The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies is the 37th season of the MTV reality competition series The Challenge. This season features alumni from The Real World, Are You the One?, Big Brother (Nigeria, UK and U.S.), Ex on the Beach (Netherlands), Geordie Shore, Survivor (Romania, Spain, Turkey and U.S.), Shipwrecked, Ultimate Beastmaster, Love Island (Germany, UK and U.S.), Warsaw Shore, Paradise Hotel (Sweden), Too Hot to Handle, 12 Dates of Christmas and The Circle (U.S.) competing for a share at a $1 million prize. The season premiered on August 11, 2021. A launch special titled "The Challenge Spies, Lies and Allies: Global Activation" aired on August 9, 2021. The season aired in 190 different countries, and was the number one unscripted series, for 18-34 year olds, in the 2021–2022 broadcast year.
This season's 12th episode, titled "500", marked the series' 500th episode overall and aired on October 27. This milestone was commemorated by host T. J. Lavin and the remaining cast prior to commencing the episode's challenge.
Format Spies, Lies & Allies features a main challenge, a nomination process, and an elimination round. This season had players competing in male-female teams of two, with each team initially consisting of an American competitor and an international competitor based on participants' respective home country. Many teams changed throughout the season due to the format of the game.
Daily Challenge: Players compete in a main challenge in teams of two, where the winning team forms the "Agency" and are immune from elimination. Nominations: Players, besides the Agency, participate in nominations and must vote for one team to participate in the elimination round. They are given 20 minutes to discuss the nominations before voting simultaneously and as individuals. The team that receive the most votes are "compromised" and have to compete in the elimination round. The Agency: At the Lair, players in the Agency must vote for one male and one female, regardless of whether or not they are a pair, to compete against the compromised team in the elimination round as a pair. Eliminations ("The Lair"): The compromised team compete against the two individuals voted in by the Agency in an elimination round. The winning team remains in the game while the losing team is eliminated.
At the start of the episode 10, pairs were disbanded and contestants formed three teams of six during the "Diamond Dash" challenge. The new format from episode 10-17 is as follows: Daily Challenge: Players compete in a main challenge in teams (or "cells"), where all members of the winning team form the "Agency" and are immune from elimination. Nominations: At nominations, players are given 20 minutes to discuss nominations and plead their case to the Agency. The Agency then individually vote for one player of the designated gender to compete in the elimination round. The player that receives the most votes is "compromised" and has to compete in the elimination round. Eliminations ("The Lair"): At the Lair, the compromised player is given the chance to call out any non-immune player as their opponent for the elimination round. The winner remains in the game while the loser is eliminated.
At the start of episode 18, the teams were disbanded for the final two eliminations of the season as part of the "Night of Elimination" twist before the Final Challenge.
Twists Infiltration: Two variations of the infiltration twist occurred throughout the season. For most episodes, elimination round winners may select a new team or partner upon winning. In episodes 1-8, the winners of the elimination round may choose to remain as a team, or they can "infiltrate" and select any non-immune player of the opposite gender in an existing team (regardless of their home country) as their new partner. In the event that players in an existing pair are chosen, their two former partners and the two former partners of the elimination winners also form two respective new teams. From episodes 10-16, the winner of the elimination round may choose to remain on their current team or infiltrate and join either of the remaining two teams. If they elect to infiltrate, they must select a player from their desired team to swap positions with. Night of Elimination: Immediately following the "Rocket Run" elimination, teams were disbanded and players had to vote one male and one female player to compete in the Lair. All players, including the previous Agency, were eligible to receive votes. The male and female player with the most votes then had to call out an opponent of the same gender for an instant elimination.
