The Challenge Australia: Final Thoughts Season 1 Review

0:02 Foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] welcome back to the nullify Tech channel here on YouTube also streaming live on Twitter we're here back to talk about the challenge Australia that's right we're going to talk about Australian Survivor sort of Survivor in the couple of weeks ahead the challenge Australia you're in the future already mate thinking of the future already I feel like the fans have already done that as well done from The Challenge they've moved on and before we get into I'm your host Chris this is the Big Kahuna BK here with us as

1:22 Well yeah it's not been pretty it's been a bit of a massacre to be honest as far as the ratings go yeah I mean yeah you kind of mentioned that to me lately has been good I mean we had the finals it was I think the finals is good I think that some of the recent episodes were great but Australia completely disagrees with us Chris well we'll talk about it because I kind of agree with Australia on some things I'm not I'm kind of feeling like I'm in Good Company The Daily Mail of Australia says Channel 10 gives up on the challenge Network and it hasn't promoted the TV flop for two weeks after it plummeted to 72 000 viewers and this was two days ago prior to going into the finale and then it just got a little bit worse because after that we also had more news that dropped and basically the view the viewers weren't there for the finale it you know the challenge finale draws zero viewers in major Australian city making it the least watched reality TV finale in the history only being able to get 11 000 viewers in total and no one in Brisbane actually watching the show Kahuna that's so crazy in all of Brisbane the entire Metropolitan Brisbane zero viewers live it's

2:43 So insane I'd like has that ever happened before no well they're saying that it's a record low so I'm assuming that it's never happened before do you think it's the worst reality show in history that Australia's had I think so well I think so you've got it no like as far as the show standing the quality of it yeah the quality of it definitely not no quality the quality of the show the production of it but this is one of the things that I wanted to talk about and for those that are joining in the live and for those that are listening to this later on the main aim for this was to just talk about the show as a whole our final thoughts on it what we thought worked well what we thought didn't work well and obviously we'll dive into a little bit of the finale and the ultimate winners and also towards the end there will be a section where I will warn people about spoilers because I will spoil who's going to come back for the global showpiece that's we're gonna see later on I think next year I do have spoilers on who's coming back but that's as much as I know because I will be covering one thing I can tell you who knows I'll definitely be covering the global showpiece so I don't want to know who's going to win but I did want to know who's on the cast and to shock people from the season are coming back that I didn't expect to see well don't say anything about the two we know that Kiki and Troy is definitely coming back because they won the show but

4:03 Then and outside of that there's two shock people coming back where we'll talk about that but we'll warn people before then we'll say get off if you don't want to be spoiled about the cast don't worry I won't spoil anything more than the cast because I don't know anything other than the cast but overall spoilers if you're if you're out there in the internet cast isn't spoilers like you want to know at least right yeah like some people some people missions results I get it but cast I agree with you but some people are some people are like purists you know so they don't want to see anything at all the promo stuff is out there and that's fine we won't spoil it before the end of the podcast but yeah like getting back to your question was this the worst show in Australian reality TV I don't think that this was the worst show if you know bad TV over the years Chris yeah reality TV wise we've had some bad TV and I don't think this fits into that category but oh boy well I had a lot of time to think about it because last week we couldn't do the recap and you know obviously that gives you more time to think about it and that was fully my fault because I ended up getting too busy at work and I'm gonna be honest I was deflated on the show because I felt like we were going a bit through the motions and I find it very hard to talk about something passionately if I'm just not feeling it and I wasn't really feeling the challenge Australia During certain pockets

5:23 Of the season if it wasn't a show that I was covering and I was doing exit interviews for I don't know if I would have wanted to do the whole show because it did miss it for me and I was thinking about why did it miss it for me you know because the concept of the challenge is great I love the show The Challenge I love what it's about and I think that there was again there was an opportunity missed with the cast there was an opportunity must to really get to know some of these people as well because you know with Australian Survivor with big brother the edit is slightly different they give you the backstory like hey this is the person at home this is their life this is sort of what they stand for so you kind of feel like you're behind these people where last week was very dull for me and then this week I kind of only started getting behind people this week where I was like man I like Troy I've got my person because I didn't have my person for so long in the game and then finally I was like full did Ninja superfan number one over here wanting him to go and win this whole thing I think it helps that you're saying that you've got I mean there's probably a little bit of recency bias but the fact that you got so excited in this week's episodes also happens to correlate when there's one of the most epic eliminations we've seen oh 100 challenge right yeah and then the final like we're going to go into the results and stuff but I thought the final maybe not the

6:44 Format like the actual challenges or the pit stops within the final I don't necessarily know if they were as Grand as epic as we've seen in the challenge before it seemed very like self-contained and almost budget and cheap the way they did the final I agree and funny enough the finale details yeah funny enough the finale was popular with the fans in Australia all the comments online that I've seen everybody loved the finale and I agree with you it's not one of the it was good but it was not like on the same scale of what you would see on the MTD version of the show or even what we saw on the USA because the USA was even more Grand as well yeah so no mountains no like nothing yeah which is interesting but they chose interesting pit stops that I thought worked well yeah if you have the scale it didn't have the grandiose of things but they actually chose three a fairly condensed one they didn't do like the first night was a bit weird right like we'll talk about the finale we'll talk about the finale I do want to I do want to track I do want to track it back a little bit right to sort of my train of thought around the cast and I think that there's something here because for a period of day I was thinking is it just me because I don't have this affiliation to the batchy people and then I started talking to people I you know obviously have friends within the global Community who watches

8:04 The challenge where people told me they were really finding it hard to find their people this season they didn't feel like they were getting behind people and most people did not like the batchy group and the battery group was the one that actually ended up dominating the season which I think made it very you know hard for fans to stick at but towards the end I really found my people because not only did I like Troy by the end Conor really grew on me every single week every single episode I was like yo I really like Connie he's not the physically most imposing person out there but he's winning stuff he's using his brains he's strategic I wouldn't mind seeing Connor back I started liking you know seeing more of Brooke who was a favorite of mine going in and towards the NFL pretty heartbroken for her not to be able to pull her through and then Kiki really started growing on me because I was like man she's struggling with this injury and she's continuing to push through the one person I never really got any kind of love for and I'm not that I dislike this person was Karen I felt like they were really trying to push Kieran down our throats like this is a big play or this is a big person that had that whole storyline with his girlfriend which by the way do you think there was the production that planted that whole thing because who would have told her yeah I mean she would have seen it on TV right she would have she would have seen it eventually and then had a conversation later I don't know like mate fake drama because I noticed I did that

