The season finale of The two-part final is halfway through, and fans are eager to see which team takes home the grand prize of $900,000. The weather has been cooperative throughout the season, but a hurricane crashed the final and almost derailed the ending. However, Harken assures fans that not only did the show go on—it’s one for the record books.
The challengers have fought and strategized throughout the season and the only thing standing between them and the grand prize is TJ Lavin’s final. The teams to make it to the end are Fessy and Kaycee, CT and Amber B., Kam and Cory, and Leroy and Nany. All four teams are willing to do whatever it takes to win, and the elements seem to be putting them to task. The show filmed in the stark but beautiful Iceland, and though for the rest of the season the weather had been stable, Harkin revealed that conditions couldn’t have been worse for the final.
“We were filming in Iceland and in a hurricane,” Harkin said, according to Us Weekly. “It was awesome, but also a really precarious position to be in as a producer because you’ve got to keep everybody safe and you want to deliver something that looks tremendous.” Harkin commented that the final was supposed to feature “glassy lakes and blue skies and gorgeous snowcap mountains,” but that because of the hurricane, the final “looked absolutely nothing like the final that I scouted.”
Unfortunately, when it came to the serene Icelandic landscape that Harkin scouted, “you don’t see any of that. You just see TJ [Lavin] like a weatherman who’s about to be blown over screaming at the camera and the cast trying to avert their eyes from the sandstorm that’s coming at them. It was gnarly. It was—truly, hand on heart, one of the toughest finals we’ve ever done.” The cast has been put on blast before for not giving their all in the competition, but that was not an issue in the final, and Harkin assures viewers they’re in for quite a show.
“I think you’re going to be impressed at the performances of all of our cast,” she said. “We were stoked at the performances. Everybody just delivered blood, sweat and tears, and it was just something wonderful to watch. They were total troopers.” The showrunner said fans will be “nauseous” and “exhausted” watching the cast push themselves to “their absolute limits.” If the first half of the final is any indication, fans are sure to be entertained by the nail-biting second half.
The Challenge is a competition for only the fiercest and most dedicated competitors—there’s a reason why rookies tend to wash out early on. The weather may have made things more difficult for the cast and production, but it’s only made things more exciting for viewers. There’s no saying who’s going to win the season at this point, and many of the teams are deserving of the grand prize. Harkin’s comments should psych up fans for the second half of the final, because if what she’s said is true, this could be one of the most show-stopping finals in the show’s history.
Source: Us Weekly
