The Challenge 39: Episode 1 Review

0:00 Welcome back to the nullify take Channel on YouTube where Kahuna and I've got the TNT takes for you on the challenge 39 episode one I believe there was an episode zero that has already dropped I'm your host Chris and with me today is my co-host kuna how you doing very good Chris I'm doing well man I'm excited for a new season I know we literally just came off USA season 2 they're keeping it going it's the challenge cycle that we're on we're just going to have like 800 Seasons back to back it seems it is like nonstop it is the challenge Marathon at the moment but what I do like about the challenge and what I do like about 39 going back to MTV is that it does have a somewhat different feel to it from some of the previous Seasons so you know we've got a completely new cast here the MTV channel is a little bit different it is the main Channel this is the main show did you get that feeling as well like maybe something Good's cooking up for us here this season with 39 there's so many new rookies people that have played the game before that maybe would be classed as veterans but none of them have W won the actual show yet so it gives a freshness to it as well and it just gives you a different vibe overall I feel like compared to USA 2 and World

1:20 Championship and also the Australian season that we covered here on the channel you know like there are times we really disagree on something and there sometimes we're just like on the same Vibe man cuz I 100% agree with you when you said freshness about it I like as soon as I saw the whole cast standing on stage in episode zero actually I was like this is a younger cast like across the board like when you take out the Vets you drop the age average considerably yeah I mean I mean across the board they're a very attractive cast some of them you know they're messy like for the people that like this SE season coming into it online there was a bit of flack like people weren't really excited by the casting choices right but when I look at it and like it gives me like old school challenge like they're young they're goodlook they don't give a about anything else they just want to have fun and like they're here to play and they don't have the veteran leadership and wisdom and all that sort of thing it does feel a little bit yeah or the baggage it feels a little bit like fresh old challenge

2:40 Times you know what I mean where anything could potentially happen you don't know who's going to be the best you don't know what's going to play out here and it's just kind of fascinating to see yeah I totally agree with you and it really started off I know that we're not going to really be covering challenge 39 episode zero that much in this specific spefic recap but it kind of gave me a little bit of a different feel right from the start when we start off with TJ in his garage taking us to his gym giving these phone calls to contenders and then they've got this really cool intro package with them and the stats of what they've done before coming into the season I really enjoyed it right off the bat to be honest with you even that episode zero being so different getting them to have like their phones with them as they're going to the airport recording their experience getting onto the challenge even episode zero was a hit in my opinion yeah absolutely and like I said that whole vibe of newness to them like that they're like you know excited for their first day at school kind of thing like it felt you know what I mean they're all super excited to be there they're not kind of Jaded by the experience and even the veteran ones probably with the exception of Michelle like Big T and Melissa even though they've done a few seasons they've taken a break you know what I mean they've been away for a

4:00 While so everything is kind of fresh and when I was watching it I don't know if this is the cynical like TV viewer in me but like I said when I look like it's a much younger cast very goodlooking I don't know if this is producer based or the contestant driven but their clothes were very skimpy across the board there's a lot of Flesh showing and I was like I think I wonder if the producers see the writing in the wall that maybe we can't watch these people go till their 50 we need new blood we I've been saying it for a long I feel like I've been saying it before it became a popular thing and maybe it still wonder they're catching on finally you know what I mean because I like the idea of getting these people a season of their own without the looming presence of the icons of the game you know I agree and like I said I've been I've been on that buzz for such a long time and you know obviously I need to point out we normally do these podcasts live and we always have the live chat going on in the background and you know we'll have some people that are Die Hard challenge fans point out that you know the game was built on these Legends and we all understand that we respect the Legends it's great to see growth but I love the freshness of it I agree with you the cloes you know it just seem to fit a little bit tighter as well there's goodlooking girls all around

5:20 You know and good-looking guys for those that are into the guys as well don't want to exclude them you know I love the peach color as well I don't know it's again it's such a it that's unique it's unque you know and yeah I'm very high on it and for those that Norm watch us live I know you're going to be disappointed that this one isn't live a lot of it has to do with the fact that my schedule is super tight and it's not don't blame Kahuna for this one it's all Chris I'll take all the smoke in regards to us pre-recording we will be pre-recording quite a bit of episodes for the first part of the season and I'll continue to do Survivor live on my weekends in that specific time slot because it still fits in for now but when Survivor finishes this show will move into Survivor slot and to that live slot and the challenge is going to go on for a lot longer we know 39's a marathon it's going to go on a lot longer than what survivor will go on for so as soon as that happens we'll be back doing the lives with everyone but for now we're going to pre-record so we can at least cover 39 because I didn't want to miss out on it like I did with 38 and yeah I'm excited to talk about it's going to be a bit of a different vibe but yeah overall great start love the whole thing that they had everybody standing up on the stage they're all kind of rookies to the show and without that leadership without that direction of veterans in the

6:40 Game they didn't know what to do and they're looking at the camera crew the camera crew is looking at them and they're like stay quiet don't tell them anything and it takes kyin to kind of make the first move you know we've spoken about him he gets a lot of hatred sometimes for how he played big brother but like I've said I don't know Big Brother that much and I think he said some controversial things but he's on the Spectrum so it kind of makes sense that maybe he says tonee things sometimes and he doesn't mean it you know and because he's on the Spectrum he looks at the game differently he looks at numbers differently and decisions and it took someone to think outside of the box to finally move I'd love to know kuna how long they were out there like how many hours were they just standing there doing the standoff because how long would you have stayed up there kuna I feel like I would have made a move pretty quickly like how petrified are they of these casting s yeah that's the thing I was watching going I don't know if this says that they are inexperienced to realize that something's going on or maybe they just all of them are like veteran reality TV people and they listen to production they don't want to stuff anything up they know that there's shooting schedules and like I wonder like you know what I mean is it that they're too dumb to realize they're actually in the game or they're actually very good workers and they know how to abide by what production says it's two

