The Challenge: Vets and New Threats Trailer Breakdown

I will be breaking down the trailer for The Challenge 41: Vets and New Threats 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. MTV actually did a decent job of concealing elimination spoilers by blurring players’ faces and editing out their names from their jerseys.

I do want to give a heads up that I have not blogged in three months — so you’re going to be getting a slightly meaner & snippier version of Allan. I swear I don’t hate the show — I just haven’t been able to talk shit for a bit. Also, if you needed to know how much I care about all of you, I took the time to finish and post this blog even though it’s my birthday.

Let’s jump into it.

The trailer opens with the Irving Berlin song “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)”. This is a bold statement from MTV, considering The Challenge is losing public consciousness, while reality crossover shows like The Traitors, Deal or No Deal Island, and even Netflix’s Battle Camp are crushing it.

During this opening, we see CT in the driver’s seat of a car that is being pulled by a larger vehicle, and we see CT’s car tip over as it appears to be attempting to either avoid or knock over a tower of blocks. I haven’t seen CT crash out this badly since the time he found out that his adult film star girlfriend was flirting with people on OnlyFans.

They then flash the name of the season: The Challenge Vets & New Threats, which rolls off the tongue so much easier than Fresh Meat 3. The premiere date is Wednesday, July 30th, which means that about six to eight weeks into the season, The Challenge will be going head-to-head with Survivor once again. Absolute genius work.

We then get a TJ Lavin narration where he says: “These vets wrote the playbook and they’ve all had to earn their stripes.”

Flashes of six different vet faces come on screen in order: Bananas, Cara Maria, Leroy, Olivia, Aneesa, and CT.

The title of each of their playbooks would be something like:

Bananas: How To Become The Face of a Reality Show by imitating your best friend who was banned from the same show.

Cara: How To Have A Dozen Of The Most Contentious Rivalries in Challenge History and Take Zero Accountability For Any of Them

Leroy: How To Lose On The Challenge For Two Decades

Olivia: How To Have An Amazing Rookie Season and Coast Off That

Aneesa: How To Lose On The Challenge For Three Decades and Never Even Come Close To Winning

CT: How to Finally Win on The Challenge, Only For 2/3rd’s of the Money to go to Taxes and Your First Ex-Wife

Semi Spoiler Warning:

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After this, there’s a shot of two competitors (with their faces blurred) in a Pole Wrestle. One of the competitors is wearing rainbow socks and looks very skinny, especially in comparison to their opponent.

After the vet portion, they flash a montage of the rookies and threats. We have 16 rookies this season, and they curiously show only 15 faces, excluding Sydney Segal from Survivor. I could understand a graphic that excluded multiple rookies, but to show everybody except one has my spidey senses tingling a bit.

The shots of rookies Ben, Ayoleka, Gabriel, and Izzy look like they’re in the elimination arena at some point this season.

During this montage, we get a close-up shot of Love Island rookie Leo flexing his muscles. This picture leads me to believe he’s either going to be a rookie to look out for or a second episode boot similar to Kelz from Spies, Lies, and Allies.

Last Minute Edit: Apparently, Jake was also not shown from the opening image with the 15 rookies, and Leo was shown twice. So, the omission of Sydney is no longer as interesting. As you’ll tell throughout this trailer, I have a tough time deciphering the difference between Jake, Ben, and Will. I know they don’t look that similar, but when they’re not wearing hair gel and it’s views from the chin up, I just don’t know their faces well enough yet.

We get a few action shots as a Rogan O’Connor (hey, he’s back) narration comes up, with him saying, “They come from Survivor, they come from Big Brother, they know what they’re doing.” Now, I will note that two of the four shots during this portion are of Jake Cornish from Love Island UK (it might be Will from AYTO, still not accustomed to their faces) and Adrienne Naylor from Married at First Sight, neither of whom is from Big Brother or Survivor. In both their shots, they seem to be reeling in chains while on top of the car we saw at the beginning of the trailer.

Now, we did get to see some Survivor & Big Brother rookies. I might have been making a mountain out of a molehill earlier, as Survivor’s Sydney Segal is the first person we see competing after that opening montage of all the rookies. In the shot, we see Sydney scaling a climbing wall. I wouldn’t be surprised if that image is from an opening combine challenge, similar to past Fresh Meat seasons. We also see Big Brother rookie Cedric competing in a swimming challenge.ge.

Semi spoiler warning next:

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They give us a look at Big Brother Blue Kim taking a bow in what looks like the elimination arena.

