The Definitive List of All Rookie Champions on MTV’s The Challenge
Last week, in the ultimate episode of Challenge 36: Total Madness, we saw Jenny MF West become a Champion, beating everyone in the final, including:
- six-time winner Johnny Bananas (now 7x)
- professional football player Kaycee Clark
- reigning champ Rogan O’Connor and
- 6' 5" D1 collegiate athlete Fessy Shafaat
That’s impressive, full stop, but even more jaw-dropping when you realize it was only her second season of The Challenge. And therefore, by Gauntlet 2 and 3 rules, she was a rookie.
This is quite the feat. Experience matters on The Challenge, and some of our favourite competitors took a long damn time to win. Cara, Sarah, Brad, and Paula needed 8 seasons to finally become a champion; CT nine; and Aneesa is still ring-less after 13 attempts (and 2 spin-off appearances).
(Others: Leroy is 0 for 11; Nany 0 for 9; Jenna 0 for 9 if you count Champs vs Stars 1; Diem + Shane 0 for 8 including CvS2; Beth, Cory,+ Jemmye 0 for 7; Adam King, Danny J, Theresa, Big Easy, Theresa, + Tyrie 0 for 6. Tony would be in this last group but he won Champs vs Stars 2 so I’ll give him a pass)
To come on the show and find such quick success, especially in the modern era where it is much harder to win, is impressive. So let’s recognize
All the people who won a Challenge season as a rookie
Nota bene: in the early seasons, there were a lot of winners and many of them were rookies, so it’s not as impressive in my eyes. On Bloodlines and the Fresh Meats, by the format, a debut was guaranteed to win. Still difficult, but.
Jenny West — Total Madness
Dee Nguyen & Rogan O’Connor — War of the Worlds 2
Turabi “Turbo” Camkiran — War of the Worlds 1
Ashley Mitchell — Invasion
Jamie Banks — Bloodlines
Frank Sweeney, Zach Nichols, Ashley Kelsey, & Sam McGinn — Battle of the Seasons 2012
Carley Johnson — Fresh Meat II
Frank Roessler, Jillian Zoboroski, Nehemiah Clark, Tori Hall, Johanna Botta, & Rachel Moyal— Gauntlet III
Evelyn Smith & Janelle Casanave — Inferno 3
Wes Bergmann — The Duel
Aviv Melmed — Fresh Meat
Alton Williams, Landon Lueck, MJ Garrett, Jodi Weatherton, Susie Meister, Ibis Nieves, Kina Dean, & Randy Barry — Gauntlet II
Landon (again) & Jamie Chung — Inferno II
Abram Boise, Christena Pyle, Darrell Taylor, Katie Doyle, Kendal Sheppard, & Timmy Beggy —The Inferno
Darrell (again), Rachel Robinson, Sarah Greyson, Theo Vonkurnatowski, Adam Larson, Cara Zavaleta, Dave Guintoli, & Roni Martin —The Gauntlet
Mark Long, Jamie Murray, & Colin Mortensen — Battle of the Sexes
Coral Smith, Mike Mizanin, Elka Walker, Sean Duffy, Kelley Limp, & Danny Roberts— Battle of the Seasons 2002
Dan Renzi, Julie Stoffer, Jamie (again), Kameelah Philips, Syrus Yarbrough, & Rebecca Lord— Extreme Challenge
Veronica Portillo, Piggy Thomas, Holly Shand, Yes Duffy, Dan Setzler, & Los Jackson — Challenge 2000
Mark (again), Roni (again), Kefla Hare, Anne Wharton, Kalle Dedolph, & Noah Rickun— RW/RR Challenge
Honourable Mentions
Natalie “Ninja” Duran — the only woman to complete the War of the Worlds 1 final, but because of the one-winner twist, does not have a W
Camila Nakagawa — won Spring Break Challenge and then on Exes 1, her 3rd full season
Joss Mooney — only 40 seconds away from winning Final Reckoning, his second season
Nelson Thomas — only 2 minutes away from winning Invasion, his sophomore appearance
Johnny Reilly — was partnered with the weakest female finalist on the hardest leg of the Free Agents final, which kept him from winning on his debut season (when he actually beat Johnny Bananas up the mountain on the only individual portion)
Laurel Stucky, Cara Maria Sorbello, & Luke Wolfe — 3 sophomores who had a great chance to win Cutthroat but their 2 veteran teammates were medevaced due to dehydration because the winning team, Red, drank all the water
Sarah Rice — on her debut season, she and Kellyanne were ahead of the Champs team on The Ruins for the majority of the final, until KA couldn’t manage a muddy balance beam
