Ep. 490: Aneesa Tells All!

Derrick Kosinski & Scott Yager are joined by Aneesa Ferreira.

ANEESA returns to the show! For as often as she is a mainstay on our Live Show stages...Aneesa does not pop onto the podcast as often as you'd think. After last night week's episode and the transformative season she has had so far, we thought it was as good a time as any to have her on to clear the air, fill in some of the gaps of what we didn't see/hear from her altercation with Ashley and to get together with a true OG! 

WATCH this interview HERE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/video-aneesa-on-139725895

www.ChallengeManiacs.com
www.ChallengeMania.Live
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LIVE SHOW DATES:
10/5 - Detroit
11/15 - Buffalo
11/22 - Nashville
12/13 - Plano, TX

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
What's up, everybody. This is Scott Yeager here with another
edition of Challenge Mania. This episode brought to you by
Challenge Mania Live Buffalo. That's right, we are returning to
the Great White North. Is that what they call it?
I have no idea Western New York. She's been there
with us once before. Anissa will be joining us, Tory Deal.
We've got Mark Long, the Power Couple, Devin and Michelle,

(00:35):
first time live show guests, Derek McCrae.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It all goes down Atvice.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
It's one of these awesome Saturday fun Day events where
we will do a Q and A, we will do
a panel, but.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
We're really parting with you guys for like four hours.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
There is even a ticket here that comes with a
large group photo off of you and all the cast members.
Go to Challengemnia dot Live now to get tickets. But
you didn't come for me, You came for d on
the line. Right now, we've got Derek and we are
joined by the Challenge Mania Queen who will be with
us in Buffalo, Miss Anissa Ferreira.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
How are you okay, haw A?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Oh, you know, just had a very uh impactful night
last night at the at the Lock in it was.
It was nice seeing you there. It was nice seeing
you get the fifth pick in the draft. Your your
numbers are very high despite you know, but despite what
some people uh maybe you know, saying about the aging athlete,

(01:27):
aging challenge athlete these days, Uh, we've caught some slack
and some scrutiny. I'm not saying you. I think we
all as a as a VET unit have collectively despite
maybe Turbo, but uh, you know, here we are in
our you know, late thirties, you know, still trying to make.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
It happen, not late thirties.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I am technically in my late thirties. For another, I
don't know, fourteen days or so. Yeah, So just saying,
just saying, but Anissa, well, the program so excited to
have you here. It has been a minute, obviously not
been a minute since I've seen you. We celebrated your
birthday I believe it was your thirty second birthday in
Phoenix recently, where you were so nice to ditch the

(02:11):
VMAs to join us. But we haven't had you on
the podcast in a while. And obviously it wasn't for
like the greatest reasons in the world. Like last night
was kind of a tough episode for everyone but yourself specifically,
and when we were talking about it, I said, Hey,
you want to come on the pod, And I was
actually surprised to hear that you wanted to so talk
about that, like well, because you know, like, look, we're

(02:31):
going to get into the negativity and what happened with
you and Ashley and things like that, and you know
the hole when they go low, we go hi, this
that whatever. I didn't know if you just wanted to
sweep it under the rug or whatever, But as we
were talking.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
It seemed like there was even more. Right You're like, no,
what it seemed like.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
They were There was so much more.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
So that's what I love because you obviously could be
doing this on your podcast, the Official Challenge Podcast, but
you are not one of the hosts of that podcast
this season, and sadly Davon and Devin didn't have have
this idea.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
They had Will on there. So you enjoy that interview.
We've got an they asked me.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
For next week, but you know, whatever we.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Get, we get the first digs here, so talk talk
us through this because you and Ashley partners famously on
All Stars five that didn't go that well. But it
felt like you guys were chummy going into this season.
I heard rumors you guys were talking it up at
the airport going into this What what fell apart here?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
When did all this start?

Speaker 4 (03:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (03:25):
So even before when we when we before we left NOM,
we hung out in my room, we went out for
tap us like we weren't, you know, enemies, We weren't
best friends. And the backstory is that, like Ashley and
I were fairly close at one point, so and I

(03:46):
was with her through some really tough times in her life,
and we got along and I liked her.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
Fast forward we do all stars. That was interesting.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
We were finally it get to the airport. We're having drinks.
Everybody's fine. Clearly, I was a little anxious about seeing
her because you know, she can say some very interesting
and colorful things at times.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
And we ended up.

Speaker 5 (04:18):
In the same room. So if you see certain clips,
she's rubbing my shoulders, She's called me sissy. We're laughing
all day. Our room is like all chummy. Even when
I wasn't voting with them, we were all still fine.
And one night, I don't know if we had just
come home from something or we just had drinks at

(04:39):
the house. She's sitting next to Jake, Jake is sitting
next to Tay. They're all in Jake's bed, and I'm
just talking about like how hard I've worked, and I
was like, I'm in the best shape I've been and
she was like like that, and it was just so
it was just so nasty, and I had to leave
the room and I came back and she claimed that
she had never said anything. So this came out of

(05:01):
basically nowhere unless she was like holding on to it,
and since we lived in the same room. Just to
back up, sorry, I had found out the same day
that Car found out that my dad went into hospice, So.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
People knew that I was going through a lot of shit.

