Netflix has reportedly cut out a controversial scene from The Challenge: Inferno II that showed Rachel, Tina, and Veronica taking private pictures of Tonya Cooley. While MTV airs the current The Challenge: Double Agents season, new fans get to watch two older seasons of the show on Netflix. Recently, the streaming giant got to add two seasons of the series to its ever-growing catalog: Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Inferno II (2005) and Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel (2006). While lots of viewers in the fanbase have been watching the show for many years, some are only now revisiting past episodes.
It was all the way back in June 2005 that MTV aired The Challenge: Inferno II. The season was filmed in Manzanillo, Mexico, and its cast was split into two groups: the Good Guys team and the Bad-Asses team. At the time, the series still only featured contestants from either The Real World or Road Rules. Of note, Inferno II was only CT Tamburello's second season and Darrell Taylor's third season competing on the show. In the end, Darrell Taylor, Jamie Chung, Landon Lueck, and Mike Mizanin went on to win the season.
However, longtime fans of The Challenge also remember Inferno II for having one particular scene that was very controversial. The scene in question featured Rachel Robinson, Tina Barta, and Veronica Portillo ganging up on Tonya Cooley and taking private pictures of her. Now, TMZ is reporting that Netflix has re-edited the show and cut out that particular scene from its streaming catalog. Given that many streaming services in 2020 added contextual warnings and messages to some of its controversial films and TV shows, it makes sense for Netflix to also take action in regards to this one scene.
While it is understandable that Netflix chose to cut out this scene from The Challenge, it is noteworthy that the streaming giant went as far as re-editing the show despite the fact that it isn't even an original series from the company. Otherwise, the streaming giant asked the production team at MTV to conduct this re-edit, which was an additional step nonetheless. Alas, it was the right call for Netflix to cut out this scene from the season.
Even with the scene cut out, new fans can still catch up on The Challenge via Netflix. There's always time to watch these older seasons and then jump onto Double Agents currently airing on MTV.
Sources: TMZ