Two contestants walked away with $500,000 apiece in season 35’s The Challenge: Total Madness after a final challenge played out that ended with a race to the summit of a snowy mountain top.
On the male side, John “Johnny Bananas” Devenanzio notched his seventh Challenge championship as a competitor on MTV’s mainline series, and Survival of the Fittest’s Jenny West beat out the rest of Total Madness’ women to receive her first crown.
The 35th iteration of the long-running reality franchise was filmed mostly in Prague, Czech Republic, but wrapped in Austria’s Eastern Alps in late 2019. It aired from April through July 2020, coming after season 34’s War of the Worlds 2, and before season 36’s Double Agents.
So, how did Johnny Bananas and Jenny topple their competition? Let’s get into it.
Total Madness was an individual game that introduced the ‘Red Skulls’ twist
Season 35 was the first time MTV and Bunim/Murray Productions designed an individual-based Challenge since season 31’s Vendettas. 14 men and 14 women showed up for Total Madness, which included rookies and veterans alike, as well as longtime host TJ Lavin.
At the start of the season, TJ introduced the “Red Skulls” twist, the first of its kind (and has only been repeated on Double Agents). Any competitor who hoped to make the final challenge had to earn a Red Skull. And to do so, they needed to battle it out in “Purgatory” — Total Madness’ elimination arena.
It was a highly intriguing twist because it required every player to compete in an elimination round, something that virtually everybody had always tried to avoid. It also added a new layer of strategy as the contestants had to noodle their way through how and when to make their way into the sand pit.
Still, power was needed. And to get it, they had to earn their ticket into the season’s weekly “Tribunal.”
Although it was every man and woman for themselves, the daily challenges were played either solo, in pairs, or in teams. The winners of the daily challenge would form the Tribunal, rendering them safe from elimination and giving them the power to nominate three players to potentially compete in Purgatory.
Once the cast arrived at the elimination round, the Tribunal members would then vote for one person to head down and face off against a challenger who was voted in by the house. So, either two males or two females would compete in every Purgatory. Side note: Tribunal members could also offer up themselves into the elimination round if they wanted the opportunity to earn a Red Skull.
This process played out every episode until most of the cast had been eliminated and the remaining challengers were boasting Red Skulls.
Specifically, Johnny Bananas earned his by defeating his rival-turned-friend Wes Bergmann during episode 10, and Jenny took hers by defeating Jenn Lee in episode 2. She was also forced to defend her Red Skull by eliminating Dee Nguyen in episode 15.
Johnny Bananas had to win one more elimination round before summiting the mountain
The final challenge played out in episode 16. All in all, 11 players took the flight to Austria from the Czech Republic. Johnny Bananas, Kyle Christie, Cory Wharton, Faysal Shafaat, and Rogan O’Connor represented the men’s side whereas Jenny, Kaycee Clark, Bayleigh Dayton, and Melissa Reeves were the remaining females.
With $500,000 up for grabs for each of the sexes, the challengers began by participating in the first checkpoint where they had to transport logs on skis. Once they were finished, TJ dropped another twist; the winners of the checkpoint formed the season’s final Tribunal ahead of its final elimination round. Cory and Jenny joined the Tribunal, and after a heat where the other nine competitors traversed a mountain, Johnny Bananas and Rogan found themselves facing off — Rogan volunteered to go in and Johnny Bananas was voted in by Cory. Jenny chose Kaycee to join Melissa, who also volunteered, in elimination.
Johnny Bananas ultimately defeated Rogan in a sprint to capture a ring in the center of a snow pit. Kaycee and Melissa’s round didn’t happen; however, as an exhausted Melissa quit the game.
The nine remaining reality TV stars then had to endure an overnight stage before the final checkpoint, which was a good ol’ fashion race to the top. And as history has it, Jenny and Bananas beat their foes and claimed their championships and hefty checks.
As mentioned, it was Bananas’ seventh championship victory on an MTV season, and his first since season 28’s Rivals III. For Jenny, it was her first taste of hoisting a Challenge trophy.