9:24 For him they did the my fiance for Troy and we wanted to and then and Kiki as well but I was like oh they're doing the little bit of the Winner's edit background thing here is that what's going on with Kieran having that story yeah put in there in the fight I was like wait he's cute and then I saw one for Troy with someone for KiKi so I don't know like the I think they wasted here in a bit I think he could have been a big character but maybe they were hoping and this is completely Theory like I don't know for sure but knowing Kieran from The Bachelor and knowing what he was like on The Bachelorette sorry and Bachelor in Paradise and you've already heard his reputation preceded him we saw it in the first 11 minutes of episode one yeah he's potent and I'm wondering if they were hoping to get more of episode one Shenanigans from Kieran throughout the series thinking he's gonna be a big character he messed up in episode one and then kind of rained it back in and he really became a non-entity character-wise throughout the story so I'm wondering if maybe it's partly because of him they were like we got this horn bag he's gonna go absolutely crazy through this house he's going to be a huge character and then he's trying to make it up to his girlfriend that he cheated on so he just brings it right back has a quiet season and kind of becomes another it was boring in the confessionals throughout the season didn't

10:44 Give us much the exciting people the people that we kind of got behind all of them left really early so it kind of I felt like there was a period in time there where I didn't know who I was shouting for and I think you know the rest of Australia felt the same way the numbers don't lie at the end at the end of the day the consumer the customer they're always right and if they're turning away from the screen and they're not watching the show then something somewhere didn't make sense and another thing that I wanted to sort of pick your brains on around that is you know we've got this production team from America who's doing an Aussie show and it had a very American flavor to it the way that it was produced and maybe they're more used to having very big household names that do the show over in the America where they don't need to explain the backstory of a bananas they don't need to explain the backstory of a Nani they don't need to explain the backstory of a Tyson or a you know Angela or a lot of these people because they're kind of like Superstars over there and they took that same formula felt like maybe and they try to use it to a certain degree in the editing department for this show and it didn't translate like I really felt like the cast in the editing Department lit this show down interesting like I think that's a really good point first of all I don't know how familiar your normal person in

12:04 America is with MTV The Challenge I think the CBS version made a big thing but I still think the map the flagship I saw some stats on that by the way probably about a week ago or so and they said they're going to be around here no you're not I saw stats that showed that about 400 to 600 000 people watch an episode over there so it's not as high as you would think but that's not that's not anybody that watches it afterwards via digital platforms which we know is a massive getter for them as well which would make sense why they were so desperate to move the show on to CBS and onto the online platform of Paramount plus because they knew that would widen the audience and I believe they were getting a 1. something million viewers per episode so it was a big boost to their viewership numbers when they put it onto those platforms but again I think that there is a very loyal fan base that has been built for many years that follow the show religiously you only need to look at the amount of followers that these people have like bananas how many people does he have that follows them on Instagram probably a couple of hundred thousand maybe even half a mill I don't know it's been a lot of people only I think Johnny Bananas is the exception to the rule though right he's been able to cross over to a slightly mainstream success and host other shows because of his run as bananas but

13:24 You mentioned someone like Nani you mentioned someone like Anissa I don't think your average American reality TV show is fan is a big fan of these people necessarily well have a look at this 440 442 000 people follow Nani yeah but there's 360 million people in America I know I know but it's still a big following like if you who was the biggest and she's been doing it for 20 years Chris who is the biggest person this season that came on before Australia would it be Brooke maybe Brook gallett like was the big name that they got she's on 48 000 followers on her let's go no I reckon someone like a Kiki or a bachelorette bikini type model would have more than Brooke maybe I don't know I could be completely wrong 93k yeah there you go so there is a big difference in the amount of people that I feel like I feel like the fandom is the population yeah and also my point isn't just based on that one episode my point is more they've had this following and they've done multiple shows and because of that level Nikki welcome to the live stream she says she's here for the 90 drag what about it Steve [Laughter] I'm trying to say is that I feel like there's a lot of people that they've

14:45 Gotten comfortable with the fact that they don't feel like they need to explain too much about their backstory but still there right have they ever done that is in Australia we need that we need that if you look at Australian Survivor and if you look at big brother and you look at how those shows are produced and I could be on a wrong thing so anybody from Australia listening to this of this South African immigrant is not representing you the audience and the viewers right here and I'm just maybe on my own thing here I feel like I always see the trend where on those shows they built a story around them and you know how they are as human beings outside of the game and they try and kind of humanize them like the everyday Australian that you may know so that people get behind them that's true that is true and I think they I wonder if maybe the order of eliminations May have played some impact on that because I wonder how much they would have built around a Jack or a David the syrell rather than like Conrad getting to the right before the finals and stuff like that like they're just boring so but like this is the this is the list here of the people that left so when you look at that everyday Australian man Johnny esto went really early David seemed

16:05 To be a really big character very early on Jack was big I don't know if we lost that much with Billy as a TV personality at least but Audrey seemed to be a lot of fun I wanted to see more of Audrey on the show as well obviously got in a bit of trouble very early on which made it entertaining and then Sorel obviously was a massive character sorry for media thing after the fact no I didn't I saw that last week I thought it was interesting Audrey can't went out and social media was like look I don't know why kieran's saying nothing happened if he's trying to cover stuff up in the shower and it was only a minute and nothing really happened whatever but I know what happened and I was like yes well like listen call him out if he's being fake I guess in regards to that but didn't she already lose her man and now she's like trying to like ruin Karen's relationship as well she's just saying I'm being honest with what happened I lost my man yeah I know what happened like own it kind of I don't know but she did say yeah kieran's full of [ __ ] yeah which is great let me ask you now a lot of these people here the bedroom Alliance off of the likes of Orion sugar you know Emily these people they went out pretty early on in the game and from what I'm hearing from talking to people obviously we had Conor in the live stream confirming that some really bad staff stuff were happening behind the scenes

