The Challenge: Cutthroat is the 42nd season of the reality competition series The Challenge, featuring alumni from The Real World, The Challenge, Are You the One?, Big Brother (U.S.), Survivor (U.S.), The Amazing Race, Too Hot to Handle, Love Island (U.S.), Cheer, Married at First Sight (UK), and Deal or No Deal Island competing for a share of $500,000. The season premiered on August 5, 2026, with two episodes on Paramount+, with a same day airing of the first episode on MTV.
Format Cutthroat features 24 contestants divided into three teams determined after a draft in the first episode. At the end of episode 8, the season changed to a two-team format following the merge of two teams.
For each episode, every team has one or two captains, and the elimination is designated as either a men's or women's elimination round. While the format changes as the season progresses, most episodes feature a team-based daily challenge, a nomination process and an elimination round (the "Arena"). The winner of the elimination round remains in the competition while the defeated contestant is eliminated. Episode 1-4: The winning team and the captains of the second-place team from the daily challenge are immune from elimination. For nominations, the captains of the second-place team nominate one team member of the designated gender to potentially compete in the elimination round; afterwards, the rest of the second-place team vote to nominate a second team member to potentially compete in the elimination round. At the Arena, the captains of the winning team receive the power to select the participants: one contestant from the last-place team, and one of the two nominees from the second-place team. Episode 5-8: In episode 5, the format changed and each team had to select one member as a "permanent" captain moving forward. The winning team of the daily challenge are immune from elimination, along with the captains of both losing teams. The captains of both losing teams later select one member of their team to compete in the Arena. Episode 9 and 11: At the end of episode 8, the Blue team was disbanded and merged with the Gray team, resulting in a two-team format. For episode 9 and 11, the captain of the losing team from the daily challenge nominates one team member to potentially compete in the Arena. The rest of the losing team then vote to nominate a second team member to potentially compete. Afterwards, the captain of the winning team selects two participants for the Arena: one contestant from their own team, and one of the two nominated contestants from the losing team. Episode 10: In episode 10, no daily challenge was held, and both captains are automatically sent to compete in a UFC-inspired Arena ("Trial by Combat") against a Mercenary. If the captain defeats the Mercenary, they are guaranteed immunity and team captaincy until the Final Challenge, win two tickets to a live UFC event, and receive $25,000 for their team in the Final Challenge. If the captain loses, they are eliminated and the money is awarded to the Mercenary. Twists Captains: For each episode, each team has one or two team captains. From episode 1–4, each team has one male and one female captain, which changes each episode. The initial captains were determined with the team draft. After each elimination, each captain must assign the captaincy to a team member of the same gender for the next episode. Captains must select a team member that hasn't been a captain before, unless otherwise impossible. In episode 5, each team had to elect a single member who would become the "permanent" captain moving forward. Teams must elect a new captain if their current captain withdraws or is disqualified from the competition. The captain of the eventual winning team in the Final Challenge will get the decision on whether or not to split the $500,000 prize with their team. Mutiny: From episode 6–9, teams can call a "Mutiny" before the daily challenge to overthrow their current captain and elect a new one. In order to do so, the decision must be unanimous among the rest of the team. Each team has two chances to use their Mutiny. The twist was discontinued after both captains won permanent captaincy in episode 10. Mercenaries: In episode 10, two contestants from previous seasons of The Challenge appeared as Mercenaries to compete in a special one-off elimination round against the team captains.
Contestants Male contestants Original season FinishThe Real World: ParisThe Real World: Key WestCheerAre You the One? 9Survivor: Edge of ExtinctionEpisode 9Love Island USA 3Episode 8 Love Island USA 5Episode 8Are You the One? 3Episode 8Real World: Ex-PlosionEpisode 7Big Brother 27Episode 5The Real World: San Diego (2004)Episode 3Big Brother 26Episode 1 Female contestants Original season FinishMarried at First Sight UK 8Deal or No Deal Island 2The Challenge: Fresh Meat IISurvivor 43Survivor: Kaôh RōngAre You the One? 4The Amazing Race 35Episode 11Too Hot to Handle 3Episode 8Love Island USA 4Episode 6Survivor 41Episode 5Are You the One? 6 Episode 4Big Brother 25Episode 2
Draft At the start of the season, contestants had to race through Bangkok to the cast villa. The first eight contestants to arrive then had to search the villa for a box containing a key, unlock a puzzle station and solve a puzzle. The first three contestants to finish would become the initial team captains.
