Every Season of The Challenge, Ranked: #41 — Cutthroat (2026)

14 min read6 days ago

Location: Bangkok & Chonburi, Thailand

Host: TJ Lavin

Aired: 2026

Champions: Orange Team (Tori, Michele, Bananas, CT and Will)

Overall Thoughts: Sixteen years after the original, The Challenge decided to kick off the Paramount Plus (flagship) era with Cutthroat 2.

The sequel wasn’t much like the original other than the three-team format and a couple of nods to the OG (the mercenaries and the Back Up Off Me elimination), and ultimately fell well short of the original, for issues both self-inflicted and unavoidable.

Obviously, the show got incredibly unlucky in the middle of the season with Sydney getting injured, Cory leaving, and the incident that caused Josh, Nelson and Leo to be ejected.

But some production mistakes — namely the game format and having a three-team season with only a cast of 24 — dragged the season down.

In tone, Cutthroat 2 did a good job of building on the momentum of Vets & New Threats. It was more fun and more drama-filled than in years past.

However, Cutthroat 2 ended up being a disappointing sequel to both the original Cutthroat and season 41.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

CT and Bananas going at it during the first vote
Anna Leigh and Leo flirting
Nurys vs. Adrienne
Sydney vs. Nurys
Sydney vs. Deb
Nelson’s elimination win over Keanu
Cory finding out his daughter was going into surgery
Tori going off on Cara Maria for not throwing the mission
Sarah Rice returning as a mercenary
Tori throwing herself in against Anna Leigh
Lete going off on Adrienne after voting her into the last elimination

REPORT CARD

Format: F

Sorry in advance for how long the explanation of the format is, but that alone is a good indicator of why it gets such a low grade.

The season started with a race/puzzle to determine the three team captains, which was won by Anna Leigh, Chris and Justin.

Chris and Justin teamed up to make two powerhouse teams for Gray and Orange, while Anna Leigh’s Blue team got the short end of the stick.

In the first four episodes, the male/female captains switched every week. The winning team of the mission was safe from elimination, while the second place team’s captains were safe. The captain of that team would nominate one player for elimination, while the rest of the team would nominate someone else.

The winning captain would then choose between one of the nominated players from the second place team and anyone from the last place team.

In episode 5, the teams chose one permanent captain — Orange chose Tori, Gray chose Cory, and Blue chose Josh. The captains were always safe from elimination. The only way to remove the captain was by mutiny, which required the entire team to vote for it (which never happened).

The winning team of the mission was safe from elimination, while the captains of the losing team had to select someone for elimination.

After Blue and Gray merged at the end of episode 8, the format shifted again. The losing team’s captain nominated someone for elimination, while the rest of the team nominated someone else. Then the winning team’s captain would choose someone from their own team to face one of the losing team’s nominated players.

If you read all that, God bless you, but here’s why the format this season was bad:

Limited Options- This goes back to the decision to do a three-team format with a cast of 24. With only four men and women on a team to start, limited options was a recurring problem throughout the season. It started with the first vote of the season with Orange having to choose between nominating Bananas and CT. If you have a format where either of these legends are effectively getting thrown into the first elimination by their own team, there’s probably something very wrong with it.
The Captain Format- It was fine in the beginning of the season when they were switching captains every week, but the issues started when it switched to permanent captains. By having permanent captains, it guaranteed that for some teams the same people would be going in repeatedly. Nelson would have gone in every time Blue lost just because Josh was a captain. Realistically, a mutiny was almost never going to be a possibility. The captains also had a ridiculous amount of power, not only having immunity but also getting to choose who went into elimination. I did like that the captains had to earn their spot in the final by facing the mercenaries, but being a captain was just overpowered this season.

Cast: B

Seven of the New Threats from season 41 returned — Sydney, Adrienne, Leo, Will, Justin, Izzy and Cedric. Personally, I would have rather seen this be a Vets vs. New Threats season and have half the cast be the New Threats, but the show made good decisions with the season 41 rookies that they brought back.