17:25 And then I've also now heard from other people that I spoke with you know about some of their drama and they said that the TV show would have been better if some of that stuff was shown if they showed how bad the roof was between Bachi and also between the bedroom Alliance and apparently there were people that were you know feel they felt threatened for like their own safety in the game because of how bad the bedroom Alliance was and they felt like that would have that would have made bigger TV and I'm a little bit annoyed that they didn't show it because I've also had fan opinions from people who really love some of those people that were being from what I've heard very toxic because it wasn't shown to their degree so it was a very confusing to get away with it yeah so they get away with it right and they're getting a lot of love online right now well we know I've seen the Emily and Ryan potentially engaged and confirmed together and that's their company but yeah let me ask you this if you took this show right now because we're not normies you run an actual podcast and involved you're dealing directly with Channel 10 you're paying attention to the ratings you're reading the social media and there's a potential and I'm gonna I'm not calling you out here at all Chris but I'm putting it to you I'm putting it to you here we go I feel like it happened to me right and I'm trying to I was trying

18:46 To stay positive about the show but I feel like when I kept seeing the ratings when I kept seeing the negative stuff and I feel like that played into like you know what they're right discuss this [ __ ] yeah this is bad yeah it's not that good if you watch this in a vacuum no influence whatsoever and just watch the episodes as they were presented yeah do you think this is a better like would have I don't know I can't say it would have done better but I think it's better I think I would have stopped watching it I wouldn't have finished I wouldn't have finished the season if I didn't cover it 100 I didn't have my people and for me what I always find with reality TV is that I have to have my people that I was getting behind now that doesn't mean that by the end of the season I didn't get my people I got my people I actually really enjoyed Troy towards the end I really enjoyed when he lost Mali and became the underdog and you know some people came at him because of his strategy of not going against battery Alliance but I don't know if this was on the interview that I had with him or if I spoke to him after the interview because sometimes you do talk to people even a little bit more after the interview still and if it wasn't on the interview then people will hear it here now and Troy can confirm it as well is that he said the people were coming at him on social media when he came back from the Global showpiece he saw people coming at him because then the show started around the same time I think and they said why

20:06 Didn't you target the battery Alliance it was dumb strategic move to be on your own but he said the bedroom Alliance was that bad and had no game no strategy in regards to trying to play it cool that they forced him they forced him to play with Betsy he couldn't play with them even if he wanted to play with them they were that bad that wasn't the interview today so that's after that's gold because I didn't give you a good job by the way really great interviews again but that is fascinating yep Johnny Survivor Johnny's supposed to have three views well Johnny has said he's not as he's told he's told me he's not a strategist he's like I'm not a strategist yeah and that's what he said he also says he wished they showed more of that so people could understand because like I said there are people that think that the batches were the bad people for having strategy and voting these people out but the batteries didn't have a choice it was also just the case for them of persevere of survival you know and that's coming from someone who is essentially neutral right he looked at it and made that call based on what he's seeing so fascinating stuff Troy welcome to the live he says yes the Riff was too much so it was impossible for him to work with that side and I think that also forced the show to be like I said kind

21:27 Of predictable because you knew bet she had the upper hand you knew Troy and the likes of Brooke and Connor and Marley they were playing the middle game and they were never going to mix it up because they didn't have a legitimate other option to play with so they couldn't make the you know because that's one of the things that I think a lot of times on reality TV we hate it when in Survivor you get to emerge and it's just the one tribe dominating the other tribe the whole time you don't want to see it yeah but the I guess the good thing about the challenge though right is that no matter what happens as far as the politics and the strategy and you may be on the end of the numbers like Troy the good thing about it as a challenge is that you have control whether it's in an elimination or not you still have a chance to get out of that spot via your own skill right in this in Survivor you get voted you're done there's no coming unless you go to when they've Redemption Island the blah and you play your way back in but it's like having a Redemption Island to play your way back in after the vote every episode so someone like Troy can go you know what I can ride this because even if I might not be on the right side of the votes and now that the bedroom Alliance is gone they're all after me he still has a chance to go into elimination and bring himself back right so there's always that even though you want to avoid it at all costs there's still that backup plan there's

22:47 Still that chance that even if the votes are against you and it's a foregone conclusion and gets predictable and we're going to see it Go elimination after elimination of elimination if you come back from that then it's a different story altogether you take out one piece from the alliance if you win the elimination then the alliance gets broken and you know fractured and stuff it changes so to thanks Troy yeah big fan literally big fan but yeah like it has that chance where you don't have to put all in I would have voted it yeah there you go because you know that the votes are more important and he didn't have to put all his chips with the bedroom Alliance because he had that chance to be able to come back after and I think that plays into the strategy a little bit you still want to avoid it as much as possible and build those alliances but when you don't you don't have to blow up everything and backstab and betray because there's still a chance first of all don't come last in a daily and you've got a chance and then even if you do get voted and you still get another chance anyway so that's always a good thing about the challenge I think that it comes more down to it incorporates everything not just the social but then you have the physical to save yourself if the social gets you down 100 and I mean a person like Troy and I'm not just saying because he's in the life here a hell of a lot of respect for him because like I said when Marley

24:07 Left I was like he's the underdog they're going to try and throw him in but he kept winning and he went on to win four daily challenges this season he went into the arena for what I believe personally probably the best elimination one of the best eliminations we've seen in recent times on any Challenge season so be there but for me it was absolutely one of the best I've seen yeah I mean it's reminded me so much of it reminded me so much of Derek kazinski going up against Josh and you know it was again it was that Underdog approach but the big difference here being that you know Troy was a part of the season the whole time so Derek came in fresh against Josh That season he didn't have to do all the dailies he didn't have to worry about the body recovery yeah he was a walking it was a mercenary That season so it's really impressive but before we talk about that elimination when you look at Troy's record when you look at what he did his body of work this season right and I think that this is why the season would be so much more fun to go and watch back now that you know that it had a satisfying conclusion like the ending the beginning was fun the middle was a bit of a drag for me and then the ending was very good again because it had a satisfying conclusion for me on a personal note where would you put Troy as a player going into this Global showpiece because I reckon he's going to be a massive threat because he's also shown he can work with anyone

25:28 I just want to say Chris and everyone listening that in the preview episode of this video podcast you were on him you were answered and I did the classic thing that everybody does and judge the book by its color and I looked at him and it's like he's not physically that big I don't know how it's going to go if he has to go in a hall brawl or something like that and listen I eat my words it could have been a bit extreme in the whole world but this challenge essentially was or the elimination so look on the grand scheme of things Troy like you said I think he I think he was allowed to go under the radar a bit this year because of the way the alliance has worked out right we said that Brooke and him and Marley could Cruise the middle and fence it and he's probably lucky that the bedroom Alliance was so toxic that the bachelor Alliance had their entire focus on them right going into something like the global challenge I do think he's going to be underrated he'll walk in with that size even as a champion even as the champion because they're all Champions right and no one in Argentina UK or America gives a [ __ ] about Australian TV even Australians don't apparently so he I think he does have the opportunity to go in a little bit under the radar and show what he's capable of and they didn't see his performance they didn't see him they didn't when

