The Prestige TV Podcast - Your Guide to Streaming 'The Challenge'

Episode Date: May 21, 2020

Pluto TV is a streaming app owned by Viacom that sort of mimics cable TV. But most importantly, it has a channel that just plays various seasons of 'The Challenge' all day long. Hosts: Juliet Litman and Andrew Gruttadaro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to TV concierge. I'm Juliet Litman. This is the Rear's podcast to help you guide the vast streaming landscape. Today, I am joined by my colleague, Andrew Goddaro. Hi, Andrew. Hey, Juliet. And this is like a very special episode. Today we are exploring the wide world of Pluto, which is, Andrew, why don't you explain what Pluto is? Okay, so Pluto TV is owned by Viacom. So that's like BH1, MTV. be it's paramount nicolodeon b t and pluto instead of being like an on-demand string and service it basically functions like cable in that every every like form of mtvisho or vh one show has its own channel and you can flick between the channels and there are commercials but they're very focused So to say the least, some of the channels include People TV, which is just programming made by people.

There's like the Paramount Movie Channel. There's like all of these bycom specific channels. And I think most importantly, there is an entire channel devoted to one of our favorite programs, the challenge on MTV. Hell yes. This, it's the one reason that I watch Pluto. So I think at the point Pluto had like, like, like one or two seasons of The Bachelor. And right now, as we sit and record this podcast,

I have it on my iPad in the background, no sound. And there is a fight happening between Nani Carmen and Frank Sweeney on the Battle of the Season's Season of the Challenge. And it's just playing all day long. And honestly, it's glorious. Just seeing these faces, I don't even need the sounds. But it's like, it's just kind of a dream. Like there's literally a channel playing the challenge all day.

every day. Yeah, it's just on loop. And when one season finishes, another season just starts. And you can just pop in as you need. Do you know if they're going sequentially? They aren't. I think there's so much that I've almost figured out the way. It's not really, not that there's an actual formula,

because it's kind of random. But they seem to be playing like six to seven seasons of the challenge, uh, sort of on a loop. And they're not, sequential. It's like there will be Battle of the X's which is like the 22nd season

and then there's the dirty 30 and they'll just like they'll be back to back. So you're like hopping around the canon of the challenge which also is a really great experience. It is a great experience. So Battle of the seasons is on right now which I have to say

is a great season. It was a really epic finale with Zach I believe Zach and Frank just yelling at their teammates, like just absolutely annihilating Ashley and Sam for being slow. It was like among the meaner moments on the challenge, but I remember it so

vividly. Yeah, they're pushing her up a hill. It also brings back one of the challenge absolute legends, Alton, who is on the Las Vegas team with his former roommate Trichelle. But then there's Nani and Dustin, who I had like a fixation on their team as well. So it's like

this is actually one of the best seasons that could possibly be on because it's such a walk down memory lane, whereas like if you just drop into dirty 30, you'll just be like, who the F are all these people? Right. So I couldn't be happier to have this. And I thank you for recommending it to me. What other seasons have they been showing?

So the ones that I catch most, battle the seasons is one that they show a lot. They show dirty 30 a lot. They show rivals too a lot, which is a really good season. That's the season that CT and West were teamed up and they won. Oh, yeah. And they beat Frank and John. That's also the season that Emily and Paula won, like my favorite duo.

They were just a dominant team who just ran through that whole season. There's like cook in that one, jemmy in that one. So they showed that one a lot. They have started to show cutthroat, which has like Brad Fiorenza on it. It's like an incredible throwback. And they do seem to be getting a little younger. like I think I caught the island a couple, a couple weeks ago. So they are, they are switching it up.

Every season you have mentioned is absolutely iconic. I mean, when I interviewed bananas a couple weeks ago, he was talking to how the island is completely singular. I think rivals, too, is maybe the best season. And if you're talking athleticism between having Emily and Paula, CT and Wes, I mean, Frank and Johnny, those are three incredible teams. Plus, DM was on it, Jordan and Marlon,

on it. That's a really good one to drop in on. I have to say, I would suspect that the seasons they're showing, they licensed from whoever owns them, which is probably Buna Murray. I don't know if MTV owns them in perpetuity, but just based on how the Bachelor works, I would bet not. And so

they probably had to choose, and they pick some absolute bangers. And when you flip to this channel, it's called the challenge on Pluto, that's just the name of the challenge. That's just the name of the channel. It's like seeing your old friends pop up. You're just like so happy to see these people. It's such an absolute delight. Thank you for

