Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel is the 13th season of the MTV reality game show, The Challenge (at the time known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge). This is the first edition of The Duel series, with The Duel II following in 2009.
The Duel took place in Búzios, Brazil, with cast members from The Real World, Road Rules and Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat. The Duel was the first individual season, with no assigned teams. The winning male and female cast member would win $150,000 each. The season was watched by a total of 83 million viewers. The Duel premiered on October 12, 2006, and concluded on January 18, 2007.
On December 15, 2020, the season was made available to stream on Netflix in the United States.
Format Each player participates in numerous challenges (sometimes called "missions"), which are followed by an elimination round — "The Duel". The challenges can involve either members of the same gender competing against each other, or groups of both men and women competing against each other. Each challenge has a male and a female winner, and is alternatively designated as either a male or a female Duel day. The winner of the gender not entering the Duel is awarded a prize, while the winner of the gender designated for the Duel is safe from the possibility of having to enter the Duel.
The immunity winner begins the Nomination process by picking a member of the opposite gender, who then selects a member of the original gender. This process continues until there is one person remaining of the selected Duel gender of the day; this remaining person is nominated to compete in the Duel that evening. The selected player then challenges a player of the same gender to go against him/her that night, for the exception of that day's daily challenge winner and randomly selects from one of four cards held by the host T. J. Lavin to determine the Duel game in which the two players will compete. Note that this selection process occurs immediately after the challenge, unlike in other Challenges, where there is a period of deliberation between the end of the challenge and the selection of the contestants for the elimination game.
The loser of the Duel is eliminated from the game and is sent home.
At the end of the season, four contestants are left — two of each gender. For each gender, the first-place finishers each win $150,000.
Contestants Male contestantsOriginal seasonFinishWes BergmannThe Real World: AustinWinnerBrad FiorenzaThe Real World: San DiegoRunner-upChris "CT" TamburelloThe Real World: ParisEpisode 15Evan StarkmanReal World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh MeatEpisode 13Eric BanksReal World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh MeatEpisode 11Derrick KosinskiRoad Rules: X-TremeEpisode 9Nehemiah ClarkThe Real World: AustinEpisode 7Kenny SantucciReal World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh MeatEpisode 5Tyler DuckworthThe Real World: Key WestEpisode 3John DevenanzioThe Real World: Key WestEpisode 2Female contestantsOriginal seasonFinishJodi WeathertonRoad Rules: X-TremeWinnerSvetlana ShustermanThe Real World: Key WestRunner-upAneesa FerreiraThe Real World: ChicagoEpisode 15Diem BrownReal World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh MeatEpisode 14Kina DeanRoad Rules: X-TremeEpisode 12Robin HibbardThe Real World: San DiegoEpisode 10Beth StolarczykThe Real World: Los AngelesEpisode 8Casey CooperReal World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh MeatEpisode 6Paula MeronekThe Real World: Key WestEpisode 4Tina Barta Road Rules: South PacificEpisode 3
Gameplay Challenge games Reaching Out: Ten ropes of equal length are connected to the center of a large circle in the sand. Played in separate male and female rounds, each player is padlocked to their harnesses, and have to crawl and reach out to the end of the circle, where they will dig into the sand in order to retrieve a key needed to unlock the padlock from their harness. The first player from each heat who set himself/herself free from their padlocks first wins. Winners: Eric & Robin Ring Toss: Twenty poles are located at the ends of a waist-deep mud pit — ten different-colored poles on each side. On one side, each pole contains six rings of a particular color. Played in separate male and female rounds, each player races from one end of the mud pit to another, and grabs a ring of an opponent's color, and places the ring around an opponent's pole. The goal is to eliminate an opponent by placing six rings round an opponent's pole. The last player standing from each heat time trial test wins. Winners: Kenny & Diem Pass With Care: A pair of platforms are suspended 20 feet above water, connected by an unstable rope bridge with crooked planks. Unlike the previous two challenge games, this challenge is played with guys and girls partnered together. Each partner starts on opposite sides of the ropes, and have to meet each other halfway through the bridge on a red plank. The catch: A team is disqualified if one player sits, kneels on, or touches any part of the bridge with their hands, or falls off the unstable bridge. Since nobody made it across the bridge on the first go-around, the challenge was repeated in a second round, in which teams were allowed to make it across the bridge by any means possible, including sitting on, crawling and kneeling on the bridge planks. The team that makes it across the bridge in the fastest time wins, with the male partner safe from Duel selection and the female partner winning a prize. Winners: Evan & Jodi Roller Derby: Players compete in an oval "roller derby" rink, and each player has to race 10 laps around the rink, using roller skates. The challenge is played in separate rounds for each gender — two 4-player rounds for the men, and three 3-player rounds for the women. When