Johnny, Evan and Kenny, collectively known as JEK. You either love them or you hate them. There is rarely middle ground with this these three and how they do on Challenges. Between them there are: 21 Challenges, 14 Final Challenge appearances and 8 wins. To say they have dominated the Challenges for the better part of the past 3 years is an understatement. Since Fresh Meat, there have only been 2 Challenges in which neither of these men made it to a final (Duel 1 and Cutthroat), and there hasn’t been a single Challenge without at least one of them cast in it.

Now many people claim the have completed dominated, or controlled every Challenge, or that they have skated by to the finals without going into elimination….this is a myth and a false one at that. Following is the last of Challenges where they went or didn’t go into elimination rounds:

Johnny

Duel – 1 elimination and lost

Inferno 3 – was never nominated to elimination

Gauntlet 3 – 1 elimination and lost

Island – depends on whether you consider face offs elimination, he went into 2.

Ruins – went into elimination and won

Cutthroat – went into 1 elimination and lost

Rivals – went into 1 elimination and won.

So Johnny avoided elimination on 1 Challenge, which was Inferno 3.

Evan

Fresh Meat – no eliminations

Duel – 2 eliminations, won 1, lost 1

Gauntlet 3- 1 elimination won

Duel 2 – 3 eliminations all won

Ruins – 0 eliminations

Rivals – 1 elimination lost

Evan avoided elimination on Fresh Meat 1, a Challenge he was mostly winning every Challenge with Coral before he was DQed for medical reasons. He avoided the Ruins as a whole.

Kenny

Fresh Meat- 2 eliminations won

Duel – 1 elimination lost

Inferno 3- nominated for elimination round, won life shield so didn’t go in.

Gauntlet 3 – no elimination round

Island – same as with Johnny if face offs counts, he went into 1

Ruins – 0 elimination rounds

Fresh Meat 2 – 1 elimination round won

Rivals – 2 elimination rounds won

Kenny has the most Challenges where he hasn’t gone into elimination. On Inferno 3, he got put into the Inferno but his life shield win gave him safety, so he didn’t use politics to get himself out. He avoided the Gauntlet on Gauntlet 3, but that Challenge was dominated by the veteran’s team, they barely had any male Gauntlets anyways. He also avoided the entire Ruins.

Now as for Challenges in which the 3 have controlled the game itself, they have only been on 4 Challenges together, and only 2 of those they actually used their alliance to win the game. Let’s go Challenge by Challenge.

Fresh Meat – only Evan and Kenny did this Challenge, on screen they barely talked to each other and if there was an alliance it wasn’t noticeable.

Duel 1 – First time the 3 did a Challenge, and no alliance was visible here. Johnny was the 1^st man eliminated, and Kenny was the 3^rd man gone. There was no on screen communication between the 3, and the more clear alliance was Wes/Evan. Evan eventually fell to CT, after Wes manipulated Evan into calling CT out for a Duel. NO JEK member was in the final.

Inferno 3 – Johnny and Kenny did this one. Both men were on opposite teams, and like the other previous Challenge there was no hint of an alliance. Johnny was also part of the good guys team that voted Kenny into the elimination round. Also like the previous Challenges, no big screen time as partners either. Kenny won this Challenge, first for JEK.

Gauntlet 3 – Second time all 3 did a Challenge together. This was also the first Challenge we got to see Kenny and Evan as we know them now. The alliance wasn’t fully in control as it seemed CT called most of the shots on the vets side, and Johnny was eliminated by future partner in crime Evan on the first male veteran Gauntlet.

The Island – Kenny and Johnny did this one. The first time Johnny and Kenny completely dominated the social game using their alliance to win a Challenge, they visibly called all the shots and won the Challenge.

Duel 2 – Evan did this one alone, and while he didn’t have Kenny or Johnny, he won the Challenge thanks to his alliance of Mark/Brad, but was almost ousted thanks to Paula going rouge. He was also sent into elimination 3 times.

The Ruins – 3^rd time all three did a Challenge together. The first true Challenge where the JEK alliance was in complete control a Challenge. Whether it was sending Wes into elimination, after elimination, or only having Johnny going in at the end when there was no other option, they first showed their true power as a trio on this Challenge, and won.

Fresh Meat 2 – Kenny did this one alone. While Kenny was alone, he had an alliance with him, and this Challenge became a war of alliance. Kenny’s on one side and Wes’s on the other. At the start Wes’s had more numbers, but as Wes decided he would rather face Ryan and Theresa in any Exile, instead of having any of his friends face them his alliance crumbled and at the end of the Challenge only Landon from the Wes alliance was left. Kenny at one point managed to have alliance leaders Wes and Evelyn face off in an elimination round. Landon ended up winning this alliance.