8:00 Sword there they're probably scared if they step out of line they don't get the call back for season 40 you know they're like ah no we need to be seen as team players we're not going to step out of line but they finally figure it out they finally work together to get their cots out there in the arena and they all sleep on it next morning this is where the episode starts we get TJ walking in to the arena like a boss Michelle gives them a little bit of sass saying we've been waiting for 11 hours bro she says as they're waiting there and then you know it kind of gets to the point where we get explained what this season is going to be about it's going to be Battle of the new Champion they are all aware that there's no Champions out there and then one of the big bombs that get dropped here I think it's not been since winners of War since War of the Worlds that we've had a one winner season right so this is the first time since War of the Worlds we're going to do a one winner season how do you feel about that personally Kona I feel like in like instinctively I'm not a fan of it because I feel like it's unfair against the women but then the one last season that we did have K Maria won it so you know like not the last that's two seasons ago that was not sorry yeah not the was it

9:21 Yeah that's right so that's why I'm like it's not impossible but I do feel like it could potenti yeah so yeah I like the idea of in my head like one to rule them more we get the Highlander drop there like there can be only one that sensation you're feeling is the quickening you know I hope they do something like some ritual around there's only one standing that kind of thing is always a cool thing and that title is important as well but it does feel like it may not be equal so the challenges may be a little bit softer or different like we're seeing already the team game is a completely different sort of element to it as well but I don't know what do you think of the solo champ yeah listen I like a solar champ playing this season and having like one through all them all like you said I'm similar to you I'm concerned in my mind instinctively I always feel like when men and women go up against each other there are certain and I know people are going to hate me for saying this but there are certain things when it comes to physicality the anatomy of the male body versus the female body that we've got advantages and then obviously women have got advantages in certain things as well but when it comes to the types of endurance challenges that they do in finals running up a mountain all those kind

10:41 Of things it gets really difficult for a woman to win it so instinctively I don't like it but you mentioned Kara Maria and let's not forget Jenny West also was first to cross the line in total Madness which wasn't that long ago so the question remains is there a Jenny West or a Cara Maria within this female cast coming into it you know I was shocked personally when we did our draft that the number one pick but my number one pick was a horrible pick and we'll talk about that in a bit but the number one pick after me was nus and Melissa right and they're both not the most physically big and most gifted athletic women out there I don't feel like I know that people pointed out that narus helped Nelly T to win his first daily after so many seasons she clearly has the smarts I think she's going to have the social game coming into it but I'm not looking at any of the three women at this stage in our draft that could pick first I chose burner and I'm gonna have a lot of EG on my face for that competitor yes but she is a fish out of water and then no Roose and Melissa was in that first category so if you're looking at Jenny West and you're looking at Kara Maria I just don't think any of those three women really live up to that going into the season no I think the closest

12:02 As far as physicality goes would probably be an Olivia or Mariah and I don't think yeah I don't think anyone's on Jenny West scale like you know what I mean like no one's really pushing that size but and that strength but yeah like across the board though like I like the cast like obviously there are weaker elements of there but there seems to be a pretty even spread and I'm not seeing any dominant like going they're a clear favorite or anything or clearly they're going to run over the rest of the cast it looks like it could be a really good battle all season long yeah no I do agree now the other thing that gets sort of explained to us here and this is something that yeah I personally am high on it but I'd love to know your thoughts you know we've got the three levels in the game it's going to be control which is going to be a face to earn money in chaos which is going to be a phase where they move into fight and protect the money and then Conquest where they may even earn more money so it's going to be a bonus segment they start off on $300,000 Emanuel thinks it's life-changing money but Melissa is not that impressed by it which I found really funny she's like come on TJ where's the real money at you know because they've gotten used to

13:22 It being a million dollars $500,000 a piece when it comes to a normal season obviously having one winner saving that budget for season 40 is high on the agenda yeah but what do you think about the concept of control chaos and Conquest did you like it because it's different and I kind of like it so far but we haven't seen the next two sections play out yet yeah like there's definitely positives to it I do like I see what they're doing as well like the chance to actually build money means that it's a chance for them to save more money that the prize for will be even less and less as the game goes on potentially so that's a clever move from vanam Murray I appreciate that yeah like I'm for I don't know what the fighting to keep I think that maybe that's where the Champs come in or I'm not sure like I everything is so kind of new I wasn't able to put forward a thought like a theory I was just like okay I'm in like I don't know what's happening next but I want to find out you know what I mean do you kind of feel like you're like of the challenges is DJ's telling it to you and you're like oh like this is a completely different game I've got to adapt to it and how I see it I love it because control one massive team we've never seen that play out on the challenge before like how do they

14:42 Work together and then how do they determine if they win or lose who the weak link was and if they do win does it mean that no one goes into the arena or does someone still go in like who was preventing you or what bases do you vote on if they do win like that's unanswered but I've Got a Feeling based on the schedule they're going to have to vote someone in every single episode right even if they do win as a team it's 24 people in the show man it's a it's a big cast with Champs to come as well you know what I mean like 100% 100% And I eight hours the other day it was it was a big draft it was two and a half hours I think it's the longest I've ever done a draft on this channel but it was a lot of fun and we will look briefly at the draft towards the end I don't have points yet for it that's the downside in doing it early this week I want to try and get points more and more into our podcast this season so people can follow along on how we're doing in the draft or if I can't get it into the podcast I want to start putting it out on the community tab here on the YouTube page so people can see how we did and we can always discuss it as we get deeper into the season but I agree with you on the chaos section I think that's the point where I mean what would be more fun if you're a champion and you're coming into a season where you've got nothing to lose there would be nothing more fun than coming in there to steal money from other people like that would be the way to do it so I

