Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins

Real World Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins is the 18th season of the MTV reality television game show, The Challenge (at the time known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge). This is the last season to use Real World/Road Rules in the on-screen title, before being shortened to The Challenge in the 19th season.
The Ruins took place in Phuket, Thailand, with cast members from The Real World, Road Rules and The Challenge competing. This season was played in the format of two teams — Champions and Challengers; players on the Champions team had won at least one previous challenge, while players on the Challengers team had never won a challenge or made their Challenge debut.
The season premiered on September 30, 2009 and concluded with the "S#!t They Should Have Shown" special on December 23, 2009.
This season of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge puts the Champions against the Challengers. The two teams compete in numerous missions, typically called challenges, in order to win cash, prizes and advance in the overall game. The winning team in each challenge receives a cash prize of $20,000, which is split evenly among the team members and placed in their individual bank accounts, as well as a bonus prize for each member of the team.
Before every challenge however, the Champions and the Challengers each select three players of each gender within their team to be nominated for elimination. After the challenge, the six nominees from the winning team pick one guy and one girl among themselves, as well as a male-female pair from the losing team's nominees to battle against in the Ruins.
In the Ruins, there are two events — one battle for each gender. The winners from each event get to stay in Phuket, and have a chance to compete for a share of $120,000 in the final challenge. The losers are eliminated from the game, and lose all of their prize money in their individual bank accounts to the event winners, though their bonus prizes are not affected.
Each team begins by racing to the first checkpoint, "Bizarre Buffet," where each player must completely eat a series of five bizarre foods—beetles, fried frog legs, stinky Thai fruit, red chilies and crickets & grasshoppers—in order to collect a Thai artifact and advance to the second checkpoint. At "Junction," teams are faced with choosing one of four different colored paths, collecting an artifact at the end of each path and placing each artifact into their team stone that will open a secret door. The other checkpoints consist of a jigsaw puzzle, crawling through a mud pit and back, walk through an "Shortcut" obstacle course with bamboo poles and solving a difficult Building Blocks puzzle. If any player falls of the bamboo poles while trying to complete the Shortcut course, the entire team must restart the Shortcut course. If a team does not complete the Building Blocks puzzle within a 30-minute time limit, each player must carry a block with them to the Junction. The team that makes it to the finish line first after opening the secret door with all five artifacts wins an additional $160,000 to be split amongst their team members.
Final Prize: $158,350
The reunion aired on December 16, 2009 and it was hosted by Maria Menounos. Cast members that attended were: Wes, KellyAnne, Brad, Sarah, Evan, Dunbar, Kenny, Johanna, Johnny, Veronica, Susie & Katie. First topic was the weather in Thailand, how hot it was and how it affected the competition. Next topic was the final challenge, Sarah and KellyAnne said that until the final puzzle they thought they had a shot at the money, Susie said that she considered making a deal with the Challengers but at the end it's better to win the money yourself than get it from a deal, Evan then added that he had no doubt about Susie's performance in the final challenge because the night before she told him "nothing funny" was going to happen but Johnny said he had doubts. Susie was pointed to be as manipulative as Kenny and Evan.
The Brad/Darrell fight was shown and Brad talked about his trip to the hospital and his recovery process. Brad talked about how Tori reacted to the fight and their upcoming wedding, and he added he probably would not come back for another Challenge without Tori. Footage of Wes' multiple fights with the cast was shown. The love pentagon (Cohutta, KellyAnne, Wes, Johanna & Kenny) was also discussed, Johanna explained her side on the story and why she felt so down during the season. KellyAnne and Evelyn's elimination round was discussed next, Wes said he now understands that putting KellyAnne against Evelyn was the smartest decision for the Champions team and that it was not a personal attack, but KellyAnne said she still doesn't understand why her teammates wanted her out. Sarah then talked about how Kenny, Evan and Johnny made her feel and why she cried after Johnny's comments. Johanna said she exploited with Johnny's comments and not with Kenny's because they both had a "third grade crush" on each other but Sarah explained it was because Kenny and Evan make fun of so many people that it's normal, Wes said that it was time for the "I'm mean to everyone so I can be mean to you" excuse Kenny uses ends, Johanna added she was in Sarah's position with Kenny and Evan a while ago but it eventually gets better. Johnny and Katie talked about the fight with Sarah.
Maria Menounos commented on how this season broke the record of challengers being disqualified and the Veronica/Tonya fight was shown, Veronica said that up until the day of the fight she and Tonya were good on the challenge, that she didn't walk away because she did not think Tonya would hit her. Veronica said Tonya shouldn't have been on the show because she's not stable enough. Some footage of "The S#it They Should Have Shown" is played, as well as a preview for The Real World: D.C.
In October 2011, two years after The Ruins season aired, contestant Tonya Cooley filed a lawsuit against fellow contestants Kenny Santucci and Evan Starkman, MTV, and Bunim/Murray Productions, claiming that she was sexually assaulted during filming. Cooley claimed in the lawsuit that Santucci and Starkman inserted a toothbrush into her vaginal canal while she was passed out from heavy drinking, and stated that she was subjected to an environment in which degrading and harassing behavior was directed at female contestants, including bathing suits stripped off their bodies. The lawsuit was settled out of court one year later.
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