The Challenge: 10 Worst Pairs to ever make a Final
10. Jenna Compono & Vince Gliatta — 2nd Place Season 28 Rivals 3
This was probably Jenna’s best season out of the ones where she made a final. In those 3 seasons, she only won 2 daily challenges, with one of them randomly being trivia. On Rivals 3 she won the first daily challenge, and did solid physically most of the season. She ranked around 3rd out of all the girls on the season, good amount behind Sarah and Nany, a little ahead of Camila, Ashley, and KellyAnne. However, this was one of the worst Challenge casts ever, so it does not mean as much as it would in other seasons. Her partner, Vince, went from being Mr. VinceFail to Mr. VinceFlop. A slight upgrade! It was unclear whether Vince was better than possibly bad players like Dario, Cory, and Tony. What was clear is that they were an average team who was carried by Bananas and Sarah to the final, where they played against a team worse than them en route to their second place finish in the final.
9. Wes Bergmann & Casey Cooper — 3rd Place Season 12 Fresh Meat 1
It feels weird to place a Challenge Hall of Famer on a list of the worst pairs ever to make it to a final, but it was his partner Casey Cooper who brought him down. I love Casey as a personality, she’s a cutie with a great sense of humor. The problem is that she is one of the worst competitors to ever play the game. Even some of the weaker modern competitors like Christina and Nicole R. seem like pros compared to Casey. They made the final due to Wes carrying all the weight during their 5 elimination wins, and by the end of the season the good players were more focused on taking out each other.
8. Mitch Reid & Cory Wharton — 2nd Place Season 27 Bloodlines
Apologies go out to puzzle god and productive member of society, cousin Mitch. This goofy looking dork came on Bloodlines as Cory’s partner and ended up carrying his weak relative. His cousin had a degree in business, took Calculus in high school, and saw the puzzles as what they were, elementary. In the end, they made the final due to it being a weak cast, and the two were a same sex pair that was blown out physically by Cara Maria & Jaime.
7. Dustin Zito & Trishella Cannatella — 2nd Place Season 23 BOTS(2012)
The weak cast season of Battle of the Seasons allowed Dustin Zito to show out and become a decent competitor. What is sad is that it created too high of expectations of him for Free Agents and Exes 2 where he was a quick exit on both. Trishelle loved her pills and spent only about a quarter of her time lucid on Battle of the Seasons. She was a coward who got Nany eliminated, while bringing unnecessary drama to her team. Her and Dustin was a dysfunctional pair that was assisted by Devyn Simone in their second place finish in the final.
6. Camila Nakagawa & Jemmye Carroll — 3rd Place Season 24 Rivals 2
This was actually a semi-decent team due to Camila. She was a beast on this season, had great cardio, top swimmer, excellent at heights, and simply had the attitude of “I’m trying to win”. The problem was she had a partner who was dead-weight, Jemmye historically has been a bottom tier competitor, losing in the first elimination to rookie LaToya on Free Agents, and getting beat by rookies Adam & Brittany on Exes 2. During the beach run daily challenge before the final, Jemmye could not even run a quarter of a mile on the beach before giving out.
5. Jenn Grijalva & Mandi Moyer — 3rd Place Season 21 Rivals 1
Rivals 1 is known for being an “All Star” cast, but truly it was a season with 4/7 solid male pairs, and then 2/7 female pairs that were miles ahead of the other females. Mandi and Jenn polidicked their way to the final, riding on CT, Wes, and Adam. They got scorched by Laurel/Cara and Evelyn/Paula. Their DQ in the first day of the final was very embarrassing to say the least.
4. Devyn Simone & JD Ordonez — 3rd Place Seasons 23 BOTS(2012)
Is it cheating to put two people who were part of a four member squad on here? Probably, but you’re the one who chose to read down here. Chet & Sarah put up solid campaigns on Battle of the Seasons, Sarah was probably the best girl that season, and Chet was a surprisingly balanced competitor. Decent strength, good endurance, great swimmer, and intelligent, Chet and Sarah carried Brooklyn to the final. JD is one of the most wallpaper characters in Challenge history, and we learned nothing about him as a competitor on a bland season where even Derek Chavez got a good amount of confessionals. Devyn is also up there for one of the worst physical competitors ever. What is sad is that if Devyn was not on this team, Brooklyn would have won the final.
3. Jenna Compono & Brianna Julig — 3rd Place Season 27 Bloodlines
Congrats Jenna! Two times on the list now, and this time it is with her cousin Brianna. They were two of the most childish and annoying competitors ever on Bloodlines. Jenna defied the odds by lucking out on 3 eliminations, two against terrible competitors much smaller than her (Christina and Larissa), and the other being a weird spinning against the lovely KellyAnne. Brianna is also up there with the worst competitors to make a final, she’s no Casey, but she didn’t have a Wes on her team to make up for it, she had a Nehemiah level competitor. Not bad, not great, just fine. They won the first portion of the final due to the males not being able to carry the weight of their bags, but would have been destroyed if it was just Cara Maria. After that first portion, they finished last in all the other sections of the final, they could not eat food (blood soup and tripe is not even bad), bad at kayaking, and timed out on the final puzzle. Their trip to the final was embarrassing, but at least they finished the final.
1st Place Tie. Devin Walker and Cheyenne Floyd —3rd Place Season 28 Rivals 3, Jenna Compono and Jay Mitchell — 3rd Place Season 26 Exes 2
I did not know who to put in first. So I decided to put both of these teams. Devin and Cheyenne literally lucked their way to the final, by pulling white skulls on their 5 trips to the jungle. They did not do well in any daily challenge, so finishing the final was a major achievement for this terrible team. Cheyenne is about Casey level bad as an athlete, Devin is a bottom tier male athlete, with the only thing going for them is that Devin is kinda smart. However, they finished the final, while the lay-up team of Jay and Jenna could not even get passed the eating portion of the final, which is one of the easiest eating portions that we have ever seen
Jay was a loser and a wimp, he did however play a solid social game, aligning with Wes, and being the apparent lay-up. He’s also a loser, a cheater, and a bitch for quitting a final with a guaranteed 3rd place check. Then again, how could I put them below Devin and Cheyenne when that team was the first team eliminated from the game. They were only brought back due to the high number of quitters and casualties on the season. These two teams were equally bad and deserved to hold down these slots.
Congrats Jenna, nobody managed to make this list three times, and you did it three times!