16:02 Feel like chaos is where it's going to happen and then Conquest is probably going to be towards the end it's probably going to be like when they kind of do like a big Purge or you know get people out I don't know what the format's going to be we haven't seen it play out in its totality but it's fun to see a fresh concept being used TJ does drop a little hint at the end though that a second and third place finish would still give you some sort of a reward but he doesn't say how much money that is don't know if you picked that up I didn't remember that but I mean they that might be answering the fans again like the Murray listening because people were saying that by eliminating second and third prize it facilitated the deals that if I come in SEC like we've seen PE first prize winners giving second and third money to make up for it and I don't think it's up to the contestants to do that it should be up to the show they deserve it for going that far so yeah I like it's it's a good move by them and I think they heard the feedback that it's why we saw the deals being made and people you know getting to the finals together because they know they're going to get money from their friends so yeah now we do go into straight after this we go into our first daily which is called whole control out

17:22 On the fields they've got this big hole that they have to run into which you know it starts pouring down with rain at this Point as well which would have made it even more slippery being in that hole it was like a water hole almost and they have these massive tubes that are part of puzzle pieces that weigh 50b each that they have to lift out of this wall and they've got to get people over the wall to run a distance and actually put these it's like cylinders that they have to put in and basically figure out this big puzzle which is going to spell out the challenge right and who would have thought coming into this season taking main stage right off the bat is you know none other than the challenged Australia finalist Kieran comes up with the strategy what did you think of this suddenly people are like there's no bananas there's no West who's going to give us the strategy and here comes our Aussie mate all the way from Down Under to give a little bit of sort of lead you know going into this first daily I so associate Kieran with being from Australia because of the challenge Australia and he was on The Bachelor and all that sort of thing or Bachelorette sorry so I was he your favorite Bachelor on The Bachelorette he yeah he was actually he was very good but he first I got Kahuna to admit he's a big fan of The Bachelorette here on this channel I watched

18:42 Yeah because the Bachelorette That season I'm a fan of she was from goggle box Angie I liked her anyway yeah I associate him with being Aussie because that's where I know him from but I forget that he's actually from the UK and when Big T said you know I've got these connections with all the UK boys and it flashed him I was like hey that's not cool he's Aussie and then I was like oh that's right but I loved it I like Kieran I like I said I was a fan of him from The Bachelorette I was a fan of him on the challenge Australia and the fact that he was in the Army and said I've done these walls I know how to get people over them like it was a great thing like yeah take Center Stage man like they don't know you they don't know who you are I don't think TJ even knows who TJ would have no TJ wouldn't know who he is like you know what I mean like no one knows who this guy is so yeah step out there and show him what you got and I think he came out with a great strategy he L it properly you know what I mean like he did well it's a difficult task I agree and who knew he had like we knew that he was a boxer and all that but who knew he was in the military before he had some experience in regards to doing this challenge in the military they had a strategy on how they were going to lift certain people up and they were going to pull everybody up and they made sure there was going to be some of the most physically strong guys to

20:02 Get up there first as well to do a lot of the heavy lifting if from memory it was Ed Assaf and chony they were the first three up there they were there from the start to pull everybody up but during all of this burner comes from like nowhere and she's like trying to insert herself in the conversation and like oh these boys don't listen to my experience as an acrobat you know I've got a lot to add here like I've got to be honest man burner kind of infuriated me a little bit in this episode I was like why did I choose this girl again like I remember the competitive spirit and thinking she's a Powerhouse but man if there was ever like someone that embodied main character syndrome ever on a show it's this like this whole episode felt like she thought she was the main character going out there I mean she didn't get the bed she wanted like there I mean there was a lot going wrong from ver je yeah I was I was surpris all I was thinking all I was thinking kuna was confessional points as long as she's in confessional drama points in the draft just bring it he's got his this guy that's for sure she thought but she ain't winning I don't know if you remember from the draft but I actually said great pick I like burner a lot but number one I didn't I didn't think number one overall but I did I do like her I think she was very

21:22 Competitive but she was like out the gates early Within negativity just someone crapped in her cereal on the way there or something I don't know what the hell did some someone did something to burn her that's for sure because she was cranky and like immediately as well there's no grace period there's no like susing people out you know it's just immediately I'm frustrated like even the confessionals leading up to that I know it's recorded after the fact he was like yeah I hope this is a solo game because I don't trust any of these people they're all idiots blah and then boom Team game so good EDI there very good editing there but yeah it's fascinating to watch just someone sink their social game so willingly so quickly yeah listen I kind of felt bad for her inspir lies and allies and I thought she had the raw end of the deal there with a lot of the girls not liking her early on but I think that the edit probably heard a lot of her personality That season and why a lot of the girls were put off by her I think that this season is doing her no favors and is probably showing that other side but yeah that was interesting to see early on obviously you know huie there is also you know he's there to help her try get through it to try and calm her down but there's no

22:43 Calming down burner while she's in the pit she's infuriated even when she's down there all the way running to do the puzzle I don't think was adding too much value on that outside of that I think like the biggest sort of interesting part was how they struggled to get Kieran and Jay out of the pit at the end it really showed you how difficult that challenge was right because yeah because of anyone you think Jay would probably run up there himself you know what I mean and Kieran certainly seems capable so it did emphasize how hard it was and why it was so close as far as timing to get out so yeah absolutely how would you have felt kuna you're out there in the pit you're getting out of it you know you've been busting your ass trying to get this thing to work and the men were all working really well together there and you get to the puzzle and you see that there is just nothing happening with the wom all talking over each other everybody trying to take lead like you could see it clearly in kieran's face I felt like in emanuel's face Emanuel actually probably said it as well like we've just busted our houses here and what is happening with the puzzle because that was an absolute show I mean it was but like it was a hard puzzle though right like 50 pound poles that you have to pick up and move they're not it's not like a slide puzzle like that's a difficult physical puzzle

24:03 And I felt like because they tubes as well they're not on a flat surface you have to actually line up 360 wise right otherwi you can't see it like I thought it was a really difficult puzzle and good on the Challenge people we also talk we praise the challenge people for how they innovate this is the first time they've done these big team ones and I thought the level of difficulty and physicality is Hu like very high we talked about how USA is probably not like all stars physicality versus main you know main Show versus USA this show like it was super hard so like I liked it was really good yeah I think that you know you bring up a valid point that was it was heavy to move around it was only a 10minute time that they had to do it in as well so I don't know if they tested it beforehand if they kind of proved out that it could be done I think I think the rain made it so much more difficult getting out of the pit moving those cylinders as well I think you know being slippery and things like that with the weight and then a lot of the girls are not like the biggest girls out there we very early on get Jessica feeling insecure about it as well the other Challenger from Australia and she talks about the fact that you know she's not the most physically big girl and that maybe she stood out

