The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Official Trailer Breakdown

I will be breaking down the trailer for The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras as I do every season. There are no spoilers in this blog that you won’t figure out by watching the trailer super slowly. YES, there are spoilers, but they are spoilers via inference and analysis. Essentially, if I see something with my eyes, I’m going to point it out. Above is the trailer in video form.

Let’s jump into it.

The trailer begins with a bunch of random highlights from past seasons as sound bytes of players repeating the phrase “My Era of The Challenge is best.”

The first bit of 2024 footage that we get in the trailer is a CT confessional in a very tight leather jacket looking like he just got back from his night back in the club post-divorce, stating: “My Era of Challenge is the best.”

CT reads the line with a level of pride that is very reminiscent of a washed-up football player at his 25-year High School reunion, which is somewhat the theme for this season.

Honest to God, I’m excited to see Mid-Life Crisis CT. As much as I enjoy Dad CT, I’d love to see him get a bit messy and maybe even have a showmance for the first time in a decade.

They drop a graphic saying “For The First Time”, followed by a explosion shot of two semi-trucks running into a giant stack of boxes as players stand atop the trucks holding a safety chord.

Look, I’m not calling bullshit, but this definitely looks like I’ve something I’ve seen in basically every Challenge trailer.

We then get a shot of a player riding in a car as it rolls off a cliff. I may have spoken too soon because I’ve never seen that before. I got too furious, and then things sped up too fast.

Don’t worry; the player is attached to a chord that seems to lift him off into safety once the car falls off the cliff. It looks like an Era 4 Player based on the Pink helmet he’s wearing. The colored helmets and jerseys are key signifiers during this trailer.

Then we get a sound byte of TJ saying: “If you’re here, it’s because you’re part of Challenge history.”

There’s a shot of CT looking so sweaty that his hair makes him look like a 2010 Jersey Shore cast member.

We also see a shot of TJ holding his air horn and what looks like a female competitor ready to compete in elimination. I wonder if TJ goes to sleep with that air horn in his hand. Again, it’s an Era 4 Cast member based on the pink helmet, and with the complexion, it’s likely Nurys; it could be Kaycee, though.

We get a bunch of dramatic close up shots of players as a TJ sound byte says: “We’ve chosen the toughest players in 40 seasons…and Josh.”

Among the initial close-up’s, we see Jordan, Jonna, Cara, Leroy, Tori, Cory, and Bananas.

They rip a super fast slideshow of the entire cast with the words: “4 Eras of The Challenge”. I won’t include every single person’s cast photo because, well… I think you get the point of this part of the trailer.

And if you don’t understand, I’ll assume you went to school with Nelson.

After the slideshow, we get some Aviv backshots.

WOAH. Just reread that line.

There’s a shot of Aviv’s back as she’s safety harnessed up — she’s on top of a building for a heights challenge. She hasn’t competed in nearly two decades and is doing a skyscraper challenge. Welcome back!

I believe we hear Olivia give a confessional sound byte saying, “Bringing up old wounds from the past. There is so much animosity and resentment.”

As she says this, we see Brad digging himself out of and running out of a pit. We also see Cory & Bananas (old rivals), holding helmets as they walk towards a challenge. While they both have black jerseys on, Cory has his powder blue Era 3 helmet, and Bananas has his olive green Era 2 helmet.

We also see Nia during the Olivia sound byte. Based on her focus, the dark background, and her helmet, she looks as though she might be in the elimination arena.

Then they give us a shot of Cara inside a mud pit carrying a heavy rope or a pole. We also get a sound byte of her saying: “It’s no secret, there’s a lot of history between us”.

The editors aptly show both Laurel and Aneesa directly after Cara’s comment, as they both have so much history with her. Although, we all know she’s referring to her and Laurel. Cara pays no attention to Aneesa and is only afraid of her presence when it’s time to shower.

Interestingly, the shot of Aneesa does seem to be in the elimination arena.

POTENTIALLY HEAVY SPOILER INCOMING

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We get a shot of Theo Campbell wearing a helmet and pads in the elimination arena as he drops the confessional sound byte: “I’ve waited for my revenge, and my opportunity is here.”

As he says this, they show Paulie wearing the exact same type of pads as he grips onto what looks like Hall Brawl walls as he gears up to sprint. It looks like we are getting a Theo vs. Paulie Hall Brawl.

They had their tiff/makeout on War of the Worlds 2, but they’ve seemed to be on good terms on social media the past four years during their mutual absences from the show.

We’ve never gotten to see Paulie in a headbanger before and Theo is a tough Hall Brawl opponent with how fast he is. Although, Paulie will be able to get lower easier.

