The Challenge: Cast Member Rankings

Hey guys, 

Thanks for all the feedback! To answer some questions, this isn't simply based on who was the most entertaining, or most competitive, or on the most challenges. It's based on a combination of everything. Somebody like Danny Roberts may not have been the most competitive or entertaining, but I still think he was one of the more memorable cast members. Everybody loved Danny and when the challenges are over, people will still look back on him fondly, IMO. It's hard to explain because there was no official criteria I used. I just wanted he list to be representative of all challenges. There's a reason why somebody like Tyrie was ranked so low despite being on so many challenges, and that's because he's never really added anything. Whereas people like Ellen and Emily B haven't appeared in over a decade and rank high because they were stars. Same can be said for Landon, was he ever the most dramatic? No, but he's won 3 challenges and he's one of the most recognizable faces. Anybody who's ever watched the challenge knows who Landon is, basically.

As for Nia/Theresa/Nany, I understand they have their fans and detractors, but I have reasons for their rankings. Nia is still a little too fresh to really rank too high IMO. She was incredibly entertaining on Exees 2 but that challenge just ended, so I didn't feel right ranking her too high. As for Theresa, I am actually a fan mostly and while she's been given more storylines the past few challenges, I'm not sure that she's exactly "memorable". She's never really clicked with the challenge fans, one way or the other. She seems to inspire mostly ambivalence. As for Nany, love or hate her, she's one of the stars of the current era of challenges. She, Zach, Leroy, etc. are to today's audience what Coral, Miz, Veronica, etc were to the original challenges.

Also, real talk: I forgot to rank Katelynn....but she'd probably be in like the 80s. I'll post the next update yesterday.

35. Norm (Battle of the Seasons, Gauntlet)

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Norm was a really cool presence on the challenge for a short while. He’s from the very first season of TRW and was always a little older than the rest of the cast, but he could actually compete! You wouldn’t expect it from looking at him, but he showed up ready to compete, and he often wise and hilarious all at the same time. But let’s be honest, he gets high marks for coining the name “Osama Beth Laden” for Beth, which will go down in history as one of the most hilarious nicknames in challenge history (and that’s not a knock on Beth, but COME ON. That shit is genius. Petty, sure, but still hilarious.)

35. Johanna (Fresh Meat, Gauntlet 3, Island, Ruins)

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Honestly, Johanna isn’t all that entertaining and she was never much of a competitor, so I could understand why some people might dispute her having a high ranking (particularly higher than Kellyanne), but while Johanna might not be the most interesting, she is one of the most recognizable. It doesn’t hurt that she comes from arguably the most popular season of Real World (ugh, even if that season is the worst IMO) and her cast have been mainstays of the Challenge ever since debuting (some faring better than others), but Johanna will be ***ociated more closely with the Challenge then others. Her relationship with Wes is one of the most popular relationships, and played a big role in every challenge she appeared in and even ones she did not. Plus, her steamy hookup with Kenny fueled the Wes/Kenny rivalry which dominated the challenge for many seasons, for better or worse.

34. Frank R (Battle of the Sexes 2, Gauntlet 3)

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Let’s be honest, Frank was pretty much the only rookie worth a damn on Gauntlet 3. You may not have liked him or his methods, but he worked his *** off on that challenge and is one of the few people that truly deserved that win that was handed to them. Never did I expect Frank to be a major player on the challenge, even after his romance with Angela on BOTS2. But Gauntlet 3 was his challenge. He competed well, he hooked up well, and he strategized and played a smarter game than he might be given credit for. I personally was never a big fan, but gotta give him props.

34. Trishelle (Gauntlet, Inferno, Battle of the Seasons 2, Rivals 2)

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When you think of the Real World, Trishelle is one of the first people you think of. This is a fact. Whether you’re thinking of how she marked the beginning of the downfall for the show or not, you think of her. With that said, this is the Challenge and Trishelle never made quite as much of an impression. She only did 2 challenges for a long time, but she made them count. Her relationship with the Miz was one of the more (in)famous challenge hookups and who could forget when she flipped over her bike! And then on the Inferno she went nuts and threaten to punch everybody and couldn’t eat peppers. Then, she took a loooong break and came back and was more or less the same ole Trishelle. The thing about Trishelle is she always performed reasonably well, except when she was quitting or “being exhausted”. And she began a little rivalry with Sarah that led to Rivals 2 where she quit unceremoniously and left Sarah without a partner AGAIN. I’m mostly glad she came back because we finally got to hear somebody call her Trashelle on TV, courtesy of Aneesa.

