The Challenge: Total Madness

The Challenge: Total Madness is the thirty-fifth season of the MTV reality competition series The Challenge. This season features alumni from The Real World, Are You the One?, Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother UK, The Amazing Race, Survivor, Geordie Shore, Ex on the Beach (US and UK), Shipwrecked, and Survival of the Fittest competing for a share at a $1 million prize. The season premiered on April 1, 2020, and concluded its run on July 29 of the same year with the Reunion and the Behind-the-scenes specials.

Format Total Madness features a main challenge, a nomination process, and an elimination round. Daily Challenge: Players compete in the main challenge either individually, in pairs, or in teams. For individual and paired challenges, the two winning players select one additional player to form the Tribunal. For team challenges, all members of the winning team form the Tribunal. Nominations: Players not in the Tribunal participate in nominations and must nominate one player of the designated gender to compete in the elimination round. They are given a chance to discuss the nominations before voting in an open vote. The player who receives the most votes will participate in the elimination round. Tribunal: Following nominations, the Tribunal selects three players of the designated gender to interrogate. One of these three chosen interrogated competitors will be selected for possible elimination. At the Purgatory, the tribunal individually votes for the second player to participate in the elimination. From Episode 2, a Tribunal member of the designated gender may volunteer for elimination, instead of voting for an interrogated competitor. Eliminations (Purgatory): The player selected by nomination participates in an elimination round against the player selected by the Tribunal, or the volunteer from the Tribunal. The loser is eliminated while the winner receives a Red Skull and remains in the game. The Red Skull is required to participate in the Final Challenge and can only be earned by winning in a Purgatory elimination round.

Twists Red Skull: Winning an elimination round earns a player a Red Skull, a requirement to compete in the Final Challenge. This twist was introduced after the first elimination. Double Elimination: Two slight variations of the Double Elimination occurred during this season. Episodes 8 and 9 featured a male and female Double Elimination round respectively. Two players of the designated gender were eliminated. At nominations, the house voted two players of the designated gender into elimination. The tribunal then interrogated four nominees of the assigned gender, two of which they would vote into the Elimination Round should no tribunal member volunteer. In episodes 14 and 15, one female and one male player were eliminated. The house voted one player of each gender into elimination. The tribunal then interrogated two nominees of each gender and would vote one male and one female into elimination, should no tribunal member volunteer.

Contestants Male contestantsOriginal seasonFinishJohnny "Bananas" DevenanzioThe Real World: Key WestWinner Kyle ChristieGeordie Shore 8Runner-upCory WhartonReal World: Ex-PlosionThird placeFaysal "Fessy" ShafaatBig Brother 20Fourth placeRogan O'ConnorEx on the Beach UK 2Fifth placeNelson ThomasAre You the One? 3Episode 15Josh MartinezBig Brother 19Episode 14Christopher "Swaggy C" WilliamsBig Brother 20Episode 12Wes BergmannThe Real World: AustinEpisode 10Stephen BearCelebrity Big Brother UK 18Episode 8Jordan WiseleyThe Real World: PortlandEpisode 8Jay StarrettSurvivor: Millennials vs. Gen XEpisode 6Chris "CT" TamburelloThe Real World: ParisEpisode 3Asaf GorenSo You Think You Can Dance 12Episode 1 Female contestantsOriginal seasonFinishJenny WestSurvival of the FittestWinnerKaycee ClarkBig Brother 20Runner-upBayleigh DaytonBig Brother 20Third placeMelissa ReevesEx on the Beach UK 2Fourth placeDee NguyenGeordie Shore 17Episode 15Aneesa FerreiraThe Real World: ChicagoEpisode 14Nany GonzalezThe Real World: Las Vegas (2011)Episode 13Mattie Lynn BreauxParty Down SouthEpisode 11Jenna ComponoReal World: Ex-PlosionEpisode 9Kailah CasillasReal World: Go Big or Go HomeEpisode 9Tula "Big T" FazakerleyShipwrecked: Battle of the IslandsEpisode 9Tori DealAre You the One? 4Episode 7Ashley MitchellReal World: Ex-PlosionEpisode 4Jenn LeeThe Amazing Race 29Episode 2