I thought it was a bit questionable to have six rookies on this season with such a small cast, and while Lete and Anna Leigh made big impacts on the season, the other four (Josh, Keanu, Deb and Riley) didn’t do a ton, other than Josh setting off the event that caused three ejections.

Although there were veteran staples in Bananas, CT, Cara Maria, Tori, Cory, Brad and Michele, the cast mostly skewed toward inexperienced players — along with Chris and Cassidy, 15 of the 24 castmembers had only been on one previous season or less.

Nurys made a loud mark despite only being on four episodes, while her former Ride or Dies partner Nelson improbably returned to the show three years after his drunk driving accident that resulted in his leg getting amputated.

Missions: C+

The original Cutthroat was known for the most hardcore missions the show had seen at that point, with classics like Gas Problems and Riot Act.

The dailies on Cutthroat 2 were pretty standard and mostly forgettable.

Eliminations: B+

The show mixed some classic eliminations (Knot So Fast, Pole Wrestle, Balls In, Back Up Off Me) with some good new ones.

Nelson’s win over Keanu in Knot So Fast and Adrienne and Rachel’s battle in Pole Wrestle were the highlights of the classic eliminations.

The standout new eliminations for me were Burn Out (Bananas vs. Cedric) and Winning Numbers (Keanu vs. Brad).

The eliminations did a good job of mixing physical and mental challenges together, like they did in Line ’Em Up, I’ve Got You Pegged, Air Time, Slide Show and Chain Reaction.

Final: C

On day one, the teams had to complete five checkpoints, collecting components for the “power source” while also solving/timing out of two puzzles in the House of Puzzles.

In the night portion, the teams had to fill three canisters with metal pellets, while also having one team member manning the watchtower.

The winning team of day one (Orange) received a 10-minute head start on the 10-mile course through the jungle, where they collected five puzzle pieces to be put together at the end.

This final did look pretty brutal, in large part because of the Thailand heat, with the only people who didn’t seem to struggle too much being Tori, Michele, Lete and Adrienne.

Day one of the final was fairly entertaining to watch, but day two was boring, with nothing but walking/light jogging until the final (easy) puzzle.

And it was marred by some controversy, as for the first time in Challenge history a player (CT) was allowed to get medical attention while the rest of his team was allowed to continue, and there was no penalty after he rejoined them (although it seemed like even if Gray did get the 10-minute head start on day two they still would have lost).

Politics: B-

Some of the deliberations were feisty, but ultimately there weren’t too many interesting decisions to make other than Michele having to choose who to nominate between CT/Bananas in the first episode.

Drama: B-

There was a good amount of fighting on this season, both game and non-game related.

The issues on Orange team mostly revolved around CT, with him finagling his way out of the first elimination and frustration from his team about his fitness level.

Blue team was the most dysfunctional, with the veterans Cara Maria and Nelson finding themselves on the wrong side of the numbers against the rookies Josh, Anna Leigh and Lete.

Gray mostly got along, but there was still some infighting between Nurys/Sydney (game related) and Nurys/Adrienne (not game related).

Showmances: B+

Leo and the married Anna Leigh’s flirtation was the most memorable “showmance” of the season, but there were several other pairs coupling up.

Cory and Izzy flirted a lot, but with Cory having Taylor back at home and Nelson doing his best to put a kibosh to it, it ultimately didn’t get off the ground.

Josh and Adrienne canoodled, with some turbulence when Adrienne thought Josh and Nurys were flirting.

Will and Deb had an early season showmance, then Will had some flirtation with Tori toward the end of the season.

And did you know Bananas has a thing for rookie girls? Lete was by my count his eighth rookie showmance, joining the illustrious ranks with Camila, Natalie N, Angela B, Morgan, Jenny (kind of stretching but there was some flirtation), Moriah and Dee Valladares.

SUPERLATIVES

Most Valuable Player: Anna Leigh

There really was not a clear standout on this season, and this is honestly one of the weakest MVPs I’ve ever given out.

The main people I was considering were Adrienne, Lete and Anna Leigh.