Speaker 5 (05:20):
And my family was like, you know, Dad would want
you to fight da da da da da. And I'm like, okay,
hospice isn't you know, the end. But I with dementia,
you know your parent is actively dying, you know, So
that that was a lot for me. And I had
shared certain feelings about everything and going into this fight,

(05:41):
you know, like I tried not to go low and
I stated facts and there were a lot of things
that were omitted from this fight, and you see me crying.
I was actually hyperventilating, But like, you know, she brought
up my dad in the fight, which I thought was
like really uncalled for, and in that moment, you know,

(06:06):
especially when her dad had already passed, and how much
you know, love and support she was given by me,
it was just so weird that someone would go so
low to hurt someone else.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
And there was nothing I had said in this fight.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
May have been petty, it may have been whatever, but
there was nothing that I said in the fight that would,
you know, would even warrant that kind of a response,
And the fact that they cut that out maybe they
were trying to save her. But I also feel like
my side of that story should show of why I

(06:44):
was so upset and how this may evolve through the
next episode and so on and so forth, and just
really not feeling that.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
Supported. And I think there.

Speaker 5 (06:59):
In life, you know, where I knew picking it to
work with Olivia and trust her was the right decision.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, I mean, I was there. I don't I don't
want to. I don't like to dig into these types
of situations. I don't even want to be a part
of it, to be honest with you, I was hiding
behind the stairwell, just waiting because this thing was like
you guys were taking jabs at each other, like right
at the belt, right at the belt, and then all

(07:30):
of a sudden came the petty right, it was petty.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
It was.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
It was a back and forth pie and then and
then and then and then all of a sudden, the
bomb dropped. And I heard what was said, and I
came running to you, and the security was right there,
and I was the first one to just kind of
like hold you and hug you. But it was like
everybody knew that the bomb was dropped, and it was

(07:54):
you know, it was it was, it was, it was
are you okay?

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Look, so obviously there's been times on the show where
when people say things, they omit them, and then you know,
everyone kind of skirts around them, ironically, sometimes involving the
same person we're talking about, and then you it is
kind of touchy of like, do you want to be
the one to clarify what was said or whatever you mentioned?
She mentioned your dad, Do you want to clarify exactly
what she said or the context, because now Derek's calling
it a bomb, and I feel like then people are

(08:19):
gonna run wild with it and maybe assume it was
even worse than it was, not that it wasn't bad.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
So do you want to say this working.

Speaker 5 (08:25):
I don't care if she said your dad sucks or
like go whatever, like he's dying. Like the thing is,
this is the thing you don't bring up family and
in any fucking capacity.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
That's all.

Speaker 5 (08:39):
So I don't care if it was something light. I
don't care if she she said I hope he dies.
She was just like, you know, why don't you go
see your dad? I mean, I heard dad and it
was over, and she knew how delicate of a subject
it was. It's weaponizing someone's fear or pain or you know.
That's the point. Is the intention and behind it was

(09:02):
to hurt me, and she was effective. If that's what
she wanted to do, she did it.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
I don't want anyone.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
Else telling my fucking story. Everybody was there, everybody heard it.
Everybody was upstairs, people pretended to sleep. People told Ashley
she was validated in what she felt that she was doing.
Nothing wrong. Could be hearsay, but that's what I heard.
And you know, people are laughing and making jokes of
it before it went low and the next day it's like,

(09:32):
are you okay?

Speaker 4 (09:33):
How are you doing? There was concern.

Speaker 5 (09:38):
She didn't sleep in our room that night because security
had moved her to the other side. And in the morning,
and mind you, I don't go to bed till like
three or four, you know, it's eight am. Nanny walks
her over to my bed. I'm like swollen, like eat
like so bad, and I'm like absolutely not, Like I
don't have to I don't have to listen to you

(09:59):
or forgive you. Four or five hours after, I just
need a moment, like let me feel through my shit.
I was still upset, you know, And then after that,
not one fucking apology to this day.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay. I want to ask both of you guys this
because so obviously we did see some of it, right.
We see obviously you guys get into an argument. The
majority of it is made about her talking about your
performance or your look or your weight and things like that,
and all of this is omitted, including the security, I
believe right, like security and how big this got was
also omitted. Is that something that surprised both of you

(10:43):
when you watch this back that all of that was
kind of left on the cutting room floor for whatever reason.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
Well, it's in the it was in the trailer for
the season, right, And yes, I talked to several people like,
so we were just going to skip over that whole thing.
Where did it that that fight was so much longer
and bigger than that? So it was very I get it.
We you know, I understand why they don't want to

(11:10):
highlight bad behavior, but it's like, you know, how many
chances do we give or pee defender? That's all, Like
it was just so mean spirited. I could not wrap
my head around it.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
You know, the reason was to protect you, Like if
they said that we didn't want to have to have
you go down that rabbit hole again and then even
enter your father into the narrative and things like that.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Just because she did. If they claimed at least.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
That was the reason, would that make you feel better
about it or would you still think.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
It would maybe if they called me before and said, hey,
this is how the episode's gonna go. Please don't feel
slighted by it. We just didn't want you to relive
a painful memory. But it's also like that shit happened,
and it's also maybe the reason why the next episode
or whatever like I am acting the way I'm acting,
you know, like I was so vulnerable and so emotionally,

(12:03):
just like this was such a hard season for me,
So I feel like I should be able to speak
my piece.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
I usually just sweep shit under the rug and try
and take the high road.

