The Island is the 16th season of the MTV reality game show, The Challenge. The season is directly subsequent to The Gauntlet III. Like previous seasons of The Challenge, The Island featured cast members from various past seasons of The Real World and Road Rules, of which The Challenge was a spun off from, competing along with several cast members from the Fresh Meat challenge. This season featured the contestants "stranded" on an island off the coast of Panama, where the cast competed for a buried treasure chest filled with $300,000 USD in gold. Unlike in previous Challenges, the cast was not housed in a luxurious dwelling, but was "forced" to improvise and "work" for the basic necessities of food and shelter, as on the TV series Survivor. Unlike previous seasons of The Challenge, there were no predetermined teams. Instead, the cast members had to forge their own alliances. Of the twenty cast members, there were only four winners. The Island premiered on September 10, 2008, and concluded on October 29, 2008.