The filming for Champs vs Season 3 started and with it, and with it the reveal of the cast. The cast is listed below, along with some of the thoughts. All credit for the information goes to Vevmo and US Weekly.

Premiere

April 17, 2018

Host

Mike “The Miz” Mizanin (Real World: Back to New York, WWE Superstar)

Champs

Wes Bergmann (Real World: Austin)

Tori Deal (Are You The One? Season 4)

Tony Raines (Real World: Skeletons)

Shane Landrum (Road Rules Campus Crawl)

Kailah Casillas (Real World: Go Big or Go Home)

Kam Williams (Are You The One? Season 5)

Devin Walker (Are You The One? Season 3)

“CT” Chris Tamburello (Real World: Paris)

“Smashley” Ashley Mitchell (Real World: Ex-Plosion)

Aneesa Ferriera (Real World: Chicago)

Stars

Selita Ebanks (Model/Actress)

“Lil Mama” Niatia Kirkland (Rapper)

Louise Hazel (Track Star)

Jozea Flores (Big Brother 18)

Hennesy Carolina (Love & Hip Hop: New York)

Drake Bell (Actor)

Daniel “Boobie” Gibson (NBA Player)

Casper Smart (Actor)

Brooke Hogan (Wrestler)

Arian Foster (NFL Player)

Thoughts

o The biggest news from this cast is not who is on it, but who isn’t. Unless something unexpected happens, this will be the first Challenge season since 2012 to not feature one Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio. Why this development has occurred is currently unknown, but regardless it will be bizarre to view a season of any kind that doesn’t feature him in any capacity.

o Considering who was rumored for the Champs side, I’m pretty disappointed by this cast. While I do enjoy the characters on the team, rumors were swirling that people we hadn’t seen in a while such as Landon Lueck, Frank Sweeney, Kendal Sheppard, and Tina Barta. It also seems they have completely dismissed any sort of success needed for the Champs team. Barring some unforeseen crazy twist, there will be at most four actual Champions on the Champs team. I actually really hate this development; the big advantage of Champs vs is it attracts who normally couldn’t care less about the show. Considering this, I want the best competitors the Challenge has to offer to show for those who normally would not watch. However, the cast is still entertaining, and it will be interesting to see how a team that with so many cerebral players on it performs.

o The Stars side is also quite the hodge podge of personalities. There’s definitely no one of Terrell Owens’ stature in the group, but there are still some notable personalities. I’m ecstatic to see Louise Hazel back, she was fantastic on the inaugural season of the spinoff. Arian Foster is a worthwhile addition as well, just make sure The Challenge Doctors are on hand. There are some head scratchers in the crew though. The fact that Boobie Gibson is the best they could do for an NBA star is just sad, and bringing in people from Big Brother as part of the Stars cast seems odd considering now they are in the pool of available players for a regular season.

o There’s been much debate over whether or not winning Champs Vs should count as a win. There are certainly arguments to both sides, but I’ve always leaned towards it should. If you look at the format of the first few seasons where they didn’t even have eliminations, these seasons follow the standard season format much more closely than that and thus they should count in my opinion.