Reality Champion Rankdown

[taylorkat]

*sits down, smiles, eats, and says nothing*

[Alex95]

Team San Diego (Ashley, Frank, Sam & Zach)

This is a cut that actually hurts to make because Battle of the Seasons is one of my favorite seasons ever. During the middle era of The Challenge that was dominated by Bananas, Evan, and Kenny, all of whom I already dragged, this was the first time since The Gauntlet 2 that none of these men were on the cast. That's 11 straight seasons with at least one of those monsters. Battle of the Seasons was a bit of a refresh for the franchise. Lots of new names, who would soon become legends, were introduced. The biggest names on this cast at this point were probably Wes, Cara Maria, and Camila and they were all out shockingly early. The season was dominated by rookies and so many new storylines were introduced instead of just the same shit over and over again. The concept of the season was everyone was competing on a team with their original Real World roommates. So one of those teams was San Diego, consisting of four newbies. Zach, Frank, Sam, and Ashley. To their credit, they ran the game. Politically, they were always at the center of everything. Physically they were beasts, Zach being an absolute physical specimen and Frank being one of the best all-around competitors ever. While the other teams began to turn on them towards the end, they won two daily challenges and three eliminations to solidify their spot in the finals. And then they won the final. Besides Turbo in War of the Worlds, they are the only team of only newbies to ever win a Challenge (besides like the extremely early days). That is soooooo impressive and deserves all the props in the world. Unfortunately, this team is terrible, and that's thanks to the two men, two of the most vile creatures to ever be on the show.

We'll start with the girls Ashley and Sam, who were pretty much fine and not really noteworthy. They just existed to be bullied by Zach & Frank. Mainly Sam. And then Ashley would stand up for Sam which would cause her to get bullied. Ashley also got into a pseudo-showmance with CJ, but she was clearly not interested at all. Sam definitely took the majority of the abuse from the men. I wouldn't consider myself a stan of hers, but I certainly sympathized with her and felt myself rooting for her all season. It is not a surprise Sam never came back because of the hell she was put through this season.

So that brings us to the men. We'll start with Zach, a bit of a big name in the Challenge world now as he's done with nine seasons. However, this was the first time we met him on the show. Zach is pretty well known for being a sexist piece of shit, terrible to all the women he's dated on the show (including Jenna, his current wife). This is probably one of Zach's tamer seasons, yet it involves him brutally harassing Sam to the point where she nearly quits, so that was fun. "Not as bad as Frank" should not be an accomplishment Zach!!!! And despite being a beast physically, he gotten by CJ in hall brawl, one of the most physically demanding challenges of all time, despite having like a solid 100 lbs on him. The only reason he didn't lose that elimination was because Sam kicked Jasmine's ass.

Now that brings us to Frank, arguably the main character of the season. Hating Frank suuuuuuucks cause I really wanted to like him. Gay men on The Challenge are so frequently picked on and underestimated. We finally got a gay man on the show who dominated physically and politically. And then he turned out to be evil. Frank was a belligerent drunk who personally attacked every single person in that house, and sometimes their family members. He didn't just get in fights, he would make sure it hurt. He came for Dustin's gay porn past, he came for Nany's drug-addicted family members, he came for Marie's looks, he was just beyond mean-spirited. Along with that he physically assaulted Sam during the mini-final, shoving her when she screamed at him not to touch her. What a great way to motivate your teammates . Frank should've been ejected immediately for getting physical with Sam, but we can't always have nice things.

[Solaris]

This team sounds like they'd be hard to root for.

[*Amanda]

Jordan Fisher was cut?

 

[QueenKalie]

Team San Diego was a mess but I actually had no issues rooting for them all season long.

[*Wallace]

Ooof yeah, Team San Diego was a really tough and uncomfortable team to watch. The women were fine and definitely more likable but I preferred other women from the other teams. And yeah, Frank and Zach were horrible. Zach is always terrible so it's no surprise with him really. Frank was disappointing and even worse. They were definitely beasts as competitors, so they had that for them. But yeah, great write-up from Alex on them as always!  

[taylorkat]

1 hour ago, *Amanda said:

Jordan Fisher was cut?

Your sig.

