The behind-the-scenes scoop. The Challenge: All Stars became an early success for Paramount+, and it’s not over yet!
“We were only supposed to do eight episodes, but we had such an amazing finale that it ended up being two. There’s lots of good stuff to come,” Bunim/Murray President Julie Pizzi, who serves as an executive producer on the series, says on the Thursday, May 13, episode of the “Watch With Us” podcast. “I feel like even just watching the cast evolve — not just athletically but their courage and their willingness to do things. The stunts get a little harder as you go. There’s still some intensity coming!”
While the show has yet to be picked up for a second season, it seems that as long as the streaming service wants it, there’s more than enough content. Originally, the series was launched as a way to catch up with former cast members of either The Real World or Road Rules — a rule that will remain should the show continue.
“We still have a lot of cast members that we haven’t tapped into that want to do the show. My guess is that we’ll continue that for a little while. Then we might open it up as we go with success,” she tells Us. “We have over 100 past Real World or Road Rules players that are interested in doing another cycle. People have reached out to us. It is, like, a wealth of great personalities that are willing to do it, because they thought it looked like a lot of fun.”
Pizzi, who has worked on The Challenge for more than 20 years, noted that they worked hard to distinguish All Stars from the original MTV show.
“We are leaning into the comedy,” the producer notes. “Allowing ourselves to lean into nostalgia and comedy, that does feel really different than the intensity that is the Challenge.”
During the episode, Pizzi also discusses whether OGs who appear on All Stars can return to the normal Challenge and what goes into casting in general. Just because someone wins a season, that doesn’t mean they’re officially asked back — or officially out — for the following season.
“The show is more than just a competition series. It is also a drama series, it’s a docuseries. There are certain people who really are just all about the game and mostly play the game. They might be incredibly strategic and really good at it, we also ask them to give of themselves and share their experiences and sort of, participate on a larger level,” she says. “If we have some people that are mostly just really game players, we really do look for people who bring more to the table.”
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New episodes of The Challenge: All Stars drop on Paramount+ every Thursday.