The most recent season of The Challenge just ended a couple weeks go, but another season is already prepared to take over its timeslot. The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras crowned its winners with a two-part finale and then rehashed all of the drama with a two-part reunion. Thankfully, fans don't have to go even a week without more of the franchise.
For the first time, The Challenge All Stars will air on MTV with its fifth season, switching things up from its previous standing as a Paramount+ original series. The spinoff's introduction to the flagship series' home network also brings a few more firsts for the series, including the season's theme and it's sprawling cast from all over the reality television landscape.
The Challenge All Stars was initially conceived as a series where the franchise's earliest stars from The Real World and Road Rules could reunite and compete after being out of the game for many years. Slowly, the spinoff opened itself to more recent players, and the "Rivals" themed season 5 breaks the RW/RR leaning in a big, big way.
The Challenge All Stars: Rivals airs Wednesdays on MTV
The Challenge All Stars: Rivals makes its premiere on Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 8/7c on MTV. Once again, the season will air on MTV rather than streaming on Paramount+ each week. According to MTV's schedule, the premiere episode will span 55 minutes, a marked change from The Challenge 40's hour and a half airings.
New episodes air on Wednesday nights on MTV, which can be accessed on cable or online with a cable provider subscription. Like The Challenge 40, it's not expected to arrive on Paramount+ for next-day streaming.
It's new territory for The Challenge All Stars, since the series has always been available to watch weekly on Paramount+ from its premiere in 2021. Even if it's not added to Paramount+ each week, the season should come to the streamer at some point later this year. We're still waiting for The Challenge 40 to also make its way to the streaming service.
The new season features 26 contestants splits into 13 "rivals" pairings. It's the spinoff's biggest crop of competitors yet, adding one player to the season 3 and 4 total of 25 contestants. It's also the first time the series allows more than one player who didn't originate from either The Real World or Road Rules. But there are still plenty of OGs for us long-time fans!
Prior to airing, it's unclear how many episodes there will be, what the format will be, and how many contestants will be eliminated in each episode. Previous seasons have contained between nine and 12 episodes, the flagship usually has 20 episodes or more. With the move to MTV, All Stars 5 could potentially have a much longer season.
No matter what, it's going to be a game-changing season that you can't miss. These all stars have their work cut out for them this season being confined to a rival and having to confront their beef in order to succeed. Hopefully, the new mixture of players from across the franchise will breathe new life into All Stars and make for the best, most dramatic season yet!
The Challenge All Stars: Rivals premieres Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 8/7c on MTV.