[1] The idea of Road Rules came to mind when Real World castmates Jon Brennan, Tami Akbar and Dominic Griffin traveled in an RV across the United States to get to their The Real World: Los Angeles house in the first two episodes of the second season.
Bunim-Murray began working on the show soon after the third season of Real World, and finally debuted in 1995.
The spin-off series is mostly cast-contestant dependent on both Road Rules and The Real World as it combines contestants from various seasons of both precursors.
An asterisk (*) indicates the cast member was voted off the show or lost a season 14 face-off and did not make it to the end.
The series began with a simple format, closely mirroring its parent show The Real World.
Enticed by the idea of sailing around the world, producers put the cast on the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea educational program.
Prior to this, cast members only needed to get to the end of the trip, and would not be penalized for refusing to do a mission.
Also, instead of adding money to a group pool, the cast competed each mission for a "key" to the handsome reward.
Setting up the idea for The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, the face-offs have come to be an instrumental part of each season.