When Diem Brown, a beloved competitor on the popular MTV reality competition series “The Challenge,” passed away in November following a 10-year battle with cancer, it never crossed producer Jon Murray’s mind not to air the footage of her final competition.
“She would’ve been furious with us if we didn’t air it,” says the co-founder of Bunim/Murray Productions, responsible for hit shows including “The Real World,” “Project Runway” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
“I think it’s important to see she was a person living with cancer and she wasn’t letting it stop her from doing the things she loved,” Murray says, “and it comes through so strongly during this Challenge that I think it would be an affront to her not to air it.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only loss the MTV family suffered in recent months. Just two weeks after Brown’s death, fellow “Challenge” competitor Ryan Knight was found dead on Thanksgiving morning. The cause of death remains unknown.
The double loss left “The Challenge” crew in a difficult situation, as both Brown and Knight had just finished filming the show’s new season, which hadn’t yet premiered. “We threw ourselves into our work and threw ourselves into honoring them and their last appearances on ‘The Challenge’ and that’s how we dealt with it,” says Murray.
The latest season of “The Challenge“ — dubbed “Battle of the Exes II” — premiered Tuesday night and pairs “Real World” veterans with their former flames to compete in a grueling physical competition each week, with one two-person team being eliminated at the end of the episode.
Brown and her on-and-off-again boyfriend, Chris “CT” Tamburello, placed second in the opening episode. Neither she nor Knight had ever won the grand prize in past seasons.
“We continued to make the stunts bigger and scarier,” says Murray. “One of the compliments I get on this show, which I love, is that it looks like a big network show.
“There’s one [challenge] this season where there are two big trucks racing down a highway and the cast mates have to jump back and forth from one to the other. It’s just thrilling to watch.”
But viewers beware: Two unexpected twists this season will challenge the veterans to adapt and rethink the game.
First, two estranged couples from MTV’s “Are You The One?” have joined the cast.
Second, eliminated couples will get a shot at redemption through “Battle of the Exiles.”
On next Tuesday’s episode, the couples eliminated in the first and second episodes will face each other one final time — with the winning couple staying another week to battle the next eliminated couple, etc.
The duo still standing at the end will rejoin the show a week before the finale. Fittingly, this season has been dedicated to Brown and Knight, who both appeared in this week’s premiere, as the “Challenge” family continues to heal from the blow.
The upcoming episode will depict the re-emergence of Brown’s illness, which ultimately resulted in having her flown by air ambulance back to NYC.
“After [Diem’s departure], the cast insisted we continue the show, and do it in her name,” says Murray.
“They wanted to do their best in her name to honor her.”