“It's tailored”- The Challenge fans criticize the production for rigging the finale in Jordan’s favor

The finale of The Challenge: The Battle of the Eras season 40 was released on Wednesday, January 1, 2025. Episode 18 was the first part of the two-part finale and covered most of the final challenge. Meanwhile, part 2 of the finale will look at the second part of the challenge and the results.

The final challenge tested the contestants' swimming skills and included them swimming back and forth to solve tasks. At the first checkpoint, they had to swim from the boat to the shore where they had to solve a puzzle before swimming back to the boat. For the second checkpoint, they had to swim under a "Ghost Ship" and memorize the symbols before swimming back up and recreating the symbols. Their third checkpoint was on the beach and they had to swim to get there. After solving a puzzle, they had to swim back to the boat.

While Michele won the first round, Jenny secured first place among the women in the second and third checkpoints. As for the men, Jordan won all three checkpoints with his swimming skills.

Fans of The Challenge who watched part 1 of the finale took to X to criticize the production for the swimming challenge. They said it catered to Jordan's skills as they noted that it was the "worst final of all time."

"More swimming???? Nah this is the worst final of all time. It's tailored for Jordan to win," a fan said.

Other fans said that the production team "set up" the challenge for Tori and Jordan but they didn't expect the former "to do this bad." Some also claimed that the finale was boring as it wasn't a fair competition.

"Production ain’t slick. Yall set up all this swimming for Tori and Jordan to win. Yall didn’t expect Tori to do this bad," said another.

"This final sucks. Finals are supposed to test a variety of challenge skills. This one is all swimming. I don't agree with Bananas often, but he's correct that this was made for Jordan. And Kyland has no chance. At least the women's side is somewhat competitive," added a third.

"I don’t mind a final having water but this is just overkill. Just write Jordan the cheque already," another wrote.

"Jordan is a great player but watching him dominate a final that caters to his strengths is boring af," an X user wrote.

"All swimming the first part is kinda crazy when they know Jordan has the biggest advantage and Kyland would have the biggest disadvantage is kinda annoying," another user wrote.

"Not a fan of this basically all swimming final. A little is fine but it obviously favors certain people. And the guys were absolutely stupid for not trying to get Jordan out before the final," commented one.

"Jordan about to win a final handcrafted for his strength after doing almost nothing all season," another wrote.

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The Challenge season 40 episode 18 results

The first checkpoint of the finale was called "The Sandblast," and saw Jordan reach the shore before any of his co-contestants. Once there, he had to solve a puzzle.

Meanwhile, Jordan, who started the challenge three minutes late because he lost the previous one, managed to reach the beach second. He was followed by Bananas with Kyland reaching the shore last.

While The Challenge season 40 finale part 1 saw Jenny leading the women, Michele managed to make it to the shore first, with Jenny reaching second. Tori reached third followed by Rachel in the last spot.

At the second checkpoint, Jordan managed to swim down to the vessel and memorize the symbols before any of the other cast members. Meanwhile, Bananas pushed himself up a spot and managed to come in second with Derek in the third spot as Kyland remained last.

Although Michele was the first checkpoint winner, she finished the second checkpoint in the last place with Jenny winning this challenge. Tori managed to reach second with Rachel in third place.

The last checkpoint of The Challenge season 40 finale was called "A Thousand Steps. It required the contestants to swim back to the shore before climbing up a thousand steps to follow clues to solve a puzzle.

Jordan finished at the leading position once again, followed by Bananas, Derek, and Kyland. In the women's team, Jenny kept her lead intact as well while Michele sprung up to second followed by Tori in third place and Rachel in the last.

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The finale episode of The Challenge season 40 comes out next Wednesday, at 8 pm ET on MTV.