The Challenge: Australia
| Company type | Television series |
|---|---|
| Industry | Reality television |
| Founded | November 14, 2022 |
| Headquarters | Australia |
Key people | Brihony Dawson (host) |
| Products | Reality competition show |
The Challenge: Australia represents the Australian version of the American reality competition show The Challenge. Its inaugural season brought together twenty-two contestants from Australian reality television and celebrities who faced various challenges to avoid elimination.[1]
The program was hosted by TV presenter and sports commentator Brihony Dawson and debuted on Network 10 on 14 November 2022.[2]Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name Due to disappointing ratings, the series was shifted to 10 Shake starting with episode 7.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name
Background
The Challenge: Australia assembles participants from a range of reality TV shows, such as The Bachelor Australia, The Bachelorette Australia, Married at First Sight Australia, Love Island Australia, Big Brother Australia, Australian Survivor, MasterChef Australia, Australian Ninja Warrior, Australia's Got Talent, and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Australia, in addition to various celebrities.
In February 2022, an international expansion plan for The Challenge was revealed, introducing four new regional editions: The Challenge: USA, The Challenge: Australia, The Challenge Argentina: El Desafío, and The Challenge UK. These localized versions were followed by a fifth installment, The Challenge: World Championship, which featured champions and select competitors battling in Cape Town, South Africa, airing on Paramount+.
Contestants vied not only for the opportunity to represent Australia at the World Championship but also for a prize pool totaling A$200,000 and the distinction of becoming the first-ever Australian "Challenge Champion".
Format
The structure of The Challenge: Australia includes a primary challenge, selection by winners, and an elimination round.
- Daily Challenge: Competitors participate in male/female pairs. The team finishing last is sent into elimination, while the winning team chooses another pair to face off against.
- Eliminations ("The Arena"): The team that placed last competes against the one selected by the daily challenge victors. Winners remain in the competition; losers are ousted.
- Twists
- The Algorithm: Introduced after the initial elimination, this algorithm assigns new partners of the opposite gender each round, preventing consecutive repeats. In Episode 5, daily challenge victors assumed the role of "the Algorithm," selecting teams without restrictions on pairings. The Algorithm also determined partnerships for the Final Challenge.
- Midpoint Twist: Following Episode 5's "Ball & Chain" elimination round, those who lost were spared from elimination. Winners then had the option to stay with their current partners or separate for upcoming rounds. The current daily challenge winners took over as "Algorithm," deciding new team formations.
Contestants
|
|
Challenge games
- Collect Four: Teams explore the Estadio Juan Domingo Perón to find coloured tokens, placing them on their six-by-five grids with the goal of aligning four in a row or preventing rivals from doing so. Victory goes to the first team to connect four tokens; the team finishing last faces the Arena challenge.
- Winners: Emily & Ryan
- Truck It: Two teams, each secured at opposite ends of a moving truck, race to insert pegs toward the center and pass a baton before breaking a pot. The quickest team claims victory; the slowest is sent to the Arena.
- Winners: Jessica & Troy
- Bolas For Blood: Teams solve mathematical problems, retrieve balls from a muddy pit, and assemble bolas to throw at a target post. The first team to successfully land all bolas wins; the team finishing last is sent to the Arena.
- Winners: Conor & Cyrell
- Build Me Up: Teams transport and stack four wine barrels, each weighing 45 kilograms, across a field to ignite three flares, then complete the challenge by moving barrels to a designated line. The fastest team wins; the slowest is sent to the Arena.
- Winners: Emily & Troy
- Buddy Blinders: Teams run 500 meters to memorize a pattern shown by one member balancing on a pole, then return to replicate it at the start line. The first team to accurately reproduce the pattern wins; the last-place team enters the Arena.
- Winners: Brittany & Conor
- Getting Tyred: Over two hours, teams swim 300 meters and then collect tyres or tokens scattered around an abandoned town. Tyres carry different point values depending on task difficulty. The highest scoring team wins; the lowest score results in Arena elimination.
- Winners: Brooke J. & Troy
- Runaway Ride: While inside a bus filled with coloured balls, teams observe a pattern along a racetrack and later recreate it by arranging balls inside the bus. The most precise and fastest team claims victory; teams with lowest accuracy or slowest completion times face the Arena.
- Winners: Brooke B. & Ciarran
- Frozen Senseless: One teammate feels for shaped cubes inside a covered box while both endure an ice bath, describing them mid-course so their partner can assemble them correctly at the finish line. The first accurate assembly wins; last team is sent to the Arena.