host T. J. Lavin sounds the horn, each player races on their own, competing against opposing players, and can eliminate an opponent out of the action zones by launching their opponents over the crash pads outside the railings. If a player is knocked off the track on the inside of the course, that player has three seconds to get back on the action zone, or he/she will be disqualified. A player is also disqualified if he/she clings onto the railing. The winners of each round advance to the final round, in which the last player standing wins. Winners: Brad & Jodi Push Over: A player has to "push" their opponent off a plank that is attached to the end of a boat, with each players' hands tied to where they cannot grab their opponent. Prior to the challenge, match-ups are determined in which T. J. Lavin asks each player to pick colored tokens out of a bag, and players with matching tokens are paired up in same-gender heat time trial tests. The challenge is played in three rounds of separate male and female rounds. The first player to get pushed into the water is eliminated, and the process repeats until the last player standing wins. Winners: Derrick & Beth Flying Leap: Two players at a time jump back and forth from one end of a platform to another that is suspended from a crane 20 feet above water, and grab as many flags as possible with a three-minute time limit, with numerous flags hanging from poles located on both sides of the platform. A player is disqualified if he/she falls into the water. The player that grabs the most flags within three minutes wins. (Note: Casey was disqualified for refusing to compete, due to her fear of heights.) Winners: CT & Svetlana Throwback: Played in male/female teams on a Russian swing, each player has to "swing" their partner from a platform into water, then swim 50 feet toward a buoy, retrieve a soccer ball from a ring, then swim with the soccer ball to the other side of the course, and slam dunk the soccer ball into a ring on the opposite side. A pair is disqualified if the soccer ball lands outside of the course boundary. Both partners have to swing each other into the water, and the team with the fastest combined time wins, with the male partner safe from the Duel, and the female partner winning a prize. Winners: Evan & Kina Rafty Race: This game consists of multiple checkpoints along the beach. To start, each player must race to put on large swim fins, then run to the first checkpoint. There are a total of 16 swim fins, and three players — one male and two female — will be left without any fins, eliminating them from the remainder of the race. Once each player has put their swim fins on, they race to the first checkpoint, in which they have to pull a tag that is needed to inflate rafts with air pumps and grab color-coded tags at the second checkpoint, which are green for the men and red for the women. There are a total of 10 air pumps, five for each gender, and one player of each gender will be left without an air pump, and eliminated from the race. If a player does not pull a tag, he/she is eliminated. Once the remaining players have inflated their rafts, they will race through the water toward the third checkpoint — a buoy, which contains six oars — three for each gender. For each gender, there is one fewer raft than there are players, so the players that are left without a paddle are eliminated. After grabbing the oars, each player will paddle their way to the fourth checkpoint, which contains one of four keys needed to grab a key that will unlock a treasure chest at the final checkpoint. Only two players per gender will compete for grabbing a flag from the treasure chest, with the first player of each gender racing to the end of the beach, and winning the race. Winners: CT & Jodi Pole Dance: First, players are paired together in two teams of six players — three of each gender. The male winners of the previous challenge and duel — CT and Eric — are chosen as team captains, and alternate between choosing guys and girls for their teams. After the two teams are set, each team has to hoist players up a slippery wooden pole in order to retrieve a flag at the top. The team that grabs their flag first wins the first phase of the challenge. The winners of the first phase are split up into separate genders — three guys and three girls — each player for themselves, and the second phase is a race through a sand dune course. The remaining players have to race down a slippery tarp into water, then back up a sand dune. Near the top of the dune, there are two slippery tarps that will be difficult for each player to climb. The first players to race to the top and retrieve a designated flag win the challenge. Winners: Evan & Diem Dine-N-Dash: First, players are paired together in two teams of 10 players — two guys and three girls. The female winners of the previous challenge and duel — Diem and Svetlana — are chosen as team captains, and alternate between choosing guys and girls for their teams. After the two teams are set, players from each team are weighed individually, and after each player's weight is combined, and each team is given 20 minutes to eat as much food as possible. The team that gains the higher amount of weight wins the first phase of the challenge. The winners of the first phase are split up into separate genders — two guys and three girls — each player for themselves. In the second phase, the remaining players have to do wind sprints toward a series of 10 poles along the beach, retrieve designated color flags — green for the guys, red for the girls — and deposit 10 flags into their designated baskets. Each player has to retrieve a flag from the first pole, and deposit the flag into their designated basket, before sprinting toward any other pole. The first players to deposit 10 flags into their designated basket win the challenge. Winners: Evan & Diem