The all stars are back for another round of battling it out in the sand. This time around, The Challenge: All Stars has a new home at MTV and the spinoff series also has a theme. Playing off the three Rivals editions of the flagship series, The Challenge All Stars: Rivals forces 13 pairs of rivals to (hopefully) put their differences aside and compete together to win the $300,000 grand prize.
There's unfriendly exes, bullies, ex-besties, hard-fought enemies, and just plain mutual haters paired together this season, and it's going to be harder for some to leave the past in the past and move through the game as a team. As fans know, in All Stars, the competitors need to claim a star in order to compete in TJ's final. You can't win a star if you're not getting along with your partner!
Even though the first episode of The Challenge: All Stars season 5 didn't feature an elimination round and no one went home, we still learned quite a bit about where the game stands. After the grueling first competition, the power dynamics have taken shape as the first four star holders emerge as targets for the rest of the house. So, who's currently holding onto a coveted star?
Warning: Spoilers ahead from the first challenge's results!

The Challenge All Stars: Rivals week 1 star holders
In the season's first challenge, called "Frenemies," the pairs compete in a three-checkpoint rally. The checkpoints have the teams filling a canister with mud using only their bodies, delivering ice cubes to a water-filled tube using only unstable tongs, and balancing four balls on a gurney while picking up and carrying sandbags. It's quite the characteristically daunting Challenge task!
A few of the pairs just couldn't get it together to work as a united team, including Beth and Jonna (though Beth believes they worked well together) and Frank and Sam. Although to Frank's credit, he was much less critical of Sam than he was in the past, so that's at least a moral victory. But many more of the teams were able to focus and get the job done.
Devin and Leroy worked particularly well together, and that's likely because their hard feelings don't run nearly as deep as some of the other duos. You would think that Adam would be too consumed with his bitterness toward Steve from last season, but they soared through each checkpoint to finish first. Nany and Turbo, too, somehow left their history at the starting line and secured a star.
Take a look at the current star holders and their finishing placements after the first challenge:
Placement | Star Holders |
---|---|
1st | Adam and Steve |
2nd | Devin and Leroy |
3rd | Ashley K. and Dario |
4th | Nany and Turbo |
Nany and Turbo narrowly beat Big T. and Corey for fourth place, nabbing the final star. Many of the other teams hadn't gotten past the first two checkpoints, and even fewer had started working on the third checkpoint. Clearly, there are five teams that are showing up early and proving their strength. Devin and Leroy already have their sights set on getting out Adam and Steve.
The rest of the teams didn't have to finish the competition, which means there was no middle group or losing group. The challenge didn't result in an elimination either. TJ didn't reveal what happens next moving forward, how eliminations would play out, or who could be on the chopping block. Still, the pairs are wondering if the winning duo will split the $300K of if one player can steal it all.
Like the Karma Vote, a potential prize steal between the rivals would cause drama and great television, but I hope there isn't anything like that this season. I also hope that weaker or early era teams aren't targeted first. After Battle of the Eras cleaning out all of Era 1, I want OGs like Katie and Veronica to stick around as long as possible. But we'll see what happens this season!
The Challenge All Stars: Rivals airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.