Speaker 5 (12:13):
And I'm not even taking the low road by saying
what she said was fucked up. I don't think that
that's me. I'm not even trashing her by saying that.
I'm just saying it sucked to be on the receiving.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
End, you know.

Speaker 5 (12:26):
And now you know, today is three months since my
dad passed, and I have to watch this shit the
night before and and what you know, like he would
want me to totally stand up for myself. I feel
like there are years that I'm like, I can also
be a bigger, better person by saying that something hurt

(12:47):
my feelings or something was fucked up.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
That's what I'll say about it. I mean, I think
that you know, we've got we've like as time is
gone on gone by with like reality TV in the
real world and how much they show on the challenge
and how much they omit and how volatile they they
allow some of these you know, uh, these these arguments,
verbal arguments, uh, physical arguments. How much they've they've omitted

(13:17):
this stuff. I think in some ways is to sort
of like protect us in some ways, like I think
they feel like there's an obligation to despite what was said,
is to protect both parties for more backlash online. Because
the online don't say it, I'm with you, I'm with you.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
I know that's not coming out of my mouth in
a fight. Your parents are never mentioned, your family, families
that are family is off the fucking table. I agree,
I've been That's all. That's all it is.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
I've been trying trying to lobby for that for years
and years and years.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
Is like your parents, your dog, those people, you're real
off the table.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Absolutely listen.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
She could call me fat all day and tell me
I'm not worship or I'm delusional or whatever, which is
still a little fucked up because she loves to go
to the fat shaming thing.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
But whatever, whatever she's got to say, it's fine.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
I know my worth, I know my strength, and she
is not the you know, the last say and how
I feel about myself or the first.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
Say in it. So that's fine, And I've I've had
a lot of support.

Speaker 5 (14:30):
It's just like, for what I had to go through
and for all of that to not be shown, I
feel I feel slighted, and I get the projection, I
get it.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
It's just it.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Reminds me of so I think it was Final Reckoning,
ironically a season she won. But there was an there
was an altercase between Johnny and Devin. Devin had to
leave the season earlier because of his father passing away.
He then comes back him and Johnny are getting into
it and Johnny says something along the lines of like,
you know, your dad would be ashamed or something like that,

(14:59):
or I guess the apple does fall.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Far from the tree.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Whatever it was, it was like completely distasteful, giving the
timing of everything, the guy actually having the straight to
come back and do the show. And look, Devin also
didn't handle it well. He followed Johnny around. A lot
of people theorize that that's what ended up, you know,
leading to Devin taking a few seasons off unelectedly, and
so that's how they treated it. Back then, they showed
the whole thing, you know, without skipping a beat. Now

(15:24):
it's almost like you can tell where they think the
line is by what they don't show because on All
Stars season four, a lot of people came home and
started whispering about a huge altercation between Janelle and Ayana,
and then by the time the thing airs, all this
stuff we had heard about was left on the cutting
room floor. Yet they did show enough of it that
it just looked like Janelle was overreacting to something else.

(15:44):
And so that's what I think is interesting here, because
what comes out of this now is they do show
enough of it to they're continuing the narrative that she is,
you know, beating a dead horse when it comes to,
you know, your appearance or your you know, physical prowess
on the show. Just to pull this up really quick,
I believe it's thirteen points for Ashley, thirty points for
Anissa at this very juncture. But whatever, either way, they

(16:07):
leave that in, they take this stuff out, and so
they clearly still want to show the turmoil between you two,
but they don't want to let everyone know what your
reaction is actually correlating to. And that's where I think
it's nice of you to come on here, But I
get why you want to come on here and fill
in some of the gaps because everyone else just thinks
that you're getting that upset at the weight talk, which

(16:29):
clearly that's not your first rodeo. When it comes to that,
you just dealt with it last season, and you came
into the season in the best shape that you've been
in several years. So I mean, I think that, you know,
they kind of have to in my opinion, they kind
of have to answer, at least to you, not maybe
to the internet or everyone else for why they would
take something like this out. Is it because of the
content or is it because of the character or the person,

(16:52):
And wanting to, as you said, protect her a little
bit and continue to use her and be able to highlight,
you know, what a wild card she is.

