When Johnny Devenanzio swiveled in his chair and playfully called for his mother to bring some meatloaf, he knew exactly what he was doing. In his impression of Will Ferrell’s man-child from “Wedding Crashers,” he was really evoking Johnny Bananas, the Peter Pan-like alter ego he has played for much of his adult life on the grandfather of all reality-competition shows: MTV’s “The Challenge.”

Devenanzio, 42, said he’d likely be a stay-at-home- son had his life not so permanently veered into the world of reality television. Or maybe he would have used his Penn State college degree to enter the world of finance. Of his large flock of one-time castmates, many have forged ahead with new careers, gotten married, started families. Not Devenanzio.

“When I die, I’m going to donate my brain to science to study what the long-term side effects of reality TV has been,” Devenanzio said in an interview. “Because I have literally clocked more hours than anyone on the show.”

Devenanzio spoke just before embarking for Vietnam to film the 40th season of “The Challenge,” the flagship show on which he has appeared in more than half the seasons. Subtitled “Battle of the Eras,” the new season — now airing Wednesdays on MTV — features 40 cast members representing various generations of the show vying for a slice of a million-dollar prize.

That’s a long way from the show’s summer camp-vibes origin. The series premiered before a Real Housewife ever chucked a drink and earlier than anyone surviving to outwit, outplay and outlast their competition. “The Challenge” even outstayed MTV predecessors “The Real World” and “Road Rules,” which served as feeders for contestants to enter the show.

Bill Simmons — the podcaster, founder of the Ringer and a superfan dating back to the show’s earliest days — called it “America’s fifth official sport,” a moniker MTV has embraced. Its durability is reflected in the formula the network pioneered, one that is now a staple of reality TV: run back popular contestants — like Devenanzio — who viewers have formed an emotional bond with season after season.

It has birthed a Challenge- verse with such spinoffs and iterations as “Champs vs. Stars,” “All Stars” and “The Challenge: USA” while providing a niche form of celebrity for mainstays like Devenanzio, C.T. Tamburello and Aneesa Ferreira, who have spent more time as reality television stars than nearly anyone on the planet, making it their primary vehicle of income and employment.

Dedicated “Challenge” viewers have watched Tamburello, 44, age from an aggressive 20-something into a teddy bear-like father. Ferreira, 42, has gone from a boisterous personality to a confident confidante for many castmates. And Devenanzio … well, he’s still mostly Bananas, cup raised and always ready to deliver the perfect toast as the life of the party.

“The Challenge” premiered as “Road Rules: All Stars” in June 1998. “We were literally a group of 20-somethings putting together outrageous challenges, anything our brains could think up, and then creating a road trip,” said Julie Pizzi, the president of Bunim Murray Productions, who got her start on “The Challenge” as a segment producer.

Pizzi credits Mary- Ellis Bunim, the co-creator of “The Real World” and “Road Rules” whose background was in soap operas, with foreseeing that the cast’s narrative would carry season after season.

The series’ general premise has remained the same for years. A theme — exes, rivals, ride-or-dies — guides a season filmed in a faraway country like Thailand, Iceland or South Africa. Televisions and personal phones are not allowed in the house. Petty grudges and familiar friendships are. Alliances continue or are dismantled. Contestants vote one another to compete in elimination rounds. Once cast members are whittled down, the winner or winners are decided after a strenuous finale.

Devenanzio entered MTV’s orbit via 2006’s “The Real World: Key West.” In his “Challenge” debut, he was the first contestant eliminated. Not long after, Tamburello transformed Devenanzio into a human backpack during a showdown — an image that became one of the show’s most enduring. Devenanzio went on to win the show a record seven seasons and estimates he has made around $1 million.

“The Real World” was groundbreaking when it made its MTV debut in 1992, but a quarter-century later, in a landscape dominated by reality TV and social media, the show had lost its impact. Its last episode on MTV aired in 2017. That’s around when “The Challenge” was reinvented with higher stakes game play, elevated camera technology and celebrity reality cast members to create a new golden age for the show, which has evolved into a pillar for Paramount+.

Some aspiring contestants see “The Challenge” as the major leagues and are willing to bide their time in the minors to make the cast. Take Nurys Mateo, for example. She joined the MTV dating show “Are You the One? 6” with the hopes of springboarding onto the series she really wanted to appear on. In 2014, “Are You the One?” contestants became the first participants who did not arrive from a show produced by Bunim Murray Productions. “The Challenge” has since pulled from “Big Brother,” “Survivor” and “Geordie Shore.”

The swirling of contestants from different shows added new types of familiar faces and new types of strategy. A cast member from “Big Brother” might rely more on social acumen to avoid elimination. A “Survivor” alum might thrive in the competitions.

Mainstays like Devenanzio, Tamburello and Trishelle Cannatella have found success in other reality television shows, such as “House of Villains” and Peacock’s “Traitors,” which have all become part of the permanent-reality-star industrial complex.

Tamburello estimated that he has retired from “The Challenge” three times. He returned, he said, because he wanted his son to watch a more mature version of himself.

“I don’t know if it’s Stockholm syndrome, but the shoots, they can be really, really long,” he said. “Then after, you end up missing it. It’s weird. It’s like, what do you call it? Masochist. It’s like all of a sudden, I look forward to being turned into a test dummy.”