I was very impressed with how Adrienne handled herself on this season, earning enough respect to be made captain of the new Gray team. She finished with the most confessionals on the season, nine above the next highest person (Cara Maria).

Lete showed a lot of eccentricity her rookie season and got into a showmance with Bananas, but otherwise didn’t do much of note until she went off on her team after getting voted into the last elimination.

The MVP for me usually comes down to who I’m going to remember most when I think about this season, and I think ultimately Anna Leigh was such a lightning rod for drama that she’ll be who I think about first from Cutthroat 2.

Her flirting with Leo was probably the biggest storyline of the season, and she got into it with Justin, Lete and Cara Maria for various reasons.

Anna Leigh is not a big personality, which makes it feel a little weird to give her this award, but I do think she made the biggest impact on the season.

Best Competitors: Bananas/Will and Lete/Tori

Team challenges are notoriously difficult to judge individual competitors, and there just isn’t much to distinguish anyone on this season.

I didn’t really consider anyone who didn’t make the final (Chris deserves some recognition, but he just didn’t do enough to really make a case).

So by process of elimination I come up with the winners.

CT was arguably the worst guy on the season, struggling particularly in Perfect Match, Swing Into Action, and the final.

You could argue Bananas should get this award by himself because his elimination win where he destroyed Cedric was better than anything Will did during the season, but I just can’t confidently say Bananas performed much better than Will, who was the workhorse of the Orange team and surprisingly did well at some of the puzzles in the final.

For the women, Michele didn’t really do anything of note the entire season.

Cara Maria beat Deb in elimination but had poor performances in the If You Know, You Know and Infiltration Dive missions.

Cassidy beat Izzy in elimination but crapped out in the final.

Adrienne had the best elimination win of the season defeating Rachel in Pole Wrestle and performed stellarly for most of the season, but her performance in Swing Into Action where she caused her team to take an hour penalty keeps her from winning.

While some might think Lete outperformed Tori, I’m not sure how you could actually argue it. Lete did look like a superhero in Swing Into Action and beat Justin in elimination, but Tori won eliminations against Sarah Rice and Anna Leigh and didn’t have any notably bad performances. There’s just not enough evidence for me to put Lete ahead of Tori.

Best Political Player: Tori

I really liked how Adrienne carried herself on this season, but her decision to vote Lete into the last elimination disqualified her from winning this. Yes, it worked out, but Lete losing would have been an absolute disaster for Gray team. You just can’t risk your best player in a puzzle elimination.

Nominating Anna Leigh over Cassidy (when Tori threw herself in against Anna Leigh) also was a mistake, as Anna Leigh almost certainly would have held up better in the final than Cassidy.

Tori had complete command over the Orange team (in large part due to the ridiculous format) and was very well respected.

Rookie of the Year: Lete

It probably doesn’t make much sense to give Anna Leigh MVP but not Rookie of the Year, but I’ll try to explain my logic.

Even though Anna Leigh had the biggest impact on the season, Lete is a much more important castmember for the show to bring back.

Get Michael Alvey’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

Remember me for faster sign in

Lete is someone the show can build around, while Anna Leigh is an Amber B — like castmember where she will probably ruffle feathers any season she’s on, but she’s not the most dynamic character.

Least Valuable Player: Josh

Part of me wants to give this to Reilly because I wouldn’t know who she is if she walked into my house with a Challenge jersey that had her name on it.

But Josh deserves the L here.

I wasn’t a fan of Josh even before he got kicked off, as he was a try-hard who kept reminding me of one of my former least favorite castmembers, Trey Weatherholz. He annoyed me with how he talked crap on Challenge legend Cara Maria (even if he was correct that she wasn’t performing well), and he refused to just admit that he was going to be selfish as captain and force Nelson to go into elimination every time.

Then his use of the n-word set off a chain of events that led to himself, Nelson and Leo getting kicked off, torpedoing the season.

The only thing I’ll say about Josh is that while I wish they would have shown the incident that got him kicked off, I’m glad the show didn’t ghost him in the edit like they did for Dee on Total Madness.