Cutthroat – Johnny did this one alone. He had fringe alliance members Derrick and Jenn on this one, but his team only won 2 Challenges the entire season and although he nominated himself into elimination he never expected the shocking return of CT to ruin his plans. No JEK member was in the finals of this Challenge.

Rivals – Fourth Challenge all three did a Challenge together. As Kenny and Johnny said on Derrick’s podcast, there has been no Challenge social game that was played as perfectly as Rivals was. Evan went into elimination round because he wanted too, they wanted CT gone? He was right before the final. 2 members of JEK in the final? Kenny and Johnny. In the end Johnny stood tall as the winner alongside Tyler. Alliance fringe member Paula won this Challenge as well.

So with all the facts laid out, their challenge history on the record…have they really skated by every challenge? Have they completely controlled every game they are in? Or is the JEK name just more hype than actual evil? I’ve dissected it for you, now it’s your turn to make your own conclusions.

After thinking long and hard the Challenge is do-able. The hardest part was casting Road Rules, and while this no dream cast by any stretch of the imagination it is possible. So here goes.. Road Rules cast has no other options as far as I can see, unless they can convince a Jodi/Kina to come out of retirement.

Real World

• Johnny
• Landon
• CT
• Wes
• Dunbar
• KellyAnne
• Paula
• Emily (DC)
• Sarah
• Nany (rookie)

Road Rules

• Derrick
• Dan W.
• Darrel
• Derek (Viewers revenge)
• Mark 
• Katie
• Angela (viewers revenge)
• Tina
• Susie
• Cara (least likely but with Susie possible)

Fresh Meat

• Evan
• Kenny
• Brandon
• Noor
• Big E
• Laurel
• Cara Maria
• Evelyn
• Carley
• Casey

Each team has there own expendables as well. Best format would be the cutthroat style, just without the choosing teams at the beggining. Open to all suggestions on cast members, especially RR (in the real of reality..no retired or someone we haven’t seen in 10 challenges), although I hear Kendall wants to return.

If you are reading this, you probably love the Challenge on MTV. If you don’t love the Challenge then this got re-blogged so suck yeah! If you do love the Challenge, and love that it is still on the air after 22 seasons you have to thank the Fresh Meat. Blasphemy you say? Not at all loyal follower. Read on, and see why..

Back in 2005, something drastic happened. Road Rules was plummeting in the ratings while both the Real World/Road Rules Challenge and the Real World were still very popular, MTV made the decision to cancel Road Rules and for the next 3 Challenges they could still fill up spots from the last few seasons of Road Rules and its core cast that usually included.. Miz, Coral, Rachel, Tonya, Katie, Veronica, Tina, and others. Another road block occurred when Veronica and Rachel decided to step away from the Challenge for almost 3 years, Miz retired to become a WWE Superstar, and Coral took a breather for a few Challenges, what was MTV to do? Sure they could probably entice a few older cast members to give it a go, but eventually that wouldn’t last. So they decided to use former rejects or first picked cast members (example, Kenny was original cast for Real World Austin but backed out and was replaced by Wes at the last second…. Lol imagine if that actually hadn’t happened) to bring in a new crop of kids that could fill up the numbers left by the Road Rules void.

Fresh Meat 1 gave us only  6 new Fresh Meat, that have actually made up the new core of cast members, heck even the season 1 winner hasn’t been invited back and while some may say “they didn’t earn their spot, oh they are always on every challenge”, without them.. we probably wouldn’t even have Challenges anymore. All the time people say, why don’t they bring X cast member back, or they should really bring back this person. Truth is a LOT of the former cast members have moved on from reality tv, they have jobs, families, some probably left with a bad taste in their mouths, others got permanent injuries due to the Challenge (Timmy) and some they shouldn’t even bother calling back. We should be lucky we still get cast members like CT, Derrick, Mark, Katie and other vets to show up..cause the others have moved on. Will we get lucky and maybe get a Coral appearance? Who knows..its a possibility but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Now should they fill up every Challenge with Fresh Meat? Hell no, just like it shouldn’t be filled up with mostly Real World (although that is the biggest pool of cast they have), and we are now lucky if we even get 2 or 3 Road Rulers in a season (Rivals had no Road Rulers, that’s how small that pool has gotten).

So love em or hate them, they gave the Challenges a second chance back in 06’ and probably a breather in ’10 with Fresh Meat 2. 

