"Challenge" is Back on MTV

Shoutout to my sister for reminding me that Challenge: Rivals debuted tonight. I was ready to watch the talking heads on CNN either tear Obama apart or praise him to the heavens after his presidential address earlier, but once I got the news, all plans changed. The challenges on MTV are one of my only reasons for even stopping on that channel most of the time. I quit watching The Real World years ago, never really appreciated any of their attempts at a dramatic series, and as I've stated before, I've become vastly turned off by 16 and Pregnant. But the challenge genre is fun to watch. It's "Drunken Survivor", mixed with a little "Frat House Big Brother" and sprinkled with some soft core porn. It's an hour of your life devoted to young people coming close to death in the name of $300,000.00. Now, I'm going to have to take some time to get to know the rookies, I haven't been watching their shows and don't really know their personalities, so enough about them -- a bunch of our favourites are back! Firstly, pro biker TJ Lavin returns is host. After suffering a head injury, his future may have been shaky for awhile, but he obviously recovered perfectly.  Paula, Jenn, Nehemiah, and Wes, they all returned for that Viacom paycheck. I was surprised, I must say, to see CT. Being that he has such a dark and violent past on these shows, you would think MTV might want to keep him home and save a few lives. Seriously speaking, he has been such a danger to himself and others, I felt he should be banned from these shows indefinitely. But without him and the other major player  -- alcohol -- what would these shows be really? As long as CT can contain himself, and perhaps limit his vodka and cran consumption, I have a feeling I'll find myself rooting for him. Despite his raged filled history on these challenges, CT is a great competitor, he gives these boys a run for their money. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for him bloodying all those noses and being booted off the show, there would be no Kenny and Evan. They were only allowed to blossom when CT wasn't there to win all the challenges. Can you tell that I think CT is a beast? There were two more "O.G."s that I loved seeing: Aneesa and Robin. Unfortunately they were sent home after the first elimination challenge. I was sad to see them go because I figure, at this stage in their lives, they might have been the only females on the show to bring some sense of maturity and reason to the game. Meet me back here next week for more of the booze, brawls and back breaking challenges.