

MTV’s The Challenge has been on television for a thousand years, during which I’ve tried tirelessly to convert those who ignore its beauty. You can keep your Survivor, your Amazing Race, and your American Ninja Warrior—MTV’s collection of bumbling amateur athletes (from reality shows all over the world) is the greatest sport, and it is also a pillar of bad sportsmanship, as witnessed in Wednesday night’s fourth episode of the season, one of the best to date.
The theme of this 34th edition is War of the Worlds 2: Team U.S.A. versus Team U.K., which has so far led to a lot of stupid war jokes. But that framework quickly became useless anyway, because the U.S. is full of people who hate each other and are willing to sabotage their team. (For reference, The Challenge is no longer just MTV-specific. It now welcomes players from all reality walks of life.)
Since it is a team game this season, as opposed to individual (as in recent seasons), you would think there’d be no need for in-fighting. But the rules, set up to create drama, state that after each week’s challenge, the winning team gets to choose a player from the opposing team to go into the elimination round (the Proving Ground)—or the winning team can instead be dastardly and send in one of their own players. The losing team has to automatically send in one of their own. The two players then go head to head in an elimination round, and that winner can decide to stick with their team or switch to the other side and become what the show is calling a turncoat. Stupid and brilliant. The thinking is that if you can get rid of your own team’s strongest players slash (your enemies), then you have a better chance of winning in the end.
This is a competition where the best athletic narcissists return each season, and so it pays to be a veteran. As such, the U.S. team members have years of history and bad blood between them, which means certain people have allegiances that help them play the game within the game.