Weeknights 20th-24th Feb, 11pm,
Channel 5
Well here’s some fun, the UK’s first domestic season of The Challenge, MTV’s demanding physical challenge with a bit of strategy and usually a bit of fighting and shagging show, comes to Channel 5 and they’re so happy and confident in it they’re putting it out over a week at 11pm and in a way that makes it look a little bit like this was meant to be ten-episodes and they’re having to butcher it to five just to get it out of the way. But we won’t know the truth of this until the first episode goes out. In theory the winners win a share of £100,000 and go through to a The Challenge World Championship on Paramount Plus next month, in reality this too seems to be a watered down version of the original stated idea which now seems to feature the local winners and anyone else the producers seem to just fancy adding into the mix.
The Challenge is a difficult show to love but we’d be lying if we said we haven’t enjoyed it in the past – it’s empty calories, but some of the challenges look quite neat, they seem genuinely demanding and there’s usually some sort of soap-y drama happening to carry it along. I’ve described the original before as Survivor Legacy, many of the seasons have a common and rotating bunch of characters who have all developed beef with each other. The Challenge UK is obviously not going to have that, short of what these people may or may not have said about each other outside of the reality shows they’ve done already.
Interestingly there have been a number of UK competitors in the original Challenge as its expanded over the last five years or so and even an entire US vs UK series with stars of Geordie Shore, Ex On The Beach, Love Island and the like (War of the Worlds 2, season 34 if you want to look it up, they’re usually on a streaming service somewhere but there’s no rhyme or reason as to which seasons are on which services) so it’s not an unknown quantity, and some UK competitors have been cast regulars for a few years now. We will see how this new batch competes, and if Mark Wright is any good as host, in due course.
Watched it? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Think C5 picked this up by accident after reviving Watercolour Challenge and Challenge Anneka.
P.S. Go Hard or Go Home started tonight on BBC3. Jordan North doing a fine job but it’s not screaming hit from episode one.
This is going to rate soooo badly but C5 knew that the second it was forced onto them by Paramount.
To be fair not a butchered edit, just an extremely short series.
Mark Wright hosting it with all the presence of someone with no presence.
Somehow it had completely passed me by that bloody AISLEYNE from Big Brother was in it, was the only one to give quotable lines, immediately gets eliminated. Amused that she basically gave up quickly, she knows herself.
What do we reckon? Five or six figures by the end of the week?
With the final being on Thursday after midnight I think numbers will be down to about 70k for that. Many of the interested will record or watch on catch-up
157k for episode one. That’s probably a bit above expectation, in honesty.
I went into this with awful expectations of them shoehorning 10 episodes of content into 5 shows. With only 4 shows to go looks like they are going to just have more teams in the final.
There was not much of an understanding of tactics or gameplay from the players. It was as if they didn’t know what to expect.
The show is also badly missing somebody to show them what to do. I wonder why they didn’t cast Kyle (Christie) I guess to much of an advantage. However we do have Dani from A Place in the Sun???
I am pleased they change partners every week like other versions as it means a weak player can’t be carried to the final by a dominant player.
I quite enjoyed it
Without the trashy drama, there isn’t much actual *content* in this is there?
I forced myself to watch the first episode, the first ‘challenge’ basically reminded me of Gladiators with the difference being on Gladiators they would have moved on to the next event within about 3 minutes rather than 30…
Did chuckle at the rather laid back advice from Mark Wright that James *may* want to consider being checked out by the medic
I didn’t realise this was finishing with a double-bill tonight, 11-1.
It’s… not very good, really.
There are echoes of the Traitors (and many other such shows, but recency bias) but somehow in half the episodes it goes at 1/10th of the speed. The dude busting his orbital bones seems like it would have been a scandal if it was ordinary members of the public competing and not Z list celebs.
Not so much Hunger Games as slumber Games.
62k watched the first hour of The Challenge last night and just under 40k stuck it out for the final after midnight.
Imagine if all those 40k went on to buy Paramount Plus subscriptions though. Yeah I doubt it as well.
My favourite bit were the edited cutaways of Mark Wright going “X and Y… you’re right!” with all the enthusiasm and timing of one of those old quizzes you used to get on DVD.
And now Channel 5 can get on with the rest of their life.
A few other things about this series:
* I don’t know when the decision was taken to make it just four episodes and a final, but all the comments about “being thrilled to make it to halfway” and “we’ve come this far” were hysterical.
* For a season of The Challenge it was surprisingly good natured and untrashy. Which is nice, but also made for the bits in between challenges *quite* dull. There wasn’t even a great deal of strategising, just fifteen minutes of… nothing really.
Incidentally, anyone wondering if these numbers are “good for Channel 5” – no. a glance at the latest Thinkbox suggests shows in the 11pm slot typically do around 250k.