Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel

"The Duel" was the thirteenth season of the MTV television series "Real World/Road Rules Challenge." It took place in Búzios, Brazil, with former cast members from MTV series "The Real World" and "Road Rules" competing, along with several cast members from the previous "Challenge", "." The host of this season was T. J. Lavin.

This season premiered on October 12, 2006 and differs from all others because no teams are assigned. Each cast member is on their own; it's everyone for themselves. The surviving male cast member and the surviving female cast member will win $150,000 each.

Cast

Host: T. J. Lavin

Show format

Challenge

At the beginning of each episode, the cast is given a challenge, and it is announced whether male or female cast members will compete in the Duel that evening. The challenges can involve either members of the same gender competing against each other, or groups of both men and women competing against each other.

The Duel

Selection process

Each challenge has a female winner and a male winner. The winner of the gender not entering the Duel is given a prize, while the winner of the gender going into the Duel is safe from the possibility of having to enter the Duel him/herself.

The "safe" (or "immune") contestant begins a voting process by voting for a member of the opposite gender, who then selects a member of the original gender. This process continues until there is one person remaining of the selected Duel gender of the day; this remaining person is assigned to compete in the Duel that evening.

The person "voted" into the Duel then selects a competitor of the same gender to go against him/her that night, and randomly selects from one of four cards held by the host to determine the Duel in which the two players will compete.

Note that this selection process occurs immediately after the challenge, unlike in other "Challenges," where there is a period of deliberation between the end of the challenge and the selection of the contestants for the elimination game.

The loser of the Duel is eliminated from the game and is sent home.

Duel games

* I Can: Players bet on how many specific items they can lift in a cart, such as watermelons, logs, or coffee bags.

* Ascender: Players must climb a rope, pull another rope to release a basket containing puzzle pieces, and climb back down the rope to assemble a tiling puzzle similar to a tangram

* Pole Wrestle: Players are placed at the center of a circle and are asked to place both hands on a wooden pole approximately two feet (0.6 meter) in length. The first contestant to wrestle the pole out of his or her opponent's hands wins the Duel.

* Push Me: This Duel features a pole several yards long, fixed to the ground in the center. A flag is attached by a carabiner to the ground a few yards in front of the pole. Players stand on opposite ends of the pole on the side away from the flag. Each player pushes the pole toward the flag; since the pole is fixed in the center, the players are pushing against each other. They must unclip the flag from the ground (and not merely rip it off the carabiner holding it) to win.

Game summary

Memorable moments

*Tina became the third castmember ever to be ejected from a challenge for violence when punching Beth in the face. She later claims that "everyone has wanted to do that for a while, and that it was something on her checklist." Beth would retailiate by talking smack saying "Tina's low class."
*Had Beth and CT properly unhooked the flags from the carabiners, they would have won their respective "Push me" duels. Aneesa later said in the afteshow that "Push me" is unfair in that it's too easy to DQ.
*Svetlana became the underdog of the challenge. At first she was targeted to go into a Duel because she was a rookie from Real world: Key West. However, since winning her Duel against Beth, she's become stronger and stronger of a competitor and winning two more successive Duels. She ended up earning 2nd-place among the girls by the end of the challenge.
*When Svetlana won her duel against Kina, Kina "put on a show," having lots of overdramatic sobbing and saying that her foot is broken. Svetlana did not buy this for a second.
*An intimate friendship developed between Beth and Nehemiah. This would later dissipate in The Gauntlet 3.
*After CT DQ'd in his Duel against Brad, he went on a rampage which eventually turned into a shouting match between Wes and CT.
*Beth developed her first alliance ever in this challenge with Nehemiah, Wes and Aneesa. This would combat the alliance that tried to get rid of Beth from the challenge, known as the "Drama Mafia." This consisted of Jodi, Kina, Robin and Diem.
*Robin said outlandishly hurtful comments about Aneesa, which lead Aneesa to tell off a drunken Robin. Aneesa vowed to go into the Duel and take out Robin which she did. To this day, they still don't speak to each other, and Robin regrets all that she did to Aneesa.
*Beth and Aneesa came onto amicable terms since the Gauntlet 2.
*CT and Diem developed a relationship that would end abrasively by The Gauntlet 3.
*Diem developed the courage that after her ovarian cancer treatments, she could take off her wig. This gave her an immense amount of confidence in winning a challenge. However Beth believed that Diem was using cancer as an excuse to get to the final challenge because "everyone loves her." Beth also questioned her motives for being on a challenge since everytime she was sent into an Exile/Duel she would cause unnecessary drama.
*The Key West alliance was targeted to be the first eliminated. Everyone except Svetlana was eliminated early on.
*Tyler picked Johnny to go into the first Duel with him, which would end any friendship ties between the two.

Episode Progress

:colorbox|limegreen The challenger won the final challenge:colorbox|skyblue The challenger was the runner-up in the final challenge:colorbox|blue The challenger won the challenge and it was their gender's Duel Day:colorbox|purple The challenger won the challenge but it was not their gender's Duel Day:colorbox|green The challenger won the Duel:colorbox|tomato The challenger was eliminated:colorbox|red The challenger was disqualified from the challenge

References

External links

* [http://www.mtv.com/onair/realworld/ MTV's official "Real World" website]
* [http://roadrules.mtv.com MTV's official "Road Rules" website]