Worst Competitor: CT

I never thought I’d be giving CT the worst competitor award — he’s won best competitor seven times!

But this season was a struggle for him and it seems like his best days might be past him (which is more than fair given he’s 46 years old).

Still, it says something about how good CT is at The Challenge that he can look so bad at times and still somehow find a way to win.

Most Dramatic: Anna Leigh and Nurys

As I noted earlier, Anna Leigh was a lightning rod for drama this season, even if she wasn’t the most outspoken person on the cast.

A special shoutout to Nurys though, who despite only being on four episodes still found time to get in Adrienne and Sydney’s faces.

Best Mission: Swing Into Action

The last mission of the season looked extremely fun, as the teams had to traverse an over-the-water obstacle course. Despite Lete performing like a superhero, Gray team looked like they were dead in the water after Adrienne took an hour penalty.

But CT took an hour penalty for Orange, and they struggled mightily on the puzzle, allowing Gray to improbably win.

Toward the end of the season, the challenges were reminiscent of the end of The Ruins, where it was a stacked team going against a small team of women, but in this case the women were able to hold their own.

Best Elimination: Winning Numbers (Keanu vs. Brad)

While most would probably give this to Adrienne vs. Rachel in Pole Wrestle, to me it wasn’t all that entertaining/exciting other than Adrienne coming back from down 2–1.

While Keanu vs. Brad was an absolute blowout, it was just extremely entertaining watching a man of Keanu’s size move and climb the way he did, as he dominated a Challenge legend in Brad.

I loved the elimination design and hope to see it on future seasons.

Moment of the Season: The Ejections

Unfortunately it’s an unaired moment, but clearly nothing impacted the season more than Josh, Nelson and Leo’s Uno game gone wrong.

Funniest Moment: “You’re Fucking Deb Chubb”

Despite being a fairly light season, there weren’t many funny moments.

I enjoyed Tori and Michele trying to gas up Deb as if she was some legend before her first elimination, even though she was almost completely anonymous to the fans at that point (other than those who had seen her on Love Island).

Deb didn’t get a ton of screentime this season, but still made a mark, beating Riley in elimination, causing Sydney to get medically DQ’d, confronting Sydney for talking shit on her, and having a showmance with Will.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Fun Fact of the Season: CT Made His 10th Final Without Seeing an Elimination

He also avoided going into the sand on Inferno II, Gauntlet III, Battle of the Exes, Rivals II, Dirty 30, Champs vs. Stars, Champs vs. Stars 2, War of the Worlds 2 and Spies Lies & Allies.

The only finals he’d made where he went into elimination are The Inferno (where he had the Life Shield and volunteered to go in for David Burns and take out Shane), Invasion of the Champions (where he went in by default against Darrell because they were the only two men left), and Double Agents (where he went in voluntarily to get his skull against The Goof).

What If: The Ejections Didn’t Happen?

It’s hard to really say without knowing how production was originally going to format the rest of the season.

With Gray down to just Chris/Leo/Adrienne/Cassidy, they were looking like a small but mighty team, but with the numbers dwindling maybe Gray and Blue would have merged at some point regardless.

The Blue team of Josh/Nelson/Lete/Cara Maria/Anna Leigh had been a disaster up until that point with zero daily challenge wins, and their numbers were very likely to continue to dwindle.

If the nu-Gray team was able to make it to the end with even just one of the guys, it could have very well swung the whole final.

Overall Importance to the Franchise: N/A

It’s hard to see what future storylines are gonna come from this season.

Lete and Adrienne had some beef by the end of the season, and maybe some other feuds from the season like Sydney/Nurys or Cara Maria/Anna Leigh will pop up.

But as of now, Cutthroat 2 kind of feels like a random, unimportant season of the show that almost feels like a filler season.

Should You Watch (or Rewatch) This Season: Meh

I wouldn’t recommend someone start on this season, but I think this one has decent rewatchability value since it’s fairly short at just 14 episodes and the vibes are overall good.

I don’t see it being a season I go back and watch anytime soon, though.