Contestants Male contestantsOriginal seasonFinish Chris "CT" Tamburello The Real World: ParisWinner Kyle Christie Geordie Shore 8Runner-up Devin Walker-Molaghan Are You the One? 3Third place Nelson Thomas Are You the One? 3Fourth place Emanuel Neagu Survivor România 1Episode 18 Logan Sampedro Survivor Spain 13Episode 17 Josh Martinez Big Brother 19 Episode 15 Cory Wharton Real World: Ex-Plosion Episode 13 Ed Eason The Circle US 1 Episode 11 Jeremiah White Love Island USA 2 Episode 9 Hughie Maughan Big Brother UK 17 Episode 8 Faysal "Fessy" Shafaat Big Brother 20 Episode 7 Gabo Szabó Warsaw Shore 12 Episode 5 Corey Lay 12 Dates of Christmas 1 Episode 4 Tommy Sheehan Survivor: Island of the Idols Episode 3 Kelz Dyke Too Hot to Handle 1 Episode 2 Renan Hellemans Ex on the Beach: Double Dutch 4 Episode 1 Nam Vo Ultimate Beastmaster 1 Episode 1Female contestantsOriginal seasonFinish Kaycee Clark Big Brother 20Winner Tori Deal Are You the One? 4Runner-up Emy Alupei Survivor România 1Third place Nany Gonzalez The Real World: Las Vegas (2011)Fourth place Amanda Garcia Are You the One? 3Episode 18 Tula "Big T" Fazakerley Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands Episode 16 Ashley Mitchell Real World: Ex-Plosion Episode 14 Bettina Buchanan Paradise Hotel Sweden 8 Episode 12 Priscilla Anyabu Love Island UK 6 Episode 10 Amber Borzotra Big Brother 16 Episode 9 Berna Canbeldek Survivor Turkey 8 Episode 8 Esther Agunbiade Big Brother Nigeria 4 Episode 7 Aneesa Ferreira The Real World: Chicago Episode 5 Michele Fitzgerald Survivor: Kaôh Rōng Episode 4 Natacha "Tacha" Akide Big Brother Nigeria 4 Episode 3 Tracy Candela Love Island Germany 2 Episode 2 Lauren Coogan Love Island USA 2 Episode 2 Michaela Bradshaw Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X Episode 1
Gameplay Challenge games Compromised: Each American contestant begins chained to a stack of cinder blocks. To determine the initial teams, each international contestant must race down a path to reach the American contestants, collecting a sledgehammer and key along the way. Once there, they must unlock an available American contestant they wish to partner with before using the sledgehammer to break through the cinder blocks and release a safe. Newly-formed teams must then take the safe to a decoding station and open it to collect a gemstone before crossing the finish line. The first team to cross the finish line wins. Winners: Aneesa & Logan Heli Heist: Played two teams at a time. One team member begins in a speeding car while their partner begins in an overhead helicopter. The team member in the helicopter must throw bags of gems to their partner, who must catch them through the car’s sunroof. Once the car reaches the end of the runway, they must exit the car and cross the finish line. The team that catches the most bags the fastest wins. Winners: Esther & Fessy Sea Cave Recon: Played two teams at a time, teams dive off a 30-foot cliff to collect their first "bomb" capsule in the water below. They must then swim through a sea cave to collect a second bomb, proceed to a WaveRunner, and hold onto the attached bodyboard until they are pulled to a buoy. From the buoy, they must swim to shore and place the bombs on a podium. The team with the fastest time wins. Winners: Ed & Tori Undercover Comms: Played in two heats of seven teams, one team member begins suspended underneath a platform. They must pull themselves to three codes and describe them to their partner via walkie-talkie. Their partner must search through rubble for the matching codes and use the corresponding numbers to unlock a box containing a detonator, which they may use to eliminate another team from the challenge. The first team to collect three detonators, or the last team standing, wins their heat. However, the team to achieve this the fastest wins and becomes the Agency. Winners: Esther & Fessy Mindfield: Each team member must complete three cumulative obstacles to acquire puzzle pieces, and return to deposit their puzzle piece after each obstacle. At the first obstacle, players must crawl under a net to reach their first puzzle piece. At the second obstacle, players must scale a climbing wall to reach their second puzzle piece. At the third obstacle, players must pull a tyre past a marked line and solve the attached math problem to unlock a safe containing their third puzzle piece. After collecting all six puzzle pieces, the first team to solve the puzzle wins. Winners: Berna & CT Turning Agents: Played two teams at a time, teams begin strapped to the roof of a car. As the cars perform doughnuts, they must find their colored symbols printed on a nearby tank and use the corresponding numbers to unlock a lockbox before detonating a smoke bomb. The team with the fastest time wins. Winners: Emanuel & Kaycee Dive Bomb: Played in three heats, teams ride a sea scooter to collect two underwater ropes with puzzle pieces attached. They must then grab a key tied to a nearby yacht and use it to open a chest with their remaining puzzle pieces. Once they collect all 16 puzzle pieces, teams must solve the puzzle and detonate their station. The team with the fastest time wins. Winners: CT & Emy Bombshell Battle: Played in three rounds, teams must retrieve four of their colored "bombs" from the center of a mud pit and return them to their station, alternating team members each time. Once they collect all four bombs, they must retrieve a silver bomb to advance to the next round while the number of silver bombs decrease each round. The team that retrieves the sole silver bomb in the final round wins. Winners: Logan & Nany Diamond Dash: For the first stage, players race to collect a sledgehammer before proceeding to the end of the trail. Upon arrival, they can select one of three assignments to complete: (1) using binoculars to view their code on a sign, (2) finding a box that fits into slots of a wall and scaling the wall to reach their code, or (3) scratching paint off a board to reveal their code. Players must then use the code to unlock a safe, collect a diamond, and place it in either the Emerald, Ruby or Sapphire station – each of which holds six players. It was then revealed that this would be the teams (or "cells") that players would compete in. For the second stage, newly-formed teams must use their sledgehammers to break cinder blocks and place the rubble in one end of a structure. Once they place enough rubble, the structure would balance out to release a diamond. The first team to cross the finish line with their diamond wins. Winners: Emerald Cell Satellite Sabotage: Teams begin on a "satellite" suspended above water. One team member at a time must jump across the satellite's spokes before leaping off the final spoke to unplug a plug. Meanwhile, the remaining teams attempt to stop them by spraying them with a fire hose. Players are disqualified if they fall off the spokes, or fail to jump when pulling out the plugs. The team that gets the most players the furthest, the fastest, wins. In addition to becoming the Agency, each member of the winning team also received a cash prize of $3,000 each. Winners: Emerald Cell