25:23 As someone that didn't pull a away but immediately when the they don't get it Cory frows like a bit of sass out there and Cory is like well at least we got our bit done you know and I was like oh yeah we go Corey here we go this is why you're back mate bring the source you know let's play the blame game I love Cory he's looking good too he's got the hair the braids going on like he's he's feeling himself and I how was how high was he picked because he's I think he's looking good this season yeah let's have a look I think it was a it was a who did pick Cory at the end oh it was the Chantel pick so there was actually if we if we discount the fact that Chantel took a risk on a champ early on and she picked CT it's actually her first male pick of the Season which I think is a good pick I really do think and he's bringing the confessionals as well and he's going to bring the strategy there was a lot of talk strategy talk from Corey this episode that I think as we get deeper into the episode we'll bring some of that up but he was taking aim at a few people specifically and it was interesting because one of those people were Big T and Big T is someone that he sees as a strategic force in the game something that can be running it from the shadows and I think that a lot of people use this as an opportunity

26:43 To paint a bit of a Target on Big T Jessica and also Melissa very early on as some of the smaller girls who maybe struggled a little bit out there with the physical aspect of this daily yeah and I'm not sure I understand the strategy because it m TJ made a big deal of the fact that there's going to be one Champion right yep who do you want to run against Jessica not yeah you know what I mean like even the men like even Cory like he should be trying to take out as many men as possible unless you're trying to keep them to build the pot if that's really the thing at the moment or do you want to be able to beat people at the end you need to be taking out the horio now as opposed to Jessica keep her like let's keep her all the way to the end there's only one Champion like you're not keeping strong women to partner up with you're keeping weak women to run against right like that's the thing they should all and Big T got it right like Cory's actually smart by picking out Big T saying we should Target them men because we're going to get run over and they're just not seeing it I don't understand why no 100% And I think that's probably one of the reason the men stuck together cuz the men felt like they did their job and they felt like the woman were the sort

28:04 Of the they were they were easy to blame after the puzzle didn't get completed let me just put it that way so they wanted to go in that direction I do think that it is at the moment a men versus women game and I feel like we're probably going to see that play out a little bit over the next couple of votes like I wouldn't be surprised if we see another one or two rounds with women going in instead of the men going in immediately here because they've just lost the number and Big T's tried to prevent that she's tried to prevent them from losing numbers but they when they go to the deliberation and I know we're skipping ahead a little bit I thought it was very evident that the men and women were going up against each other this season and it's strange how it sort of rolled out that way like just automatically naturally like it's something inbuilt within us or something yeah I mean also by the way I want to point out for the people that were not impressed by this cast this season the men versus women does that not give like old challenge Vibes like it's very kind of old mentality like the way the challenge used to be the and you know hopefully it doesn't get out the path of some of the behaviors we saw come out of that you know almost I guess misogyny but don't want to go down that path but yeah like the men versus women thing the men now have the numbers

29:24 Like if we skip to the end but like how does how do you break that then like is he right like if it is divided down those lines and it's 5050 once it's no longer 5050 how do you get those numbers back like how do you I back over yeah I do think what's going to happen in my mind at this stage so early I mean we've seen one episode and we're already like hypothesizing on how the season's going to turn out and who's going to vote who but you know if you're if you're playing within that men group and you want to keep it strong for a couple of votes so you can ensure men are not at the bottom of the vote you only need like two or three women to go down in a row and then you start using Women Within your alliance to take out the men you want to take out because they'll be looking for a new house they'll be looking for people to work with and that way you eliminate the threat of the wom coming against all the men and just steamrolling over them basically throughout the game but I also think that it's going to be interesting now because moving forward you know by the end of this episode the Voting is going to change because we now know that whoever gets thrown down there can choose who they want to go again and I love it I it but what that do is it's going to create that thing where do you want to throw Hario down there the guys five from five from five in eliminations like do you want to be number six you know do you want to go up against the Juggernaut such as

30:44 Roasio yeah and if you vote him in are you then in danger of putting yeah yourself like are you scared of that bouncing back are you going to vote towards the weaker players in case they pick you know like it's such a fascinating Dynamic and I really love like although because it's a team game there's no Winner's Choice there's no loser automatically goes in which you know I appreciate those elements as well like I like when you know the winners have power and it's up to them and or I it hasn't happened a lot lately but the seasons where loser automatically goes in is always great as well but this way it's completely 100% political social right it's all about who what numbers you can get it's no there's no power to the winner there's no nothing like that it's just who can I rally to vote my way in front of people's faces as well and that's such a fascinating concept the way it's going to play out now that the loser or the person who goes in picks their opponent as well like how do you how do you navigate that it's really fun can I just say like we've been pretty high on the episode so far and I know there's probably some there's someone out there that's looking at be like oh Huna and Chris are so full of it they're just you know they're up Productions ass that's why they're loving this season you know and I will point out like one

32:05 Specific thing that I didn't like about the format and how it sort of played out and that was the open vote at the arena where we went from one person through to the other one and it just allowed for 37 people to gang up on Jessica and just throw her name down there I don't know there's something about it that just seems boring and it's too easy for people to hide behind a vote right as soon as they see two three people do it I mean what was Hario thinking what was he thinking putting a vote on Big T right the only one he's like I'm My Own man I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do I love Hario and once again man oh man Bernard's my number one pick for the season for the woman Hario is my number one pick for the guys this is not this is not a this is not a death blow yet like he's not he's not out like I mean because the guy got game and he can back it up but he's clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to strategy no I mean as far as the I'll just vot I'll just said what they said Callum literally said well because she said Jessica I'm gonna say Jessica like he actually like admitted it and they left it in the edit like it is it is a flawed part of the game but like I said I wonder now knowing that the person down there can actually

