This season is more proof of why they need to bring back the 'Farm System' of Real World. The problem is half the cast nobody knows or cares about their back story.
The Real World gave us a chance to really get to know who these people are so the dynamics of when they join the Challenge is more excited because they all some history with each other.
People like Esther,,, there's no way she knows Amber well enough to get that mad at her enough to throw a drink in her face. So it seems fake.
I don't even think it's that though. Damn near a decade of the show was carried by people that had no backstory on the show. Kenny, Evan, Diem, Cara Marie, Evelyn, Laurel, Theresa, and Camilla all came on the show with no backstory and were able to get people invested in them.
I think there are three main problems.
1. They put too many rookies and unknowns at a time into the show at once looking for immediate hits. You look at a lot of the bigger names like CT, Bananas, and Wes and it took them a while to win and in the case of somebody like Bananas it wasn't until his 4th season or so before he rose above being more than just a background personality.
2. They are missing the vets with the strong personalities that know how to stir shyt up and wanting camera time. The vets now are all playing the background and are barely featured. The majority of screen time is given to the newer players who nobody gives a fukk about it instead of being driven by the vets.
3. They've focused way too much time on the competition aspect of the show. I've been binging old seasons and they did a lot more with less. First it was 30 minute episodes and they would breeze through the challenges to spend more time in the house with the competitors. There was talk about alliances and strategy but also a lot of time spent just them hanging out and having fun. It was the same when it went to an hour. Now 20-30 minutes is just shown on showing the daily challenges and then another 15-20 on the eliminations. When they do show them in the house hanging out the majority of the time is spent on them discussing game strategy or showing workout montages with very little time shown to them just relaxing.
I also the stricter rules hurts the show as well. Now they try to make the competitors lives a living hell basically to try and keep them on edge and encourage drama which has lead to a lot of the old vets not wanting to do the show anymore. That plus them trying to live up to the whole 5th sport joke has lead to them trying to focus on making it an intense athletic competition has taken all the fun away. I think splitting it into two franchises would probably be for the best. One thats way more athletic and serious with higher prize money and the other like the All Stars season that's not as serious and more like a vacation where they compete but don't have to be in insane shape.