26:49 That elimination you know against Conrad a guy that was so much bigger than him and they didn't see his total body of work being greater puzzles being good at the endurance stuff being you know just a well-rounded athlete I would kind of the biggest compliment I can give him in my mind is that not personality wise but capability wise I would put him in the same category as like a Jordan wisely I feel like he's that type of athlete on the show and I think Jordan is an amazing athlete obviously personality wise there can sometimes be a lot to be said for that but I think I'd kind of put him there where would you sort of put them if you had to compare into some of the challenges over in the US I think his only weakness is something like a horrible right where I mean that's what Jordan is what Jordan yeah Argentinian I don't know what they called it Paul wrestle Argentinian version of it yeah and it was the best one of the best performances I've ever seen rock climber actually I do have one do some trivia I would suck at that as well so I mean I'm the last person that can judge I mean how much we've we've seen in your interviews they go I had about three weeks to get ready right and when you have three weeks you're concentrating on endurance you're concentrating cardio

28:09 Maybe some physical and wrestling because he doesn't need to worry about that stuff I don't know when he would have been able to squeeze in and go maybe there's going to be one trivia challenge at some point throughout the entire season and focus on that but I mean that proved to be this the thing I guess he's lucky and we're lucky going forward in the global challenge that they probably don't do trivia that often and I'm wondering when you have a cast of UK Argentina Australia and America what trivia they can actually do right because like you said the others when we did the trivia previously you were like I don't know Australian stuff because I'm from New Zealand and South Africa right yeah they're not what Global Universal trivia can they give to these people and make it feel culturally Fair yeah well I think I think with the USA a lot of the pop culture is something that people in Australia know about you know it's kind of global in any case Argentina I don't know I mean I can't speak for the Argentinian side but U.S pop culture is quite Universal like everybody knows who Michael Jordan is you know there's no spoilers I know so we're being sneaky here but Troy I know it's already happened so I hope you went well mate yeah no we won't be talking about any spoilers but and not that I know in any case I don't know the results

29:31 The only thing I know is I do know who's going to be on the cast and I do know who's paired with who and I did throw a cheeky question at Troy about you know who he'd like to see and he wouldn't like to see having that in mind that's all I'll say that's all I'll say I won't go further than that but I was like yeah you know I'll throw a cheeky question in there you should be like come on come on man let's talk a little bit about Kiki let's talk a little bit about Kiki because you know we've done a lot of Troy obviously you know won the shown that extremely well I think you know hats off term for that challenge I mean the elimination I just want to say again for those who haven't listened to the interview it took an hour I think that second round and the first was half an hour or vice versa but it was about an hour and a half of them being out there getting battered and to see his face and swollen afterwards he said the medical team had to check him out and he tried to downplay how bad it was because he didn't want them to withdraw him from the finale due to a concussion and if you look at rugby like I mean I'm a massive Rugby Union fan I don't know if you follow rugby league Rugby Union but in Rugby Union if you get a concussion and that your game's done like there's so many protocols around it and the challenge does not have those same protocols man so he could have very clearly been pulled from it we saw Ben drieberg and

30:51 Get pulled from a finale in The Challenge USA so you know with his ribs so there was there was a lot of walking wounded and he had to go straight from that into a finale absolutely Insanity no nutrition no nutrition before it that's completely unfair and for him to win under those circumstances is huge I think like he saw in his confessionals he's got freaking like the scars still on his nose and stuff just and I mean we talked about the elimination but I'm a big boy Chris and I know what I can do to physically throw smaller guys around like I'm not I'm not strong or anything but just pure mass and physics says that a guy like Troy who's literally getting like I watch a lot of UFC and stuff I know you've got a martial arts background yeah some of these slams I've seen in real fights and they're gone they're knocked out like a slant a pickup and full body slam body on top destroys people like it breaks backs it makes you unconscious there's concussions as he said like and he got about five or six of them yeah it was insane I'm doing endurance over two hours and then ran it's one of like for everyone out

32:11 There that says the challenge Australia was not great I think there's a lot of validity to that but when you come to the finale and even if you complain about the format of the finale or whatever like I've already said it wasn't as Grand and on the scale I don't think many people are complaining about that finale format honestly I've seen mainly seen love on the format of the finale but one thing I will say is they we talked about it earlier in our podcasts in the season that they should have had that elimination that physical one a whole brawl or something earlier in the season to get people really hyped up for it because let's be honest it's kind of like one of those ones it's like Brook's Edge it's like you know you kind of want it to be over it's a train wreck but you can't help yourself but watch a train wreck happening you know and have an elimination like that and 11 000 people or whatever it was on the Monday night yeah and it's such a shame it's such a shame yeah like more people need to see it I've I have posted it on the nullify take Tech talk Channel as one of my favorite eliminations of all time because I'm posting different eliminations so that's on there so hopefully more people it's about a thousand people a thousand five hundred people that have viewed that on there as well so hopefully we can get more people excited and wanting to go watch it at a later stage then they can come back to this as well hopefully but one of the things as well like you said if they had done it earlier yeah I think one thing that takes a took it or took away from it slightly and

33:31 Not to take away from Troy and Conrad at all but one of the good things about the challenge with their eliminations in the pit and the arena and the whatever they call that thing for the season it's added to by having the crowd in the stadium screaming and cringing and reacting and we certainly got that from Connor and stuff but there's only four of them up there or like it's a small group it was a small group and I think like you said if we had some of these bigger impactful eliminations and challenges earlier in the season maybe it might have bit a little bit more into the you know the social consciousness of Australians to have that battle thing that you know the warrior spirit in whatever it is maybe that might have been a bit of a hook like yeah the second most exciting one was for me sugar versus Emily and sugar beating her and then obviously you know them still being eliminated at the end of the day because Ryan couldn't be grunt but that was still a very exciting elimination to see as well I do want to move on to Kiki though because we did say we were going to talk about Kiki a little bit here Troy here says I call Kiki the gift that Jess keeps giving she's a gem she came in as an unknown to me this season I've never watched any bachelor never watched any dating shows it's not my thing it's not my jam it's not what I get into it's why the Kirin drama with his girlfriend or the Megan and