33:25 Pick like do you not follow suit and actually pick someone else so that the person down on the floor if har is down on the floor like if Haria is potentially gonna go down do I say hara's name or do I say someone else's name so Haria doesn't pick me you know what I mean like there's there could potentially be little twists of how do I play this like you know are they going to pick me am I going to pick them like where are they so you have to kind of know where people's thoughts are and what their thought process is which could add some interesting tweaks to it you know yeah I'm interesting to see how it plays out now you mentioned someone there and we got to talk about it this is like my least favorite part of the show but I know that people who love the challenge who love old school challenge would have been all over the Callum and Michelle content here in this episode because callum's got some game he knows how you know the Riz is strong with him like our boy Mony he knew how to put on the charm when he was talking to Michelle and sh is falling for him hookline and sinker she continues to be a hot mess because Callum he's clearly a Chad he's clearly not someone he's for the streets right he's not there for the long term he's there for the streets and maybe Belle wants that in her life I don't know when she's

34:45 Got plans of settling down anytime soon but she's clearly falling for all of the wrong guys at the moment when it comes to the challenge she it look she's gotten callbacks right for reason like yeah absolutely Callum I like how he said you know I maybe I'm in a bit of a situationship and then we see the phone call to home he's like I love you I love you I love you yeah like dude oh no that's like a fullon relationship that's not a situation anything man you're in you're in situation yeah oh man Callum like I me listen I can't blame him like Michelle's she's cute like if you're out there you got game but what he's doing is so wrong being in a relationship you can't condone it we've seen it play out so many times on the challenge and it just never ends well for anybody in this situation because the girlfriend back home's going to see it she saw the episode well I mean Kieran single coming into this season because of probably what happened on his season of The Challenge yeah he hooked up immediately walking into the house I predict that there's going to be a lot of hookups this season for the people that are fans of old school challenge

36:05 I think we're getting that in bunches this season kieran's definitely hooking out with somebody like I know that for sure we know about hcio and you were talking about hcio by the way whatever happens toaso in this season he's already won the jackpot the lottery and all that with narice in real life you know what I mean like she said La last season you know drips old Haria doesn't need to win he's already won in life so yeah there's going to be a lot of hookups oh and Jessica is actually dating Devon at the moment I heard about that it's funny because it's funny because Jessica was one of the people that I actually interviewed after the challenge Australia she's one of the few interviews I had and she talked about the fact that she was in chats with I think Devon and Wes and a couple of people from the main show after the challenge Australia so I wasn't too surprised that she ended up on the show because she already had those connections coming in it just all the people she was talking to were all vets and none of them are on the season so it played out not so great for her but if you were to go home first and you can hook up with a champ I know a lot of people would be like Boo Devon boo that's the popular thing to do but still the GU Love by production he's going to come back you know Jessica again she's got her eyes on the

37:25 Prize she's like if I up with Devon you know he's a champion he gets regular call backs clearly production loves him I'll probably get another shot in the future like I think we that I mean even TJ said at the end hope to see you again Jessica so quick wasck with that again he does not know who she is right he didn't watch sh Australia he's got nothing to do with it and yeah like after one episode just that he said I really hope I see you again like what that did she deserve that after this episode no I thought this was like I thought in the challenge Australia she showed a lot of heart and she too I like her she did pretty well on the Challen but she came across as very weak on this episode like even in the deliberation when she was like basically telling them I don't care about the money like I'm just here and don't want to go home early and I'm like what are you doing like you're just like digging and digging and digging that grave she wasn't even on anybody's radar coming into that zero put the shovel down Jessica like we like what because I just want to start out by saying I'm really bad like I have no shot at anything I suck like that's that I appreciate honesty but like why there and then like in deliberations kind of thing

38:45 Like everybody's like who is this girl that's talking okay put the spotlight on yourself like she came in you know how in reality TV they always have like the occupation of the person and she was like in Grand model coming into this season next season she's coming in occupation grav Digger she's a grav Digger she's digging her own grave out there on the show I'm telling you straight up man it was not good who is this person and she's just spilling her guts like I didn't even know who you are it was so Random so Random wasn't good at all but yeah let's talk about the drama we got to talk about it like you know ber wants her room she wants to get in there Michelle denies her and all hell breaks loose like you even see it when they're doing the toast and celebrating and Jay's like this is you know out with the old in with the new where the new generation and everybody's like partying and they're having a good time and berner's like sitting in the corner there just looking at them moping I'm like what are you doing bur this is a social game this is about like you knew what you sign up for this is not your first time on the challenge it was horrible to watch like really bad she's yeah she's a that she's a train wreck like to as far as social games go and again choosing deliberation I just want to say like I'm weird

40:06 Sorry like timing like you're about to go into a vote and that is not although she probably maybe needed to do a little bit of you know politicking there because she was not in their good graces because of her behavior so she's again digging her own grave but just you know she put the shovel down she already dug her grave over the last 24 hours or so and then got to deliberation just paded the top finished it off and then stopped but yeah Jessica kept digging so I guess they've got that in common a little bit both sinking their own game one just did it over the painful longer period and Jessica just did it like instantly she didn't want to mess around man it was it was so bad it's almost reminded me of that Amazing Race SCH I forgot a name that came on and was like greetings earthlings when she was talking and it was just so off it's kind of like these people aren't veterans or really good at the game you know what I mean yeah I don't know who would have thought who would have thought and then also you've got the cultural difference because she's I believe German even though she played Survivor turkey Colleen said something about Turkish by way of Germany so she's Turkish ethnicity but grew up in Germany right gotcha that's why