- Winners: Brooke J. & Troy
- Spin Class: Teams are secured onto a giant wheel and answer trivia questions when selected; accumulating three strikes results in elimination. The last remaining team wins; the first eliminated is sent to the Arena.
- Winners: Conor & Kiki
Arena games
- Knot So Fast: Within 20 minutes, teams tie as many knots as possible using a 50-metre rope arranged inside a pyramid structure. They then switch roles and must untie their opponents’ knots. The first team to untangle all knots and drag their rope across a designated line wins.
- Played by: Billy & Suzan vs. Cyrell & Jack
- In Your Face: Teams build stacks of cinder blocks that release balls when toppled. One member throws balls aiming at ten targets attached to opponents’ faces while their partner attempts to block incoming shots. The first team to hit all targets emerges victorious.
- Played by: Audrey & Jack vs. David & Emily
- Spelling Eeb: Starting with a pile of tyres, each player spells words backwards; errors add six tyres per mistake. Teams then transport and restack all tyres on a platform at the far end of the arena. The first team to complete this task wins.
- Played by: David & Jessica vs. Grant & Kiki
- A Dark Turn: Bound together, teams enter a dark container where they locate puzzle pieces by touch and then replicate the stack outside in correct sequence. The first correct reconstruction secures victory.
- Played by: Conor & Megan vs. Cyrell & Johnny
- Ball & Chain: Teams reveal six panels containing trivia questions, then search for medicine balls bearing answers hidden among chained weights and hang them beneath corresponding questions. The first team to answer all six correctly wins.
- Played by: Brooke B. & Grant vs. Ryan & Sugar
- Balls In: Conducted in separate male and female rounds, players alternate between offense and defense attempting to score goals while preventing opponents from scoring. Winning two out of three rounds clinches victory; ties are resolved by coin toss leading into an additional gender-specific tiebreaker round.
- Played by: Emily & Grant vs. Ryan & Sugar
- You Move I Move: Teams manipulate two tilting platforms to guide five balls through a maze-like table; the first team to move all balls through to the maze’s end wins.
- Played by: Conor & Kiki vs. Emily & Marley
- In A Roll: Inside giant steel wheels, teams spin to unwind a 100-metre rope attached to a ball, pulling it twice toward their wheel’s side for victory.
- Played by: Brittany & Ciarran vs. Grant & Megan
- Pato Brawl: Played in male and female rounds where participants wrestle for possession of a pato ball from opponents’ hands; winning two out of three matches secures each round, with the first team claiming two rounds winning overall.
- Played by: Brittany & Troy vs. Brooke B. & Konrad
Final Challenge
After the "Pato Brawl" elimination, the Algorithm reorganized the contestants into new teams before unveiling the Final Challenge for the last six participants. This concluding challenge consisted of an Overnight Stage followed by three checkpoints, completed in mixed-gender pairs with the Algorithm assigning new partners at each checkpoint. The cumulative individual times from all checkpoints determined the male and female champions of Australia, each awarded $100,000. Should one partner withdraw, their teammate was also disqualified.
- Day one
- Overnight Stage: Competitors raced to a campsite located in a deserted town where they solved a puzzle. One teammate was allowed to rest inside a tent while the other remained standing on an external platform.
- Day two
- Checkpoint #1: Pairs continued with their Overnight Stage partners. They cycled 100 km on stationary bikes, swam to retrieve puzzle pieces from buoys, memorized an answer key, and then reconstructed it using the collected pieces.
- Checkpoint #2: Teams transported a plank across a field to move three barrels without letting them touch the ground before proceeding to the next checkpoint.
- Checkpoint #3: Teams arranged 16 tires labeled with eliminated contestants’ names in order of elimination on a pole, then pushed a 1,500-kg vehicle over 100 meters to complete the challenge.
- Champions: Kiki and Troy (each receiving $100,000)
- Second place: Ciarran and Brooke J.
