Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons

This season of The Challenge features a new format. Separated into teams of Real World and Road Rules, each cast member is paired off with a castmate from their original season. Each mission gave points based on finish. After each mission, the players with the most points cumulative from each team became the "Inner Circle" and voted off whichever pair they wanted. The individual winning pair of each challenge would earn an "additional prize." After five pairs from each team were voted off, the final three Real World teams and final three Road Rules teams would compete against each other in a series of challenges before the final race, which would earn the winning teams $300,000 for themselves, $50,000 per teammate.

Hosts: Eric Nies from The Real World: New York and Mark Long from Road Rules: USA - The First Adventure

• Belou was judged for bringing her infant child along to live in the Challenge household, who in turn, excoriated her fellow Road Rulers for questioning her competence as a mother.
• Jisela confronted Theo, Holly B., Piggy and Chadwick on their alliance in the Inner Circle.
• A hurricane stopped production and the cast had to be relocated to a hotel where they threw the toga party. Many events had to be thrown together due to the logistical turmoil brought by the storm.
• Veronica & Yes and Beth & Jon were the first people voted off their teams. The former team was voted off because the Inner Circle had decided to knock out stronger teams, while the latter team was out because everyone wanted to get rid of Beth, who singularly blamed Norman due to old jealousies.
• Emily got into a confrontation with Chadwick, Holly B. & Piggy after she had told the other teams about the Inner Circle's alliance. While being confronted by Jisela, Chadwick denied all claims of an alliance and called Emily a liar. Even after being voted off, Chadwick sent Emily a nasty e-mail, blaming her for manipulating the game and having him sent home.
• Although Holly B. and Chadwick had been advocates of the plan to vote off strong teams, when Chadwick and Piggy finished outside the Inner Circle, Holly suddenly decided that they should vote off the weakest team instead of the one that Chadwick (her husband) was on. The rest of the Inner Circle didn't like the hypocrisy and did end up voting out Chadwick and Piggy.
• Coral got into an argument with Stephen on the first day.
• Team Real World devised a contract stipulating that the teams would be voted off according to the point system that was given to them. They followed this contract, except in the case where the team decided to vote off Lindsay & Stephen, mostly because Stephen was driving everyone crazy with his hectoring personality.
• Hookups during the challenge included: Mike M. and Tara, Timmy and Holly, and Theo and Coral.
• The Real World teams and Road Rules teams all decided that whoever won the final challenge would split the money with the opposite team. The teams formulated contracts so each cast member would get a share of the prize money. Holly B. thought that this was stupid and thought that the Road Rules team was going to win, and indicated that she would not split her money with Coral. Consequently, when they lost Coral decided to keep her money and gloated over it.
• This challenge would mark the last challenge that Real World ever won the final reward challenge and prizes.
• This challenge also marked the end of the six versus six challenge theme.
• Lori from Back to New York was Mike's original teammate but she dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by Coral. According to Mike's appearance on Bill Simmons' B.S. Report podcast, Lori dropped out due to fear of flying following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• During a 9/18/2013 appearance on Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live, Danny Roberts dished that, on one of the challenges, he hooked up with a straight male cast member who is now married. He did not share any additional details until later in the show, stating that Trishelle Cannatella (someone he had never met), "hate called" him. The call was connected to the hookup he previously mentioned. Immediate thought was that Danny hooked up with Steven Hill, Trishelle's Real World Vegas ex. However, Trishelle used Twitter to clarify it wasn't Steven. Current thought is the hookup in question is Adam Larson, another ex of Trishelle's who participated in this challenge with Danny.
• Stephen's belligerence and violence towards the women at the Musical Inner-Tube Tango infuriated both teams.
• Although the Real World was unified in their hatred of Stephen, Norman became upset at the inner circle when Stephen and Lindsay were voted off.
• Jisela exploded at the inner circle after discovering the alliance between the top three teams, calling a team meeting and annoying her teammates. The Road Rules team would admit on the reunion that they were overjoyed to send her home.
• Holly nearly quit the Sidekick Showdown challenge after Theo told her he had read that she wanted a breast enhancement on the Internet.

• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived November 18, 2006)
• MTV's official Road Rules Website
• MTV's official Real World Website