?!?!?!?, there's not much there. Melissa has at least brought the drama and the sex in recent years. I am very curious her ultimate fate this season though...

Spoiler: show

**Vil** · 2020-05-28 21:36

Big T is one of several people in recent years that would have been better if they were cast like 10 years ago, pre-Cutthroat. Not saying this purely from a competitive standpoint. For her, she would still not be an average competitor, but wouldn't stand out so bad. But take someone like Georgia. I think personality-wise would be a great fit in the Challenge back in the days of yore. Back when being there for "the right reasons" was a thing.

**Vil** · 2020-06-03 20:51

Based on the previews and the opening few minutes, I figured there was 0% chance of any face-off besides these two. Josh being emotional about not wanting to face his friend and Kyle being paranoid are not real decoy options. Why bother?

Even their confrontations/conversations at the bar and later were level-headed and reasonable. Dumb to not discuss things beforehand, but it is what it is. Bananas volunteering and thus beating Wes to the punch felt like a Wes move there of acting first to redirect the other's choice. I'm ready to see what people do now that these two won't be controlling things together and despite people being like 0-whatever at volunteering, I don't know that any of them were really bad calls unless you judge solely on the results.

That finish was just so... amicable. With all that's been going on the past weeks/months, was that a "we needed this" episode? Or am I just a sucker for Hootie and the Blowfish? The true winner of that elimination was friendship, guys!

Shout out to Nelson and math, TJ's reactions to Bananas acting like a 12 year old during trivia, Jenny and Rogan both playing things smart, Mattie randomly showing up for seemingly the first time all episode to explain the rules of the elimination, Melissa's hair, and Burger King.

**Byrd** · 2020-06-04 23:40

Great episode, but not much scoring.

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Scoring:

Spoiler: show

Standings:

Spoiler: show

Contestant Scores to Date:

Spoiler: show

**Moss** · 2020-06-04 23:59

Nothing much to add except check out wes's (Weston bergmann) Instagram pic

https://www.instagram.com/westonbergmann/?hl=en

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

**Vil** · 2020-06-05 09:20

I think the biggest thing that held back that trivia challenge was something that they couldn't control - the weather. Yes, the multiple choice setup meant people couldn't come up with insanely stupid answers, but the two strike system + having to hang on could have probably been fine if conditions were clear. If you give me a choice between displaying their lack of intelligene or creating drama/gameplay, I'd take either and would be fine. This one mostly lacked in both, but was set up for the latter.

**Moss** · 2020-06-08 22:05

I'm only in the loop because of challenge reddit, but they've severed ties with Dee due to some insensitive tweets she made. One was something like "I've known BLM since I lost my virginity"

So something stupid and offensive but that probably wouldn't have been enough to get her kicked out any other time

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

**Vil** · 2020-06-09 00:55

Wow. The show officially announcing they're cutting ties with her. When I first read your post, I just thought you meant that some cast members were. I looked at that big thread there compiling all this stuff and this just kept getting worse. What the hell are Jemmye and Marie doing getting involved in this? I'm not talking about them posting about it or contacting the producers. I'm talking about shady stuff posting these conversations and this weird stuff going after Wes and all that. Is that sort of stuff considered normal?

**Xno Kappa** · 2020-06-09 09:12

Apparently Dee has said/tweeted/DM/whatthefuckever a bunch of really dumb insensitive if not flat-out racist shit to several black cast mates. Sounds like the girl is a colossal coke head trying to instigate shit for possible “storylines” for future seasons.

As someone who’s complexion would get him killed if he said the wrong thing to an officer, and is also married to a southeast Asian wife, this kind of saddens me to be honest. The girl clearly needs some help.

After the whole Camilla bullshit, MTV isn’t going to put up with any of her nonsense so I’m not surprised they cut ties with her immediately.

Jemmye and Marie seem to be auditioning to be MTV beat reporters or something though. That shit was weird.

**Vil** · 2020-06-09 09:57

People really need to worry less about getting callbacks and storylines, especially when in a good spot. It's one thing if your screen time starts to wane, but even then people will tend to overdo it and have it backfire.

This whole Rogan thing this season, idk. I know some of you guys watch Survivor, and I'm sort of getting reminders of that Michelle/Wendell story this past season which was either played up by them and/or made to be something that it really wasn't by the editors. Largely the latter I think, though I'm sure a bit of the former too. They did say certain things in confessionals and all that, but maybe some of that was taken way out of context.

I still am curious how Ashley, who had been voted in more or less unanimously, had pretty much the entire house except Wes wanting her to win over Dee. Ashley is 10x the threat that Dee is, so it can't be that people were worried about being able to get rid of Dee or something.

Remember when Dee was all proud of the fact that she fights with all her friends or something?

**Byrd** · 2020-06-09 10:52

I believe that's the first time The Challenge has ever come out and blacklisted an individual, isn't it? Kenny, Evan, Camila have all disappeared and never been seen again, so the assumption was they're banned, but nobody at MTV or Bunim-Murray ever declared it.

Here's the Challenge subreddit megathread if anyone hasn't already seen it - you can click on all the links to see basically the whole story.

While this isn't (presumably by far) the worst thing a challenger has ever done, the timing is awful. And they're presumably looking to make an example of someone. While Dee has been prominent in recent seasons, she's someone with just enough Challenge clout to cut and make other, more important, cast members stand up and notice, but not enough to hurt the show.

On one of those Reddit threads, this guy nailed it:

Originally Posted by /u/kenan_as_SteveHarvey

You know how at jobs, we have those rules that we break, but no one speaks about it and the managers let it slide. And then someone comes and abuses it or breaks the rule at the wrong time and now the hammer has to come down and things tighten up.

