The Challenge All Stars Trailer Breakdown

I will be breaking down the trailer of the Challenge OG Spinoff: Challenge All Stars 1, as I do every season with extensive trailers. There are no spoilers in this article 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 in this trailer, it is not a spoiler.

Sidenote: Considering the first season the Challenge was Road Rules All Stars, the first spinoff season with OGs being the Challenge All Stars makes sense.

If you prefer videos, I did the full breakdown in Video Format as well:

Let’s Go!

The trailer starts strong before even hitting the 3-second mark. We see a player jumping between beams across the side of a moving semi-truck. When they flip the camera vantage point, we can see that the player jump is also holding a ball. A very intense challenge for a normal season, let alone an OG season.

They then give a dramatic shot of Aneesa, which I could do without since I already see Aneesa on a weekly basis. I would have preferred someone we haven’t seen in a decade getting featured in that way.

We get a TJ sound byte mentioning that this is an All-Star cast, and we are here to find out who is the best of the best, which is way different than what was initially advertised. Even cast members thought they would be playing carnival games.

There are some opening shots of legends. We first see Alton, the man who was pulling off jaw-dropping physical performances before the Challenge was ever called the 5th sport and who refused to compete in a speedo because his dick was too big. Then Trishelle, one of the most famous players in the show’s history, having appeared in Playboy, The Lingerie Football League, a Go Daddy Super Bowl Commercial, a William Hung Music Video (Rember that fucking guy?), The Surreal Life, Dr. Steve-O, and Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Wrestling show.

They follow it up with the man who pitched the Series, the Godfather Mark Long, and of course, Aneesa.

There is footage of players trying to break big blocks of ice. I believe we can see Alton (?), Arissa (?), Aneesa, and Jonna. Not sure if the person in the second photo is Arissa or Yes. Yes is skinny, but not sure if his arms are that small.

We get quick glimpses of some Battle of the Sexes 1 and 2 legends, Ruthie and Arissa.

Based on this footage, I believe we are getting a trivia challenge. The women seem to be nervous while wearing life vests and helmets, preparing themselves for a drop into the water. In the photo, you can clearly see OG legends Kendal and Katie, and then Jemmye and Aneesa.

There is an underwater swimming challenge where players have to retrieve a box. You can see Darrell swimming as an individual, and in the follow-up footage image, it seems that it is a team challenge, with some of Darrell’s teammates being: Syrus, Mark, KellyAnne, Alton, Ruthie, and Derrick.

A scene of Syrus saying: “I said I am going back no matter what! This legacy must live on.” Syrus was known as the old man all the way back on the Gauntlet 1; him being on the “OG” show is apt. It seems as though he is prepping to go into elimination in the second footage.

A cool editing move is they drop a Beth confessional saying: “Don’t mess with me!” She then eeked out her patented laugh (which lasted 1 second on the trailer; they definitely edited out 10 seconds of the laugh). Beth and Syrus were an underrated friendship duo back in the day.

Another look at a daily challenge. Jemmye seems to be dropping into the water. In one image, you can see players on two different platforms with ropes stretched across them. Initially, I assumed players would traverse the ropes to make it from one platform to the other similar to challenges on Fresh Meat 1/Rivals 2. However, in the second picture, you can see that one of the ropes breaks as a player falls into the water. I cannot tell if this is a malfunction or on purpose or if the player is supposed to swim and climb up the rope to the platform. My interest is piqued.

There is a Teck confessional saying, “Did ya miss me? Because it feels good to be back.” In all honesty, the answer is no, I never missed him, because I never expected to see him again. It is a welcomed surprise, though! As someone who has watched Van Wilder too many times, it is crazy that my brain never put two and two together that he was Hutch. We then get a shot of the players partying in the house. You can tell it’s an older group based on the amount of wine versus beer and vodka.

There is a sound byte of someone who sounds like Derrick Kosinski saying: “I need to know what it feels like to be a winner.” It doesn’t make sense Derrick saying that because he is a 3x Champ, then again it’s been over a decade since he won a Championship, and as a competitive guy, maybe he misses that feeling of being a champion.

Various footage plays over the sound byte, including a zoomed-out image of players kayaking. Followed by a man looking haggard after what I believe is an elimination based on the pads they are wearing. Looking at the hair, I assume it is Ace Amerson. We then get a shot of a player stepping on a platform that breaks under his feet and then falls into the water.