33. James (Extreme Challenge, Battle of the Sexes)

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James may seem like kind of a random person, but if you go back and rewatch the two challenges he was on, he was a major player for the majority of the games. On Extreme Challenge, he had a season-long with Rebecca and an epic fight with Syrus after a paintball game. And he was just SO competitive about everything and got saddled with the absolute worst Road Rules team ever (they lost like 10 of the 14 missions or something) so it was just a recipe for disaster. But even with that insane competitiveness, James was capable of being self-aware and actually pretty funny throughout. And then of course he is most remembered for being one-half of the Emily/James romance that you either loved or loathed. Remember when they fought over competing in Battle of the Opposite Sexes or when James got voted off and Emily immediately left? Yeah, they were kind of the worst. BUT James is allegedly the reason for the epic Emily/Veronica feud since he “helped Veronica move”…

33. Melissa (Battle of the Sexes)

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You know, I almost ranked Melissa higher because she’s that awesome, but I decided she fit better around here. Melissa was endlessly quotable on BOTSexes and quite frankly it’s a shame she never returned. But let’s be honest, these challenges were NOT meant for her. She was pretty much afraid of everything or ended up injuring herself (remember when she turned purple from sitting on ice for too long?), but you couldn’t help but laugh with her. The challenges were so much more laid-back then that Melissa was the perfect person to have because she didn’t take anything too seriously, but yet played a serious game. She had a shitload of points and came in 4^th even though she wasn’t so hot at the challenges. Melissa is the kind of person challenges fans would hate, because everybody is so focused on the competition, but Melissa made that all so hilarious and worth it. The shot of her swinging around and Jamie chasing her and screaming after “Stairway to Heaven” is etched in my brain forever. Plus, she had the epic takedown of Julie that I can literally picture exactly how she said everything “I just wanna LET YOU KNOW! You’re a LIAR AND AN *******! And I don’t want to hear my name come out of your mouth!” And even though Melissa only appeared on one challenge, she was BFF with Coral and lived on through the epic “Melissa Will Kill You” shirt dedicated to Julie.

32. Danny R (Battle of the Seasons)

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Like his castmate Melissa, Danny was not meant for these challenges (and the challenges weren’t that intense then). He was afraid of heights and generally didn’t look very athletically inclined. And well, he wasn’t. Luckily, Kelley was pretty kick*** but together they had one of the more surprising challenge victories. The thing about Danny is that he was undeniably rootable and endearing. Everybody loved Danny. I mean, honestly, he is probably one of the most likable cast members of all time. And Danny and Kelley quitting the ice-car challenge to go drink margaritas in the sand will live on forever. Priorities man!

32. Holly S (Challenge 2000, Battle of the Seasons, Inferno)

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Holly was really just a cool chick. She was one of the first “strong” females we had on the show. Her first challenge there wasn’t much in the way of competition, but she always performed well in her subsequent challenges. Her romance with Dan, which may or may not have been real, was actually endearing and even though it could sometimes be a little much, you didn’t care because they were so likable! You rooted for those crazy kids to get together! She hasn’t been back since the Inferno, but for awhile she was one of the most recognizable Road Rulers. She was on the evil RR team that plotted to get rid of Katie, but she was generally pretty neutral about the whole thing.

31. Dan R (Extreme Challenge, Battle of the Sexes, Inferno 2)

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Ah Dan, the original drama queen. He was basically Gretchen Weiners for awhile. His hair w***o big because it was “full of secrets”. You just knew he had the dirty on everybody and their mother. He w******y and sarcastic and often truly hilarious, but he was also self-aware. Could he be a crybaby? Yes, but you could root for him in his early appearances, especially Extreme Challenge when he struggled to get through that military obstacle course. Now, when he came back for Inferno 2, he was kind of more *****y but still often hilarious. But I remember thinking he was more of an *** that season, specifically after the whole Jodi/Veronica voting debacle. Still, I always appreciated how he was never really afraid to stand up to the “alpha males”.

31. Tori (Gauntlet 3, Duel 2, Cutthroat)

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Tori is an interesting case because she’s always been a strong competitor, but she seems so weirdly afraid of everything like she’s going to break or something. When Tori is on a challenge though, you’re guaranteed at least one overdramatic “I’m going to quit” moment. She will always be tied to Brad (they’re married if you didn’t know) and most of her big moments include him such as threatening to give his engagement ring back. She always found a way into an argument with somebody though, like Frank or Aneesa or Camila. Brad and Tori really did become villains on Cutthroat through their treatment of Camila, unfortunately. It was especially sad after Tori comforted her on episode 1 to see how much they would turn on her. Despite her melodrama, I usually liked Tori but it was very hard to like or root for her on that challenge. I still laugh thinking about Brad talking about Tori having his balls in her purse though. (Can’t remember which challenge).