34:51 Conrad hooking up in the in the jacuzzi wasn't that appealing to me but some people may have enjoyed that but Kiki came in one need to prove herself as a competitor wanting to do really well on the challenge she ended up I believe with one daily win and three Arena wins or two Arena wins as well she was in there a few times as well so not a bad competitor to at all doing extremely while getting to the finale had a back injury pretty much throughout the whole season and man oh man that she have a lot of heart going into that finale because I actually didn't think she was even going to pull through look I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say I've watched many seasons of The Challenge and it I know it's the first season of Australia and it's the everyone's rookies but Troy and Kiki and Kiki specifically that we heard her say multiple times in her confessionals I'm going up against an Olympic gold medalist a boxer and I do my mate I do makeup right then couple that with the back injury I think Troy and Kiki are two of the best rookie seasons in the history of the challenge rookie competitors like across to get through four dailies one of the best elims ever and then a final win Kiki with her elim wins

36:12 Go eliminating to Emily seabom with that massive backing like some the early episode and not just Emily also Mali who's also a professional athlete basketball player as well within that group and then and then yeah David and Jessica was the other one that they that they won as well so it was great I think she had an amazing season and that story of her back injury the way she looked like she could barely even move in one of the earlier episodes like she was like struggling that badly to then not only get to the final like we've seen so many people say oh if I can get to the final with my injury and then they injure out or they like you know when Casey heard a knee or you know things like that they'll they have to stop because the final is so grueling yeah and she pushed through it and then beat Brooke J I think it's an amazing that's impressive it is like name another rookie in the US who had Seasons like that overcome what she overcame first of all she was pretty good as far as social because she was in the dominant Alliance for the majority of the Season yeah right and then overcoming that injury probably I don't know what the rep is or The Vibes in Britney but I don't think going to the final Kiki was seen as a favorite

37:32 By anyone I don't know about herself even because she said multiple times that I you know I'm going up against these big hitters and I should well she didn't win that many daily she won the one daily right going into it so she didn't have that massive Target on her because of that but you bring up a good point I my knowledge or history of rookies and the challenge especially when it gets to those earlier Seasons prior to season 16 or whatever fresh meets two was is not the greatest but I don't know many female competitors that came in and won on their rookie season obviously all of them were rookies this time I know Amber B did come into a rookie season but she had CT which is a massive benefit to run a final with CT so outside of that I mean you're right definitely up there is one of the more impressive performances obviously for the men we had turbo who was extremely impressive on his first season the kind of flamed out a little bit in his first season I don't think he saw an elimination no he didn't but then that poorly Cara Marie and they kind of ran the game and he did win it's very important he won a lot of days and he won a lot of dailies with money he's very good but he's a psycho and I don't know well he won with Nani I'm just gonna say that again so that's true that's true but yeah I think both of them to put them on

38:53 The world stage and have them be our representatives for the challenge I'm super happy and I'm super proud yeah like yeah I don't know like one thing one thing I was a little bit disappointed with you know when it got to the end the finale it was it felt a bit rushed because it was a 40 minute episode and I didn't really get to see final I didn't get to see final thoughts or words from Brook J I feel like she played a very good game obviously being a big Survivor fan she was one of the people I was shouting for until the end I wanted her to win the show happy for KiKi obviously and she's an amazing one an amazing person for all the things we've just said but we don't even get final words from her and I'm sure she was devastated but there was nothing like that there was no final words from Connor was a mess of presence this season like I mean I think going into the finale Conor was probably the biggest personality with the biggest edit going into this finale and we didn't get anything from him I'm very impressed with Conor as well considering what his reputation was early on as far as thinking he might be a bit of a layup to get to the final and do what he's done across the board Chris I keep finding these people I'm like ah the season whatever and then when you look at some of the individual performances I think oh yeah it's a strong season maybe that there's but I'm getting contemplative

40:13 Here Chris I'm sorry but we talk about with the US shows right and there are always these big personalities that stand alone they don't need the introductions like you said they don't need the background we know who they are because they're essentially in the world of reality TV and the challenge in MTV they're super starts we didn't have that but that is not the entire show of these American ones right there's still always these people that at the end of the season you go who right and every reality show has that there are other people that stand out and there are other people that being so I'm the more I look back I go early on eliminations there were some good characters there by the end of the season we love Connor we love Troy we love Kiki the people that got eliminated like even like in Emily I don't think was great TV but she's clearly a strong competitor like we saw some really strong people throughout this show it just didn't necessarily coalesce to be a fantastic product for Australians but I do think when I go down the list I go you know I've got another theory for that actually that's just coming up while sort of let me Rift off you while you're sort of contemplating about all of this The Challenge USA had like a very definitive couple of groups going into that season you had Survivor you had love Island you

41:33 Had a couple of Amazing Race and then you had Big Brother which made for interesting TV because the people who went there already had bad blood you had Big Brother people who betrayed each other you had you know people who wanted to go out there for Revenge because of the alliance that was formed in that season and the fact that they felt out on that you had Survivor people who had beef coming into it because Tyson was voted out more than once by Sarah for instance you had all of these different things that made for a great storyline in Australia they all said they'd slept with each other at some point they had his history of exes and stuff like that but clearly that's not what the fans wanted to see when it came to a competitive reality TV show and that's my problem it's like yes I understand there's a pocket of challenge fans that like that but the show has evolved a lot since then and it's a different show now and they're also marketing it as a competitive reality TV show now I understand there's always going to be like I told you people that you know Gonna Love Conrad and Megan hooking up in the bathtub that wasn't what that's all what gets my that's not why I watched The Challenge I watched it for great strategic play I'll watch it for the Bad Blood I'll watch it for the competitiveness there are people who love it like I know that but I feel like most people in Australia didn't gravitate towards it and the people who watch them on The Bachelor people who liked the Married at First Sight

