The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras Premiere Recap: The Game Unleashes Its First Twist — and It’s a Biggie!

It’s the biggest and likely baddest season The Challenge has ever seen — and no, that’s not just some glossy marketing promo. A whopping 40 (!) challengers from the franchise’s 26-year history (!!) descend upon Vietnam for what looks to be one of the most insane seasons to ever go into production. What a way to celebrate a legacy.

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While the four different eras will, indeed, be going to war (eventually), host TJ Lavin drops a ginormous twist at the top of the hour: the players must survive “The Era Invitational” first, which comprises of the biggest elimination night the game has ever seen! Eight separate battles will take place, which means almost half of the cast will be seeing the elimination floor. Only 32 players of the starting 40 will be still around come challenge No. 2! Talk about a mic drop, Teej.

In “Light It Up,” players must complete a puzzle of the number 40. After that, they’ll hop inside a wobbly circular boat and paddle out to the 100 buoys in the water to grab 10 lights. Once those are gathered, they’ll race back and plug their lights into their cradle. The first man and woman from each era will win the challenge and be safe from elimination. The losing man and woman? Straight into the Arena. The winners will then decide who from their era will compete against the loser. With only five men and women on each team, the pressure is ON.

The challenge losers are :
Era 1: Mark and Katie
Era 2: Ryan and KellyAnne
Era 3: Leroy and Nia
Era 4: Theo and Nurys

Those eight will have to battle it out in the sand if they want to stick around. But who will decide their fates? The winners are :

Era 1: CT and Rachel
Era 2: Bananas and Laurel
Era 3: Cory and Tori
Era 4: Horacio and Michele

Will the winners try to keep their teams strong or will personal vendettas stand in the way? (Lookin’ at you, Laurel!) But seriously. This Laurel/Cara rivalry? Didn’t we just do this on All Stars 4 ? Is anyone else more than tired of this storyline? Era 2’s female side is stacked! Why Laurel would want to risk losing Cara is wild to me.

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On the Era 4 side of things, Theo badly wants to see Paulie in the elimination so he can settle their old beef from War of the Worlds 2 . Now that is a showdown I am happily seated for. Era 1, however, has an even more difficult decision to make. Their decades-long friendships and loyalties run deep. Either Derrick, Darrell or Brad has to go in to face off against Mark. Although CT seems to be leaning toward selecting Darrell, Derrick says Darrell’s helped him outside of the house countless times, so he’s willing to return that favor. (Uh, what ?) At deliberation, that’s exactly how it plays out: Derrick nominates himself.

And then there is the absolute s–tshow that is Era 3. In the launch special, we saw Amanda and Cara Maria make strides in mending their past drama, but here, Amanda makes it crystal clear that she despises Tori and wants nothing to do with her. However, her fate is now strictly in Tori’s hands. Amanda’s pitch isn’t a bad one. Surprisingly, both of them have the same friends. So by keeping her in the game, Amanda will also be protecting the same people that will keep Tori safe in return.

So how are these match-ups going to shake out? Unfortunately, we’ll have to tune in next week to find out.

So what did you think of The Challenge 40′ s first episode, and who do you want to see eliminated first? Grade the episode, then sound off in the comments!

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