41:27 I felt like a thing because I was a gypsy in Ireland so had difficult childhoods and he related to Berner in that regard so I appreciate that she's always a fish out of the water fish out of water and this may be just sort of intensified that feeling you know to me it's just insane it's insane like you know how someone as ouly when you look at burner you think stunning women strong wom cap but she still has insecurities that come out when she's put in a social situation like this and I appreciated colen going over to her and trying to calm her down and relate to her you know there was this funny scene with Colleen saying as a psychologist I've come to the assessment that she's batshit crazy and I can't do anything for her and I was thinking to myself you do not need to be a psychologist to see that you just need to be a normal human being with a with a beating pulse notice that she has bed crazy and there's nothing you can do your psychologist degree's got nothing to do with it but I appreciated the fact that she was trying at least as like the other German in the house to like you know get to her culturally maybe they could connect on a certain level that was a fun conversation and then the other conversation was seeing Berna talk

42:47 To the two people in the house she should be accepting help from in both UI and Michelle and just not willing to see anything no I just want to vend I don't need you guys to give me any advice I just want to tell you I'm upset yeah even Colleen when she was sort of giving her advice like don't tell me how to fix it like I don't I don't need that like just blocking every even the people she li like that love her or trying to help her or being showing any kind of positivity towards her I did think as well like you know when she sort of learned about the room situation and she go oh I'm not with Michelle I'm with Colleen I was like shouldn't you be buddies like be German friends like you know like I thought that should be an instant sort of connection there you can at least relate to on some level when you feel like a fish out of water would that familiarity of home not sort of give something but she was just like I like how she's like I don't want to sound I can't remember the word it wasn't like ungrateful she's like I don't want but this is just not what I wanted I'm like oh my gosh like it so whiny the entire time right like everything was just so man yeah that's what I said she had main character syndrome it's like this is not what I wanted this is not

44:07 How I see my experience playing out you guys all have to fall in line to what I want and how I want to play the game and how I want things to be and it's just not that's not how life is and that's definitely not how the challenge is sometimes you're at the top sometimes you're at the bottom you know even some of the Vets have had to experience that in recent seasons and world championship and playing in the USA 2 season they haven't had it their way all the time and champions are made and how they rebound and how they come back from that and that's why I say I love it for me when it comes to confessional points and drama points because the longer she is in the house I think drama will follow her but my hopes are not set on her to win this season at all I just don't think and that seem I'm a little bit worried but I am grateful that my second female pick was Mariah because I think she is in a solid position in the game right now she's got a strong alliance with the likes of heru Olivia Michelle there's a bunch of them that are kind of working together that I think that seems to be the power structure in the house yeah from the ride or di season coming in with the numbers automatically the most recent season like even Ravens putting whatever she had with Thea side because they know that this is a strong Alliance to sort of roll with coming out of r or dies

45:27 Yeah Mariah looks good she's I mean she was one of the ones I was talking about showing a lot of Flesh with their clothing choices and I was okay with it Mariah looking good this season you know what I mean so I was like she squads yeah that's definitely noticeable not as much as huie but she does squat huie got that Bund for sure he looking good this season as well who would have thought who would have like but by the way if you had The Bookies odds on who would get the first hookup of the Season who would have thought it would be yui and Karan in episode zero they would be the first two to hook up this season yeah I mean if you told me Kieran would be in the first World Cup this season I would have G yeah I believe it but if you said it was Huey I mean that took me by for the combination of those two like surely it shows you how like funloving what a what a guy Kieran is man like I reckon he's one of those dudes that's like you want to hang out with him and he's fun and it certainly get the ladies but he's a dog at heart to the to the women I know that for sure but he'd be fun at a party that's for sure yeah I just I wouldn't want to play spin the bottle with him because now I know he's not backing down there's no playing chicken right you're as soon as you lock on to those eyes you're like oh I guess I'm kissing Karan

46:52 Today oh man all right so that's definitely an alliance that's going to be strong and then the other Alliance that started forming here was between Big T and milissa and I guess a lot of the UK people do you think Big T's got longevity in this game she's known as someone that has not done well in the elimination Arena but she got one out early this season 1-1 maybe the focus goes away from her for a bit and she does look like she's got some troops there with her yeah I mean I always love big T from a like a like she's cute she's fun she's in harmless like she's never going to do anything in the game but I always liked her but now she's like seems to be older wiser she trained she's you know smarter thicker like she just looks like she's you know more ready for the game than she maybe had been in previous seasons and came in hungry as well so I'm happy for that I want to see that strategy I know she's actually best friends with Melissa like they've started a podcast for this season as well I love that by the way yeah they're great aren't they like so yeah I'm seeing like is she long for the game because I'm not sure how well she can back up

48:13 If she does go into the sand more but she showed like was J it's one of those things was Jessica bad was be was Big T good I don't know like would she be able to do that against other competitors who knows but I mean she said she's been training she does have that experience and we know she's smart so I'm hoping she's in the game for long because see episode one she was a great character and she sees the writing in the wall she knows what she wants and I think she made the right decision but once that Domino fell the vote you got to jump on board and she saw that as well she's at least seeing that and not pulling a Hario yeah I got to I got to show you something this is the appropriate time to do so this is the draft right so when we look at the draft we've got someone like burner points magnet Haro all over the first episode like for who said he had who said he didn't have a personality I know the life audience isn't here but they were coming from me saying that he doesn't have the personality he was all over this first one then you've got someone like a big T in there big Point getter right now UI big Point getter for the confessionals potential of raaso winning this season definitely is out the looming I'm starting to feel pretty good about my team to be honest Kahuna yeah I

49:33 Mean yeah I mean Jay's looking good this season Mariah I like your team as well man I do and as far as the Champs go k Maria and Jordan like come on like yeah I think it's a solid I think it's a solid group obviously at this point we do have Jessica going out so we're going to see Chantel lose her first person for the season but it's early days early days so lots of Hope there still for no Roose probably the one at the moment that's standing out the most than her team from a confessional standpoint Michelle Messi showman say that's going to be good Cory's doing pretty decent she's got a solid team as well looking at it yeah it's hard to decide who's gonna who's gonna win out in this season to be honest like I said because everyone looks kind of even at the moment right like Big T's obviously getting a bit of shine you know early but she could potentially go out if she's already got a Target painted on her back and the way the challenge is you vote someone in you just keep doing it kind of thing so maybe now hasso's made that first cut everyone was go well you know big horio said Big T so next time we'll do Big T you know who knows but yeah like I thought in the challenge like she looked good like she looked really good or maybe Jessica looked bad I don't know because Ed made that comment about how Jessica looked like she's just doing the Sunday cleaning