[*Wallace]

 Ashley Mitchell & Hunter Barfield

 

Now I contemplated on this cut as I don't know if it's too soon to cut them. I did have this write-up prepared a few days ago but opted for the Johnny "Bananas" cut and went through with that. But I'll do this cut today. Hopefully Alex won't be too mad at me here, but Ashley has another entry here and I won't come for her there quite yet.  Ashley & Hunter won The Challenge: Final Reckoning, which was the 32nd season of The Challenge series. Overall, I wasn't really a fan of Ashley or Hunter. I may have liked them in certain seasons they participated but overall I just wasn't a fan of theirs that much. 

Ashley & Hunter's history and how they became a team was due to them having romantic fling on Invasion of the Champions and hooking up multiple times. They had their highs and lows as a couple, but their lows were quite awful and they were quite toxic together. I meant even in the above pictures, you can see there's no good chemistry between them. I think during that season they had major differences, where Ashley claimed she was using Hunter to advance in the game, and Hunter calling Ashley disposable. But they were partnered together on this season.... and yikes they were destructive, toxic and did not work well at all together. Hunter was annoying, but also really disrespectful and rude to Ashley. He would call her all kinds of offensive names and it did make me feel bad for Ashley. I'm certain Ashley had some choice words for Hunter too. I can't remember what those were exactly, but I felt like she would belittle him as a gameplayer (though she probably made some personal attacks on him) while he moreso made personal attacks on her. 

Ashley & Hunter had the most dysfunctional partnership of the final four - as Joss & Sylvia, Natalie & Paulie and even Cara Maria & Marie worked better together. Ashley & Hunter somehow beat all of those teams on the final challenge with a time of 69 minutes and 3 seconds. Ashley was the best performing individual challenger this season so she was award with the 'Million Dollar Dilemma" prize. This allowed Ashley to either keep the million-dollar prize money for herself or split it with Hunter. Ashley made a savage move and kept the money for herself! It was a big and shocking move but with how much they hated each other, it was kind of an expected move to happen. There was another team that did this move too and while I did think of cutting them, I do like one of the teammates and didn't want to cut one of them yet. I did feel kinda bad for Hunter in the sense they worked hard together through hard times, and I feel all winners should get the prize money they earned but at the same time, I didn't feel that bad for him considering how he acted and treated Ashley. But yeah they did well in the final but I just did not enjoy this partnership, so I am good with them going now. I'll post the big moment I talked about below.
 

 

[jarmon]

Hunter. had. it. coming.

[QueenKalie]

Both Hunter and Ashley suck so I am fine with that cut.

[*Wallace]

18 minutes ago, jarmon said:

Hunter. had. it. coming.

He did.  

 

13 minutes ago, QueenKalie said:

Both Hunter and Ashley suck so I am fine with that cut.

 

[*Diana]

Iconic moment. 

[Zoey]

Queen Ashley. 

[*Lily]

Real Like You

 

Me cutting a girl group? It’s more likely than you’d think. I have no idea who Real Like You are because I never watched X Factor: The Band. It was a last ditch, one-week effort by Simon Cowell to make the show relevant again. It failed. Apparently they are the only act from the show to never release a winners’ single, and now the group is down to four (once again could not tell you which two girls in the pic have left). I mean, good for them still being together after three years, surprisingly long shelf life for a group who as far as I understand haven’t really done a whole lot. But compared to other winners in this game it just feels like a safe cut.

[Zoey]

Brian Dowling (Ultimate Big Brother)

Brian Dowling has two versions of himself in this rankdown so I’m cutting my least favourite Brian showing. Brian Dowling was originally cast on Big Brother UK 2 which he eventually ended up winning. He then returned with other legends for Ultimate Big Brother and also won that. He’s the only two time Big Brother UK winner and I’m not mad about it. Brian had a very good series during Ultimate Big Brother and many think he deserved his win.. including me. Nadia had a mental breakdown, Nikki wasn’t half as funny or entertaining as her original season and Makosi was given a shitty edit. The only people I could see winning the show was Brian or Chantelle based on how they were still the same genuine people. There wasn’t an act to be put on. Just genuinely funny and nice people which always shines through like Rachel Rice, Sophie Reade and Josie Gibson. He was inoffensive throughout both series and he didn’t annoy people like Nikki might’ve done since she’s a love or hate contestant. Ultimate Big Brother ended up being a mess and had a lot of interruption from the producers which ended up with us saying goodbye to the show on its original television channel. This series could’ve been epic but it just wasn’t and it was a letdown which kind of takes the shine of Brian’s win. Especially with how incredible Big Brother UK 2 was! And with how he was such an amazing housemate in it. I think it’s fair to say goodbye to this series and this version of Brian right here.

