Ashley, Big T, Jenn Lee, Jenna, Kailah, Melissa, and Nany were out immediately. Considering Kailah was doing fitness videos and making to the final the last time she legitimately competed on the show, to be out this fast on the daily challenge has to be disappointing.

Bayleigh and Mattie go out in the second round. Big ups to Aneesa for making it into the top 5. Dee and Jenny are the only two girls to make it to the final round. Jenny is outpacing everyone physically by a considerable margin, but Dee’s ability to solve the puzzles quickly allows her to stay in contention.

My problem with this daily is that the answer does not follow the rules of “PEMDAS” — Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition Subtraction. Jenny gets a check when she states the answer is 29. 82 + 28 = 110 -52 = 58 / 2 = 29. The rules of PEMDAS state you have to divide first, meaning 52 / 2 = 26, and then we can go from there. 82 + 28 = 110, 110–26 = 84

This could be the reason why other people had issues with their math problems.

4 Voting Breakdown

The elimination vote came down to two rookies, and it was extraordinarily close.

Votes for Jay: CT, Tori, Jordan, Bananas, Kyle, Jenna, Jennifer, Kailah, Nany

Votes for Asaf: Wes, Mattie, Josh, Nelson, Bear, Aneesa, Bayleigh, Dee, Swaggy, Melissa, Big T, Jay, Ashley, Fessy, Kaycee

15 votes for Asaf, 9 votes for Jay, and 1 vote for Wes (from Asaf).

If you notice, all fives of the CBS rookies (Fessy, Bay, Swaggy, Kaycee, Jay), all voted for Asaf. Wes also voted with them, so if Wes is running his classic play of aligning rookie numbers, then he’s already succeeded a little bit. Most of the votes to put Jay in were Nany’s friends.

Jenny, Rogan, and Cory nominated Wes, Kyle, and Jay for elimination, but we all knew Jay was going in.

3 Wes and Bananas alliance

I’ll be the first to admit that I get tired of the Wes vs. Bananas shenanigans. It’s an overplayed record that was never near as good as Wes vs. Kenny.

Then I saw them do a confessional together, and I immediately realized: “I hate this 1000% more.”

There is just something about these two coming together that seems so gross. It’s like two people fighting over whether Ham & Cheese or PB & J is the superior elementary school sack lunch sandwich, and some company decided to make a Ham, Cheese, Jelly, and Peanut Butter sandwich to counteract the debate.

2 Jay vs Asaf

Asaf got to hook up with Nany! So at the end of the day, he picked up a win. Sadly, he got knocked out first in an elimination he could have potentially won.

In one of the most creative eliminations in recent years, MTV had both men hold onto a trapeze bar. While in air, they would try to hang on as long as possible, while divided by a glass wall. Jay knew from the jump that swinging into the glass to knock off Asaf would only tire himself out. Asaf did the opposite, quickly began to gas out, and lost 2–0 in a best of 3.

Jay moves on and has the eyes of Dee on him. A showmance with Dee would be quite smart as not only is she a strong player, but her #1 ally is Wes (another power player).

1 The Elimination Twist

The elimination twist seems like Challenge producers over-reacting to the awful format they created on Season 34. I love to watch people politically coast through a game because the Challenge is already so physical that politics add another element. Considering 50% of elimination participants are decided by house vote, I’m not against the format as I’d usually be.

House votes are normally an awful way to decide who goes into elimination. It automatically gives power to people who have not earned it. In a format like this where everyone has to see at least one elimination, it is acceptable.

It will be fun to see if players throw themselves into elimination if they see someone they believe they can take out quite easily. I can imagine Kyle asking for Bear as he’s already trounced him in elimination before.