The Challenge: Battle of the Eras marks the exciting 40th installment of MTV’s competition series and features an epic cast of 40 competitors.
Among those competitors are cast members from the show’s 39 seasons, including former champions, multi-time finalists, and newer stars who emerged in recent seasons.
Production divided the cast into four groups based on the era in which the cast members appeared for MTV’s show.
Several promotional teaser clips revealed the first two groups, Era 1 and Era 2, which included show winners Chris “CT” Tamburello, Johnny Bananas, Laurel Stucky, and Cara Maria Sorbello.
In those clips, MTV briefly showed each iconic cast member and listed their accomplishments or stats for the show, such as their number of seasons, finals appearances, or championships won.
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Following the clip’s release, Cara Maria and several fans reacted to the show, potentially making a mistake with her stats.
The Challenge 40 teaser clips revealed Era 1 and Era 2 for legendary cast
Each group on Season 40 features 10 cast members from that era of MTV’s show. Era 1 is the OGs, as they were on the earliest installments of the competition series.
A teaser clip shows legendary competitors, including CT, Darrell Taylor, Derrick Kosinski, Mark Long, Rachel Robinson, Tina Barta, Katie Cooley, Brad Fiorenza, Aneesa Ferreira, and Jodi Weatherton.
Seven of the 10 cast members in Era 1 have won championships on The Challenge, with CT, Darrell, Derrick, Mark, and Rachel all winning more than one season.
Era 2 is considered the trailblazers group for MTV’s show. It features two-time champion Laurel, who added that second championship with her recent win on The Challenge: All Stars 4. Her castmate, Cara Maria, is back for a full MTV season. Seven-time winner Bananas also returns for Season 40.
Castmates Derek Chavez, Ryan Kehoe, Brandon Nelson, three-time finalist KellyAnne Judd, and former winners Aviv Melmed, Nehemiah Clark, and Emily Schromm will join them.
Cara and fans believe her stat is wrong in MTV’s clip
In the comments, many fans of The Challenge quickly brought attention to a potential error with Cara Maria’s on-screen stats.
“Cara is a 3X champ who won against actual professional trained athletes,” a commenter wrote.
“Cara is a 3 time CHAMPION, If we counting the spin off win for laurel we should do it for Cara as well,” another commenter said.
One commenter highlighted how “Laurel’s win in a carnival games final with bs advantages” counted towards her championship stats, but “Cara’s win against pro athletes doesn’t count.”
“Cara is a x3 fix that,” another fan commented.
Cara Maria seems to agree with those sentiments, as she also commented in the section to share her thoughts on the matter.
“3 time champ 😎 If we are counting All Stars as wins i’m counting Pros vs Champs as a win since that win was against pro athletes. 💪⭐️ plus the money went to charity which is a win in itself as well! ❤️,” Cara wrote.
In addition to MTV’s Battle of the Bloodlines and Vendettas, Cara won The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros. The spinoff aired in 2017 on MTV, and over $50,000 went to charity. Darrell also won that season, bringing his total to five wins.
There were two similar spinoff seasons: Champs vs. Stars 1 and Champs vs. Stars 2. While those casts weren’t only professional athletes, they featured some MMA fighters, professional wrestlers, NBA and NFL stars, and Olympic athletes.
Bananas, Emily, and CT won the first season of that spinoff, with $150,000 raised for charity. Based on Cara and fans’ contention, that adds another win to each of their on-screen resumes for the Season 40 clips.
That also means another win for CT on Champs vs. Stars 2, which he won alongside castmate Tony Raines, making Tony a one-time Challenge champ. However, MTV only counts wins for the MTV and Paramount+ spinoffs of The Challenge.
Based on their presentation of the stats, Cara and her castmate, Laurel, are tied for wins on The Challenge with two seasons apiece. That may be frustrating for some, but one of them could break the tie by winning Season 40.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras premieres Wednesday, August 14 at 8/7c on MTV.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
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