Hints for next update:

- All but 1 girl and 1 guy have made it to the end of the challenge. Of the 8 that made it to the end of a challenge, 5 have won. And between those 5 people, they have won a combined 8 challenges.

30. Jordan (Rivals 2, Free Agents, Battle of the Exes 2)

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Jordan is definitely one of the most “important” players of the most recent era of challengers. He’s outspoken, he’s strategic, he’s a player, he’s an *******, and he’s competitive to a fault. These are all qualities that make for a more interesting cast member. Jordan is also impressive because he competes well with only one hand. Jordan is very polarizing. You either love him or LOATHE him. I personally have gone back and forth. I appreciated him as a rookie on Rivals 2 and recognized that he was there to play the game and he really showed up, but then Free Agents came. On one hand, I appreciated Jordan because FINALLY somebody had the balls to go after Bananas, but man did he go about it all wrong. He was all ego that season, probably because of his impressive debut, and it came back to bite him in the ***. I do think his flipping all the cards at the draw was an exciting moment, but it also came with a “WTF are you doing?!?!”  And then he started dating Laurel, and together decided they would eventually rule the world with little evil, competitive children who could kill you with one look (they get that from Laurel though). He was in much better form on Exes 2, even if that included often times treating his partner Sarah like shit, even though she was the mastermind behind their whole team. Still, he won. I’m interested to see if he comes back.

30. Emily S (Cutthroat, Battle of the Exes, Rivals 2)

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Emily is a beast of a competitor. Truly, one of the best female competitors this show has ever seen. She’s never lost an elimination and has made it to the end of every challenge, winning one. This is all very impressive and that is why she ranks this high. She doesn’t rank higher because aside from her competition, Emily doesn’t make too much of an impression. I don’t need people to be dramatic, but I think Emily is ONLY fondly remembered for how awesome she does as a competitor, and sometimes you need more. Sadly, her biggest non-competition storyline was the Blackface incident of Exes, which was really just embarr***ing all around for everybody involved. She also apparently hates Cara Maria, but we never got to that much in any real episodes.

29. Jamie M (Extreme Challenge, Battle of the Sexes, Gauntlet 2)

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Ah, Jamie the half-bro, half-zen man. Jamie has never done anything all that interesting on these challenges. In fact, he probably has like 10 confessionals spread across 3 challenges, but Jamie still belongs high on the list for one reason: he is the only person to appear on at least 3 challenges to win every single time. Technically, Darrell was 4/4 for awhile but that went to shit. Now, Jamie wasn’t even supposed to be ON the rookies team on Gauntlet 2, but hey it worked to his benefit. AND he is apart of the infamous Jamie/Cara/Susie threesome that was alleged to go down (it totally did right?) Plus, he had an awesome friendship with Melissa and I still laugh thinking about him chasing her and screaming when she was having trouble with her bungees. He was just cool, and Jamie was good at EVERYTHING. I still remember on Extreme Challenge, they awarded an MVP each mission and Jamie never won despite always being the best. They chalked it up to him being so good at everything that the producers were just like “well, yeah obvs it’s Jamie but we want to give it to someone who showed something unexpected!!”

29. Holly M (Battle of the Seasons)

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Ugh, this *****. Holly, along with Chadwick, will go down as one of the best villains this show has ever seen. She was an awesome competitor, kicking all kinds of *** with her partner, Theo, winning motorcycles and shit (“Chadwick has always wanted a motorcycle!!” ****), but she will always be remembered for being a self-righteous drama queen who wouldn’t even join the toga party because she w***o uptight and religious or whatever. Not to mention her telling Belou how to raise her daughter (okay so she had a point kind of but it wasn’t her place and again ****), or when she got all pissy at Theo during the newlywed game because he said if she could change anything, it’d be her breasts (“What?! I saw it on the internet!!”). Holly refused to sign the deal where if the RW cast wins, they would split the money with a RR finalist because she w***o sure they’d won. Well, they didn’t so Coral is the only person who got all her money basically. Holly claimed she didn’t regret her choice but again, ****. Also, she totally had witch hands.