42:53 That audience did not follow over to the challenge they weren't interested no I like it as garnish it's not my main I'll prefer yeah it could be a little bit of that it's okay on top of that right yeah but the franchise on the hook around it no you know you've got to book the franchise on strategy you've got to build the franchise on people that are competitors that side of it and I think it was lacking because you had so many different people from different shows and a lot of them weren't from strategic shows but I feel like I'm kind of flogging a dead horse right now we've said it so many times I do want to bring up your face doesn't it yeah I do want to bring up your choices Kiki solved the puzzle and lit so he had a previous comment here he said yes it was Rush that's the finale they cut a whole chain puzzle segment in the second leg Kiki solved the puzzle in literally two minutes and helped us get the lead and link to it was the same puzzle as on ride or dies episode nine with the cubes I've heard some people comment online those are some of the international fans that are watching it that they found it to be unimaginative because of the fact that they kept regurgitating taking the same challenges within the two shows obviously it was production cost and I don't think that the average Australian fan who is not a challenge fan would have even noticed no I mean the average Australian fan doesn't exist

44:14 And then no one watched it so that doesn't matter which is a massive shame that is a shame yeah but massive opportunity here I don't I don't get again I've got absolutely like you said I've spoken to channel 10 but predominantly just from being able to do interviews and I'm so thankful I don't know if they're listening to this podcast if they are I've already sent you both an email to thank you for the opportunity this season to do the interviews I was it was really fun to get to know some of these contestants and obviously for a podcast like myself who's still growing you know we really appreciate that and you know I always will be truthful to my thoughts and opinions about the show but that's I don't think Channel 10 looks at this as a failure on their behalf because it was like a shared production thing that they've done with the main Pro and again I don't know how much Troy can talk to what or not I have a feeling that the main production team in the editing department and whoever run it was really the main company who did does The Challenge it wasn't really a channel 10 lit thing yeah like for instance you would see with the Australian Survivor it is more Channel 10 lead and they run the whole thing and I also think that's why the flavor of the show was slightly different the casting was different the editing was slightly different more familiar to what you see in the US but it wasn't chanting didn't own the project fully I don't think and then again I'm just I might be talking Out Of Tune but that's the vibe I got from it I think you're right there

45:34 I think it's more a b m production from MTV than it is a channel 10 production they kind of just got the distribution rights as opposed to the putting it on rights that's my vibe as well but Channel 10 if you're listening to this you know if those people are still listening to this podcast then I really hope you pick it back up I do think there is an opportunity with the challenge and there are some people now great people like Troy great people like Connor you know I don't know if Brooke will come back but there's some great people that you've now developed and brought onto the show that the fans will know who they are next time if you sprinkle that with some of the right competitors from other shows like big brother maybe more American Ninja Warrior because they did pretty well on this and then maybe some Survivor I think Survivor was the missing ingredient that you needed a few more of those bigger names like a David goodnight Luke Toki you know Dirty Harry who by the way is a massive fan of the challenge I'm good at that he wasn't on like I mean I think if he could I don't know if he was asked or not but I think if he could he would have been on it I think they could do the even though Emily has the background of being on I'm a celebrity I think they could do the athlete route like a sugar in Billy as well like that on Survivor they always love that like whether they're known celebrities or not they're they can say I'm an AFL player and I'm like I don't know any AFL players but they're very really they're very rarely the exciting

46:54 People that you look forward to watching the show for like Matt Rogers Matt Rogers is like the exception he's the exception Abby was decent I thought Abby was decent but I think I feel like I'm in the challenge yeah I think she would but I think in general they're not the exciting people that you like to see on the show you know when they're the celebs or they've done this thing because they also don't understand the Strategic part of the game and maybe aren't as willing to make moves when they need to make those moves in the game which can lead to a little bit of a boring result when you get these athletes going in there and especially if they overpower some of the more strategic players that you could throw in there but a mess of opportunity for you Channel team to still take the show add it back on give it another shot I would love to be a fly in the wall at Channel 10. first of all when they were making those casting decisions and choosing a direction and go we're going to do The Bachelorette thing we're going to do the math thing and that's going to be predominant and then someone goes but we'll make all the marketing material competitive right and I also want to see what would have been said after the ratings came out every episode because it is such a we say it again we're going to the same file that such a waste it's such a shame it's the thing that we love and I think has huge potential and it just felt completely flat and it happens in the world I just hate that it happened to a show that I love 100 yeah so

48:15 I don't know I don't know like overall I love the season there's some big personalities that came and you know as well in a season of America of America season of America a season of an American show like The Challenge or even like a Survivor or whatever you only ever get a few really memorable characters that they'll then bring back for All Stars or if you know villains or heroes or even the challenge brings them back every season a lot of people don't get called back because they give him a shot turns out they were pretty [ __ ] on camera so together and TJ will usually say I'm sure we'll see you in the future or sometimes he just goes it ends the time in the challenge goodbye and you know like he did not like that person I think it's I'm getting all distracted here I'm a million thoughts at once Chris because we've finished the season but another big shame I said it's a shame that you know it's gonna miss out on a lot of potential but I think one of the biggest losses is Briny as well I think they really agree we haven't spoken about bryony and yes so glad that you brought them up because I would have completely forgotten to mention it I loved Briny this season like you know there was a really big thing on social pushing the first non-binary host and I think you were

49:35 A little bit worried about that when you heard that in the beginning you're like oh you know there might be people within the community that's gonna think it's going to be a push towards it being a woke show I don't think that it was ever about briny's identity and I don't think they ever made a point of making the show woke because bryony was on there I thought bryony did an extremely good job as a host and you're right like I mean hopefully if the show doesn't get picked up Brian against gets picked up to do another show because I do think they've got amazing talent for being a host and how they interacted with the cast throughout the season was just a lot of fun and it had a real Aussie flavor to it there were certain parts where you could see the Aussie flavor come through like you know the cast throwing Briny into the mud which was a lot of fun you know Briny being like just part of that sort of a group of people and not kind of above them as something that I really enjoyed and I also liked when they did the commentary throughout the season like I actually did enjoy hearing that yeah every time Conrad slammed Troy and then right he's like oh big Slam in the sand it's so good it's so good I do love that stuff I think yeah they're a talented host and people said that in the first episode they felt a bit stilted but Briny grew into that role