A couple of extra looks we get are of Tori before a heights challenge and CT looking at Darrell before a challenge. CT is probably thinking about how he and Darrell would be happy in another world just doing laundry together.

There’s a very brief glimpse of Averey with a sound byte of her saying: “To be back after 10 years…”

That’s all she says. I assume what Averey was going to say was: “to be back after 10 years, I’ll make sure to play as safe a game as possible, even if it means not earning the Star required to run the Final.”

They give us a dramatic shadowy look of Rachel Robinson staring the down the camera. She’s probably looking at the producer who gave her that dumbass elimination on All-Stars 4.

During Rachel’s stare, there’s a Bananas sound byte where he says: “Put the past behind me…”

Maybe Rachel is staring down Jenny West as she’s intimidated that she might not be the fittest woman in the house because, by golly, Jenny’s muscles are poppin’. It looks like Jenny is competing in the heights challenge we’ve seen multiple times in this trailer and based on the way her muscles are flexing, I assume she’s either pulling something or rapelling herself or someone down.

After the shots of Rachel and Jenny, the editor drop a bunch of super rapid blink and you’ll miss them close-up shots of different players.

It goes from Olivia to Wallpaper to Laurel to Tori to Ryan to Katie to Derek to Nia to Michele to Aneesa to Nehemiah to Amanda.

A couple of crucial notes: the first two images of Olivia and Wallpaper are of them in what looks like the heights daily challenge that we repeatedly see.

Every other pic from there (except one) has players in helmets and wearing life vests at night — my guess is they’re doing a daily challenge that involves night swimming.

Now, the one picture in this initial rapid-fire group that is out of the ordinary is Michele’s not wearing a life vest, and her background looks more like the elimination arena than a daily challenge. Feel safe to assume Michele is seeing an elimination this season.

To which we have another decently sized elimination spoiler coming….

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It’s on-screen for about .1 seconds, but if you pause at the right time, bright as day, you’ll see Olivia is playing a Hall Brawl this season. To which, Olivia is a very dangerous opponent in a Hall Brawl with her size and strength.

After that elimination spoiler, there are some mega quick shots of Jodi and Brandon.

As all these rapid-fire shots popped up, someone has a sound byte saying, “Something is brewing.” I don’t care enough to figure out who is saying it because it’s such a generic thing to say.

The first non-confessional talking we get is Tina shouting at someone: “how many people fucking hate you?”

If I had to guess who Tina’s talking to, my bet is on either Johnny Bananas or Theo.

TJ drops a generic intro: “This is The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras”

THEN THEY JUMP RIGHT INTO THE ACTION.

Theo Campbell is already stumbling when he gets drilled in the head with what looks like a Riot Shield. It seems as though they brought back the famous Riot Act daily challenge from Cutthroat. Genuinely, one of the most dangerous daily challenges ever.

CT gets another confessional where he generically says: “Oh this is gonna be a good one.”

We get a classic long-line shot of players walking to a daily challenge. If you watch slowly… you might notice some people are missing. I’m not going to mention them.

There’s a shot of a very frustrated Tina & Derrick in a daily challenge.

They give us yet another look of Theo and Paulie’s Hall Brawl. They’re both trying to get as low as possible.

After this, the editors drop a graphic of the Era 1 players and a sound byte of TJ saying: “Era 1 started it all.”

Rather than show us highlights from old-school seasons, they throw up a shot of Brad & Rachel from Challenge All Stars 4 and CT’s mercenary appearance from Season 39.

During the Era 1 section, Darrell drops a confessional where he says: “We old school, y‘all don’t wanna fuck with us.” After this, we see him jump off a ledge for a flag, which is big for Darrell, considering his fear of heights.

Then we get the Era 2 graphic with TJ saying “Era 2 introduced Fresh Meat”.

Instead of showing clips from the Fresh Meat seasons or the era, we get Bananas on USA 2 and Cara on All-Stars 4.

We get a Cara confessional where she notes Era 2 has the strongest line-up of women. After Cara says this, we see Laurel murdering someone in the Riot Shield challenge. Laurel & Cara won the women’s side of this challenge for their team on Cutthroat.

During the Era 3 graphic, TJ says: “Era 3 elevated rivalries and romances.”

Credit goes to the editing team for keying in on the Tori & Amanda rivalry. We see them both doing something they thrive at: Tori does something physical while Amanda solves a puzzle.

We then see Amanda tell Tori that she doesn’t like her now and won’t like her after this. Consistency.

They also give us a shot of Cory talking his helmet off and looking tired after a daily challenge. Consistency.

