The Challenge All Stars 3 Official Cast Breakdown and Power Rankings

Challenge All Stars Season 3 is upon us. We have Reality TV Icons returning for the first time in a decade, legendary and record-setting champions ready to make their debut as part of this spin-off universe, new generation Real Worlders getting splashed in for some extra spice, and a good amount of returners & favorites from All Stars 1 and 2. All Stars 3 debuts May 11th on Paramount Plus. Here is the trailer for the newest season, expect a full breakdown of it from me in the coming days:

I’ve decided to break down the cast into a power ranking format based on who I think has the best chance of winning. Each player has a hastily made graphic with key info about them and an “overall rating,” which is a score where I rate the player based on their total skillset (relative to competition as well), similar to what a player would receive in Madden or NBA 2k. Just because a player has the highest rating doesn’t necessarily mean I think they have the best shot at winning; CT was the best player on Rivals 1, but he had an entire house against him with a chicken wing as a partner, circumstances matter. All Stars 3 is a unique season where the male cast is stacked, with 11 of the 12 cast members being Challenge Champions. Likewise, the female cast has an incredibly balanced field of solid competitors where anyone can beat anyone.

FEMALE CAST

If you prefer to listen and want a more detailed & drama-oriented cast analysis, here is my podcast’s female cast breakdown. Let’s get into the power rankings!

12 Cynthia Roberts (Real World Miami)

When doing preseason research for All Stars 3, my favorite thing was looking up Cynthia’s name on Twitter and seeing so many OG Real World fans reference her over the years as their favorite Reality TV character ever. The best part about these All Stars seasons is bringing back dynamic personalities we would never expect to see again. My worry for Cynthia is that she doesn’t have a ton of experience with the actual challenges themselves and is coming into this game without many connections.

11 Tina Bridges (Road Rules South Pacific)

Tina stole the show on All Stars 2 with her personality and charisma. Then she essentially quit her elimination with Melinda and hit the dusty trail. I love Tina, but she hates cardio, and Finals have only become more intense since her heyday.

10 Veronica Portillo (Road Rules Semester at Sea)

I put one of the only two women in Challenge history to win 3 Championships at 10th out of 12… That seems crazy, especially as I could easily envision Veronica making it to the Final. Even in a recent season like Dirty 30, Veronica has had moments of brilliance as a competitor physically, mentally, and strategically. What I wonder is whether we are getting Queen Veronica or Vacation Veronica?

9 Jemmye Carroll (Real World Back to New Orleans)

Jemmye is probably the #1 ally for over a third of the female cast. As long as she doesn’t come in last place in a daily challenge, she should be a lock for the Final based on the social game alone. The problem is, Jemmye’s come in last place a decent amount in her Challenge career. She performed well on All Stars 1; I just don’t know whether she has it in her to win a Final against legit strong players.

8 Roni Chance (Road Rules Northern Trail)

In the last two All Stars seasons, we have seen a female player (Jisela & Ayanna) who hadn’t been on in over 15 years without many connections come back and make it to the Final. Roni is a 2x Champ who was athletic back in the day. If someone could sneak in from outta nowhere, Roni is who you would bet on.

7 Kailah Casillas (Real World Go Big or Go Home)

Pros: Kailah is young, fit, and a strong competitor with some good allies entering this game.
Cons: She is the youngest person in the house, and with her physique, Kailah will look like a threat the OG needs to take out.

I like Kailah’s chances of making it to the Final because she’s a good elimination competitor. I’m not too fond of her chances of winning because her Vendettas Final performance was not impressive physically as she hates cardio, and then she couldn’t even out memorize Kyle in the mental portion.

6 Melinda Stolp (Real World Austin)

Nobody impressed me more in the Final last season than Melinda. She got hurt and still won Part 1, which was 90% of the actual Final itself, then lost because of the weird formatting. Melinda has a ton of heart and is a nice person; the question is, was she a bit lucky last season, or can she build upon her All Stars 2 success?

Will the King’s Palace alliance be a good support system or will it put a target on her?

5 Kendal Sheppard (Road Rules Camps Crawl)

Everyone knows Kendal’s mix of cardio and mental prowess makes her a massive threat in the Final, for that reason she is likely to get targeted. If Kendal can make it there, I love her chances of winning.

4 Sylvia Elsrode (Real World Skeletons)

Sylvia has a career 5–1 elimination record, a very similar balanced skill-set to Jonna Mannion, and the last time we saw her, she was within a minute of winning a Challenge Championship. Since then, Sylvia has gotten in better shape and is a sleeper candidate to win.