50:55 Exponentially and became a fantastic coach by the end the thick the fact that you're saying Aussies I think is one of the things I love most about this season as well is that I got to watch The Challenge and I may never get to watch The Challenge Australia again unfortunately but I do know that I got to watch The Challenge and it was the challenge it was the American show with all my local flavor and aussie-isms like in the fight in the in the final yeah in the final we will get to see we'll get to see some of these people that came on to play this season on the main show guaranteed they're gonna take some of these people they're gonna put them into the main show Troy was on the interview and he said I want to play in the main show you know and I think that's going to happen I think that there will be an opportunity for some of these players and I think at the very least it's going to be lucrative for MTV that they've why I didn't the pool of people that they can now select for the main show and like I said there's a sliver of hope that maybe they'll bring it back just to have that farm league for the main so they can go well we got this person from The Challenge Australia as opposed to Romania's Got Talent or something they need to they need to open it up to like I don't know if you I don't think you could get this on Paramount Plus in the US and I feel like there was also a missed opportunity because

52:15 I do feel like people would have watched it via the legitimate channels because there is a high likelihood that there were more people watching the show outside of Australia than actually in Australia especially with those viewing numbers of 11 000 viewers because what exactly we get on the on the podcast and the audio version combined we get a tenth of that we get about a thousand people listening or watching different things on our podcast so like you can't tell me that there isn't a way bigger audience out there that isn't Following the show and Sandy here in the live also welcome to the live is saying I feel like challenged Australia is like the old school MTV Challenge they take people from non-physical shows and throw them into this physical competition it brings drama and competition and I agree I feel like it probably has that old school vibe to it but we sort of spoke about it earlier it didn't necessarily translate to an Australian audience and the climate of what Australians like to watch when it comes to reality TV there's also the thing that you mentioned before that the challenge itself has evolved from those times right and they did take non-competitive drama-based people and put them in a competitive environment but they were doing challenges like let's rub this ice without crotch until it disappears you know what I mean yeah they would they were literally

53:36 Doing like backyard games yeah like and some of these are like a touchnet but on a much bigger scale but the athletic competitive side of the challenge has increased exponentially and Australian challenge seemed like definitely had that I do think some of the challenges we saw were brutal and physical and obviously an exact copy or not exact copy but the exact same ones that the Americans doing right so we're doing the same challenge but we're casting it as if it was real world Road Rules yeah so I don't know but I mean back in the day they didn't have a Emily sieber on the Troy a sugar like this they're still mixing in the strong athletes but now it is a strong competitor it's not Molly yeah I'm gonna keep mentioning Molly as much as I can because I will see Miley on the main show make it happen MTV you know what I think you need to do Chris I don't know if there's a thing and I'm getting you in a bit of trouble here you should host a zoom virtual reunion show oh what with all of the challenge can taste this well as many as you can get like yeah if they're if they're Keen to do it yeah like if they're Keen to do it Troy loves Molly too yeah I'd love to chat to Molly at some stage I sadly couldn't make it happen I had I

54:56 Had it lined up to talk to him and then our schedules couldn't match on the day where we were supposed to do the excellent interview so hopefully I can like Circle back and get Molly on the show at the very least but love Molly on big brother loved him on this season I felt really bad when he left and that's when automatically Troy became the man you know because I was like Troy's gotta like do it for both Marley and himself at the end but yeah I'd love to do it Ben like if I don't know how difficult it is to I don't know how difficult it is to get I don't know how difficult it is to get everybody together sorry you were going to say you enjoyed the interviews probably really I've really enjoyed the interviews I really enjoyed the behind the scenes stuff I'm a bit of a nerd that way where I like to see the I want to know what's happening behind the scenes and not what camera gave us because apparently according to Troy there's a lot so I want to hear that stuff like I would love to be able to you know like we said we need to get Connor on as well because I feel like as soon as we get Connor on the show we'll find out some of the Realty so at some point hopefully we can get Connor on to come and have a chat as well because I feel like he'll tell us if there's anyone that would be able to do like a long format where we can just go what about this and what did they do here and why did they do this and was this really like that would be like my dream it's just like I often look forward to the reunion shows of the challenge board the original thing just to get that Insight behind the scenes and then end up in a bit of a screaming

56:16 Match and more drama in and of itself but I'm not down for that necessarily but I am interested in seeing people's insights and thoughts on the whole production process and what their mentality was going to like that stuff is just as fascinating as seeing the actual show play out as well to me yeah all right it's that time now where we're going to be doing some spoilers so if you are still in here you don't want to know about spoilers who's going to be on the global let me see if I can guess before you say anything so we're going to do a countdown from five after that we are going to go into spoilers not placement because I don't know placement I don't want to know placement because it will make the show boring to watch for me and I love being wrong I love being like this person's clearly winning because I thought Emily was winning at one stage this season she didn't so you know I like being wrong about it and then you know the only thing I sort of look at is who's going to be on the cast and potentially we may go into who's partnered with her as well but if I can remember I don't think I can remember everybody's Partners but we'll definitely talk about who's on the show so five four three two one get out of here we're spoiling yeah we need like one of those buzzers like Robinson podcast for big brother I believe it is or something whenever they've got the live fees it's like this is a spoiler special announcement

57:36 It's amazing all right so we know that Troy's coming back we know that Kiki is coming back Kiki is coming back with her injured back she said she's still struggling with that two-day okay so I hope it's not affecting her too much in the season but chances are it could come back to haunt her when she plays but the two people that are coming back from the season that I'm shocked about yes I'm shocked I didn't expect to see them like I mean one of them not shocked but one of them I'm like semi-shocked and the other one I'm really shocked so they're sending four right two winners and plus two male female yes and you legitimately don't know who they are no okay go for a kiss which is why I was shocked because I thought they'd have like Brook has come out on social to say she couldn't make it happen there was other stuff going on which I find interesting let's just put that out there because if she won she would have had to go back to play so I feel like she didn't like the experience and I'm talking on her behalf I don't know you know but I feel like she didn't like the experience as much or something and she decided to move on I know that's she's not on the spoilers have come out she's not on Survivor unless she's on the next U.S or something not even on the U.S but yeah I think she I think she just passed on it so that means we have

58:56 So who got eliminated there was a Conrad do you want me to bring up the cost I'll bring up the cast for you here that'll make it a little bit easier I don't think Conrad's boring Brook B no to be able to okay let's go through males so you pretty much you can have anyone from Conrad and Brook B down anybody down there could have come back on this season okay so the fact that you know I'm going to use gun to the Head induction here gun to the Head who do you choose or I would choose who I would want is either Marley or Johnny but I know because you're banging on about Marley so much that he's definitely not him he's not on and Johnny's not on either so they didn't go for those two ones they didn't know anyone before them because that's just way too early like you wouldn't have a yeah a David or something and he wouldn't be able to compete either unfortunately so it's Conrad Grant Ryan but he's a no Conrad or Grant yeah so I'm going to give it to you because I don't want this to drag on too long Grant's coming back and yeah crap a Grant's coming back listen I've got nothing against the guy I'd love to even have a chat with

