Katie and Derrick will be on this upcoming Challenge; Producers faced with the challenge of mixing it up

Katie (The Quest) confirmed a long time ago, via her MySpace, that both she and Derrick (Extreme) will be leaving for the upcoming Challenge, which begins production this Saturday, October 15 in Australia. Other participants? Danny (Austin), Johanna (Austin), Melinda (Austin) and Wes (Austin) are all confirmed.

So what's with this eleventh installment of the Challenge? Well, as inviting former castmembers back to challenge each other became difficult following the cancellation of Road Rules... Bunim-Murray decided to start casting for the what they called the "Fresh Meat Challenge". This new Challenge will supposedly pit former Real World and Road Rules alumni against a fresh-faced team of nobodies. A few months ago, Derrick (Extreme) appeared in television ads encouraging "newbies" to forgoe the Real World and Road Rules experience and go straight to the Challenges.

So what does this mean for the series? Nobody, except, of course, the production crew know what role the "newbies" will play. On Maximum Velocity Tour, The Quest and Campus Crawl the roadies faced-off or participated in a task with a group of nobodies who were selected in a sweepstakes from MTV.com. Of course, trash-talking or hook-ups usually ensued, but they were never considered to be a full-fledged part of the cast, since they were only included in one or two episodes.

As for this upcoming Challenge, it is unclear whether producers have decided to have a regular, consistent set of "newbies" challenge the group of alumni they are inviting back. For all we know, they potentially could have rotating groups after each individual mission. What's also important however, is how loyal viewers will welcome the "newbies". Very little exposition is done on the Challenges. Storylines from castmembers' first appearances on The Real World and Road Rules tend to set up the exposition needed for the Challenges. Viewers are familiar with and excited about former castmembers returning to reality television. Will the "newbies" be accepted by viewers as regular castmembers? Will the Blog update you on the latest news and information about the "newbies"? Will BMP ask the "newbies" back for new installments of the Challenge as they do for regular alumni?

Only time will tell. It all depends on production. Our guess is that since a casting call went out for this Challenge, expect to see a regular group of "newbies" to stay and challenge the alumni. What does that mean? Probably way more time getting to know the "newbies", less time on the Challenge itself and more drama between the two teams (mostly because the alumni will feel like this is their Challenge and they should win it). But, of course, all this considering if this really does end up becoming the format of the show. Expect more news to leak when production starts up this Friday.