The Challenge: Free Agents is the 25th season of the MTV reality game show The Challenge. The season is located in Uruguay and Chile, with former cast members from MTV's The Real World and The Challenge competing. This season marks the first since season 11 that does not include any cast members from The Real World: Austin. The season follows a new format, featuring each contestant competing in either teams, pairs, or for themselves, for a share of $350,000 in prize money.[1]
The season premiered with a special 90-minute episode on April 10, 2014 on MTV,[1] marking the first time the show aired on a night other than a Wednesday since season 14 aired in 2007. The season concluded its run on June 26, 2014 with the Reunion special.[2]
Prior to each challenge, it is announced whether it is going to be whether an individual, pair, or team challenge. For pair and team challenges, names are drawn out of a bag — one of each gender, or more for multi-team or pair challenges — that are designated as captains. For team challenges, the captains select players evenly amongst gender. For pair challenges, the captains either select players of the opposite gender for challenges that are designated as male/female pairs, or the same gender for challenges that are designated as same-gender pairs.[3][4][5]
After each challenge, the winning teams/pairs/players are not only safe from elimination, but also choose one player of each gender to compete in the elimination round. If a challenge is played in a team or pair format, each member of the winning pair/team is safe from elimination. The losing players then participate in an elimination vote called "The Draw", in which each player either flip over a "kill card", which has a skeleton symbol, or a blank card. If a player flips over a blank card, that player saves himself/herself from participating in the elimination, however, if a player flips over the "kill card", that player has to face the player of the respective gender that was previously voted by the winning team/pair/individual in the elimination. The winning players of each gender return to the game and have a shot at competing for a $350,000 prize, while the losing male and female players are eliminated from the game.[3]
At the end of the season, six players compete in the final challenge — three of each gender. The first-place finishers each win $125,000, second-place contestants each win $35,000 and third-place contestants each win $15,000.[3]
Contestants had numbers on the backs of their jerseys. All of the male contestants wore odd-numbered jerseys, while the females wore even-numbered jerseys.
The final challenge is a five-stage competition in a race to the top of Villarica. The first three stages are male/female pairs, while the last two stages are individual competitions. Each guy is paired with each girl in the initial three stages. When each player reaches the top of the volcano, their accumulated times from each stage are added up. The guy and girl with the fastest accumulated times win $125,000 apiece. The second-place finishers win $35,000 each, while the third-place finishers win $15,000 each. However, prior to the start of the race, host T. J. Lavin explained to the contestants that a player must complete all five stages of the final challenge in order to get paid.
Sources for this section:[14][15]
The Reunion special aired on June 26, 2014, after the season finale and was hosted by Jonny Moseley. The cast members who attended the reunion were Johnny Bananas, Laurel, Johnny, Nany, Zach, Devyn, CT, Theresa, Cara Maria, Cohutta, Jessica and Jordan.[2]