A Close One on 'The Challenge All Stars: Rivals' | "An Un-Rivaled Twist"

As MTV opted for a two-part finale for The Challenge All Stars: Rivals, I waited until both had aired before reviewing the Final as a whole piece. I didn’t die. Thanks for checking on me. (No one checked on me.)

If this season made an argument for itself, it was a timid one which said to fans, “Hey, All Stars is different, but we don’t realize how it’s different.” The daily challenges got easier each week, and as “THE INTERNET” has noted, the season held a less demanding final. This season of All Starts is not a variation because the competitors are all “old school” or original castmates: Faysal, Corey, Melissa, Big T, Amber B., and Nany all competed on this season and are all regulars in the flagship Challenge.  

Instead The Challenge All Stars: Rivals felt like a shift to a less physically strenuous and more politically advantageous game. At times, one could argue that producers built the season so that the likes of Veronica and Sam could withstand a final. And Sam did! Well, mostly. 

Instead, the back half of the final started with the next checkpoint and the four remaining pairs: Frank and Sam, Nicole and Melissa, Shane and Da’Vonne, and Adam and Steve. 

Early, Shane and Da’Vonne crush it. Never mind Da’Vonne wanting nothing to do with Shane, particularly in a rude encounter at dinner before the final. But don’t sleep on Adam and Steve. They’re right there. 

To begin their morning after poor sleep – and no competition-related, sleep-depriving T.J. sadism – the pairs board the bowl-shaped vessel. The boats are attached, the pairs must paddle a mile, and something smells a lot like a challenge in The Challenge: Battle of the Eras. As it’s not running, Frank and Sam inch out Adam and Steve. 

The next checkpoint involves two Vietnamese bowls on the end of each pole. The players are to share the load, balance the bowls to hold as much water as possible, and bring it back to their tall tubes. Steve is hobbled: his quad is in paid. Sam’s knee may be fucked to the point where she’s on all fours before the end of the challenge. Frank’s yelling, Adam’s carrying his and Steve’s load, and it all comes down to Shane and Da’Vonne who inch out another pair. Any guesses? It’s Adam and Steve again. 

Adam and Steve keep a consistency for the final and take advantage of the NASCAR-esque rules that gave Terry Labonte his 1996 NASCAR Championship despite not winning a race. 

Nicole and Melissa as well as Frank and Sam do not finish carrying the water under time, and it gives them a DNF. That hurts. It also costs the two pair a championship. It’s down to Shane and Da’Vonne versus Adam and Steve. 

The final checkpoint is a balancing act. The teams put sandbags on a teeter-totter to find a balance, but they have to add themselves and hold it perfectly balanced before the others. 

If editing is to be believed, Adam and Steve inch out the victory in a photo finish as both pairs nail the balance almost at the same time. The cool thing is that Da’Vonne is a good sport and damn near forgives Shane. 

But! T.J.’s not done! In a classic rivals twist that anyone could see coming, he asks Adam and Steve to venture to an area where they cannot see the other. They are to pick if they believe their partner would steal or share the cash. Look, had it been Shane and Da’Vonne or even Frank and Sam been in the situation, the fireworks would’ve happened. Here, though, Adam’s chilled on Steve taking his star, and Steve is chill in general. We all knew it was going to happen the way it did even if production tried some manufactured drama. 

The season was mostly a bust, but it had more than one silver lining: Adam and Steve were the most entertaining set of partners in a long time; Frank could be a contender on the flagship series; Sam did well the whole season with the exception of the end of the final; and Adam and Steve win after many, many eliminations which feels both earned and deserved. 

Confessionals

• Rumors are floating that MTV and Paramount may be finished with All Stars due to poor ratings. We’ll see. 

• No one is clamoring for T.J. to retire, but were he to decide to say goodbye, Steve could really bring a new and welcome flavor. His reaction shots are some of the best aspects of this odd season. 

• I saw the title of this episode three weeks ago by accident, and I was worried it meant that the pairs would switch around for the last leg of the final. 

• The points of getting four stars for a win, three for second, two for third, and one for last worked well this time. It kept it down to the wire. In that, the final was high quality. 

• If All Stars simply set its parameters openly, everyone would watch. It’s the wide variation of both daily challenges and competitors that throw viewers.