alerting this to me. But you also, I think, figured out some other ways that you can watch the challenge, right? Yes. So, I mean, total madness, the one that's airing right now, has just really got me on a challenge kick. There's also, if you have Amazon Prime, you can add quote unquote channels. And one of the channels that they have is MTV hits. You have to pay a little bit extra, but you can also just do a free trial for seven, seven days and just binge if you want. Amazon has great add-ons for that

reason. I did a 30-day free trial of epics to facilitate watching Belgravia, and it was excellent. They also, unlike many other services, make it so easy to cancel. There's like almost no reason to not try it out. Yes, exactly. And within this MTV hits thing, you can also like just

watch a few seasons of the real world, too. But they don't have every season of the challenge, but they have like rivals and you can go back a little bit further than Pluto allows you to. Like, I think I was watching something from like 2006 on MTV hits, which was quite an experience. Going back to old MTV is like walking into a time capsule, which is another great part of Pluto. I think they also were showing like teen mom and they also were showing just like a lot of the kind of core programming from MTV that people really came to know the network for in the aughts. And it's such a...

Yeah. It's such a mind fuck. Like, Pluto also is free. So you might as well to put it on one of your streaming devices. Like, why not, right? And I guess that the way it makes money is it does have ads. So it's ad supported on like, you know, the more popular streamers. But like, I have to say, I might rather have Pluto than like HBO right now. I almost agree with you.

I also love because it functions like cable, there is sort of this like, nice feeling of just dropping in on something and you know you don't have the sort of restrictions of okay i'm going to hit play on this and i know i'm going to have to sit here for an hour to finish an episode it's sort of like you pop in you catch a nani fight like you said and then if you want to sign off when a commercial hits you can and you know yeah pop in when you want to it's amazing yeah i'm a long time cable person like i i only very recently caught the cord and i still got youtube tv for this exact purpose because I really like the experience of like just turning it on like seeing what's there like you just sometimes have decision fatigue like why do I have to scroll through and choose

something like just tell me what to watch I kind of miss that mode of television and something like YouTube TV and now Pluto kind of replicates that but in the case of Pluto it's only the hits and it's pretty awesome I'm really excited about it if you could pick like two seasons of the challenge to watch which ones would they be I think rivals two is my favorite season. It's pretty unassailable. It's a really good one. It's just like everyone's at their, all the best people are at their kind of peak condition. Yes, they are. I also really like Invasion of the Champions, which Pluto does play a lot. And because that's like, that's like first seasons for a lot of people like Ashley Mitchell.

I think that's her first season. So you get, you sort of like, I think maybe Nelson's first season. And so it helps, like, contextualize watching the new seasons of the challenge to watch that one because you sort of, like, get everyone's origin story. I think dirty 30 serves a similar purpose for the current era that we're in. So, like, if you're watching the current season of the challenge on MTV, catch dirty 30 on Pluto because it gives you a lot of good backstory. And they kind of reset around dirty 30. And I think that was very helpful. I love vendettas. I wish vendettas would be on.

But I have to say, like, if I'm going an old school season, I would go the ruins. That was, I liked when they still had two teams and like what the team that you were on really mattered. That was a great one. And I just like when Veronica was on, she would get into fights. And like, she was, she was really important. And remember, like, just when Dorell used to dominate, I feel like he's been erased from the challenge memory. But he's important, you know, let's not forget about him. Yes.

I'm very, like, I mean, we both consider. this is a sport. And like, history is very important in sports. So I really am appreciating the ability to go back and sort of like remember what happened and who's most important in this whole series. As you work from home, it's a great background show. I mean, I don't know if everyone who's listening is working from home. And if you're not, we thank you for all the work that you're doing. But if you are, I mean, you kind of get some background noise, you know? How much time can you just spend alone in your home or whatever? And if you don't have kids, it's probably quiet. So I'm just recommending putting on Pluto in the background. I think I'll probably be doing that for the rest of

today and tomorrow. But if I'm being honest. Yeah, it's free. It's free. All right, check out the challenge and so much other MTV programming on Pluto and just in general watch the challenge. We really love it. Andrew recaps it for the website. I do a podcast about it. So we're all in. And we hope you enjoy. Thanks so much for listening to TV concierge. Of course, we'll be back tomorrow.