We get a clip of TJ Lavin saying: “Legend and rookie side by side. Is that gonna help, or are you gonna get burned?”
As he says this, we see shots of different pairings participating in the same daily challenge. It appears to be a cardio-based challenge where players must run through pits of mud and collect a certain number of balls, then solve a puzzle once they’re done.

They show the pairing of CT & Big Brother rookie America Lopez before the daily, and then a shot of Love Island UK rookie Jake with Cara Maria during the daily. There’s a shot of a brunette girl struggling during the daily challenge (possibly America). We see Bananas and Survivor rookie Dee looking happy after what might have been a win. In the shot of Bananas & Dee, you can see Aneesa looking at them, annoyed and tired during the challenge — some things never change. Bananas & Dee is a partnership to look out for because not only are they a theoretically strong pair competitively, but Dee had a foot-based storyline on Survivor, and that’s right up Bananas’ alley.

There’s also a celebratory shot of Cedric lifting up Ashley Mitchell! It’s possible they won the daily challenge, or maybe it’s a tribunal format similar to War of the Worlds 1. Regardless, I’m happy to see Ashley doing well competitively after her outing on All Stars 5.

After this, there is an action shot of a circular caged Hall Brawl similar to the Oppenheimer elimination from Free Agents. I didn’t put a spoiler warning on this one because I genuinely couldn’t make out the competitors with the blurred faces.

After the Hall Brawl, there’s a CT sound byte of him saying: “Once we train them, it’s gonna be harder to contain. As he says this, they give us shots of CT & Canadian rookie Ayoleka, Olivia & AYTO rookie Will, as well as Aviv & Love Island rookie Jake.

Now we’ve seen CT with America and Jake with Cara in previous shots, which leads me to believe that partnerships may switch up via steals/eliminations similar to Double Agents & Spies, Lies & Allies — or they will be different every week like on Challenge USA 1.

There’s two interesting action shots that come next. We see Cedric competing in yet another daily challenge — this one looks like a challenge where he’s trying to decode a puzzle in the dark and I believe Aneesa is his partner here. Then there’s a shot of two players hurdling and sliding over a ramp. It looks like a cardio/speed based elimination. Based on the hair of the competitor in the back of the photo, it could be Ayoleka, Nia, or Michaela.

We also see a group hug between Cheer Rookie Justin Hinsley, Love Island’s Leo, and two ladies.

There is a 3-second segment with Survivor winner & rookie Dee Valladares. We first see her struggling during a daily challenge, and then a pre-daily challenge look of her being gorgeous. I find her attire in the daily challenge curious — it’s a white tank that doesn’t resemble typical MTV Challenge attire. My guess is that it’s from a Fresh Meat-like combine where they were allowed to wear anything.

During this portion, TJ Lavin asks Dee in an interview-like segment, inquiring about how she won Survivor. I assume that there will be an Episode 0 where TJ interviews most of the rookies in this fashion. Dee answers TJ’s question by saying she won by manipulating people, which she plans to do on The Challenge. We also see her flirting with Bananas. Their connection makes so much sense, especially when you consider that they both live in Florida.

Getting Dee on The Challenge is such a big win, as she’s one of the best modern Survivor players, is physically strong, smart, a little bit messy off the show, and carries herself like a boss. I wouldn’t be surprised if MTV paid her more than a rookie typically gets because she is a hot commodity.

TJ Lavin looks into the camera and says: “It’s the dawn of a new era”.

Ok.

After that, we get some more Irving Berlin and some action shots. We see a male jumping into the water for a swimming challenge, and then Too Hot Too Handle rookie Izzy trying to do a toe touch on her jump into the water.

We see two women competing in a very physical elimination.

After that, there’s a shot of someone with piercing blue eyes as he puts on a helmet and then grips the steering wheel of a go-kart. I like that they’re doing a go-kart challenge because it reminds me of the old days of The Challenge. We see a capsized car shot, and that’s definitely not from the go-kart challenge; it’s from the daily challenge at the beginning of the trailer.

There is another shot of Leo as he’s watching an elimination and we get a sound byte saying: “I want to absolutely slaughter all the vets”. As he’s saying this, we see more Pole Wrestle footage, and a shocked crowd that consists of Derek Chavez, Cara Maria, and Aneesa.

They show us another elimination; this time, it is a reverse tug-of-war elimination between two men. One man is seated and trying to hold the competitor back while the other is running forward. I wonder if the person sitting is trying to prolong an inevitable loss or if this is a timed reverse tug-of-war, where a player has to complete the elimination in a certain amount of time.