50:53 Or something but you know what did you think of the challenge though the elimination sorry and I think it's one of those ones where production thought it would be a pretty good spectacle and it was probably a lot of fun to participate in but I do feel like it fell a little bit flat for me because it was hard to see what they were doing inside of the box and how they were moving the tiles out of the box before they smashed but I like the idea that they needed to do something to get to the rope and then it would have been a better payoff if they at some point had to wrestle for the Rope to get the thought I was going to ask do you think it actually was just long enough that it would go either way or did was Big T so fast that she got there before Jessica could stop for the tug of war you know what I mean like yeah and I mean would it have been safe to do tug of war with two hanging boxes in the air and yeah I don't know if it would have been safe either but surely there's like a better version of what they did I feel like it's still exciting to see Big T win and smash away through the glass falling and the thing that was the most heartwarming for me when Big T pulled off the win was seeing how people celebrated for her on the sidelines because she's never I feel like it had that in the house like it's always been the Vets Gaslight her into thinking that she's one of them and then as soon as the times get tough she goes down

52:13 There and no one gives a crap about her and they're kind of like shouting against her so it was so hard Waring to see the reaction Melissa had and then also Olivia like being absolutely shocked that Big T just pulled it off and she won her first you know Arena of the season I really enjoyed that moment for Big T that was probably the highlight of the whole arena for me the problem I had with the way she won in like the way you win in that game in the arena is that it looked awesome they got to do their slow motion shot there's glass flying everywhere but it I don't know how the mechanism would have worked but I feel like that should be the loser right because big T1 she's shouting glass and hanging there like awkwardly going and you look ridiculous whereas Jessica's standing over her looking down dominantly like that could have been the winner pose on top and the loser hanging like a like a weirdo at the bottom I don't like I said maybe if they broke to get to a button to release the opposition or something I don't know but it looks spectacular and in my head at the moment I was like oh Big T lost I was like no hang on she broke and fell that means she won oh yeah okay yeah Big T but like the visual in my head said you know you went down you got smashed you got glass on your face you lost but so it felt a bit awkward that way but it

53:33 Did look good but you're right there seem to be I like the start that it's a dexterity thing how quick can you go right this is a very different skill to what we see I'm doing my hands off camera that no one can see I'm doing this thing it's a dexterity thing which is good but again camera didn't work right it wasn't that great on TV and then the pulling the Rope again a physical thing how fast can you do it really cool but again visually maybe not that great and the fact that they're hanging that up in this that high in the sky the visual thing was the end and that was awkward so I'm not sure if I dug it but I appreciated the effort once again from MTV on oh bu muray I was just going to add that I was just going to say the one thing that I would never want production to change is the fact that they keep innovating they keep trying new things and I love that like I mean even if some of some of it doesn't work or doesn't visually look as good as some tried and tested things that have been done in the past I would never want the challenge to become Survivor and just regurgitate the same challenges over and over again without much Innovation because it becomes really stale so I still give it a solid seven out of 10 and

54:54 I'll say just continue to innovate please Challen challenge Gods we know that you're going to get some of it right you're going to get some of it wrong but I also wanted to mention before we sort of look at closing this recap you know we've seen a lot from the woman in regards to the strategy in the first episode we kind of get the factions that are forming it's the big T faction versus the nuse faction and Michelle and Olivia being in that faction as well those are probably going to be the two that's going to go head to-head at some point with the boys it was really hard to gauge where the allegiances lied within this first episode they were all kind of together looking like were all working together towards a common vote to get a female out in the first round the only kind of allegiance that we saw a little bit about was Assaf and Jay that's probably like the biggest sort of Alliance that came out of it do you think that this has some longevity and how poetic would it be that if these two guys who went head-to-head in their first season with one of them going home early goes to the end and make it to a final together like is that the storyline we need to see because I kind of like I'm a big J fan I don't remember isaf all that well but he impressed me in the first episode I thought it was a lot of fun yeah I he looked up with n Nani that was his whole thing that was the entire yeah one episode hook up with Nani then

56:14 Jay took him out so I think he's trying to be remembered for more than hooking up with Nan like he was the last man to hook up with her before she turned into oh you're not going to go there not into but yeah so you know like they look like a really fun friendship as well like just Bros you know what I mean and very similar the fact that yeah Jay took him out and then they became friends almost like the Apollo and Rocky kind of you know vibe to it I appreciate that a lot you know so I do think that like was there any other ones I know like Corey and like huy wants to work with Cory cuz they oh right that was another one but I we never saw Cory like say that yes I want to work with yui so I feel like Cory may be less into it than yui and yui is like this is a thing but Cory's mind he's like I'm doing whatever I need to do to get my bag at the end you know what's fascinating is seeing how like we've always we talked nonstop about the vacation Alliance and how the Vets have all the you know decades worth of friend ships and bonds and blah and coming into a season where the girls obviously have it because of like I said there's the r or dies and then kind of the

57:34 UK like group as well so they've got the prior experience which is what we see in the challenge but it seems on the men side there's none of that like there are people that have done Seasons together like obviously Cory and Hugh but they've got a lot more diversity as far as prior experience goes and when you don't have that vacation Alliance kind of thing do you just get this big globular maybe shifting votes maybe like I don't know are they going to stick together strong are they loyal to each other at all you know like it opens it up a lot without those prior relationships there yeah I think the only other one that I sort of had a look at my notes now and it was again mentioned very briefly was Emanuel wanting to work with Ed because they were on the same season and he thinks Ed's a fun guy and a bit of a wild man and he can work with him Emanuel had quite a bit of confessionals throughout the episode as well but a lot of nothingness in regards to strategy so far so there's not much I can point to in regards to that but that one sort of stands out to me as well okay so as we get yeah go sorry a lot of the guys when you think about them in the seasons that they had none of them actually built relationships

