‘The Challenge’ Renewed For Season 36 By MTV Amid Ratings Surge For Long-Running Reality Franchise

Nellie Andreeva
·2 min read

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EXCLUSIVE: MTV’s hit unscripted series The Challenge will keep going. The ViacomCBS cable network has picked up the venerable athletic competition series for a record 36th season.

The news comes as the current installment, The Challenge: Total Madness, is pacing to be the franchise’s highest-rated season in eight years, with total viewership up 10% (1.51 mil vs. 1.39 mil) and P18-49 averaging a 1.61 rating in Live+3.

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The Challenge also has been key to MTV maintaining its spot as the #1 cable network among P18-34 with 2 of the top 3 cable series — The Challenge (#2) and Jersey Shore Family Vacation (#3).

In The Challenge: Total Madness, veterans team up with rookie prospects from franchises including Big Brother, Amazing Race, American Ninja Warrior and Survivor to go though grueling challenges and brutal eliminations. In the July 16 Season 35 finale, nine finalists compete for their share of the $1,000,000 prize.

The season will be followed in the near future by The Challenge: Total Madness reunion. It won’t feature cast member Dee Nguyen who was recently fired following insensitive comments she made about the Black Lives Matter movement and the killing of George Floyd.

The Challenge was created for MTV by Bunim/Murray Productions. Gil Goldschein, Julie Pizzi, Scott Freeman, Justin Booth and Emer Harkin serve as Executive Producers, and Danny Wascou and Jeff Schmidt serve as Co-Executive Producers. Dan Caster serves as executive producer with Leanne Mucci as co-executive producer for MTV.

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