TJ says “Era 4 brought the game global”. Which is why they brought 2 non-US players.

Jenny gets the Era 4 confessional, where she says: “Massacre is about to go down”.

She’s wearing a necklace with the letter “M” on it. The M stands for “muscles” to remind you she has them, in case you couldn’t tell. Conversely, it has a dual-use as she’s able to flip it upside down in case she wants it to stand for Wumbo.

Spoiler warning next:

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Rather than getting an action shot of an Era 4 player, they instead show us an elimination between an Era 1 and an Era 3 player (you can tell based on jersey colors). Based on the player’s skin tone in the light blue jersey, it looks like Cory is competing. Era 1 (Dark Blue) has four white guys on the team, though based on size, it’s more likely it’s Derrick or Brad in the elimination.

From what I can see, this looks like a potential boxing/wrestling elimination in which players try to rip off/punch certain parts of their opponents’ bodies. It looks like each player has these little orbs attached to their sides, which emit a colorful gas once ripped. They may or may not be blindfolded. It’s difficult for me to tell because production is blurring their heads and faces so that we can’t tell who is playing the elimination.

If they are blindfolded, the elimination feels reminiscent of the game Jordan & Ammo and Tori & Marie played on Dirty 30. You can compare it to the Melissa & Nany elimination from Total Madness if not blindfolded.

After the elimination, they drop a graphic that says: “The Game They Know Is Changing.”

We also see a player getting flung from a chord rapidly into a body of water. I believe that image might be from the same daily challenge where a player got yanked from a car falling off the cliff.

Bananas drops a confessional saying: “Every time we turn around, there’s another twist.”

They then give us a montage of shocked faces, going from Derek to Aneesa to Jordan.

We get a bunch of daily challenge action shots.

Rachel & Derrick are shown pulling on a rope line off the side of a building — which looks similar to what Jenny was doing in one of the earlier images. Behind them, there’s a clock running — which, if we get to see competitors’ times during daily challenges this season…That would be awesome.

Then, we see a group of players running in a field as a giant catapult sends something off. My guess is that the players are searching for a ball somewhere.

There’s a shot of Nehemiah climbing up the side of a truck. I assume it is the same truck from the beginning of the trailer.

During this shot, there’s a Derek Chavez sound byte in which he says: “Winners of elimination now have power.” That leads me to believe we will be having a Grenade, Relic, or Stars twist.

Potential Spoilers Coming Next

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A mic-drop moment happens as we hear TJ say, “I need you to select the targets from each era.”

There’s a shot of Theo staring down the camera as he preps for an elimination, except it’s not the same elimination we’ve already seen him in throughout the trailer…

More potential spoilers

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Then we see a Pole Wrestle elimination between two Era 1 men. Based on size, one of them is clearly Derrick, while the other is either CT or Mark.

We see a couple of entertained elimination crowds. The first crowd is Era 3 players and includes Cory, Averey, Jordan, Jordan’s legendary 2x Challenge Champion ex, and Tori. The second crowd is Era 2’s Ryan, Laurel, Nehemiah, Cara, and Bananas.

If you’re a fan of any of these players, it’s a good indication that they’re making it farther than Episode 1 because they’re wearing their going-out clothes and not their Challenge gear.

There’s a generic Cara Maria confessional saying: “We don’t know how it’s gonna play out”, sandwiched between a shot of Michele looking shocked and a shot of Aneesa looking angry as the words “Instant Karma” are shouted in the background.

They give us a different look at the semi-truck challenge. Here, we see two players leaping off the side of the truck and towards some giant discs. As we can see in the second image, Cory successfully punches through his disc. Based on the helmets, complexion, and bodies, I believe Derek Chavez and Theo are the two men in the first picture.

A couple of scary images. CT takes a brutal fall during a heights over water challenge and then needs to get stretchered off. We hear a muffled sound byte of him saying: “It’s my back; I tried to move it.”

I’ve watched CT compete in heights challenges for 20+ years and can’t remember a time when he’s gotten injured. Genuinely, the one time I’ve really ever seen CT in legit injury pain (not like gassing out) was when his back flared up during The Champ vs. Stars 3 Final (which he won).

They drop a graphic that simply says 40 Legends. Meanwhile, TJ tells the players: “These victors (of this season) will cement their legacies in Challenge history.”

We also see an action shot of Cory, Tori, and Jordan running during a daily challenge and a shot of Jenny strutting around the house.

Which after TJ’s talk of legacy, they show us Nia & Kyland making out by the pool and Theo & Olivia making out in the pool. Bananas has a confessional during these scenes where I think he says: “Screw today, and it will burn your ass tomorrow.”

