Fans are complaining that there is no incentive to win dailies on The Challenge: Ride or Dies. “Dailies” refers to the daily challenges that all contestants compete in to determine who has power each week, and who is at risk of being eliminated. Daily challenges are typically entertaining to watch when multiple Challengers are hungry for the win, because the stakes are higher. In past seasons, dailies could get so intense that injuries would occur, or fights would break out. However, on Ride or Dies, the dailies have become almost meaningless due to the format of the season.
Each season’s format is different, and for this installment, the series has introduced several new twists. One main element of the format of The Challenge: Ride or Dies is the daily competition winners’ task, which is nominating four other pairs. From those selections, one duo will be chosen to automatically enter an elimination, while the other three will draw for a random chance at safety. This setup was tough for the now-eliminated duo of Jay Starrett and Michele Fitzgerald. After winning two dailies back-to-back, the pair was forced to nominate a total of eight teams, making numerous enemies in just two weeks.
Even The Challenge Champs Aren’t Trying Hard To Win Dailies
Now that daily winners have to nominate four other duos, and The Challenge no longer offers other incentives like cash prizes, most Challengers have no motivation to try during dailies. In the past, those who won dailies were given up to $5,000 in cash, or other prizes, such as promotional rewards from sponsors like Burger King. With The Challenge losing viewers, each episode needs to remain engaging, but many fans feel that the low stakes make dailies boring and hard to watch. When even champs like Johnny Bananas or Jordan Wiseley seem to be phoning it in, fans are likely to find the outcome of each episode pointless.
The Challengers Are Intentionally Losing To Avoid Drama
The social element of The Challenge is extremely important to the game, and making enemies is a surefire way for Challengers to find themselves in an elimination, week after week. Even now that the ride-or-die pairs have split into opposing teams, four Challengers must be selected to enter elimination each week. Having to hand-pick four opponents to sabotage can be viewed more as a punishment than a reward. That’s because the three that survive until the following week will likely hold a grudge against whoever sent them in. While some players, like Faysal Shafaat, are willing to be open about their vendettas, most want to lie low by losing dailies.
A secondary way to motivate Challengers to win dailies would be offering alternative prizes, like cash or promotional rewards, but the show has mostly stopped doing that. There was a promotional segment for Puss In Boots: The Last Wish which gave daily winners the chance to see the movie. However, fans noted that it didn’t seem like much of a reward for the cast of Challengers. For many contestants, the motivation to do well every season comes from the chance to take the final prize money. If smaller quantities of cash were offered for dailies, players might try harder to win them on The Challenge: Ride or Dies.
Dailies take up a large portion of each The Challenge episode, so they should be entertaining and exciting to watch. With the higher chance of tanking their social games, along with the lack of monetary prizes offered, most Challengers are being logical by avoiding the win each week, and staying under the radar. However, the result is fewer engaging episodes, and disappointed fans. With the duos now split into teams, hopefully, both sides will try harder to win dailies, and keep their team from shrinking.