- Third place: Brittany and Conor
Game summary
| Episode | Winners | Arena contestants | Arena game | Arena outcome | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Challenge | Last place | Winners' pick | Winners | Losers | ||
| 1 | Collect Four | Emily & Ryan | Cyrell & Jack | Billy & Suzan | Knot So Fast | Cyrell & Jack | Billy & Suzan |
| 2 | Truck It | Jessica & Troy | Audrey & Jack | David & Emily | In Your Face | David & Emily | Audrey & Jack |
| 3 | Bolas For Blood | Conor & Cyrell | David & Jessica | Grant & Kiki | Spelling Eeb | Grant & Kiki | David & Jessica |
| 4 | Build Me Up | Emily & Troy | Cyrell & Johnny | Conor & Megan | A Dark Turn | Conor & Megan | Cyrell & Johnny |
| 5[lower-alpha 1] | Buddy Blinders | Brittany & Conor | Brooke B. & Grant | Ryan & Sugar | Ball & Chain | Brooke B. & Grant | Ryan & Sugar |
| 6 | Getting Tyred | Brooke J. & Troy | Emily & Grant | Ryan & Sugar | Balls In | Emily & Grant | Ryan & Sugar |
| 7 | Runaway Ride | Brooke B. & Ciarran | Conor & Kiki | Emily & Marley | You Move I Move | Conor & Kiki | Emily & Marley |
| 8 | Frozen Senseless | Brooke J. & Troy | Grant & Megan | Brittany & Ciarran | In A Roll | Brittany & Ciarran | Grant & Megan |
| 9 | Spin Class | Conor & Kiki | Brittany & Troy | Brooke B. & Konrad | Pato Brawl | Brittany & Troy | Brooke B. & Konrad |
| 10 | Final Challenge | '\'Kiki\ | '\'\'colspan="5"\'\' 2nd place: Brooke J.; 3rd place: Brittany | ||||
| '\'Troy\ | '\'\'colspan="5"\'\' 2nd place: Ciarran; 3rd place: Conor | ||||||
Episode progress
| Competitors | Episodes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5[lower-alpha 2] | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Finale | |
| Kiki | SAFE | SAFE | Template:White | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | Template:White | SAFE | WIN | WINNER |
| Troy | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | WIN | Template:White | WINNER |
| Brooke J. | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | SECOND |
| Ciarran | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | WIN | Template:White | SAFE | SECOND |
| Brittany | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | SAFE | Template:White | Template:White | THIRD |
| Conor | SAFE | SAFE | WIN | Template:White | WIN | SAFE | Template:White | SAFE | WIN | THIRD |
- Legend for competition
- Final Challenge victor
- Finalist defeated in the last challenge
- Winner of daily challenge
- Not chosen for Arena competition
- Victorious in the Arena elimination
- Lost in Arena but spared due to twist
- Eliminated after Arena defeat
Team progress
Beginning with episode two, team assignments were determined by the Algorithm, replacing the player-selected pairings from episode one.
| Competitors | Episodes | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Finale | |||||||
| Kiki | David | Ryan | Grant | Ciarran | Troy | Ciarran | Conor | Konrad | Conor | Ciarran | Troy | Conor | ||||
| Troy | Brooke B. | Jessica | Brittany | Emily | Kiki | Brooke J. | Megan | Brooke J. | Brittany | Brooke J. | Kiki | Brittany | ||||
| Brooke J. | Conor | Konrad | Ryan | Marley | Ciarran | Troy | Grant | Troy | Ciarran | Troy | Conor | Ciarran | ||||
| Ciarran | Brittany | Megan | Emily | Kiki | Brooke J. | Kiki | Brooke B. | Brittany | Brooke J. | Kiki | Brittany | Brooke J. | ||||
| Brittany | Ciarran | Johnny | Troy | Grant | Conor | Marley | Konrad | Ciarran | Troy | Conor | Ciarran | Troy | ||||
| Conor | Brooke J. | Brooke B. | Cyrell | Megan | Brittany | Megan | Kiki | Brooke B. | Kiki | Brittany | Brooke J. | Kiki | ||||
| Brooke B. | Troy | Conor | Konrad | Ryan | Grant | Konrad | Ciarran | Conor | Konrad | |||||||
Ratings
| Program | Air Date | Broadcast Time | Viewership (000) |
|---|
Initial episodes recorded a moderate audience, reaching a high of 463,000 viewers. However, viewership progressively dropped throughout the season, culminating in a finale audience of merely 11,000, reflecting difficulties in maintaining viewer engagement.
External links
Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "lower-alpha", but no corresponding <references group="lower-alpha"/> tag was found
Categories:
- Pages with reference errors
- Articles with short description
- Australian television spinoffs
- 2022 Australian television series debuts
- Network 10 original programming
- 2020s Australian game shows
- 2020s Australian reality television series
- The Challenge (TV series)
- 2022 Australian television seasons
- Television shows filmed in Argentina
- Television shows set in Buenos Aires
- Television series by Bunim/Murray Productions
- Australian television series based on American television series
- Reality television spinoffs