1:00:16 Him if he ever wanted to chat but as a TV personality Emily's the other side yeah grant didn't do much for me as a TV personality on the show I wasn't really like team ground or anything like that he seemed to really struggle with all the partners that he worked with seemed very stubborn so he's probably a super nice guy I mean I don't I'm talking about the edit just didn't do much for me so I wasn't overly excited when I heard that he came back but I think between him and Ryan he's probably the less problematic choice to come back and play again so that's why they went that way yeah if I if I had my choice I would have wanted Miley or Johnny to come back similar to you for the females who do you think is coming back I really wish it was cyrel yeah that's not Sorel imagine sending her Cyclones around to the US would be insane I think it's Emily I think they'll want to yeah it's Emily it's obvious it's obvious so Emily obviously was a big personality now Emily is one that I do think a lot of what she was trying to do strategy wise trying to play the game she was a bit forceful and not didn't have like a lot of tact on how she was doing it but I think you're gonna need to be that Cutthroat and aggressive in your gameplay when you're playing the us because those players are all seasoned they've played for a lot of game shows for a long time she may fit in better with that fast-paced game plan over there especially

1:01:37 If she doesn't isolate herself with some of the other people like she did in this season maybe she can get into a better spot and she could potentially still be dangerous because I kind of feel like she never really reached the potential so I'm interested to see what she could do on the show and from a personality standpoint Emily definitely gave me more on the confessionals like I'm kind of excited to see how she mixes us up with some of these other cast members she's a physical beast and I wonder if she might be a bit Jenny West where we know we could actually win but they never brought her back after winning season because I don't think she's that great on TV but I don't know like if it's Emily I think that's a very good representation physically and maybe if she can get paired with a more savvy veteran as far as strategy goes but also politics so she can get with someone like a bananas if he's in the season I don't know who's been cast yet or like a Wes or something that can carry her strategically and she just has to contribute to the challenges in the dailies and things like that I think she could go pretty fast if she can get with the right partner yeah I also don't know I've got to be very careful now because I'm screening I'm sort of scrolling through who's on the cast but they always warn you don't go beyond this if you don't want to see elimination

1:02:57 So I don't want to go beyond that and for some other reason I don't remember who's paired with who we've got Sandy in the live chat here who called both Grant and Emily so I've got a suspicion he knows who's on the season so Sandy if you're still in the live and you know who's teamed with who let us know in the Life who's teamed with who without giving us any spoilers like we said we don't want to know who's eliminated or anything like that I do know who Troy's teamed with because Troy's team with another person that I really enjoy and always annoyed both angel cake Drew and Chantel on the chat actually I think Drew was with me on this one I know who it is then it's Amber it's Amber B from Big Brother I thought it was Sarah no so he's with Amber B I know that and I'm a fan of Amber I really enjoy Amber she's a champion she's won one season I haven't watched Ride or dice the last three episodes you might not like her as much oh really I haven't watched I've got to catch up on the last time as well I think she's great I think she's a very good competitor I think she's okay like as far as you know but I think she for some reason like I didn't even know that so look at this yeah so Sandy is worth I say yes with Emily Troy initially with Amber but then changed

1:04:17 To Casey so obviously don't know how that happened I that's new news to me because I like I said I'd know nothing about it oh yes with Emily Capital One I was like yesterday it's like yes the person yes all right yeah and who's Grant worth that's good they're good partners for both and who's Kiki with that would be interesting to know who Grant and Kiki is with as well because I can't scroll down like there was a point where you could see it without knowing the elimination order and I don't like now it's gone so I don't know he forgot the other two as well okay and I don't want you to spoil yourself Sandy I don't want you to spoil yourself either so you know you can get from this can you get to Jordan or something like that yeah well that would be good for her if she hits with Jordan and Danny huh is that Danny one right he's in it Danny Sarah yeah Grant gets a Nissa that would be perfect I don't know if she's like I don't think she is but I mean she always gets the partners who don't listen to her you know I guess Jordan and her from up until where I've seen they've worked pretty well together but yeah exciting like I can't wait to talk about it I will say this I'm not planning on covering the Argentinian version and the UK version the only reason that I did Cover yeah the only reason I did Cover the Australian version is because I was able to get some of the exit press and the exit interviews on here so I made sure that I

1:05:37 Did cover it on this channel but I will cover the global season Kahuna maybe you and I will come back and talk about ride or dies as a whole like we did here at the end of the season I think Let's do let's do an overview of that and then Chris maybe count me as your ride or die now you're my right or die you're like you know you're Tethered to me no matter what you go now with the ship here you know but we'll be back to talk about I think right or dies will talk about that in the finale and what we thought of that season I'll definitely catch up now that there's one less show for me to keep on top of slowly but surely the shows are starting to die out and I will have a couple of weeks of rest before we get back into the new seasons coming up but future content for the challenge we will be covering some future content here so if you've enjoyed hearing myself and Kahuna talk about the challenge we're planning on doing more content so when these future Seasons come up in the US like the global season the challenge 39 All Stars four maybe you know count on us we potentially will be back to talk about some of that yeah there's some there's some great casting rumors around All Stars for at the moment floating around as well yeah so that pretty much is that you have for this season if you like this content and you want to see more of it in the future the best way you can support this channel is to subscribe we're still a young new channel that is getting pretty close to one year now being on YouTube it's been one hell of

1:06:57 A ride we've really enjoyed the support this season even though the ratings dropped for the main show the viewership numbers always remain very strong for the content that we put on the channel so thank you to everybody that's been watching listening on the audio platform anybody that commented reached out during this time we really appreciate all of you for doing that consider hitting a like on this video as well that does help with the YouTube algorithm also check out Kahuna TV you can find his Channel at the bottom of my Channel at the other awesome channels section I don't think Kahuna has done anything on there yet but if we have enough people subscribing we will peer pressure him into doing something and streaming live on there again but for now thank you for everybody in the life really appreciate you lovable Nikki Sandy Troy thank you for being a part of the conversation as well look forward to having some more chats with you Troy in the future whenever you can talk about it and for now we'll catch you guys next time bye