3 Nia Moore (Real World Portland)

On paper, you have a 6-foot-tall former collegiate athlete with great cardio who has excellent memorization skills and is willing to drink sweat for money, meaning she’s a lethal threat in any Final or elimination. Why isn’t she the favorite? It’s because Nia Moore is a goddamn hurricane.

2 Jonna Mannion (Real World Cancun)

Nobody has played a better social game the last two seasons than Jonna. She is a balanced competitor, never comes in last place in daily challenges, and is coming off back-to-back 1st place finishes. Why isn’t she #1? Ultimately, Jonna can no longer go under the radar, and while she is a phenomenal player, she is beatable (the girl has a career 2–5 elimination record). If Jonna can pull off another win, we are talking about history because very few females have won 2 seasons in a row, and if you count it as a third, nobody has ever done that.

Edit: I just saw Jonna’s new cast pic and damn she looks good. Maybe I should rank her #1.

1 KellyAnne Judd (Real World Sydney)

Going into All Stars 1, KellyAnne didn’t train much as she dealt with severe metal poisoning the two years before filming. Even then, she killed the dailies and was able to outpace every other female in the individual cardio portion of the Final. KellyAnne has always been a good competitor, and now that she’s in better shape, I think she’s the most built to win. Also, despite being a great player, KellyAnne doesn’t have a target on her as big as Jonna, Kendal, Kailah, etc.

MALE CAST

The male cast podcast breakdown. Let’s dig into the men.

12 Syrus Yarbrough (Real World Boston)

Kudos to Syrus for getting back in shape. He’s lost a ton of weight recently and looks better than ever. Still, I have to rank him 12th because he’s never seen a modern Challenge final, and carrying a large frame through a Final is difficult enough, let alone actually trying to beat elite players in it. I would love to see Syrus get a physical elimination with Mark Long so that we could see two fifty year old legends class in the battle of century.

11 Laterrian Wallace (Road Rules Maximum Velocity)

Laterrian is super fit, educated & intelligent and has the intensity and desire needed to become a Champion. What LT lacks is Finals experience, and that matters a ton when you consider he’s going against an entire cast of Champions. At least he’s the All Stars King of the Pole Wrestle.

10 Tyler Duckworth (Real World Key West)

I thought Tyler was the sleeper candidate to win last season as his mix of size, swimming, intelligence, and cardio would be hard to beat in either an elimination or a Final. All Stars 2 played out, Tyler mainly was unimpressive in the dailies, and then we saw him get torn apart by Laterrian in Pole Wrestle despite having a clear weight advantage. Tyler can still run and swim well; however, his new body type is maybe not inclined toward challenges requiring players to essentially carry their body weight or be flexible/agile.

9 MJ Garrett (Real World Philadelphia)

Am I a lunatic for ranking the guy who won last season 9th out of 12? Probably. It’s a testament to this cast’s strength and the after-effects of winning All Stars 2. Last season, MJ went under the radar, performed well in the dailies (he was good, not great in them), and built excellent chemistry with Jonna, where the two played an incredible social game. This season, he will have a target on him.

In the Final, he and Jonna got clobbered in Part 1. Lucky for them, all that mattered was Part 2, where Jonna solved the math equation and earned them the win. It was an underwhelming victory that didn’t have me thinking that MJ would be able to beat a Darrell or Jordan in a straight-up Final solo.
That doesn’t mean MJ isn’t a beast because we’re talking about a 6’3 former collegiate wide receiver who would probably torch most of this cast in a Hall Brawl. I just want to see him prove his All Stars 2 win wasn’t a fluke.

8 Derrick Kosinski (Road Rules X-Treme)

Making it to a Final and winning are two different things. I think Derrick’s a stellar physical competitor entering the game with good social connections who can give him a straight path to the Final. The problem is…that path may not give him a shot at winning. Even though Derrick is a beast, he’s not the most well-rounded in certain Final aspects, like puzzles or eating. Derrick has competed in two Finals as a solo/pairs player, one was All Stars 1, where he got purged immediately, and the other was Dirty 30, in which he got torched by Jordan (who had a fractured leg). For Derrick to have a shot at winning, he needs to play boldly and go after the biggest Final threats, even if that includes his friends like Darrell and Yes. Although, I don’t know if Derrick has it in his soul to play a snake-like game.

