Nothing like a second chance. Paramount+ announced the return of The Challenge: All Stars on Wednesday, October 13 — and the cast appears ready to go!
“This season it’s one more fight to set things right,” host TJ Lavin says in the new teaser video.
One female contestant can be heard saying, “Sometimes you wish you’d get a do over. This feels like that.”
On this week’s “Watch With Us: Challenge Edition” podcast, Us Weekly breaks down each cast member and reveals where you’ve seen them last.
There are many familiar faces in the group. Darrell Taylor has appeared on 10 Challenges in total, including last season of The Challenge: All Stars, during which he came in second place behind Yes Duffy. The four-time champ, 41, isn’t taking a break anytime soon.
Derrick Kosinski also is returning after competing on season 1 of All Stars — his 11th season of the show — and looking to get fourth win.
Some stars, however, haven’t played the game in a long time — and fans may not recognize them in the group photos.
Sophia Pasquis and Steve Meinke were both introduced on Road Rules: The Quest in 2001. While he last competed on The Gauntlet in 2004, she was last seen on Battle of the Sexes 2 in 2005.
Leah Gillingwater, who made her MTV debut on The Real World: Paris in 2003, went on to do one Challenge, The Inferno in 2004. She hasn’t done a Challenge since.
During season 1, Bunim/Murray President Julie Pizzi opened up exclusively to Us Weekly about the casting process of All Stars — and how the game will be shaped moving forward.
“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,” the executive producer said on the “Watch With Us” podcast in May. “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.”
The Challenge: All Stars season 2 will drop weekly episodes on Paramount + beginning Thursday, November 11.
For more Challenge news and a full breakdown of this season, subscribe to the “Watch With Us” podcast for free.