28. Adam King (Battle of the Sexes 2, Gauntlet 2, Gauntlet 3, Duel 2, Ruins, Rivals)

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Let’s be honest, Adam is only this high up because he was the receiving end of a mauling by CT. Otherwise, he started out his challenges by being that annoying, corny kid who rapped and performed terribly and then cried about being eliminated. But, he was curb-stomped by CT in one of the most memorable, for better or worse, moments of the Challenge and then came back with CT for Rivals and everybody rooted for them because come on, we NEEDED them to be friends and win. They got screwed.

28. Jodi (Inferno 2, Gauntlet 2, Duel)

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Jodi has one of the most impressive challenge records, particularly for females. She has won 2 out of 3 challenges, one of them being the very first individual challenge. She’s always been a solid competitor, but man does Jodi crack spectacularly under pressure. One of her most memorable moments includes the epic vote-switch (orchestrated by Julie) to send Veronica into the inferno and the Bad *****’ complete teardown of Jodi, with Jodi falling into a teary shame spiral. She ultimately cracked and lost embarr***ingly to Veronica (in a game admittedly designed for V). Luckily, she bounced back and killed it on the next two challenges. Of course, we can’t talk about Jodi without mentioning her legendary list of alleged hookups including Derrick, Landon, Miz, Adam L, Blair, Alton, and Evan. They didn’t call her HOdi for nothing. Apparently she became a born again virgin or something idk.

27. Antoine (Battle of the Sexes)

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I don’t care what anybody says about Antoine being ranked too high. I say he isnt ranked high enough! Antoine was one of the best things in a season full of awesome things. He was hilarious (remember when he asked Syrus what country in Africa he was from?), sweet (he had a really sweet relationship with Shane), sexually ambiguous (he had a really sweet relationship with Shane…), and didn’t take the game too seriously even though he always competed surprisingly well. Plus, one of the single funniest moments is watching Antoine flirt with a judge during a snorkel mission and the judge calling him out on his *****. “Nice *****!!” And he always trying to have sex with Genesis, a lesbian. Antoine is the shit, nobody can take that away.

27. Ayanna (Extreme Challenge, Battle of the Sexes, Battle of the Sexes 2)

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OMG Ayanna was batshit crazy in the best possible way. She beat the shit out of Christian off-camera and refused to apologize, getting eliminated and then came back on the reunion and still didn’t really apologize but just like rambled about nothing. Ayanna always had a very infectious enthusiasm for the game, especially on BOTSexes1. She refused to be paired with Ellen after they voted off Rachel, but then did anyway and won the mission lol. And then she and Anne had a little laser-tag tiff and she quit because she felt the team turning on her basically. But come on, Ayanna is here because of this: “I SLEPT IN MY UNIFORM LAST NIGHT BECAUSE I WANTED TO WIN TODAY!!!” She just need 8 of them to have her back! Just 8!!!! Ayanna will live on in our hearts forever thanks to that quote. I mean, the fact that she isn’t higher is really a testament to the other women on this show. Because, this is an entertaining chick.

26. Colin (Battle of the Sexes)

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Colin was basically the narrator of this challenge, along with Mark. Every episode was filled with some sort of gem confessional with Colin commenting sardonically about the happenings of the game. (See: Antoine’s ***** “The judge telling Antoine ‘nice *****’? Priceless” like a Mastercard commercial…very topical for the time.) Plus, Colin spearheaded the voting off the lowest score, which admittedly wasn’t the most interesting way for vote-offs, but you couldn’t help but respect the gameplay. Also, he twisted ankle by rolling over a giant Lincoln log and still kicked *** and never exited the inner circle, eventually winning the challenge (and possibly cheating…but they would’ve won regardless). He was kind of *******, but he was a big part of arguably the gold standard of challenges. Plus, he had a nifty behind the scenes blog!

26. Jenn (Inferno 3, Island, Duel 2, Fresh Meat 2, Cutthroat, Rivals)

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Okay okay, you might be thinking Jenn is ranked too low, but honestly I disagree. Yes, she was once a regular on these challenges but IMO it is the least interesting stretch of challenges (she sat out the Ruins, the most interesting of that bunch despite how it turned out). Jenn has always provided drama, but I can honestly say I never truly understood it. I feel like she just yells to yell, without there ever being a real point. She picked on rookies and people she saw as weaker than her, and I don’t even like Cara Maria but her treatment of her w***hitty. I preferred Jenn on her earlier challenges, where she seemed to play the game and didn’t let it get to her head. Still, she improved physically with each p***ing challenge, even if I think she was mostly bark.

- Hints for next update:

- At least 3 of the girls have had a serious boyfriend from the show, and Debut Album will be happy to finally see at least 3 people removed from the list (but he will probably think they deserve to me lower ;))