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ShowsThe ChallengeSeason 6
Aired 2003 · Men vs. Women · Jonny Moseley's first season

Battle of the Sexes

The franchise's first men-versus-women season and the season Jonny Moseley took over as host. A simple structural idea — split the cast by gender, let them play each other — and the franchise's clearest format yet.

Premiered
MTV · 2003
Format
Men vs Women · 2 teams
first gender-split format
Cast size
30 players
15 men, 15 women
Host
Jonny Moseley
Olympic skier, first season at the helm
On this page
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 05Adjacent in the canon
  5. 06Also appears in
01The take

Battle of the Sexes.

02The shape of the season

A rhythm worth tracking.

The cleanest format the franchise had attempted to date. Men on one side, women on the other, two captains, and a structural clarity the earlier seasons did not have. Jonny Moseley steps in as the new host and brings a calmer, more athletic energy to the proceedings than the show had been used to. The casts are sprawling, the missions are bigger, and the gender-split template becomes a franchise staple from here forward.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #05 slot.

Slot #05 of 40 in the The Challenge Editor's Canon. The seasons on either side show what I ranked it against.

No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
06Also appears in

Cross-references.

The Challenge — Editor's CanonEditor's Canon · #05
The Challenge S6 — Battle of the Sexes — tiered.tv