Gameplay Challenge games Battle Lines: Played in male and female rounds, contestants must pull a barrel of medical supplies across a field, solving a math problem and puzzle along the way. At intervals, players who fall behind are eliminated from the challenge by having their barrel run over by a tank. The first player in each heat to reach the end of the field wins. Winners: Jenny and Rogan Airdrop Extraction: Played in nine teams of three, teams must transfer 15 military crates from one missile launch platform to another, one mile apart. The first three teams to finish advance to Round Two. In Round Two, teams board a helicopter and must drop nine military crates from the helicopter, aiming to hit the missile launch platform. The team with the most hits wins. Winners: Cory, Dee and Swaggy C Decode and Detonate: Each player begins at a puzzle board with a code. They must race to two separate puzzle keys to obtain the key to their code before returning to solve the code. Once the puzzle is solved, players race to a detonator and blow up a truck. The first two players to detonate a truck win. Winners: Bayleigh and CT Cold War: Played in five teams of five, three players from each team must collect puzzle pieces from the bottom of a pool before solving the puzzle. Meanwhile, two players from an opposing team break an ice block to send ice into the pool, making the water colder for those collecting pieces. The team with the fastest time wins. Winners: Aneesa, Bananas, Bear, Big T and Kaycee Bomb Squad: Played in six teams of four, each team member has a specific role. The first player must ride in a stunt car and look for hidden numbers to form a math equation, communicating this to a second player via radio. The second player solves the equation and runs the answer to the third player, who decodes the puzzle and selects three corresponding rods. The third player run the rods to the fourth player, who places the rods in a detonator. If the rods are correct, the bomb detonates. The team with the fastest time wins. Winners: Jenny, Josh, Kaycee and Swaggy C Fast & Furious: Inspired by scenes from the film F9. Played in male/female pairs, each pair is hooked to a moving semi-truck and tethered together. Two pairs play at a time, on opposite sides of the truck. They must collect ten magnetic puzzle pieces from the side of the truck, before returning to their puzzle board at the top and solving the puzzle. The pair with the fastest time wins. Winners: Jordan and Nany Decontamination: Each player races through a room of foam towards a window, while wearing PPE, where a series of flashing lights are shown. They must memorize the series before returning to the entrance and replicating the sequence by placing colored discs around a pole. The male and female player with the fastest times win. Winners: Mattie and Wes Tunnel Rats: Played in three teams of five and one team of four, with two teams playing at once. One at a time, team members slide down a chute into a tunnel and swim to retrieve puzzle pieces. Once they collect all five puzzle pieces, teams must run back to the entrance and solve the puzzle. The team with the fastest time wins. Winners: Bayleigh, Cory, Dee, Nany and Wes Throne Off: Played in male and female rounds, players begin holding onto a missile above water. One at a time, they are asked a multiple-choice trivia question. If they answer correctly, they can assign a strike to another player while answering incorrectly self-incurs a strike. Players are eliminated if they receive two strikes, or fall after letting go of the missile. The last male and female player standing win. Additionally, both winners received a $5,000 cash prize, announced at the conclusion of the challenge. Winners: Dee and Wes Flag Down: Two players of the same gender begin strapped on each side of a tank, with four players competing at once. As the tank drives through a course, they must collect as many flags as possible. Red flags are worth one point and white flags are worth ten points. The male and female with the most points win. At the conclusion of the challenge, it was announced that players who had worked together during the challenge were disqualified. Winners: Josh and Melissa Disqualified: Fessy, Jenny, Kyle, Nany, Nelson and Rogan Tanks-A-Lot: Played in five teams of three, teams transfer junk from a junkyard across a field and deposit it into a bin. At the end of an unspecified time period, the two teams that transfer the most weight advance to Round Two. In Round Two, each team member must pull a heavy sled across the field. The first team to pull all three sleds to the finish line wins. Winners: Bayleigh, Dee and Fessy Bloc'd In: Played in two teams of seven. Similar to a slide puzzle, teams push a series of black cars forwards or backwards in order to release a red car. Once released, teams must push the red car past the finish line. The team with the fastest time wins. Winners: Aneesa, Bananas, Cory, Jenny, Josh, Nany and Rogan Running Out of Time: Players must run to collect heavy material before returning to place it into an opponent's drum. After an extended time, a horn sounds, indicating that players have five minutes to return and pick up their drum. Players who do not return in time are disqualified. Afterwards, the male and female player to hold their drum up the longest wins. Winners: Fessy and Jenny Crash Course: Similar to bowling, one player begins in a stunt car and must crash the car into piles of barrels which other contestants are standing on. The male and female player who knock down the most barrels win. In the event of a tie, the winner is determined by how far their barrels travelled. Winners: Bananas and Kaycee

Purgatory games Air Strike: Players begin hanging on to a bar above ground. Between them is a clear wall which they can kick to attempt to make their opponent drop from the bar. The first player to make their opponent release the bar twice wins. Played by: Asaf vs. Jay Flip the Switch: Players begin on opposite sides of a hallway, each with ten barrels attached to poles. They must flip all ten barrels over the rail so that it lands on their opponent's side. The first player to flip all ten barrels and flip the switch at the end wins. Played by: Jenn vs. Jenny Take Shelter: Players have 20 minutes to barricade the entrance to a bunker using provided materials. After those 20 minutes are up, players must attempt to break into their opponent's bunker, fully opening the door. The first player to break into the bunker and switch on the light wins. Played by: Jay vs. CT Code Breaker: Players spin five wheels and must break hanging ceramic pots to find the corresponding tiles to the symbols that they spun, using a large die as a stepladder. After finding all five tiles, they flip the tiles over to reveal the names of five previous seasons of The Challenge. The first player to correctly place the seasons in chronological order wins. Played by: Ashley vs. Dee Fire Ball: Each player is given three chances per round to deposit an ignited ball inside a barrel, located in the middle of a large circle. If a player is either knocked out of or steps out of the ring, or if the ball is knocked out of the ring, their ball is considered "dead." Players alternate between offense and defense in each round. The player who scores three points wins, with each ball being worth a point. Played by: Jay vs. Rogan