That’s what this is. Comment probably would have slid any other time. But at a time like this, no one is playin. Dumb move Dee. That’s what happens when you forget there’s a real world outside of social media.

**Vil** · 2020-06-10 14:15

Using her to send a message wouldn't surprise me, but also I think there may have been a time during this (very early on) when if she just actually apologized after being called out, we might just be looking at a 2 season "time-out".

Then again, people have been getting publicly fired from other reality shows now. A lot of Vanderpump folks were after some racist actions (that targeted Faith from FR/WOTW2) and Cory and his gf/fiancee/whatever were supposed to have some show/special on MTV, but that's cancelled now because she made some racist tweets... in 2012. At this point, I'm not sure if I expect a bloodbath or for MTV to barely make a further dent in The Challenge barring future actions. It's very easy to just "cycle people out quietly".

Going forward with Dee this season? If she's around for a while on this season, I wonder if they'll turn her invisible (where they can) and re-edit episodes. In Dirty 30, I'm not sure how much Camila was in power after the incident with Leroy, but they pretty much made her disappear after that despite winning. They obviously had more time to do that there, but I'm sure there's tons of stupid cutting room floor scenes that could be swapped in to take the place of Dee/Rogan garbage or her 3764th confessional about how she's a badass.

I also find it bizarre that in no version of the "apologies" that she's posted has she seemed to apologize to the fans. First was just the castmates, then the castmates and production, but never anybody else.

**Xno Kappa** · 2020-06-10 16:23

I believe MTV has already come out and stated the episodes will be left intact with no changes.

**Vil** · 2020-06-10 16:42

I just reread the statement and while you're probably right, I could see it going either way. Airing the season as planned could simply be that they will continue the season. How far ahead do they even finish episodes? If they don't have more than 1-2 weeks done in advance, a lot can be changed.

**Byrd** · 2020-06-10 16:49

Originally Posted by Vil

I just reread the statement and while you're probably right, I could see it going either way. Airing the season as planned could simply be that they will continue the season. How far ahead do they even finish episodes? If they don't have more than 1-2 weeks done in advance, a lot can be changed.

I believe yesterday was the distance filmed reunion. It will be interesting to see if see was included.

**Vil** · 2020-06-10 20:08

Originally Posted by Byrd

I believe yesterday was the distance filmed reunion. It will be interesting to see if see was included.

Figured there would be no way she'd even get a pre-recorded statement or something, and they confirmed that in the opening.

She's being erased from this season as much as reasonably possible. Almost a half hour cut off the episode. From the episode description, there's a missing altercation during the challenge which I can only assume involved her and Bananas/Rogan/Jenny scheming that was non-existent. Also at least one thing with Josh (dude was shown in the preview last week), so they probably cut about 20 minutes of Dee and had to find about 7 other minutes to trim down and Josh/Swaggy got cut.

TJ disqualifying people because he wanted to is probably one of my top 5 moments of the season. I wish when TJ asked Rogan about that he would have responded with "It's a dirty game, Teej." Dude has always been really scummy, but he fully understands these shows.

Disappointing season for Mattie. I really wish they had more of her at all, but maybe it was just a case where she had no material. The only thing I remember was the fight with Ashley from episode 3 or 4. I know that it's only her second season, but that was a rookie edit and not even a good one.

Massive advantage for someone smaller, but I kind of dig that elimination challenge.

**Xno Kappa** · 2020-06-10 22:06

Lmao Dee was blatantly censored this episode.

**Byrd** · 2020-06-11 01:05

Goodbye, Dee. You didn't lose the elimination, but you lost ... everything else this week.
I had five players three episodes ago, and am down to two. Guess my game is over, too.
That was definitely an advantage for a smaller person, Melissa might have been wise to go in against Mattie Lynn. Might not have been able to figure that out just from seeing the dirt filled boxes, but still...

I didn't see any scoring this week other than challenge and elimination wins.
Scoring and Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Standings:

Spoiler: show

Contestant Scorings to Date:

Spoiler: show

**Vil** · 2020-06-11 02:35

Did he say ahead of time you couldn't work together? I don't recall.
I realize that many people weren't trying on this challenge, but still Josh and Melissa were surprise winners.

The way he called them out, I don't think he said anything initially even off camera. Just being "disappointed Teej" and them making a call. If Kyle was getting more flags than would have been physically possible by one person, then it presumably means that anybody else has to do that to have a chance.

Those two that won still had to get all those flags, but I doubt the two they were up against tried. Kaycee seemed to have no reason to want to get involved in things this week and probably no concern about going in herself. For Bananas, there was a plan for Kyle and Rogan to be in tribunal. Him and Josh being in there was probably a 1a, and Josh would probably stand a better chance of a high score, so my guess is it's a case of playing the best hand.

My hope for next week is that they can actually make a coherent episode since it won't be just a day or two to rush to make changes. Cutting Dee's speaking parts wasn't the problem especially since the point of this episode was all the stuff that was going on without her knowing. It's obvious that many of the guys and at least Jenny had been cooking up that blindside. Why couldn't we see some of that?

**Byrd** · 2020-06-11 12:00

Someone from Canada (who got the whole episode, apparently) was able to summarize it in its entirety. There's a whole lotta Dee we didn't get. That's frustrating, I really would have rather seen the whole thing and just not have her in any future seasons. I get you don't want to give her any more air time than you have to, but the episode's already done and packaged. The intro warning was enough.

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