If you’ve never seen The Wire (and you should best tv show ever), you may not get this blog at all. If you have, I hope you enjoy it. I got the idea from Bill Simmons, he did one earlier in the summer about the NBA and thought some comparisons fit The Challenge as well. Now I wont be comparing every Challenger, or every Wire character just certain ones that really fit the mold. So here we go:

1) Barksdale gang/ JEK Alliance: This is without a doubt the easiest one to see. Evan is Avon and Kenny is Stringer. When Evan is away (he tends to miss more Challenges than any of the 3) Kenny takes over, and in actually he’s the actual brains of the operation. One thing I’ve read is that Kenny’s social game is phenomenal. Look at how he broke up Wes’s alliance on Fresh Meat 2, and he rarely gets voted into elimination..when he does its because of actual poor performance. Like Stringer Bell, Kenny rarely likes to get his hands dirty instead acting from behind moving all the pieces into place, case in point on Rivals.. Evan was chosen to sacrifice himself for the betterment of the alliance. As for Johnny? He’s like D’ Angelo, while he is part of the group if push came to shove he’d be the first to go out of the 3, as seen on the Ruins or the final Rivals vote, and who by beating CT/Adam, winning Rivals he sort of proved that he could stand on his own but in the end will always stick by his buddies.

2) Hoppers(Brodie, Poot, Wallace,etc.)/The fringe alliance members: These are people like Jenn, Paula, Sarah, Pete, etc. the soilders of the alliance who can easily be pulled into the JEK alliance for votes, and like Wallace on the Wire, Laurel learned first hand what happenes when you scorn the alliance on Rivals. She didn’t get end up shot in a vacant..but everyone wore blue instead of black to their elimination round.

3) The Cops/the Viewers: Oh but we aren’t part of the Challenge you say? Wrong without us the Challenge doesn’t exist, and just like the cops on the show we usually judge based on what see on tv, or in the wire’s case what they hear. We make judgements, and assumptions on half seen, greatly edited pieces of footage that while they could last 30 seconds on tv, could actually be hours in real time.

4) Bubbles/Derrick: Like Bubbles, Derrick does some stuff that wouldn’t considered good.. Bubble does heroin, Derrick allies himself with JEK. But just like Bubbles..you always find yourself rooting for Derrick, cause unlike JEK he doesn’t mind getting dirty to accomplish get the win.

5) Omar Little/CT: Outsider…check. Loose canon.. check. You think he might make it (spoiler alert) but right before the end, he doesn’t….check. CT is Omar Little, everyone fears him, everyone wants to get rid of him and us the viewers enjoy every single second he is on tv. As he so awesomely said during the first season (Omar)..”you come at the king, you best not miss” and every time CT is on a Challenge he is the number 1 target, and while his track record should make him a villain.. you always root for him because its one man against an entire group. You could even make the case that Adam King is just like Brother Muzone, they both had a violent Rivalry but in the end teamed up to take out Stringer Bell

6) Jimmy Mcnulty/Wes: They both try to show they are smarter than everyone else, and while at times they are, the other group (JEK/Barskdale) always finds a way to not completely shatter. In Wes’s case he tried to bring JEK down on the Ruins by throwing Challenges, in retaliation JEK put him in Ruin after Ruin after he was gone. In Mcnulty’s case he spent 3 seasons chasing Stringer Bell and just as he had him, Stringer was killed so in some way Mcnulty never got the better of Stringer, just like Wes has yet to get the better of Kenny. They also have a tendency to use everyone around them to get further ahead, whether its friends (Danny/Pearlman) or enemies (Kenny/D’Angelo)

So while not every single character matches up, some of the core cast has some very close parallels to that awesome show. You could even say the Challenge is the drug, and the TV we watch is the wire itself.

Thanks for reading stay tuned for the next blog “Defending the Fresh Meat concept”

So I was asked who would I cast in the Duel 3. First off, I’m gonna keep it in reality so no Miz, or Timmy Beggy. Not including Alton because he hasn’t been seen since Inferno 3 back in 2007, I’m adding the two Duel winners because it be kinda interesting to add the past Duel winners, but Rachel and Jodi are both retired so they won’t be added, I also gotta factor in that MTV will always cast people for drama even if they suck, so I might add a few ringers. I’m gonna limit my cast to 12 guys and 12 girls, for a 3 male/3 female final, with 9 eliminations  each gender in total.

Men:

1)Wes (Won Duel 1)

2)Evan (Won Duel 2)

3)Mark

4)Kenny

5)Darrel

6)Tyler

7)Landon

8)Noor

9)Johnny

10)Leroy

11)CT

12)Derrick

Women:

1)Evelyn

2)Laurel

3)Aneesa

4)Paula

5)Cara Maria

6) Camila

7) Sarah

8) Theresa

9) Carley

10)Susie

11)Emily (DC)

12)Katie

You may not agree on the female side, but honestly those are the best names I could come up with from the non-retired, completely suck pool. As for the guys you can really take anyone off and add another one but those are my choices. Till next time!

So Rivals is in the books and boy what a ride it was. Back when I first started hearng about certain cast members confirmed, I thought the concept was going to be exactly what we got, but some people brought up good points, like for example : what if they need a replacement and they have no Rival? Can they even get them to co-exist? Or will it work as a Challenge? All those questions were answered and then some. I’m going to dissect the challenge in certain areas : cast, missions, drama, eliminations and final.