Speaker 5 (16:58):
You know, and listen for in some parts she's on
the you know, the right side of history, which causes
a lot of hate from like there are already people
that are going to hate you for political reasons, for whatever.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Like there people will always find something.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
Now do I I want people to attack her or
whatever else? No, But I want to feel validated as
a human being that being upset about something like that
or someone using that kind of stuff shouldn't go without
some type of like I don't know, scolding an apology something.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
How do you just do that? And it's like, you
know what, that's fine.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
And and then you guys kind of have to go
on and still live in the same right, live on,
you know, go take rides on the same bus, you
get the same tables. Uh, you know, I I don't.
I don't know how. When I was watching you know,
you guys your interactions later on, I was just like,

(18:03):
I think they're all okay, kind of I couldn't tell,
you know, I mean, it's it's.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Like you have to live right, like you know, yeah,
you know, me listen to way, I'll be silent, and
there are other people I can talk to. And the
one thing I knew I had was Olivia. I knew
that I had THEO I had Cedric. I mean, there
were these people that rallied around me, you know, that
came into my room, that were I mean, Tay and
Adrian don't even know, they don't owe me anything, they

(18:29):
don't know, but like you know, they were these are
people with fresh eyes seeing this, you know, and just
really supportive of like you know, right as right, wrong
as wrong, And that's all it is. It's, you know,
I don't wish anything bad on her, like it don't.
I just also want to be seen like I think

(18:49):
it's messed up to not have that, you know.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
To play like obviously you're in the midst of a fight.
I'm just gonna play Devil's advocate here because I don't
want it to feel like we're just piling on Ashley.
She's obviously not here to answer for herself. Maybe she
will be at one point, maybe she'll be on her
Instagram live. Okay, So this is in the same season
that Kara alects to leave because her mom is sick
and she's getting worried that it's getting really bad. Your father,
as you said, is towards the end of the road.
You're aware of this, and you're you're doing not that

(19:15):
you're electing to stay. And that's a personal decision you made,
but obviously one that's probably pretty hard on you, and
one that again you come home and shortly thereafter he
does pass away. So, but Ashley, someone who's gone through
similar things that you've been there for her during, as
you said, is it possible it came from a place
of she And granted it's not her, it's not her
right to say this to you.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Is it possible? She meant like you should go do this?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
That she was saying, like from someone who's gone through
personal experience, shouldn't you be there?

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Shouldn't this is different.

Speaker 5 (19:44):
Ashley's father was on life support and Kara's mom had
stage four like cancer.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
My dad has dementia.

Speaker 5 (19:52):
So it's one of those things where I mean, granted,
when I got home, I went to go see him,
I didn't know it was as bad as it was.
So when they explained it to me, you know, when
I talked to my mom, she was like, people can
live in hospice for a year, five years, you know,
Like I didn't know it was as bad. Had I
had known, things may have been different. But it really

(20:16):
wasn't explained to me in the way in which it was.
And I just think, you know, all zaimige dementia, it
really is a tough thing to navigate because they can
really be in.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
That state for a long time. So they didn't make
it feel urgent for me.

Speaker 5 (20:33):
To come, as you know, other people's situations were more
urgent and more time sensitive than mine.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
Had they had told me like you need to come,
fuck yeah, I would have left and honestly.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
I mean, look, it's not like you said it to
you over coffee sincerely.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
She said it in the midst of a blow up fight.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
Yeah, yeah, that's really what it is.

Speaker 5 (20:55):
It's kind of like, why use it, you know, if
you really felt like you were gonna give me some
like insight er being like from somebody who lost a parent, like,
you know, maybe you should think about going.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
But it's hard because her and I aren't friends.

Speaker 5 (21:08):
So whatever she's saying to me, I don't think is
coming from a place of concern or love or compassion.
And you know, it's unfortunate, and you know, I do
think in a way that they were trying to save us,
say both of us, But it's just like, even in that,

(21:28):
I feel like it could have been worse. You know,
It's just you know, and I don't know. I guess
they didn't want to show either one of us in
that light of me hyperventilating, of her crying, of whatever.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
And it's understandable.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
I'm not mad. I just don't feel like. I just
feel like, if you're gonna say it and you're gonna
go there, then you clearly can't be afraid. If it's
gonna get shown on TV.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
That's all like, that's how you used to You can't
you can't keep me.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
From talking about it, coming from some of the talk.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
It used to be if you came home from one
of these things, you probably knew almost for certain, the
worst thing you said or did is going to be shown.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
And now might have all of the all of the time,
and you have to live with those things.

