lwhy?

Spoiler alert: Someone who's never won The Challenge will become a champion in season 39.

Okay, that's not too big of a reveal considering the cast is made up of 24 contenders who've yet to be congratulated by host T.J. Lavin after one of his grueling finals. That's right: There will not be a single legend competing for another title on The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion when it premieres on Wednesday, Oct. 25.

MTV unveiled the cast for the upcoming season on Sept. 12, which included familiar faces like Survivor's Michele Fitzgerald, Big Brother's Kyland Young and Ride or Die standouts Horacio Gutiérrez and Olivia Kaiser. (And fans will get to know the rest of the Challengers ahead of the premiere during MTV's The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion: Countdown Begins special on Oct. 18.)

But, before you get too upset over the absence of icons like Johnny Bananas and Wes Bergmann, some of the franchise's most legendary competitors will be brought in throughout the season in surprise elimination challenges. Hey, if you want to be the best, you gotta beat the best, right?

In addition to reigning champs Tori Deal and Devin Walker, Chris "CT" Tamburello will be stopping by to strike fear in the hearts of the aspiring victors while Cara Maria Sorbello will make her first appearance since 2019's War of the Worlds 2.

"Legends will fall," MTV promised in a teaser for the upcoming season, "A new champion will rise."

Here's the full list of contenders competing in season 39:
Jessica Brody
Berna Canbeldek
Ed Eason
Big T Fazakerley
Michele Fitzgerald
Asaf Goren
Horacio Gutiérrez
Callum Izzard
Moriah Jadea
Jujuy Jiménez
Olivia Kaiser
Corey Lay
James Lock
Nurys Mateo
Hughie Maughan
Emanuel Neagu
Chauncey Palmer
Melissa Reeves
Ravyn Rochelle
Colleen Schneider
Jay Starrett
Ciarran Stott
Kyland Young
Zara Zoffany

Legendary Challenge champs CT Tamburello, Cara Maria Sorbello, Jordan Wiseley, Darrell Taylor, Laurel Stucky, Tori Deal, Brad Fiorenza, Devin Walker, Kaycee Clark, and Kaz Crossley will return in surprise elimination appearances throughout the season. However, unlike in season 32's Final Reckoning, the champions are only there to compete in eliminations against the contenders and will not get to earn their way into the game if they win.

dex14

Yeeeeessss.

dex14

windom

Aren't these promos for the new season kind of a spoiler for someone on the current Challenge USA season?

lwhy?

A meet the cast special aired tonight. My YouTube TV DVR recorded it. New episodes next week.

lwhy?

If you have YouTube TV and want to watch the meet the cast special, it’s available under extras.

lwhy?

I’m up watching the casting special now and Moriah has messed her face up. She looks worse after her nose job.

AaronHernandez

Without spoiling CUSA2(I have no idea who wins that),that series ended it filming only two weeks before they few out for Season 39. It would partially explain why Michelle Fitzgerald is the only person from CUSA2 on the cast. Cassidy who won 3 elims in CUSA2, but went out just before the finals said she was asked to be on this season but declined because she was too mentally and physically exhausted.

dex14

I watched this last night. What a bunch of dopes just standing around on the stage for that long.

lwhy?

If Bananas, Wes or CT were there, they'd have it figured out after 10-15 minutes.

lwhy?

Wow. Jessica didn't do herself any favors in the deliberation. Big T wins an elimination. I thought the daily challenge was kind of hard with a 10 minute time limit. I don't even know how they got everyone up the wall in the ten minutes.

dex14

Such a dumb speech.

AaronHernandez

Horrible casting,she was both one of the least athletic women on Challenge Australia,but also not very entertaining. Like all the other Bachelorette women were more entertaining,plus they had an Olympic Medalist and A Pro Boxer as female contestants on that show.

Spiderbite

Kinda surprised this isn't on Paramount +.

I don't have any cable subscriptions, so I checked the MTV app and the first episode is unlocked but they slam you with ads. Not sure if the first episode was unlocked because it had been a week or if they just let you watch the first episode to try to get you hooked.

I like the show for the competitions and the challenges but there was too much time spent on the whining and politics for me. I fast forwarded through a good bit of it.

lwhy?

There's only two ways to watch season 39 on MTV via a cable subscription or you have to buy the season on digital for $25 on iTunes, Vudu, or Amazon. I don't think season 38 showed up on Paramount+ until months after the season ended.

The last two deliberations were rough. Jessica and Chauncey just talked themselves into elimination. I just discovered that there's an 11 year age gap between Amber and Chauncey. Chauncey is 24 and Amber is 35. James definitely has gym muscles and no cardio. I was worried that he was going to have a heart attack during the elimination. He lucked out and won due to Chauncey's lack of brains.

I think Colleen is ridiculously good looking. I hope she gets cast on more seasons of the show.

lwhy?

Supposedly two episodes are airing Wednesday according to MTV.com's schedule. Check your DVRs. My YouTube TV DVR only has one episode airing Wednesday. Ratings are apparently pretty down this season. I think it's do to no longtime vets on this season. I don't know if they're going to burn this season off due to ratings or if this is a mistake on MTV.com's schedule.

AaronHernandez

That's probably part of it,but another reason is going head to head against Survivor ,but I think the biggest reason is it is a really bad format. Having a challenge where everyone work together to increase the prize money has 0 stakes. You would have the same problem if they had more vets,people want to see a Bananas,Fessy or Amanda etc. win a Team Challenge or See Them Lose not see them on a team with everyone competing to raise the winners share in case they hypothetically are the person who wins the season.

Bill Needle

Not many in this cast are very compelling watches, and yet the cast is so bloated they can't spend much time even on them. Someone you can barely remember is on the season gets eliminated but there is no discernable effect. Next week will look exactly the same as last week, so where's the incentive to make sure you don't miss an episode for the next 8-10 weeks? No one outside of the actual cast cares about adding $50K to the final jackpot.

Thank goodness it looks like some help is on the way.

dex14

It's set up as a 2.5 hour block.

I don't get the complaints. I'm a fan of the show itself. Every season there are people on the cast I don't like, but there are usually plenty of new ones who I do.

The team format only seems to be for the first "Control" stage and then it gets changed up. I assume after 4 daily challenge worth $50k each (two already done) to increase the pot from $300k to $500k.

Bill Needle

My DVR app does show a 2.5 hour S39 E03 for tomorrow. And it also shows E04 and E05 listed at the same day/time for next week. So that does seem to imply that E04 is being added to E03 tomorrow and E05 will air next week instead of E04.

Bill Needle

Yeah I believe you are right and things will pick up soon. But I can also understand why more casual viewers would be losing interest with these opening episodes.

lwhy?

I checked today and YouTube TV has a 2 and a half hour block for The Challenge tomorrow. It has the combined titles of episode 3 and 4. That's a lot to watch in a week. Luckily I'm off Thursday and will watch it then.

I like this season so far, but I did miss the old heads of The Challenge.

JZ1276

Jordan is great but arrogant. His speech at the end of the elimination was cringe-worthy. I'm glad Emmanuel turned his back for it.

lwhy?

I just finished the latest episode. Horrible look for Kaz losing to Big T. I'm still very lukewarm on this season. I miss having some of the longtime vets in the house.

windom

Honestly, I have no memory of Kaz. I wonder if any of the players didn't even know who she was.