For the team draft, instead of selecting their own team, team captains had to select contestants for the other teams. Each team had to have an even gender split. After the teams were finalized, each captain had to select a second captain of the opposite gender from their team. Round Captain Anna Leigh Chris Justin 1 Cedric Adrienne Deb 2 Reilly Sydney Will 3 Lete Nurys Bananas 4 Brad Cory Michele 5 Nelson Cassidy Tori 6 Josh Keanu Izzy 7 Cara Maria Leo CT
Mercenaries Mercenaries Original seasonRachel RobinsonRoad Rules: Campus CrawlSarah RiceThe Real World: Brooklyn
Gameplay Challenge games Right This Sway: Contestants attempt to cross a rope bridge without falling off or having their knees touch the bridge. Ten seconds into each team's run, opposing teams can pull ropes to sway the bridge, making the challenge more difficult. The team with the most members to successfully cross the bridge wins, with ties broken based on time. Winners: Gray team If You Know, You Know: Played in two heats for each team. Each heat, two or three team members are "guessers", who are blindfolded and harnessed on a trapdoor off the side of a 50-story building. Meanwhile, one other team member enters a mystery box, where they answer several yes-no questions about themselves by pressing a green or red button. After the responses are announced, each guesser attempts to guess the teammate in the mystery box. Teams are disqualified from a heat if any team member makes noise (potentially giving away their identity), or if the team member in the mystery box strategically does not answer truthfully. The team with the most correct guesses wins. In the event of a tie, the female captains of each tied team compete in a sudden-death tiebreaker where they answer trivia questions. Winners: Gray team Boat Swap: Each team has three boats of their team color and three white boats located at different ends of a narrow floating dock. They must paddle the boats to the opposite sides of the dock. The first team to transfer all six boats wins. Winners: Orange team Infiltration Dive: Teams swim from shore to a platform in the sea. Afterwards, one team member at a time must swim underwater to a second platform. Set up below the surface are several "dive bells" where contestants can catch their breath. Along the way, teams also collect five puzzle pieces. Once teams collect all five puzzle pieces and have all their members reach the second platform, they must swim to shore and unlock a chest. The first team to finish wins. Winners: Orange team Jungle Brawl: Throughout the challenge, dozens of balls are launched into a mudpit. Contestants attempt to retrieve the balls and throw them into another team's goal at the boundary of the pit, while also defending their own goal. The team with the fewest balls in their goal wins. Winners: Orange team Trial by Terror: Teams begin on a platform above water and attempt to swing across a series of colored rings to reach a second platform without dropping. Contestants must swing across the rings in a certain order, shown by flashing colored lights at the start, with the remaining rings being decoys which drop into the water. The team with the most members across to the second platform wins, with ties broken on time. Winners: Gray team Perfect Match: While tethered together, teams race half a mile () through the jungle towards a lake. Once there, two team members swim to retrieve two puzzle pieces, which teams then carry back to the start. Teams repeat this process until they collect all ten puzzle pieces. Afterwards, the first team to assemble the puzzle wins. Winners: Orange team Mean Cuisine: Teams select up to three members to be "shoppers" and up to four members to be "eaters". Teams with fewer than four members have each member undergo both roles. To begin, the shoppers row a boat through the Pattaya Floating Market and collect five dishes from vendors for other teams to consume, with selections made on a first-come, first-served basis. The eaters must then consume all their team's assigned dishes. The first team to finish all five dishes wins. Winners: Blue team Devils in the Details: Each team member begins at different sections of a path leading up to a temple. The team member at the start of the path studies a sequence of ten similar statues and describes them to the team member at the next section. This member then relays the descriptions to the next team member, with this process continuing until the team member at the temple receives the information. The team member at the temple must then arrange the statues to match the original sequence. The first team to correctly replicate the sequence wins. Winners: Gray team Feed It Through: While blindfolded, teams must maneuver three blocks, one at a time, through a giant wire bead maze set up across Jomtien Beach. The first team to transfer all three blocks and stack them on a post at the end wins. Winners: Orange team
Arena games Burn Out: Around the Arena are dozens of lights which change color every time they are pressed. Throughout the elimination, contestants attempt to switch as many lights as they can to their respective color. The first contestant to change all the lights to their color, or the contestant with the most lights of their color after five minutes, wins. Played by: Bananas vs. Cedric Line 'Em Up: Each contestant has five lanes on a ramp, each filled with yoga balls of different colors. Moving one ball at a time, they must rearrange the balls so that each lane only contain balls of a single color. Each contestant also has one black ball which they can place in their opponent's lane to sabotage them. The first contestant to finish wins. Played by: Deb vs. Reilly Winning Numbers: On a climbing wall are several numbers, each with two buttons above them. Each round, a random number is drawn, and contestants climb the wall to reach the respective button, with physical contact being allowed. The first contestant to press the button wins the round. The first contestant to win seven rounds wins the elimination. Played by: Brad vs. Keanu I've Got You Pegged: Contestants must pull out 15 poles of varying lengths from a drywall block, then arrange the poles among 15 holes so that the protruding ends of each pole are level. The first contestant to finish wins. Played by: Anna Leigh vs. Nurys