Based on social media today, it seems like Theo & Olivia are a legit item now.

We finally see some Emily Schromm in the trailer — she is shaking her head. My guess is she’s angry that people are eating Nutella after their workouts rather than using it as a facemask.

During this shot of Emily, there is an ANGRY Laurel sound byte where she yells, “Don’t accuse me ever again!” I don’t think she’s talking to Emily in this moment. I’m not sure if Emily would ever say enough words to Laurel to evoke a reaction like that.

There is an action shot of Devin hitting someone with a riot shield, followed by a scene of Bananas calling himself the right hand of the devil.

Another generic text graphic.

An irate CT seems to be cursing out Tina after a daily challenge. I didn’t expect to be typing that in 2024. These two were literally teammates two decades ago on The Inferno 2.

Ok.

The trailer heats up quite a bit from here. We see Olivia & Horacio hugging each other. It seems like they’ve forgiven each other after Season 39.

However, we see Nurys telling someone (likely Olivia): “There’s zero percent trust.”

The Nurys & Olivia storyline is the only interesting part of Season 39 that rolls into Season 40.

We get an action shot of Era 4 sprinting off to begin a daily challenge. Then, we see Cory putting in work during the riot shield challenge.

After that, we get shots of Nurys and Jonna separately bawling their eyes out. These are two strong women; it makes me wonder what drove them to tears.

Maybe a potential spoiler next:

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We see Cara Maria’s mouth literally wide open in shock. She’s wearing her jersey, and KellyAnne is wearing her jersey. They’re on a lower level than the rest of the crowd. KellyAnne looks fucking pissed.

My guess is that these two were pitted in elimination against each other, which would be one hell of a match-up.

Then there’s a shot of a large crowd going absolutely crazy in excitement over what is likely a feel-good elimination upset.

We get yet another look at the Theo & Paulie Hall Brawl. Paulie gets really low, but it seems as though Theo is getting a pretty good hit in.

Jonna dramatically struts the around the house. Good for her.

Then, we get a couple of action shots. Theo is giving his all to pull a rope for his team in a daily challenge. We also see Josh Martinez’s face bloodied from the riot shield challenge. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a very dangerous daily challenge, and Josh has such a giant face that it was a given he would get hit.

Nearing the end of the trailer, Cara tells someone: “If they want a battle, it’s war.”

With dramatic quotes like that, you can tell Cara knows what it takes to be a star on this show. It’s not even shade because Cara said the line with a casual authenticity, where if it were anyone else, I’d likely laugh them out of the building.

They really want us to see this Theo & Paulie Hall Brawl.

They also want us to see a dramatic elimination crowd reaction shot from the Era 3 players and a look at Derrick crowd surfacing in a bar.

The trailer gets random from here. There’s a shot of Theo running in the forest during a daily challenge. We see Nehemiah hopping from platform to platform in what I believe is the same challenge we saw him compete in earlier.

There’s a shot of two players jumping into a pool (I believe Derek & Ryan).

We see a large group of players running into some water, where they’re trying to get into boats. Somehow, Aneesa is already behind everyone else.

Then we get the classic looks of players first entering the house and of course, the night one toast!

Wrapping up, we got Jenny West swinging on a rope and Darrell staring down the camera as it seems like he’s going into elimination.

The trailer ends with Michele Fitzgerald (I think) jumping off a building to grab a ribbon in a daily challenge. As she does, TJ says: “You’ve never seen a battle like this before”.

QUICK NOTES

The people we see most prominently in this trailer are:

• CT
• Bananas
• Cory
• Theo
• Cara Maria
• Tori
• Jenny
• Tina

(Hilariously, one from each Era, I wonder if that was purposeful by the editing team).

People We See a Good Amount:

• Darrell
• Jordan
• Derrick
• Jonna
• Aneesa
• Olivia

People We See Here or There (Or A Lot in The Background):

• Devin
• Derek
• Nehemiah
• Nia
• Michele
• Rachel
• Averey

People We Mostly Only See In 1–2 Key Moments:

• Paulie
• Leroy
• Brad
• Kyland
• Josh
• Amanda
• Laurel
• Emily
• Aviv
• Nurys

People We Basically Don’t See:

• Horacio
• Mark
• Ryan
• Brandon
• Tony
• Kaycee
• Katie
• Jodi
• KellyAnne

For reference, there have been seasons where the winner doesn’t get prominently featured in the trailer, and ones where people who get featured a ton are eliminated early. Generally speaking, the more we see you on-camera is a good indication for someone going further in the game/being relevant.