[FrogLenzen]

Dorian Hunter (MasterChef: Season 10)

 

A season where I'm rooting for the pretty white boy to win over the black woman???? What happened to me???????? Dorian was fine this season. She cooked mostly rustic southern food. Which... yum. Gimme it. But her competition all season was really pushing themselves and taking risks and was more exciting to watch. Also the way that she berated and humiliated Subha was really hard to watch. I'm sure Subha was not the best person to work with but I feel like there has got to be a better way to handle it? I was definitely #TeamSubha for the drama. And then in the finale when they have the surprise "twist" about them cooking a dessert with the meal, they stop the timer to explain everything... but like, everything is still cooking while the timer is stopped? Dorian didn't have enough time to fully cook her other course in the pressure cooker with the time given but now you're stopping the timer and letting her finish cooking it with no penalty. And then they eliminate Nick in the MIDDLE of the finale and don't let him finish serving the courses... you have to judge all the courses together! If he beefs one of the early courses, maybe he will be able to make it up later! Isn't that the point of the challenge??!? That's why he's taking risks while Dorian makes the same old stuff!!!! And then after she wins Dorian goes on to the Beat Bobby Flay show and she talks about how she went to culinary school and worked in restaurants before MasterChef. Which means she was not a home cook and should have never qualified to compete on the show anyway. But really I shouldn't complain on Nick's behalf because now he has 15 million followers across all his social media so he's probably not thinking about MasterChef whatsoever lol.

Edited September 2, 2022 by FrogLenzen

[*Chris]

Love Nick!!! 
 

I was rooting for him then for Sarah out of the F3. 

[FrogLenzen]

that reminds me... I need to jump on Hulu and catch up on this week's MasterChef lol

[Solaris]

Real Like You was my next cut 

[*Chris]

6 minutes ago, FrogLenzen said:

that reminds me... I need to jump on Hulu and catch up on this week's MasterChef lol

they really said “let’s cut as many people as we can” this week.

[*Wallace]

Aww Real Like You was fun and a very entertaining group. They weren't quite on Little Mix's level and needed time to grow but they were much better than the boy band that year. It's a shame their career never took off.  But wow I am surprised to learn that 4 of them are still together.  A fine and understandable cut as I know not many people watched their series or they don't stand out amongst most of the winners.

 

Brian Dowling is really likable and certainly was a worthy winner for Ultimate Big Brother and well done to him on winning two seasons of the show! I'm more partial to his Ultimate Big Brother series as I've watched that and not his original Series 2 win. So I'm not sure if he was better on Series 2 or UBB.  But I've always enjoyed him!

[Solaris]

I am a firm believer Nikki should have won Ultimate Big Brother, with Chantelle second.

[Solaris]

Kelly Perdew

 

 

We've cut a lot of the Celebrity Apprentice Winners, and as a result we've not cut any of the regular winners from the show.  My choice today is to cut Kelly because I while he had a great track record over the season, he was dull as a doorknob and should have lost to either Sandy or Jennifer in the finals.

 

Kelly was the second winner of the show.  He started out on the all male team named Mosaic.  He stood out early on as a front-runner amongst the guys.  He was consistently praised on his team has being creative and a hard worker, always backing when the project manager wanted him to do. He came out with a win in the second, and followed it up with wins in week 10 and 12.  The only week he was dragged into the boardroom was during week 13, when it was only Kevin, Ivana and himself available for elimination.

 

Kelly would go on to impress the other executives at the final 4 with his accomplishments and receive a spot in the Top 2 against Jenn M.  Jenn consistently kept the season interesting.  She devoured people when forced to face them in the board room (the one whole time she was brought in).  She won her only task as project manager and really gave a great fight in the final board room against Kelly.  However, Kellys track record, and possibly being man gave him the edge, as Trump ultimately decided he was the next apprentice. While Kelly was consistent, I found it hard to root for him over more exciting women who were on the show at the time. He was the least interesting Apprentice winner.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Solaris

[Alex95]

Queens   

[Qorey]

44 minutes ago, Solaris said:

Kelly Perdew

 

 

 

My next cut from The Apprentice would've been a non-celebrity, but not Kelly. All of the candidates left are so much classier than the remaining choices on my other two shows. It will probably be a long time before I cut the next one, but if I see too many good ones going, I might skip ahead to right some wrongs.