The Challenge

The Challenge is a long running spinoff from The Real World and Road Rules.

Broadcast
MTV 1998-present

Packager
Bunim-Murray Productions

Host
TJ Lavin

Gameplay
A season's typical multitude of cast members are usually divided up into separate teams according to a certain criteria, which varies from season to season. The criteria that teams have been arranged by over the show's history have ranged all across the board, from gender of the contestants and original show of contestants to bad guy/good guy status of contestants and ex-romantic partners of contestants. Each of the opposing teams compete in numerous missions in order to win prizes and advance in the overall game. Following each mission, a team or a cast member is voted into an elimination round to take on the least successful team from the previous mission. In elimination rounds, they must compete against one another to determine which one is eliminated from the season. Each season has its own, very distinct elimination round, distinguished from those of other seasons in title, design, and general atmosphere. Determining which two teams or two cast members are sent into the episode's elimination round frequently leads to drama and contestants playing the game dirty; this is due to the show's contestants being in charge of who is thrown into elimination rounds. Like that of The Real World, sporadically throughout the course of each episode, various contestants are seen privately expressing themselves through reality TV confessionals about the events taking place on the show.