‘The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion’: TJ Lavin Talks Intense Eliminations & House Drama

The list of Challenge champions is about to grow, no matter who wins Season 39 on MTV (premiering October 25).

The newest season is Battle for a New Champion, with the players contenders, each after their first win in the franchise. Champions — legends — will be coming in for some eliminations because, after all, as it goes on The Challenge, to be the best, you gotta beat the best.

TJ Lavin is, of course, back to host. Here, he previews the season.

With all the seasons you’ve hosted, what still excites you in general about The Challenge?

TJ Lavin: It’s different every day. Every single day that we go, it’s a whole surprise for me, too, so it’s fun. It’s really fun to go and see what they have to do today. Sometimes there are challenges [that are] like [past ones], but for the most part, it’s a whole new situation. It’s crazy, and I love it.

And what especially excited you about Battle for a New Champion?

It’s time for some new blood to be in that winner circle. It’s a guarantee that we’re going to have somebody that hasn’t won before, and I like that.

What did you see in the contenders as a result of not having to compete against champions for the win? How much did that change gameplay, if at all?

I don’t think it was any different at all. I think they were all doing the same style play that they’re used to. It was pretty good. I think that they all did their same alliance situations and stuff that they try to always do, but nobody was really changing their strategy at all because there was no champion.

Talk about having the legends come in for eliminations. What did you enjoy most about that?

I loved it. Having people on there that have won before was important because it was really nice for them to see what they could be, what they could do. And then eventually one of them could be one of those people that we brought in to fight for the title and for them to get some of that money. It’s pretty cool and eye-opening for them, I bet, to see some of the former champions and some of them have looked up to the champions for a long time and then they got to go against them. Because to be the best, you gotta beat the best, right?

Exactly. What did you notice about the eliminations when it was a legend coming in versus contenders competing against each other?

The intensity was turned up a little bit. When you have somebody like Jordan [Wiseley] in there who’s one of the greatest, he brings the intensity to a whole new level, and to see that is pretty cool.

With the legends that came in, was it just looking at who’s the best in eliminations?

I think it was probably the most notoriety as well as people that wanted to see them — whoever got the most requests essentially on Instagrams and Twitters and TikToks and everything, that people really, really wanted to see, but unfortunately you couldn’t see them on the season. However, you could see them in the eliminations sometimes.

This season has the different formats with Control [working as one team], Chaos [competing in pairs or teams], and Conquest [competing as individuals]. How did that shake things up?

It was cool. Control was a whole different format and a whole different set of rules to the others. Chaos was pretty hectic and anything went, so there was zero formality and you had no idea what was in store. Then when you got to Conquest, it was like, you made it, now we’re really doing it. So it was a cool concept. I liked that we were doing different concepts during the whole thing. We had the countdown clock and everything.

What surprised you the most about the season?

It’s not a surprise, but something that really bothers me is when they throw in the same person over and over and over again. I like ’em to switch it up a little bit. So hopefully that’s what’ll go down.

Yeah, we just saw that on USA — Cassidy [Clark] and Chris [Underwood] kept getting thrown down in there.

Yeah, I hate that. I like it when they say, “OK, we can’t throw that person in. They were just in there.” It’s better like that.

MTV

What else can you tease about the season?

There’s some definite hookups and some really weird things that happened during The Challenge and during the show that I was a little bit taken back by it. I was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. I thought she was dating so-and-so.” And there’s weird things going on at the Challenge house, so you’ll see the shenanigans go down. It’s pretty crazy.

How aware are you of that stuff going on as it happens versus finding out a lot later?

I find out a lot later or I find out the day after because sometimes they’ll give me a briefing on what’s what, so I can see what everybody’s mood is and what’s going on just so that I don’t mess up. But there’s a reason why they do that. They don’t want me to have any bias or any play in the thing. So I’m pretty shielded from the whole drama aspect of it. That’s fine with me.

Yeah, it seems like you would only really need to know if you need to come in and say someone needs to leave the house right away.

Yeah, when I have to do that, it’s so bummer. I get so bummed when I have to do something like that because I don’t even know what happened. I didn’t even hear it or see it. Then sometimes they won’t do that and then somebody will yell at me on the social medias, like, how could you not kick so-and-so off when he did this or that? And then I’m like, I wasn’t even there or knew about it, you know what I mean? It’s so funny.

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In the past you said you’d like to see more action sports at some point. Is there anything else you’d like to see that has yet to be done for a season such as a theme?

There’s some canyon swing stuff that I was getting into. I’ve been sending in the producers canyon swing to jump — you swing down and then launch out as far as you can. I think that would be really cool, doing something like that. I sent it to Emer [Harkin] and she loved it. So a few things like that that I’ve been seeing, anything that I see on the reels or anything like that that I like that would be great for The Challenge, I always send it to Emer or Julie Pizzi or Justin Booth all the time. I send ’em all my ideas. I’m like, “This could be great for a challenge. We could do something like this and then add a puzzle piece there and do this.” And they were like, yes, yes, yes. So it’s pretty fun.

I feel like with that swing, there would be at least one player very hesitant about jumping.

At least. That’s what I’m thinking. I love that.

What’s your favorite kind of elimination to watch?

I like the head-to-head that are the head bangers, like, let’s go. Those are my favorite. The slower ones, like, OK, whatever. The more cerebral ones are like, OK, yeah, cool. But I like the good old fashioned head bangers. Those are my favorite.

The ones where you’re watching the clock…

Yes, those are painful because sometimes they last for hours.

You’ve hosted a few different versions now. Just recently, there were MTV seasons, USA on CBS, All Stars and World Championship on Paramount+. Is there anything you enjoy specifically about each of them and the players or does that not really feel too different for you?

No, there is, for sure. I like the fresh faces on USA. I like the old school vibes and the good times on All Stars. And then MTV’s The Challenge feels so much bigger, more important almost than All Stars, and it’s like, wait a minute, but All Stars are the OGs and that’s really cool. Then you go back to that and you’re like, wait a minute, The Challenge: USA is the one. So it’s cool because every time I go to a show, I’m like, oh, this is my favorite version. It’s weird. Every time I’ve done it, I’m like, this All Stars, yes! I get to go there and chill, have fun, laugh and whatever. And then when I get to the fresh-faced USA one, it’s dead serious, but it’s fun because it’s dead serious and they’re all new and it’s cool. So there’s a bunch of vibes. Every one of ’em has a different vibe, and they’re all awesome.

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, Season 39 Premiere, Wednesday, October 25, 8/7c, MTV