“Very anti-climactic”: Why were The Challenge fans disappointed with Season 38 finale?

Season 38 of The Challenge: Ride or Dies aired its final episode on Wednesday. For the first time ever, the finale went on for 100 hours and took three episodes to reach the final leg.

The network hyped up the 100-hour finale, implying it would end on an interesting note. But their way of ending the final episode didn’t impress The Challenge fans, who assumed racing would be the last task for the challengers.

Instead of racing, the show decided to eliminate one team just before the final competition. None of the previous hour's challenges mattered as the decision was based on the final leg’s task.

The competition was between Tori-Devin and Bananas-Nany, where the former bagged the winner’s title.

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Fans slamm The Challenge Season 38 for deciding winners through eliminations

Generally, long-hour finales end with a race, and therefore, fans were expecting the same from the Season 38 finale. They assumed that the show would come up with a 100-hour finale idea because the producers wanted the challengers to race towards the end, while completing challenges throughout the way.

But in The Challenge: Ride or Dies finale, Jordan and Aneesa were eliminated before the final leg and the remaining two teams were then given the usual challenge. The first to complete the task was declared the winner.

Fans were disappointed with the process of deciding the winner based on eliminations. Take a look at their reactions:

While fans were not impressed with the final episode, producer Emer Harkin was proud of it. In an interview with MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast, Emer said:

“The final, for me, … it really was a very different final and something that I’m really proud of. It felt very much of the ilk of a regular final for the first 50 or 60 hours, and then it just completely flips upside down and it goes somewhere nobody will be expecting. And so, I really was proud of that.”

She further stated that the contestants liked the final challenges as well, especially the moment when one team was eliminated just before the last leg.

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Tori and Devin won The Challenge Season 38

The Challenge Season 38's 100-hour finale came to an end on Wednesday, February 15, 2023. Tori and Devin won the title of Challenge Champion and bagged the million-dollar cash prize.

The finale started with four final teams, but Olivia and Horacio were disqualified after the former broke her nose and couldn’t continue the competition. Aneesa and Jordan were eliminated in the finale, while Bananas and Nany lost the final challenge to Tori and Devin.

In their winning speech, Devin announced that he and Tori had decided to give $38,000 each to all the finalists. Devin described the win as “nirvana” in his post-win interview with Entertainment Weekly.

He stated:

“It's super-well-deserved on both of our parts. We put almost 15 years between the two of us into this, so to finally get the payoff and, for me in particular, to shut up all the haters, I would describe it as nirvana. Vindication."

Speaking about the winners and why they deserved to win, producer Emer Harkin said:

"Tori and Devin just sort of have quite a measured disposition. They generally don’t go too high or too low, whereas Bananas or Nany…you know, my highs are high, my lows are low, and I think you really see that with Bananas or Nany.”

She continued:

“If something’s going wrong or they screw something up, they get so frustrated because that’s just sort of who they are. And I think it’s the same with Jordan and Aneesa.”

The competition series started in October 2022 and ended in February 2023. Two reunion episodes are yet to air.

The Challenge: Ride or Dies reunion will air its first episode on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at 8:00 pm ET on MTV.