Speaker 6 (22:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
And I don't think she's worried about it being shown.
I mean she's very vocal about like being very confident
and comfortable in her life with or without the show,
or with or without certain people, so, you know, and

(22:37):
to play and to play.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
I don't know, to even show even a different side
of things, because I don't want to keep saying devil's advocate,
because I don't want it to sound like, you know,
I'm calling anyone you know a devil here. But like
the when when Carl's mom, uh, she was in the
same situation. This was maybe the day before. I think
Carl was dealing with this situation where she's gotten word

(23:02):
and there was a long drawn out situation where she
was trying to figure out whether or not she should go.
She was shocked. You know, she was shocked. She didn't
know what was going on, she was scared, she was
trying to figure out the details. She's she's in she's
in chilly home is mom's in Boston with with family

(23:23):
and and and and some of the people that came
to rally around her was was was Ashley because I
was there. I was one of the first people.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
I was down theirs Leroy, every Ashley nanny. Yeah, you know,
it was like the Dead Parents Club came around and
were like let's talk, yes, and and it's a shitty
fucking club. But yeah, like I saw all of that
because I found it the same day she did.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, and you know, we're you know, these you know,
God bless you know, everyone involved in this situation. I
haven't you know, experienced this in I hope knock on wood,
I don't. I don't have to anytime soon. But like,
you know, she was there with you know, with the
tears in her eyes, you know, thinking about hot heard
the situation is for Kara, And you know, I do

(24:12):
think that. And that was a long drawn out thing
that turned into like a two second you know, hey,
goodbye CT you know, like that's all it was. I mean,
it was like an intervention was happening. I mean it
felt like we were in well, they.

Speaker 5 (24:24):
Also stopped filming us, remember, like they were giving people
privacy and space to just like feel out their feelings,
you know, like everybody was crying.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
I mean it was heavy.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, but you know, but you know, they they've got
the eye in the sky. They go, all right, get
the big camera out of their face. We've got the
eye in the sky watching them, and if we want
to use the footage, we can use the footage.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
You know.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
But like even but even going back to your situation,
like this was like a fifteen to twenty minute argument.
I think I caught this a while I taught. I
caught the tail end. So they probably felt like, hey,
we've got enough here to make this like a TV
you know, appropriate argument without having to kind of like
you know, jump off.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
You know, no, I get it, I get it.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
And Anissa, you mentioned the face swelling.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
We do.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Actually they did submit.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
They they submitted this graphic of what your face looked
like when you're like.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
You actually have it right here, well clearly, but so.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
I want to look, I want to get to this
because this is what we did see, So I do
want to talk about this element of it. This has
obviously been a through line narrative for you the last
couple of seasons, even including Ashley.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Back up a little bit. What does your shirt say
right now?

Speaker 1 (25:34):
It says I believe optimal performance, right, So, I mean,
I think a lot of people have have been following
your journey this last year and can and I don't
know if that's why you're wearing it, but I'm gonna
pretend no.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
I had to find and I had to find a
T shirt to wear to go get coffee, and this
was the only one that wasn't wrinkled. And my coach
Will would be so happy that I'm wearing it.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
It's fitting that you're wearing it because this does feel
like a season of optimal performance from you. For those
of you guys who have been following Anissan social media,
you kind of maybe knew going into the season or
even before this season that you really got yourself into
tiptop shape in between Season forty and All Stars five
that for people who don't know, you had like what
like three hours.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
In between those two things.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
And I know I'm just from talking to you and
hearing interviews with you that watching yourself on those seasons,
but particularly All Star five, was something that really motivated
you to, you know, get it together between that season
and this season.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
So tell our.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Listeners what you did, because the optimal performance is real
and we'd love to know what it's been.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well.

Speaker 5 (26:31):
I had trained before forty, clearly, I think that that
elimination with Jenny kind of showed that, like I wasn't
a slouch.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
I mean, I never happened.

Speaker 5 (26:40):
I'm just this close a thicker athlete. But like Scott,
like with the times, like I started this in the
early two thousands where they called me fat then and
I was one hundred and twenty eight pounds, so like
I could never win being a curvier girl, even when
it was not. I'd look amazated right that I wouldn't
even be on the show with.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
One twenty eight.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
But between forty and I had lost like ten pounds
on forty, and yeah, I didn't have much time to
do anything between forty and All Stars, and then you know,
looking at All Stars, I was like ooh, and I
had this coach before then, and it was just a
very slow progression of you know, he plans all of

(27:21):
my workouts and I get four workouts a week. Then
I had three runs a week per like an app
that I was following, and uh, you know on thyroid
medication and to take my supplements and stuff. And I
just had to be more consistent of like I had
to show up for me every time, you know, and
if it wasn't working.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
We adjusted it.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
So it felt good when I finally found, you know,
started seeing results. The problem is that, you know, when
we do start to, you know, try and lose weight
and we're not. We're so used to quick fixes and
things happening immediately.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
You know that.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
It's when you don't see it, you know, and you're
building muscles, so the scale's going up, and like, you know,
it can be disheartening. So giving it some time and
things started fitting differently. At this pair of jeans I
held onto for two years, I put on, I'm like,
oh they're too big.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
This is great. So going into the.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
Season I had lost like forty pounds, I was like, fuck, yeah,
you know, like I feel lighter, I'm more confident. Like
right looking at the rider at Eyes Final, I was like,
that's something I could have won, and I did you
know ninety four hours of a final with a sprain
ankle and probably a torn acl that whole time.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
And that's more than a lot of people can fucking say.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
And I was like, well, if I can do that,
we don't even know what this final is going to be.
If we can have one hundred hour final like that,
and why not be confident?

