Fans of The Challenge expressed frustration with the Battle of the Eras final due to its format and a unique twist introduced earlier in the season.
The first part of the final officially began in the recently aired episode End of an Era Part 1, as the eight finalists started onboard the Sinister ship.
The finalists included former winners Johnny Bananas, Jordan Wiseley, Jenny West, Tori Deal, and Rachel Robinson, as well as first-time MTV finalists Kyland Young, Michele Fitzgerald, and Derek Chavez.
Host TJ Lavin introduced them to the various tasks they’d compete in, which included swimming back and forth from the ship to various locations to complete checkpoints.
After each checkpoint, TJ informed the competitors who finished first through fourth place for the men and women.
However, at the start of the final, TJ informed them that castmates had cast Karma votes throughout the season, which would determine who won.
That immediately brought a disgruntled reaction from The Challenge’s Bananas, and fans seemed to echo those sentiments in recent comments.
Finalists face swimming, puzzles, and overnight challenges
The Challenge Season 40’s final is the first to involve what appears to be much more swimming than running due to the cast’s stay on board the Sinister and the Ghost Ship.
The former provided a base for the competitors to swim back and forth to an island and other locations to retrieve puzzle pieces or tokens or solve puzzles.
The Ghost Ship gave the finalists an overnight nightmare as they had to remain awake on board.
Not only that, TJ told them they were each required to count a huge sack of coins, one by one, for a half hour. They’d stop and then had to sing a special song together for a half hour.
They had to do these tasks repeatedly until they’d finished counting their many coins. Whichever finalists had the most accurate counts would be dubbed first place for the men and women after this task, and so forth.
That portion of the final brought out the worst in some finalists. In particular, cast members mentioned how much former show winner Jenny West expressed her displeasure over being hungry, cold, and awake for so long.
However, earlier in the episode, TJ revealed the twist to the finalists about the Karma Points. Footage highlighted some eliminated cast members in confessional interviews, as they discussed assigning low or higher points to various castmates.
Several finalists, including Jenny and Bananas, felt they hadn’t established enough good relationships with some of their other castmates during the previous part of the season.
Fans slammed the Season 40 final format and twist
In @thechallenge Instagram comments, fans criticized several aspects of the Battle of the Eras final. At the forefront was the Karma vote, which many people felt prevented someone from winning the final with their skills rather than an unknown popularity contest twist.
“So you can win a challenge final without actually winning a challenge final lmao this show is a joke,” one fan commented.
Another called it “One of the worst finals we’ve seen, plus the karma points are ridiculous.”
One commenter wrote, “this isn’t big brother your skills should make you win a final not a friendship vote.”
In other comments, people blasted how much swimming was involved in the final.
“An almost fully swimming final is a**inine. The equalizers mean nothing,” one individual commented.
Another asked, “Whose idea was it to have people watch swimming for an hour?! Worst final in memory.”
Finalist Kyland Young even mentioned that a few times during the episode, suggesting he’d done a lot of work to reach a final just for swimming to be a significant factor in his performance.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV. The Challenge: All Stars Rivals premieres Wednesday, January 29, at 8/7c on MTV.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
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