The Challenge

***The Challenge*** is a reality-based competition show, based on the U.S. television series, *The Challenge*. It premiered October 31, 2021, and is hosted by Lincoln Bravado. The show takes reality television personalities, usually from the Simvivor Network's umbrella of television shows, including *16 and Pregnant*, *Drag Race*, *I Love...*, *Next Top Influencer*, *Simvivor*, and *The Roomies*.

Tested mentally and physically episode by episode, the castmembers, known as Challengers, will face the competition in teams, pairs, individuals, or a combination of formats in a single season. Challengers regularly compete in multiple seasons due to the higher cast sizes and lack of "debut" players coming in from other shows. As such, storylines can exist across several seasons for every Challenger.

Generally, castmates can earn more Simoleons winning *The Challenge* than they can on any of the other shows, except for the winners of *Simvivor* who earn §1,000,000 on the flagship series. The total prize varies by season and format, as seasons played in teams will usually feature a bank system where winning each episode's main challenge will increase the "funds" dispersed among the members left standing in the Final Challenge.

## History

*The Challenge* was conceived after the addition of *The Roomies*, which itself was a copy-cat of MTV's *Real World*. MTV's *The Challenge* often sees competitors introduced from their "Real World" franchise, so *The Roomies* was initially intended to be the main source of competitors for the new series. After the second season featured the death of a roommate and subsequently went on hiatus, it was later re-worked to favor contestants from all of the other shows, namely *Simvivor*.

*The Challenge* had several "test" seasons run to see how successful it would be, becoming a major hit at first. These test seasons were originally supposed to be canon, but due to running far in advance than the filming and production schedule had accounted for, these test seasons often featured Challengers who were either out of date or were competing well after their introduction to the Network. As a result, several test seasons were scrapped and their casts were deleted.

As of the premiere date, all seasons of *The Challenge* are considered canon and are not part of what were the test seasons.

## Format

*The Challenge* features an ever-changing group of eclectic reality television stars who may have been featured on shows within the greater Simvivor Network or, in rare instances, not. Each season will feature former Challengers in some capacity, but will contain both "Veterans" (or Vets) and "Rookies". Vets tend to be considered Champions of the show or players who have competed at least three or more times, while Rookies are newer Challengers.

A season's cast members are usually divided up in teams or pairs based on certain criteria that fit with the season's general theme. In other instances, the Challengers will compete as individuals or face off in a changing landscape that will place them in a combination of teams, pairs, or individuals throughout a single season. Each episode, there will be a set of missions (or "dailies") that afford either prizes, immunity, or advancement in the overall game. Following each mission, teams or individuals will be tasked with determining who will go into an elimination competition to face off with another team or individual. Elimination rounds will determine who is eliminated every episode. Determining who goes into each elimination generates a considerable amount of drama as well as high-stakes pressure into an already competitive environment.

After a certain number of episodes or eliminations have passed, the host will then conduct a Final Challenge between the remaining Challengers. Reaching the Final Challenge usually means everyone in attendance will receive some sort of prize money, with several exceptions. The better a contestant places in the Final, the more they get paid. In seasons with teams or duos, the overall prize money is split between Challengers in the group.

## Production

As stated in **History**, there were several seasons of *The Challenge* that existed only as trial runs. Because BrantSteele, the typical method for simulating other shows like *Simvivor* and *Star Quality*, only offers one season of *The Challenge* as a simulator, it is rarely used for this series. Instead, the Producer simulates the seasons using a complex (and arguably biased) method of randomization, preference, and logic. Unfortunately, this means that *The Challenge* is one of the rare exceptions to the Network where all game shows are fairly simulated without production intervention.

Following the same schedule as other shows, *The Challenge* will start off with the season's theme being created in advance, then a number of cast members are chosen. Realistically, Challengers should only compete for about four seasons in a row as a maximum, but in some instances, they can be seen in five or more seasons back-to-back. New Challengers, otherwise known as rookies or "debuts", tend to show up on *The Challenge* the year following the airing of their initial show(s). These debuts are also usually in some sort of main or recurring role, whether as a competing Influencer on *Next Top Influencer* or the friend of a teen mom from *16 and Pregnant*. The criteria for debuting on *The Challenge* is not rigid, but there must be at least one show to reference for them.

After the cast is selected, created, and have photos taken, the Producer will then simulate the season and save the information to necessary Excel sheets before uploading it to the Wiki page. Individual cast pages are also created at this point.

## See also

* Official *The Challenge* website
* Official *The Challenge* Fandom page