In season 35 of MTV’s reality series The Challenge, 28 contestants will endure Total Madness as they compete to win $1 million dollars.

This season’s highly anticipated theme and cast announcement were released Wednesday; but prior to that, MTV had fans vying for more details in an extensive campaign comprising anagrams, social media teasers and short clips.

MTV began by wiping the show’s Instagram account clean of all posts. Over the course of five days, it began posting short, flickering video clips captioned with a single letter, which led fans to believe an anagram was involved. MTV then prompted them to solve the puzzle in order to unlock the trailer.

When put together, the letters from the first five videos spelled “OLTAT.” On the final day of teasers, MTV released a longer, but equally as cryptic, spot with a scrambled word: “DESMSAN.”

Though most fans solved the puzzle before the release of the final trailer, the theme, “Total Madness,” was revealed.

This season, dubbed “the most dangerous challenge ever,” ushers in icy conditions, mega explosions and the usual drama expected from the reality TV alums. Although host and BMX rider TJ Lavin will surely have some tricks up his sleeve, this season brings back the solo game format where twenty-one veterans and seven rookies will compete against one another to win.

MTV’s The Challenge was spawned from MTV’s Road Rules: All Stars, which then became the Real World/Road Rules Challenge and was then shortened down to its current title. its premise is to challenge past reality-competition stars—mostly from MTV shows but also from other programs such as CBS’ The Amazing Race, Survivor and Big Brother —to extreme competitions. Winners avoid elimination and gain the chance to remain in the competition another day.

Here are the cast members for Total Madness (pictured above), which premieres April 1 on MTV:

VETERANS

Aneesa Ferreira (13th Challenge)

Ashley Mitchell, (7th Challenge)

Cory Wharton, (7th Challenge)

Chris “CT” Tamburello, (17th Challenge)

Dee Nguyen, (3rd Challenge)

Jenna Compono , (8th Challenge)

Jennifer West, (2nd Challenge)

Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, (20th Challenge)

Jordan Wisely, (6th Challenge)

Josh Martinez, (3rd Challenge)

Kailah Casillas , (5th Challenge)

Kyle Christie, (5th Challenge)

Mattie Breaux, (2nd Challenge)

Melissa Reeves, (3rd Challenge)

Nany Gonzalez , (9th Challenge)

Nelson Thomas, (6th Challenge)

Rogan O’Connor, (3rd Challenge)

Stephen Bear, (3rd Challenge)

Tori Deal , (4th Challenge)

Tula “Big T” Fazakerley , (2nd Challenge)

Wes Bergmann, (13th Challenge)

ROOKIES

Asaf Goren (Big Brother Israel, So You Think You Can Dance)

Bayleigh Dayton (Big Brother)

Christopher Jordan “Swaggy C” Williams (Big Brother)

Faysal Shawn “Fessy” Shafaat (Big Brother, American Ninja Warrior)

Jay Starrett (Survivor)

Jennifer Lee (Amazing Race)

Kaycee Clark (Big Brother)

Tags: mtv the challenge


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