Challenge: World Championship’s cast is not just winners battling to be world champion

Paramount+’s upcoming all-star The Challenge: World Championship filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, this fall, starting in mid-October and finishing last week.

But it seems like it’ll be quite different than what Paramount+ initially described:

Winners from four new Challenge series (The Challenge: U.S.A., The Challenge: Argentina, The Challenge: Australia and The Challenge: U.K.) will advance to The Challenge global championship and battle for the first-ever title as The Challenge World Champion.

Instead of an all-champions battle, the cast and format seems like a normal season of The Challenge, with MTV veterans facing off against players from those four spin-offs—and not just their winners.

Participation in the new global all-star season—which was once called The Challenge: War of the Worlds and referred to as The Challenge: Global Championship—was one of the prizes of CBS’s The Challenge: USA.

CBS said its players were “competing for a spot” in the Paramount+ series—well, assuming you think it’s a “prize” to win an embarrassing wreck of a show and get to do another show produced by the same people responsible for this.

Both of of The Challenge: USA’s winners, Danny McCray and Sarah Lacina, are on The Challenge: World Championship.

But so are two of those who lost: Ben Driebergen, who was medically removed just before the finale, and Justine Nbida, who timed out on one of the finale’s challenges. The Challenge: USA, with Ben being disqualified and Justine withdrawing.

The format—according to reliable spoiler PinkRose at Vevmo, who also first reported on the cast—begins with those who will be known as “MVPs” (cast from Challenge spin-offs and international versions) competing against each other in the first episode.

The last-place players compete in same-sex battles to determine eliminations. Those who are left pick a partner—based on their finish in that first challenge—from the MTV franchise.

The MTV cast is known as “Legends,” and the new pairs will compete in what sounds like The Challenge: USA’s format: daily challenges, with the last-place pair in elimination with a pair chosen by the first-place team.

TJ Lavin will host, though PinkRose noted that hosts of the other three global spin-offs (Australia’s Brihony Dawson, Argentina’s Marley, and UK’s Mark Wright) will also participate.

The Challenge: World Championship cast and premiere date

The Challenge: World Championship will premiere March 8 on Paramount+ with two episodes, and then future episodes on subsequent Wednesdays.

If you want to know who was eliminated and/or disqualified from The Challenge: Global Championship, see the Vevmo spoiler thread; Reddit also has a great round-up of spoilers, and is tracking the other series, too.

The Challenge: UK and The Challenge: Argentina both filmed this fall and thus have yet to air, so even the cast below may be considered a spoiler—or not, since non-winners are definitely on the cast!

The Challenge: Argentina, for example, will be hosted by The Voice: Argentina host Marley. It filmed this fall and will air in 2023; an interviewer talking to one of its cast members said the show is being planned for summer, according to a translation of this article.

Here’s who will be competing on The Challenge: World Championship:

Legends

1. Amber Borzotra (Double Agents)
2. Darrell Taylor (Gauntlet, Inferno, Inferno II, Fresh Meat)
3. Jodi Weatherton (Gauntlet II, The Duel)
4. Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio (The Island, The Ruins, Rivals, Rivals II, Exes, Free Agents, Total Madness)
5. Jonna Mannion (All-Stars 2, All-Stars 3)
6. Jordan Wiseley (Exes 2, Dirty 30, War of the Worlds 2)
7. Kaycee Clark (Spies, Lies & Allies)
8. Kellyanne Judd (Ruins, All-Stars, All-Stars 3)
9. Nelson Thomas (Invasion of the Champions; Spies, Likes & Allies)
10. Nia Moore (All-Stars 3)
11. Theo Campbell (War of the Worlds)
12. Tori Deal (Ride or Dies)
13. Weston Bergmann (The Duel, Rivals II, All-Stars 3)
14. Yes Duffy (The Challenge 2000, All Stars)

MVPs

1. Benjamin Alfonso (Argentina)
2. Ben Driebergen (USA)
3. Claudia Albertario (Argentina)
4. Danny McCray (USA)
5. Emily Seebohm (Australia)
6. Grant Crapp (Australia)
7. Justine Ndiba (USA)
8. Kaz Crossley (UK)
9. Kiki Morris (Australia)
10. Nathan Henry (UK)
11. Sarah Lacina (USA)
12. Rodrigo Cascon (Argentina)
13. Sofia Jujuy Jimenez (Argentina)
14. Tristan Phipps (UK)
15. Troy Cullen (Australia)
16. Zara Zoffany (UK)

Updated Jan. 25 with the new title and premiere date.