How did Survivor vs. Big Brother teams fare on Celebrity Fear Factor?

Two Survivor teams took on two Big Brother teams on Celebrity Fear Factor episode 5. How did Abi-Maria Gomes, Sierra Dawn Thomas and Caleb Reynolds fare?

Though it’s been the case for decades, MTV really pivoted to a focus on melodramatic reality television over the past decade. Even their take on Celebrity Fear Factor sows the seeds of drama with their casting, pitting Sierra Dawn Thomas and Abi-Maria Gomes on one team and Caleb Reynolds and his brother Blake on Survivor teams versus Cody Calafiore and Zach Rance and “Brenchel” for Big Brother.

If anyone was expecting a Candy Crush blowout like we saw in that show’s premiere, you are sorely mistaken.

Ludacris is the host now, as Joe Rogen somehow has a variety of better things to do than host Fear Factor. The barbs come out flying immediately, with Zach alarmingly stating that Survivor players get fed sushi all day while hanging out on a beach. I get that Big Brother’s an emotionally and mentally straining game that lasts 90+ days, but it’s cringy criticism nonetheless.

After a few minutes of trying to get a good soundbite in from everybody not named Blake (who’s never been on any show to this point), we get to the first challenge. Teams will navigate their own individual tight tunnels filled with worms, snakes, cockroaches and other creepy crawlies, noting three unique shapes. The players meet in the middle to describe the shapes to their partner, who must take the pieces off, slide them over, and have one player place them on their tunnel. This is done once per player.

Sierra Dawn Thomas and Abi-Maria Gomes (competing for $50,000 to go to Cheer For Your Life) went first, finishing with a time of 5:08. Following suit were Zach and Cody (no, not that one) (Ronald McDonald House) with 4:31 on the clock. Caleb and Blake (Give Kids the World) saw Caleb provide some weird shape descriptions but nailed it at 4:21. Brendan and Rachel (UCLA Cancer Research) came in the clutch with 4:47, knocking out the first Survivor team.

While the first challenge was banter-rich, it was interesting to see how the Celebrity Fear Factor players were presented. For example, Caleb mentioned playing Survivor twice but not Big Brother despite playing on the same season and alliance as the BB16 team. A commercial teaser also showed all three teams competing in the next challenge despite just one team through the first challenge.

Editing mess aside, we move onto the second Celebrity Fear Factor challenge; “try not to f—ing drown.” Zach and Cody went up first, being dunked into a tank upside down while water fills up. Whoever drops a flag they’re holding onto first pulls them both out, mixing stress maintenance and holding your breath.

They held their own at 53 seconds, setting the stage for Caleb and Blake. Caleb Reynolds encountered a critical error by having his nose blocker fall out, cutting the team’s attempt to just 33 seconds. Rachel, meanwhile, was freaking out about the prospects of the challenge, but her and Brendan survive with 50 seconds on the clock.

Unfortunately, that meant that Survivor teams were knocked out back to back, giving Big Brother bragging rights for Fear Factor supremacy. It’s the opposite of what happened in Candy Crush, where two Survivor teams made it to the final challenge.

That didn’t detract for a truly thrilling conclusion, with teams landing on top of a moving truck in a helicopter, collecting three keyrings with numbers, entering random combinations to set off a 30-second timer. The teams needed to get back to the chopper in order not to have it “explode” on them.

In the end, Brendan and Rachel won the Survivor vs. Big Brother episode of Celebrity Fear Factor, proving that fear was not a factor for them. An unfortunate showing for the Survivor teams, as it seems the tribes had spoken rather quickly.