Speaker 4 (28:49):
You know, Like nobody wins by saying I suck.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
And there's so many years of me listening to naysayers
and my own negative self talk, saying I don't deserve this,
I'm not good enough for this. That probably kept me
from a lot of championships. But you know, this time,
I wanted to talk to myself nicely. You know, Olivia
and I were really big on like manifesting shit, you know,

(29:12):
like if you believe it, it'll happen. And you know,
call it delusion, call it whatever the fuck you want.
Like I was in good shape, I was running while
we were there, Like I felt strong, and I wanted
to prove to myself more than anything that I could
do it.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Uh, you know, you bring up a good point. Uh
It's it's almost like the beauty of eating onions. It's
like it's like, uh, you know, if you if you've
tried it, If you've tried it, like you know whether
or not you can do it right or like at
least you have a barometer of like what you can
and can't do, like for your turbo, you know, yeah,

(29:51):
for turbo. But that's the thing is, like you go
every morning, you experiencing a ninety four hour final on
you know, on a torn a cl and a sprained ankle,
you know, versus like, Okay, now let me do this
with like you know, you know, you know, half a
good knee rather than one that's not working at all.
I can probably win this thing. Like I think you

(30:13):
and Jake right now are in you know, a good
position to do well going forward in the game. But like,
if you've never tried those onions before, or if you've
never had that experience before, you really don't know what
it's gonna taste like. And I think for a lot
of people at home. My brother texted me last night
and my my my brother, my brother and his wife. Fuck,

(30:36):
they text me, go, what fuck happened with the onions?
I'm like, fuck you, bro, you try the onions, go home,
go home and buy the onions.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
I want to know something.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
If I was sitting at home, I would have thought, Hey,
mans an onion, I can eat an onion. That's no problem.
Eat a fuckingn onion.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
Just spiciest shit I've ever experienced in my life.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
I was in hell, I would I mean, garlic.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
Was this big.

Speaker 5 (31:00):
I don't know if it was hormone injected. They looked
like balls. They were like this. They were the.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Size of a baseball. There were the sides of it,
and like one would think that you could do it.
And yes, Turbo does actually eat onion.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
An onion in the morning every morning, not like.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
An apple like we were doing it, but he'd have
it like cut up and he'd have like slices. I
just don't understand, like my body was not taking those onions.

Speaker 5 (31:25):
A lot of people's stories weren't taking it unless they
were putting it in their pocket.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
All right, let's talk about the onions. Since clearly top
of mind for Derek. We had this episode last night.
We've already broken it down for those you guys have
and listened to it. I'm gonna just let you know
spoiler alert, this episode pissed me off to all hell.
Uh the idea that uh there was a mini final
that ended with no points being changed at all and
everyone was disqualified, and they still inserted it into the

(31:59):
episode with the amount of importance as a mini final
that did not get completely negated. So we spent forty
five minutes watching. As you mentioned, d you guys struggled
to eat onions, figure out ways to cheat, and them
just letting you guys off scott free, no pun intended.
Here's a question for you, Anissa Tara wants to know,
if you were making the production decisions, what would you
have done with the high level of cheating in that

(32:20):
mini final, because it looks like you ate the food.
So what do you think about this and what did
it surprise you?

Speaker 2 (32:25):
This is the way they handled it.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
I am surprised because there's someone who's always cheats, you know.
There's definitely like a fake gag somewhere or like a
you know, it just it happens. But I think because
it wasn't like they took a bite and they threw it.
They were like whole fucking peppers back there, and I'm
meeting my Pepper's the point where I was like, I'm

(32:48):
gonna shit my pants, and I was like telling production
I'm like, I really have to go shit, can I
show on this hill? And once I saw that, I'm like, oh,
all bets are off because the thing is you couldn't
time out. And I was expecting this minifinal to be
so long and exhausting, and it was short. It was exhausting,
but it was short, and I think they thought people

(33:13):
were going to struggle a little bit more at the eating,
and they would have if they actually ate. But once
I saw everything back there, I'm like, oh, well, if
everyone's cheating, if the majority of people i mean nine peppers,
seven onions, I'm like, there's a lot of people cheating.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
You know what made it possible for this level of cheating?
Was it that that I were trying to infer? Was
it like that the cameramen, the camera people, the challenge gods,
they were just like obviously looking in other directions. Was
it the fact that there was an easy hill to
drop them down to, because you don't see this level
of cheating that often what changed things for this or
is it the audacity of these new threats?

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Do these new threats just think, hey, we can do
whatever we want. You saw indeed kind of you know,
so what do you think of what wow.