58:54 And had friends like Emanuel was with Tori like yeah sayb the women are clicking up and finding their group but the men like well that's not always been thing like the male friendships the dude Bros that click together and almost take out the women has been a big part of the challenge and it's a bunch of guys in here that haven't had the friends in Prior seasons and never even went down that path they were always kind of yeah SOLO or fighting against the group or I don't know like so that's interesting as well how that might actually play out because if those two if the two big women factions can pick off individual guys to join them like if they're not as solidified and not as monolith and one in the guys they may actually be a little bit more susceptible to influence from the other side you know yeah it's a good point I was thinking we're probably in a different generation now it's the internet social media generation so maybe the guys don't communicate their feelings out in person in regards to the bromances but they send each other the DMS in between Seasons you know and that's how they how they go into the season then like it's unspoken we don't need to talk about it when we get on the season but

1:00:15 I want to finish off the show slightly differently to how we normally do since we've talked a little bit about everything let's power rank our top three who do we think is our top three after first episod you don't massive it but maybe a oneliner in why you think they should be in the top three if you had to go me what do you so it doesn't have to be number one number two number three just who do you think are the three people that are standing out the most to you now that are the most likely to make it to a final well because yeah like when I was asking clarification because there's a difference between who's standing out but who they're probably not going to go far right like right yeah who's making a final yeah like I think Big T was an MVP of the of the episode she had a huge episode she's calling the shots she's smart she's seeing things she won an elimination but would you say she's my top three to win a final she's not let's do MVP and top three I like that so shout out to Big T for MVP of the episode I agree with that I think it's a good shout out and well done on getting the dub also out there in the elimination yeah absolutely so yeah like there are people like that I think are standing out but are never going to stand out as a as a Winner's pick or doing necessarily well as far as progression goes but people stand out for like Huey stands out

1:01:35 All the time I think Corey Cory's probably a top three for me at the moment who else based off the episode it's hard right I'm going based off of pedigree and what I'd know of them in the past so I have to put horo towards there as well but he didn't do himself any favors this episode so that feels weird but again they yeah I was going to say edit wise they kept showing how he went out in the previous season and how he's back to get the bag he's back to prove something so the story Line's there hello Desi storyline you know like it's definitely there like Redemption season so I can see I don't know if Cory's in my top three but Hario definitely is but no shade towards Cory I can see it happening I'm just afraid for when people catch on to Cory's game because I don't think he's very subtle about it well we saw did you see the preview for next week what he did briefly but I didn't I didn't I didn't take down any notes for it but no I'm not if he's in the drama wouldn't surprise me well he like it was a weird thing I don't know if it's because you know how it's the first episode so I'm not sure if it's next week or it's on this season of The Challenge right but he they're all in a group sitting and says

1:02:55 Melissa and Big T I've been using you to get information I'm not work yeah but I don't think that's next episode I feel like that's no I don't think that's next episode I think that's later the yeah that'll be a fun moment it could be it could be the salad moment of this season but go back to the top three you've got Cory you've gotas here who's your last one I like Emanuel but he's boring he hasn't shown much I like Jay women's side I'm going to put a woman in there just to mix it up yep Olivia norice Mariah I'm gonna say Mariah great I like it I think Mariah's I think Mariah's coming in game ready for this one all right so I agree with Hario I think he's definitely he's coming back for the bag he's got a lot of potential there was a lot of edit around him in the first episode and I don't think anybody's looking at him very early on as long as Olivia is in the game I was worried I kind of feel gutted I didn't pick Olivia in my draft because I nearly did but I was worried if that if Hario is outside of the numbers and Olivia's out as well they could just go back to back but Olivia seems in a good place and because of that I think she'll look out for rasio to a certain degree she kind of looks at him as like a younger brother I think

1:04:15 Jay is coming in strong this season again it might just be because I'm biased towards the Survivor Seasons but I like the undercover Alliance and the fact that other people don't know how close him and Assaf both are within you know life I guess being yeah he's got Michelle he's almost like a Godfather to a saf son like that's different level of friendship there that I think will not be broken in this game and then third coming into third this is where it gets a little bit more tough for me but I wasn't impressed with this person coming into the season but I'm seeing what my co-host saw in her a little bit more now so I'm going to put Roose in to my top three to make it to the final where I still don't know if she could win a final compared to the people she may run up against in the final but I feel like strategically people seem to listen to her and she's got she's got that something about it where she pushes the game along now it's just will she annoy people or overstep her boundary at some stage because she said she's got a temper that she needs to control that's going to be the big question for me on her but those are my top three here for this week be horio J and Roose both of us agree on hassio you've also got Corey and remind me on your last person you had in there I said Mariah yep

1:05:35 There we go so those are the those are the top ones here for this week but I think that's it here I think we've pretty much gone over everything that we can for this week if you watching this and you're still here with us now and 5 minutes in please consider subscribing put a notification Bell on so you can know the next time we go live We Do a lot of different shows here Survivor The Amazing Race The Amazing Race Australia Traders Canada content will be dropping pretty soon as well again on the channel so if you like reality TV in general and some other shows as well we're constantly growing on the channel here as well so consider subscribing it does help out immensely like I said at the moment we are pre-recording these episodes but sometime in the future we will definitely come back and do lives and have the live audience involved as well for those that do normally like the live and want that interaction back from the likes of myself and Kahuna we will look at the comments over the next week and we will go back you know Kahuna will jump in as fad slim and respond to some of the comments even the ones where they you know they go and they're like so good to hear kuna not talk Corey this week well guess what Cory wasn't on the episode so that's why but you know if you if you don't agree with K on any of his takes go and tell us you know why what do you agree with what do you disagree with we'll jump back on we'll flick some comments back to you we appreciate

1:06:56 It and it will also help us obviously get the content out there in the YouTube algorithms as well but for now thank you so much catch you guys next time bye