RR/RW Challenge: Fresh Meat - Episode 1

Monday, May 29, 2006

The next season of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge premiered tonight on MTV. This season took place in Australia, and there is a whole new ball game this time around. Since the Road Rules stopped airing a few seasons ago, there are no new Road Rulers to join the current players. To fix this problem, MTV has created fresh meat. Twelve former cast members from past seasons of the Real World and Road Rules will go head to head with twelve new people, from neither cast.

This should definitely be interesting. However, we soon learn these two teams wouldn't be going to head. They were instead divided into twelve opposite sex teams of two. One from each side. These pairs will compete in fifteen challenges over the course of the season. Four pairs will make it to the final challenge and compete for $250,000. This means that 125,000 will go to each team member.

Day one already shows tensions are beginning to rise as four of the cast members are from the latest Real World cast in Austin. The two couples that have resulted from that season have both arrived on scene, and people are immediately upset about the alliance they already see formed. The first challenge is bright and early the following morning. It is called Stuck on Me, and the pairs will have to walk on a balance beam and back on the 107th floor of one the tallest buildings in the world. The two will tied together back to back, and they will have to walk down a 25 foot balance beam, turn fully and then come back.

A lottery was done to decide the order of the challenge. Coral is selected, and she gets to decide the order. First up is Tonya and her partner, Johnnie. They make it. Melinda and Ryan are next, and they make it as well. Johanna and Jesse also make it. Next up is Wes, Johanna's boyfriend, and Casey. They also make it. Actually everyone does, so it becomes an issue of how fast each one made it. Coral & Evan make it in 14 seconds, and then they can get to choose the first pair to go into exile. They choose Wes & Casey, and the rest of the teams get to vote to see who goes in against him.

Wes devises a plan in order to get that person to be Shane and his partner. However, he needs more votes, so he goes to Tonya. however, in the first backstabbing of the season, Tonya tells Shane and his partner she is actually planning to vote for Danny to go battle against Wes. The vote is taken, and they are successful. This means one of the Austin boys will be going home the next day. Danny is angry that Johanna and Melinda stuck with their original votes, instead of saving him by voting for Tonya and Johnnie. The rest of the cast feels they need to initiate the new cast, and that means one of them needs to go home the first week.

The second challenge is called Bushwacked. The purpose of this challenge is to knock pairs off a tree stump they are standing on. If one of the exile couples wins, they can choose another couple to go in there place. However, Danny and his partner are one of the first to be eliminated, so Wes needs to save himself. However, he is also eliminated. The exile will be between the two Austin men. The two couples need to go in exile, and the others can't watch what happens. These means the two men will have to leave their girlfriend's.

The exile consists of the two couple's having to carry the weight of the luggage from one point to the next. They have to do this while figuring out puzzle challenges. Danny's partner is disqualified, and Wes returns to the camp. Melinda is of course heartbroken because her boyfriend was sent home.The backstabbing has begun. Tonight's episode was an hour, but we're set for a 30 minute episode next weekend.