Then we get the twist/kicker, and that is, we get only one winner. I don’t mind the twist since most of these OGs played in an era where 5–9 people could win at once. I’m glad they get to play in a game where only one person wins.

Mark Long does the house toast.

We get to see the elimination arena. It is simple yet beautiful. They give us a shot of a surprised Jonna and Beth, and it’s an excellent image considering that their Real World seasons were 16 years apart. A true display of how long the RW/RR Challenge Universe has existed.

There is a scene with Jemmye telling Ruthie that best friends don’t even have each other’s back. They follow it up with footage of Jonna/Aneesa (two of Jemmye’s friends) getting pulled back and forth on top of one another on top of a block of ice by Derrick and Laterrian, almost like two lumberjacks trying to cut down a dense piece of wood. It is a classic daily challenge reminiscent of Battle of the Sexes 2.

The editors drop a Beth sound byte saying, “I play a whole different type of game.” Beth being up to Beth things excites me.

During the sound byte, they drop footage of Katie being helped out of the water by Teck and Yes with a busted lip. It reminds me of when she broke her face during Cutthroat falling into the water during a heights challenge. The girl has bad luck. We then see a group carrying a log in what looks like a team challenge; the players I can make out are Darrell, Jisela, and Kendal. Last but not least, we see Jemmye being spooned by a male in what looks like the morning after a hookup. Jemmye is a massive reality television fan and is living her dream. I believe the man she is in bed with is either Laterrian or Nehemiah, and it would be wild if it is Laterrian as his last season of the Challenge was 16 seasons before Jemmye’s first season.

We get a different vantage point view of the semi truck challenge from the opening. It looks much easier from this side. Ruthie flat out calls Aneesa a liar, which is not crazy since Aneesa is famous for playing the middle. Yes and Derrick look like they’re not trying to get dragged into the fight. Fun Fact: Aneesa was on all four seasons that Ruthie did all the way back in the day.

At a deliberation, Big Easy angrily tells someone, “this is my vote now; I’m talking.” They then show KellyAnne (sitting next to Jonna) saying “heartless” in reaction to somebody’s vote. The two moments are probably different scenarios edited together to make it look like she reacts to Big Easy.

A scene that catches my interest a ton is Jisela crying and saying, “it’s not over yet.” She is wearing what looks like the standard swimming top, which makes me think this is one of three things (1 most likely, 3 least likely): #1 she got injured and is trying to play through the pain, #2 she and potentially partner(s) are about to lose a purge challenge since this isn’t an elimination arena look, or #3 she and potentially partner(s) are about to lose the final. Any of those outcomes have me on my toes.

Laterrian also looks emotional in another scene, but that could be anything. He probably just wishes Landon was there.

In less than half a second, they show one player manhandling another in a headbanger elimination. When slowing down the footage, I made out that the player getting manhandled is Ace. Ace getting his ass kicked in eliminations shows that even as time progresses, some things never change.

Trishelle and Katie get into an argument over something from 15 years ago. Katie yells at her to “get over it.” Trishelle and Katie (and Kendal) used to be roommates back in the day.

There is dramatic footage of a cameraman running after to capture footage of a player. It looks like the production side of the elimination setting. Then TJ tells someone, “hope to see you never!” He is known for saying that to quitters, and dear god, do I hope Beth quit this season. When other people quit, it is weak; when Beth does it, it is iconic villain shit.

The final three scenes consist of Mark Long, and I think Ruthie kayaking. This could be a regular daily challenge or the final (since it’s two strong players, my brain impulsively thinks final). Laterrian is hyping himself up in what looks like a race. The setting is similar to the challenge where Darrell, Jisela, and Kendal are carrying the giant log. The last scene is the same opening challenge, and I take back what I said about this challenge being easier than I thought as the jump this player is forced to take near the end of the course is fucking gnarly.

QUICK NOTES

The people we see most prominently in this trailer are:

• Mark
• Derrick
• Darrell
• Laterrian
• Beth
• Jonna
• Jemmye
• Aneesa
• Ruthie

People we see a decent amount:

• Alton
• Syrus
• Ace
• Yes
• Teck
• Big Easy
• Katie
• Trishelle
• Jisela
• Kendal
• Arissa
• KellyAnne

People we either don’t see or basically don’t:

• Nehemiah