CAST: The cast was good, wasn’t 100% perfect but the core group CT, Adam, Kenny, Wes, Johnny, Tyler, Evelyn Paula, Laurel, Mandi, Jenn, Evan, Nehemiah and Cara Maria were great for TV, and Challenge Rookies Jasmine, Jonna, Mike, Leroy held their own. Mike and Leroy, like Davis, and Tyrie r sometimes disappeared into the background but when they were on camera, especially Mike it was worth it. The aforementioned Davis and Tyrie barely got any screen time, and if it wasn’t for the Jasmine hook up, Tyrie probably would’ve disappeared like his partner. Camila and Theresa, only had two episodes that gave them the spotlight but it was all thanks to the fight with Jas/Jonna, had that not happened they probably would’ve gotten the obligatory showcase episode when they got eliminated. Same goes for Brandon/Ty, which was weird cause Camila and Brandon were such a big part of the Cutthroat storylines, hopefully in future Challenges they get time to shine. Sarah and Katelynn, they even got less air time than anyone, even their elimination episode focused more on Jas/Jonna, only thing Sarah got was her bragging about her puzzle skills and Katelynn failing…again. As for Robin/Aneesa it was good to see the vets, really wish they would’ve stayed longer, I would’ve paid to see Aneesa during the whole Laurel/Cara Maria/Paula/Jenn” fight. B +

MISSIONS: The concept was Rivals, and while some missions did require you to work with your partner, some.. especially the last crucial one didn’t require any team work. One of the cast members said, they could’ve strapped a mannequin to the helicopter and it wouldn’t have been any different. They should’ve made both members of the team attempt it, then add up their times and base the mission win on that. Same goes for the fire hose mission, but its too late. What I did like, was that it was a mix of fun (car crash, fire hose) and some extreme missions ( zip line, helicopter). For the past few Challenges its been a lot more extreme, than fun. One thing, if you are afraid of heights..why bother going on a Challenge? Chances are one or two missions will involve heights. B +

DRAMA: Boy was there drama on this Challenge. From Adam R punching Ty, to the whole mob against CT, Jas/Jonna versus Camila/Theresa, Jenn/Paula vs Laurel/Cara Maria. If drama is what brings you to the Challenge, you probably left satisfied, heck the show ended with Kenny fighting with Wes! A +

ELIMINATIONS: The eliminations. I’ll go one by one:

1)Hands On: The least visually stimulating of the eliminations, just had them standing for a long time as the planks moved. While not visually awesome, the concept made my arms and legs hurt while watching it so I can imagine it was tough as hell.

2)Blast Off: While it looked like it was gonna be intense, the fact that they were tied together made it look less cool, but for the Rivals concept I get the whole tying them together aspect.

3)Door Jam: This one looked the simplest, but imagine going back and forth for 5 minutes straight, while getting hit in the face and hands with a wooden door? Yeah exhausting and painful. It looked like a fun as hell elimination though.

4)Going up: Rules were complicated as hell, but I did like that initial moment when they all got into the water and started climbing. Didn’t seem like a balanced elimination and made for climbers.

5)Unburied: I like hey they re-used this concept from Gauntlet 3 and an old Road Rules season and loved the twist of not saying in what coffin the partner was. The puzzle looked like it was just tacked on just so they could have a puzzle but oh well.

6)Rail Slide: The elimination that I think required the totally cooperation of your partner. Really looked hard to do and would’ve enjoyed seeing them go neck and neck on that one.

7)T- Bone: Probably the best elimination since Beach Brawl. Mix of brain, speed and strength was needed to win this, plus the visual of CT slamming into Tyler was awesome as fuck.

As for the controversial Blast Off with Laurel/Cara Maria vs Jas/Jonna..it was lopsided as fuck, and any conspiracy nut would say: why was no other elimination round repeated other than that? B- (Only cause of T-Bone)

FINAL: 2 day final? Mix of puzzle, puking, and running? Yes its an automatic win, plus according to Cara Maria’s twitter it was VERY edited. Missing: When they had to go back when they missed the tent, they had to re-do the pile checkpoint, another log puzzle before sleeping and way more running uphill. It also ended literally neck and neck, which always makes for a better finish. A +

In conclusion, the Challenge was amazing, it had a great mix of everything, and I haven’t enjoyed a Challenge like this since the Duel. Whatever MTV and Bunim Murray did with Rivals I truly hope they do it again for Challenge 22.

Top 5 Moments of Rivals:

1)Paula wins..about damn time.

2)Kenny Maria, brought back something that was missing on these things..humor.

3)Wes/CT fight for hours and hours and hours and hours.

4)Leroy and Mike showing what they are made of as rookies.

5)Kenny carries Wes up the jungle.

Thanks folks it been a blast! Enjoy the Reunion and shit they should’ve shown.