As a philosophical discussion blooms in the comments section of my most recent Real World Watcher post, I remembered the most exciting part of last week’s episode: the trailer for the upcoming Real World/Road Rules Challenge called Rivals which premieres at 10PM EST on June 22nd. Though, technically, they just go by The Challenge now since no Road Rulers are performing. Anyway, this brand new–and frankly ingenious–Challenge concept pairs up past contestants who have had a problem with each other and pairs them up. To kick things off there’s 28 players split into seven teams of four people each (a pair of male and female rivals). Each challenge day will be gender specific. If your team wins, you’re good. If you lose, the gender of the day gets sent to “The Jungle” (the new version of the Gulag or Duel or what have you) and must compete against another team that gets voted in by the other teams in a public election. As usual, whoever wins comes back to play again while the losers get sent home. It looks like TJ Lavin has made a full recovery as he will be back in the host seat. Good for him!

Here’s the pairings according to the Wikipedia page. Obviously, don’t read on if you want to be surprised: Adam & CT, Adam & Leroy, Aneesa & Robin, Brandon & Ty, Camila & Theresa, Cara Maria & Laurel, Davis & Tyrie, Evan & Nehemiah, Ev & Paula, Jasmine &  Jonna, Jenn & Mandi, Johnny & Tyler, Katelynn & Sarah and Kenny and Wes. If you’re like me and can’t remember who all those people are, what season they were on or why they have beef, click the Wiki link for explanations!

Here’s a few thoughts that sprung to mind. First, I think it’s about damn time that they started bringing in people from the most recent Real World. Usually, they use people from the previous cast when launching a new Challenge, which is annoying because you’re already invested in the characters and usually wouldn’t mind seeing them some more (plus, if you’re like me, you have trouble remembering cast members from that long ago). Vegas‘ Leroy and Adam will be on the show which should be interesting. I think Leroy will be able to keep his cool, but Adam is a wild card. I also think they would have gotten Mike and Dustin if possible, that would have been interesting. Second, pairing CT and Adam, Wes and Kenny and Cara Maria and Laurel up is pretty awesome. Third, I love that it seems like the challenges have been specifically designed to not only force the rivals to work together but also to put them in as close physical proximity as possible.As if being on the same team as the person you hate wasn’t bad enough, you’ve also got to trust them to catch you while dangling a hundred feet over a lake (or whatever).

The funniest pairing to me is Tyler and Johnny Bananas because during the last Challenge, Johnny was talking about this longstanding rivalry between him and Tyler, while Tyler had no bad blood there. It seems like a lot of these pairings are between one really crazy, head strong person and another who’s a little more relaxed (ie Johnny and Tyler or Laurel and Cara Maria or CT and Adam respectively) while others have two pigheaded folks (Wes and Kenny, some more I can’t think of). It’ll be fun to see who can play the game well and who just can’t get over their pasts. Will greed or bruised egos win out?!