Speaker 5 (33:55):
I think that we had refs there, and I think
that it was up to Josh. Sorry, it was it
was up to them to tell us to call out
cheating or if you were done. And they were very strict,
you know, they were like, oh, finished stem.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
I'm like the stem.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
And I watched ct eat every single part of it,
and I think a lot of focus was on him
just annihilating these things, and then you see everybody just
like puking. There were enough distractions that she could have
just tossed something. So once I saw john Ay throw
her plate, I said, oh, well then all.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
But Johnny john A texted me last night when she's
watching this, and she goes, I knew this would happen.
All they do was show me acting like I didn't
want to eat it, but they picked up every single
thing and made me eat it before I could go
Is that true?

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Can you guys corroborate that because.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
I wasn't true?

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Okay, so she's just lying hold on, hold on, no, no, no, no, no,
I think there's there's there's a mixed mixed responses.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
I was next to her and she threw I watched
her throw a whole plate.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
I think what she may be meant to say was
that like even when when one was close to being done,
they would say, all right, now you got to eat
a little bit more, when as like some people have
already already gone and there's like this much left of
the pepper, you know, like they're like the ring around
the pepper. There's some ring around the pepper, fine said.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
And I quote them.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Getting random onions and garlics and peppers and making me
finish eating to move on that. Like, for instance, they
caught her uh saying that she was going to do
the same thing and they wouldn't let her, and that
they actually made her finish what wasn't even her food.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
They went and like got more and just put it
and said, you have to finish this before you can go.
That's what I get from this.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
I'm not even going there, Listen, I'm not doing that either.
The plate and she left before all of us.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
But that's just for john A is all I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
But for all of us then yeah, because at some point, yeah,
good for her actually, because at some point, listen, you're just.

Speaker 5 (36:01):
Like I was fucking pissed. I started throwing shit in
Adrian's puke bucket. I'm like, they're not gonna go in.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
There, right, So so like in the end, you were
like you and John Ay I thought, were like fuck it, no,
what are you gonna do now? And then I think
what she's saying is one of the reps came back
and was like, Oh, you're gonna throw that onion that
I just saw you throwing picked offside. No, you're gonna
eat this onion, whereas like that.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
Shit too listen.

Speaker 5 (36:28):
I looked at Tay and I'm like, Tay, this part
of it just come on like people do it all
of the time. I just think it was very blatant,
and I think this is one of one of the
worst eating If we get a timed out, it would
have been better. Yeah, because to see the puzzle after that,
which was like stupid, the chain thing, it was annoying.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
It's just all was like, why is this the mini final?

Speaker 5 (36:55):
And I looked at it like either way, no matter
who won, I still would have had more points.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
And I knew that I was gonna get Jake. He
wanted to be with me. I wanted to be with him.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
I knew no one was gonna I knew that the
people ahead of me or people that could potentially pass me,
which I think was only of Eve. She wasn't gonna
pick him, you know, and we all had talked about
who we wanted, so I wasn't worried.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Let me ask you a question on the topic of Jake,
since clearly you guys have spent a fair amount of
time together. You seem to like him even going into this,
I imagine that continues.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Are you aware of or have you seen the back
and forth on Twitter a few weeks ago where someone
was complimenting him and calling him a gay ally?

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yeah, I saw that, poor thing.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
He doesn't know what a gay ally is.

Speaker 5 (37:46):
Yeah, listen, I will say Jake is one of the
kindest people who means no harm.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
He just sometimes doesn't know some things.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
And I think that was one of the cases of
like him not knowing what all I meant.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
And that's just which is you know.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
I mean, look, I mean, look, I feel like you know,
being he's from the UK, right, isn't that you know?

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Allied powers? I feel like I feel like ally is
also just a word you learn in probably fourth grade.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
I mean I drew him, I drew I to draw
on the map of the world.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I love it. Here's the best part about it. This
is the best part about it is that, by not
knowing what the word ally meant, he thought the person
was calling him gay, and his vitriolic.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Response and defensiveness made everyone realize, oh, maybe you're not
an ally.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Not only do you not know what the word ally means.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
He is disgusting.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
Is a poor thing. He's such a sweetheart.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
He look he might go on to win this entire season.
I have no idea, but I find it's so funny
that the main poster for this season is Johnny Bananas,
who as we know is gone and only lasted four episodes,
and then right next to jan So I don't know
what happens or what not, but what a choice. And

(39:04):
the photo they use of him, he looks like someone
out of like a BBC comedy show. I mean, a
very good looking chap don't get me wrong, but like,
go and look at that poster if you get a chance.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
Okay, one more thing on that many times, one more thing.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
On the mini final here.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
So obviously we've been talking at great length over the
weeks about this justice for Lecca thing, and obviously last
week it comes to fruition with Mikayla throwing the challenge,
and we had CT on last week unbeknounst to us. Well,
I guess Derek mam known, But like, you know, we're
talking about justice first CT. Justice first CT, just in
a narrative sense. But now after seeing this daily, I
really feel like there should be some some newfound justice

(39:38):
for CT. This is a question from Sam. Sam says,
what did people think about CT coming in second place
in the mini final? Obviously doesn't count, but I feel
like that should have been impressive, but nobody there seemed impressed.
Was nobody impressed by this? Was it because eating was
so centric to it? How did the house react to CT,
you know, being looked at as this guy doesn't even
deserve to be there, and here he is coming in

(40:00):
second on the closest thing potentially to a final on
the show.