7 Nehemiah Clark (Real World Austin)

Nehemiah is a solid all-around competitor who doesn’t have many dominant strengths. His biggest strength is probably his fearlessness, where he is willing to take a shots at whoever stands in his way of winning, whether through a political/power vote or facing them in elimination. It makes the fact that he didn’t win All Stars 2 after working the game from all angles and then killing Part 1 of the Final super disappointing. All Stars 2 was Nehemiah’s season, and I don’t know if he will be able to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

6 Brad Fiorenza (Real World San Diego)

I think there will be two major alliances in this game. One will be the King’s Palace 2.0, which will consist of Nehemiah, Wes, LT, and maybe some others. The other will be the Challenge Mania alliance with Derrick, Darrell, MJ, Mark, etc. Since Brad is good friends with both Derrick and Wes, I think he will be in a fantastic spot to play the middle and coast.

Brad should be a 3 or 4x Challenge Champion based on talent and pure athleticism. Except something always goes wrong for him, either through some fault of his own or divine intervention.

5 Mark Long (Road Rules The First Adventure)

Everyone loves the Godfather. Mark Long has only gotten voted into an elimination one time in his entire Challenge career. The guy has a killer social game supplemented by the fact that physically nobody wants to face a 6’3 220 lb man in elimination.

The question is, will Mark question the status quo and try to cut some power players before the Final? Mark is never going to be someone who gasses out in a Final; his mobility and cardio for a guy his size and age is remarkable. We are talking about winning, and as good as Mark is for his age/size, I don’t think he can outpace Darrell or Yes, as seen in the All Stars 1 Final, so for him to win, he needs to hit the drawing board.

4 Wes Bergmann (Real World Austin)

I think most of this cast would thoroughly trash Wes in a headbanger elimination. While Wes isn’t terrible in Finals, I’ve seen him come up short against multiple 5-tool elite players in Finals such as CT, Darrell, Turbo, and Theo. So why do I have him in the Top 5? Simply, Wes is an X-factor, where he will be playing a gung-ho social, political, and mental game. Some players will be afraid to make waves. Not Wes. He’s going after the biggest Final threat every time.

It’s hard to differentiate players like Brad, Derrick, and MJ from one another because they are all great athletes who focus on the physical game. They’re all the same guy in different bodies. Wes is something different, and if you’re trying to beat the upper echelon, you have to go outside the box. At the same time, Wes could very easily be the first boot, and part of me thinks that what’s going to happen.

3 Jordan Wiseley (Real World Portland)

Jordan is likely the best player on this cast due to his skill-set, resume, experience, and he is still in his athletic prime! Not only does Jordan win Finals, he crushes people in them.

So why do I have him 3rd? It’s simple, Jordan’s the least OG male cast member and is a clear threat; thus, he will have a giant target on him. It is typical for Jordan to have a target on him; the difference is, I could see him losing to almost anyone on this All Stars cast. Which isn’t a shot at Jordan, it’s more or less the fact that eliminations can be a crapshoot, and this cast is so fucking good. He will be public enemy #1 the entire game; the only way for Jordan to survive is to win at every chance. Which is something he’s done before.

2 Yes Duffy (Road Rules Semester at Sea)

Yes achieved the impossible on Challenge All Stars 1. He became the first player ever to beat Darrell Taylor in a Challenge final. The guy is a cardio monster who can run, swim, climb, and problem-solve at a high level. Going into this season, Yes has lost his biggest x-factor: the element of surprise. He is not ranked #1 because people now know he is one of the biggest threats in the Final, meaning he will likely have to see his first-ever elimination. I rank Yes above Jordan because he has a better social game and enters the game with more OG connections. I would love to see Yes and Jordan go toe-to-toe in a straight-up Final.

1 Darrell Taylor (Road Rules Campus Crawl)

Why am I ranking Darrell over Yes and Jordan? Pretty simply, Darrell enters this season with way more social connections & alliances and won’t have as big of a target as them despite being just as good as them when it comes to running Finals. Back in the day, Darrell was the silent killer who would come up and show out in the Finals after being under the radar all season. His two recent final losses have made him look beatable when in reality, the guy is still a force. I can already imagine the montage the editors will run of him coming up short the last two season only to take home the big check finally in Season 3.

At his worst in a Final, Darrell is a 2nd Place Finisher, meaning the only way he can go is up. I ranked Darrell as the #1 guy going into All Stars 1 & 2, so maybe the third time is the charm.