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MTV's reality show The Challenge is one of the longest-running series in TV history. With over 40 seasons and 300 contestants, clashing personalities and scandals were inevitable.
These controversies have included issues such as racism, mysterious removals, being robbed of a season win, and assault lawsuits. Cast members Camila Nakagawa and Georgia Harrison were involved in racism scandals, while Ashley Mitchell was removed for her reportedly bad behavior.
The synopsis for the show is as follows:
"The Challenge is a reality TV series where contestants are offered a life-changing amount of money, but must work with their biggest enemy to get it. These enemies have backstabbed, tormented, defeated, or humiliated them in the past. The show is full of drama, challenges, and alliances."
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5 scandals on The Challenge
1) Camila called back after racist remarks towards Leroy
The Challenge veteran Camila Nakagawa caused a ruckus while drunk, leading to a racism scandal involving her The Challenge: Dirty Thirty castmate Leroy Garrett. The incident that caused the controversy was one-sided and came from Camila's side.
While being drunk one night on the show, she went over to Leroy and started throwing racial terms at him. Although the production got involved, Leroy felt they did not take the matter seriously, and he temporarily left the show. After the season aired, Leroy took to Instagram and bashed the production for not taking action against Camila for what she did.
Despite the backlash, no action was taken by the production side, and Camila won the Dirty Thirty season and was even called back for the next season. However, she was banned for later seasons after the incident went to MTV.
2) Ashley Mitchell’s mysterious exit
The Challenge production has been inconsistent with its ruling system throughout the franchise. One example is the mysterious removal of multi-season winner Ashley Mitchell from Spies, Lies, and Allies. Host TJ Lavin announced her departure on episode 14 of season 37, stating that Ashley had been "deactivated" from the season.
While TJ did not provide any reasoning for the removal, her castmates came out and said that it was due to her reportedly bad behavior on set and homophobic comments towards Josh Martinez. On episode 329 of the Challenge Mania podcast (December 23, 2022), Josh briefly talked about the incident and said:
"She attacked something that a lot of people struggle with...it was probably one of the hardest things I went through on the show."
3) Tonya Cooley's s*xual assault allegation
In 2011, E! News reported that Tonya Cooley had filed a s*xual assault lawsuit against her The Challenge: The Ruins castmates Evan Starkman and Kenny Santucci, as well as MTV and Bunim/Murray Productions.
In the lawsuit, she alleged that Evan and Santucci took advantage of her when she was passed out after filming of the season. Bunim/Murray Productions told E! News that they looked into the matter and denied Tonya's claims as “completely baseless.”
4) Sylvia and Joss were robbed of their win by the product
The production often gets involved and tweaks things to produce a good TV moment, and that's what happened on The Challenge: Final Reckoning.
Throughout the season, there was an ongoing storyline where contestant Hunter was mistreating his fellow teammate, Ashley Mitchell. Ashley won the season after taking $1 million prize money from Hunter's share, concluding their storyline with a big TV moment during the finale.
While viewers saw the happy ending on the TV, behind the scenes, Sylvia Elsrode and Joss Mooney (runner-up of the season), claimed that they were the real winners, alleging that the production changed the results for a better TV narrative. Sylvia talked on the matter on the Challenge Mania podcast on June 22, 2022, and said:
"I think the reason why we didn't win it publicly, though, is because we weren't going to steal the money from each other."
5) Georgia Harrison in blackface makeup
Georgia Harrison faced backlash online when a photo of her donning blackface paint surfaced. Fans took to MTV to fire the reality star out of her season.
In response, Georgia's representative told People on September 10, 2019, that it was a misunderstanding. They said that the photo was from a boy's birthday party, where he requested that the Love Island alum paint her face black and silver.
The Challenge 40 is currently airing on MTV.
