Brace yourself. Despite fans thinking that The Challenge: All Stars isn’t a real season of the competition series, the latest teaser proves otherwise.
“You think this is an adrenaline rush, you just wait until the biggest season of The Challenge ever,” host TJ Lavin says while standing on top of a giant moving rig with no harness in Us Weekly‘s exclusive new teaser. “This is The Challenge: All Stars.”
The new promo video shares a look at some of the intense competitions happening throughout the first-ever All Stars season.
“This is my time to come back,” Teck Holmes, who first starred on The Real World: Hawaii and hasn’t competed in 21 years, says in the clip. “I love The Challenge.”
Others aren’t having such a good time. Kendal Sheppard is seen crying and lying on the ground while holding her ankle; Katie Cooley is shown getting out of the water with blood running down her face and Jisela Delgado later covers her face and cries.
During what appears to be an elimination round, Jemmye Carroll hugs Darrell Taylor, as he mouths, “Woah.”
The text onscreen also teases the drama to come: “The players are legends. The challenges are jaw-dropping and the stakes have never been higher.”
Mark Long, who pitched the project to Bunim/Murray and serves as an executive producer as well as a cast member, thought that production may “take it easy” on the group, who is made up of cast members in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
“Let me tell you, just starting from the first challenge alone, I was like, ‘This is real!’ This isn’t B-list challenges. This is A-plus, and it’s hard. It’s physical. It’s mental,” the Road Rules vet, 49, said on the “Watch With Us: Challenge Edition” podcast. “Everyone was like, ‘Oh crap, what did I sign up for?’”
Lavin, 44, who has hosted the series since 2005, had the same thought.
“I was like, ‘Dude might’ve made this a little too hard.’ On the first challenge, I was like, ‘The real Challenge kids who are in their 20s couldn’t have done this,’” the athlete told Us on Wednesday, March 24. “So some of the stuff we did, maybe we overshot the difficulties. It was very, very hard, and they get it done. I was very impressed.”
The Challenge: All Stars premieres on Thursday, April 1, on Paramount+.