We get a female sound byte saying: “This really truly is one of the most even match-ups I’ve seen in a long time.” I have no clue what woman is saying this. However, we see a group of players excited by an elimination outcome. All of them are excited, except for Aneesa — my guess is that production told her to stop stalking the rookies outside the showers.

They drop a series of graphics saying “It’s The Most One-Upping, Back Stabbing, Jaw-Dropping, Season Ever.”

They sprinkle in different shots. There seems to be a daily challenge where players try to climb/hold themselves up on a rotating wall above water. We then see Cara & Jake in the mud pit challenge again, and then a shot of someone crying and being consoled. I still haven’t fully grasped the distinction between Ben, Jake, and Will.

And lastly, we get a shot of rookie ladies Blue, Adrienne, and Taylor looking stunned in the elimination stands.

We get a CT & Turbo fight. I believe Turbo is making a comment about how CT should retire because being on this show is a dream for some people. CT curses him out and says “I’ll come every time I fucking want”. He sounds like Danny McBride in This Is The End.

Theo is in the room during the fight, and rookie Leo seems to be enjoying the mess. I had no prior insight into Leo, but he might already be one of my favorite players from this season based on this trailer alone.

This rookie girl from Big Brother has a sound byte where she says: “I’m trying to learn as much from these vets as possible so I can turn around and use it against them.” Sounds just like what the Pilgrims did to the indigenous people of this country, now I understand why her name is America.

Jokes aside, we get a whole lot of America in this 5–6 second portion of the trailer. We see her partnered with Derrick and Turbo in separate daily challenges. There’s a scene where she’s talking to Nia and high-fiving her. Then we see her do a Tori Deal shocked face impression. We also see a quick glimpse of a Nany-Aneesa fight, followed by America in tears! A country divided!!

Nany & Aneesa getting into a fight makes me laugh because they are like your two aunts who have the potential to blow up any family party in an instant.

Edit: it might Sydney crying and not America! I do also want to note that I have a broken computer screen that I haven’t had time to get fixed, so visually, breaking down some of this trailer did get a bit tough.

There is a blink and you’ll miss it moment of Jake or Ben punching a seat in the bus.

We see rookie Yeremi jump from the top of the climbing wall over water in the daily challenge we got a look at earlier. After his jump, it pans to the water, where Derrick seems to have also taken plunge, except he’s yelling for help.

A crowd of players seems worried for Derrick. Meanwhile, we see a player fall off the side of the wall.

There is a CT sound byte of him saying, “You can’t try to control The Challenge. You have to try to survive it.” As he says this, we get an outside view of the ball pit challenge, a glimpse of players running during a daily challenge, and Aneesa embracing rookie Justin. We also see rookie Adrienne crying in what appears to be an ambulance. Either she or a partner might have gotten injured.

TJ tells the players to “throw out everything you know about The Challenge”. Ok.

After that, we see rookie Justin excited in the elimination arena; either he has won, or something has happened that he likes. We get another shot of the car from the daily challenge at the beginning, flipped over. That gets followed up with a couple of blink-and-you’ll miss-it scenes. One is of a car jumping a gap, which is only notable because it’s a rare Michaela sighting. Then we get a couple of house party scenes where we can see Nany, Olivia, Yeremi, Justin, Leroy, and someone I can’t discern in the first photo. Then, Bananas, Izzy, Adrienne, Derek, Dee, Leo, Taylor, and Aviv were in the other group.

The trailer ends with rookie Justin looking like his mind has just been blown.

The trailer actually ends with TJ saying the only thing he hates more than quitters is cheaters. Cara yells: “WHAT?” in response, either because TJ is calling her & half the cast out or they’re bringing out Paulie as a mercenary.

QUICK NOTES

The people we see most prominently in this trailer are:

• Chris Tamburello
• Cara Maria Sorbello
• Johnny Bananas
• Aneesa Ferreira
• America Lopez
• Dee Valladares
• Leonardo Dionicio
• Cedric Hodges
• Jake Cornish
• Justin Hinsley

People We See a Good Amount:

• Turbo Johnson
• Nany Gonzalez
• Adrienne Naylor
• Blue Kim

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

• Derrick Kosinski
• Olivia Kaiser
• Ashley Mitchell
• Izzy Faithorn
• Ayoleka Sodade
• Yeremi Hykel
• Will Gagnon

People We Basically Don’t See:

• Derek Chavez
• Theo Campbell
• Rogan O’Connor
• Leroy Garrett
• Dan Renzi
• Aviv Melmed
• Nia Moore
• Taylor Wilcoxson
• Sydney Segal
• Gabriel Wai
• Ben Davies