Speaker 5 (40:04):
I don't know if it's like people didn't want to
give him credit, like one thing about him he can
come from behind and beat your ass, you know, and
it's not. And I feel like maybe some people were like, damn,
look at him.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
I can't believe he beat me. I don't know what
it was but I wasn't.

Speaker 5 (40:24):
Clearly he beat both Derek and I, so we weren't
up there to see people's reactions.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
But to me, the whole thing it becomes negated right
like everyone you know, it just it just seems like
everyone cheated, right like he didn't. Okay, okay, you know
the thing is.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
I said next to him, they were making him pick
like like.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Just Sam called dirt, Oh my god, just anything off
the table. I'm like, he's eating everything. I'm surprised I didn't ask.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
And to look it and to be honest with you,
like that's one of his strong suits, right like, and
he's like he's the one that's gonna be really good
at the equalizer, like extra good at the equalizer. Need
a little, need a little you know, a little time
on the run, but he'll make up for that run.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
On any puzzle, on an on any eating Like.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
Listen, and we know him. He can go from dabad
to hot rod in two seconds. You can go from
DA to hot rod in two seconds. And I just
don't We all get older and our bodies change, our
abilities may change, but like stop counting people out because

(41:41):
of that.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
You know, Yeah, this is the challenge, This is not
every day basketball or football or soccer whatever.

Speaker 5 (41:51):
Yeah, well you're supposed to look at it and relate
to people like Survivor like they got people of all ages,
they have big brother like they all are competition shows
that show people from all walks of life that look
like from all athletic abilities.

Speaker 4 (42:05):
You know, it's just.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Well and even the people who grew into like great
challenge performers and athletes like Johnny Bananas who now owns
a boxing gym, go back and look at what he
showed up to Real World or season one of the
Challenges looking like he looks like a regular guy. He
kind of got morphed into an athlete. Same thing with Derek,
like you know, and and I think that now that
people do kind of show people's show he was an athlete,
but he still looked like a regular guy you'd see

(42:28):
at the mall.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
It took you watching him do all this stuff for
you to look at him the way that you look
at him now. I think that Jeremy, when you look
at Jeremy, you go, Okay, what weird aquatic sport does
that that guy do at a high level? You know,
they're taking guys right from the rines. Jenny West looks
like she was taking off of Women's Health magazine. And
so I think now it's a little bit kind of like,
you know, revisionist history that this show used to be

(42:51):
about watching regular folks do you know, really crazy things
that maybe they weren't born to do. Cet obviously is
someone who did walk onto the show looking like you
know this, you know specimen, and we've seen him through
all these different iterations, but even recently when he didn't
necessarily look like the guy on Real World Paris.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
He's won two seasons.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
So what was it like watching this version of CT
not necessarily him, but the way that he's been treated
by his peers, but also this new crop of new
threats that have shown him not just a lack of respect,
but flat out disrespect when it comes to the Leka situation,
throwing him in all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
What's that been like for you? And Lisa?

Speaker 5 (43:33):
Yeah, I mean we you know, CT and I have
a checkered past, if you will, and like close not close,
working together never And I think this season, you know,
we talked in the beginning, like let's do it, you know,
and I think waiting for him on the mountain and
doing that together to to you know, going to bat

(43:57):
for him online, like there is a human element of
it that's like, you know, maybe showing a little grace
to somebody who we don't know what they're going through
might be I don't know the right thing to do.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
And I think I think him understanding what it's like
on the.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
Other side to not be praised and to kind of
be you know, talked poorly about and to be looked
down on, maybe changed his tune a bit and maybe
made him rethink, you know, the grace that he should show.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Do I think all the comments were necessary.

Speaker 5 (44:38):
No, I think a lot of them are mean, and
that he's somebody shouldn't sleep on, you know, even if
he isn't looking Hannah, I just sneeze, excuse man, even
if he doesn't look thank you, Even if he doesn't
look his fittest. I mean, he's won five times for

(45:02):
a reason, and he's the only guy I know who
goes from coming in like that to leave in a
different human being.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Like Carl said, you can you can judge how close
the final is by analyzing his silhouette.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
Yeah, And one thing about him is that like I
think that ladder was like a big It checked him
a bit, you know, and I think if he could
have gotten to the top of it, he would have it.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
It was really hard.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Has it given you any perspective on like, watching this
happen does not just someone else? And when I say
watching this happen, I sort of mean the general discourse.
Obviously there was a lot in the house, but as
you see, like online if there's a lot of it
too when cast photos come out or after the mountain
or after that lack a challenge, and like you see
fans that these are the same fans that you know

(45:49):
sold out our Texas show in four seconds to meet
the guy, Like they adored the guy, they love the guy,
but the minute he doesn't look like his former self,
they're out there in the comments just as violently as
they are with you. Does it make you almost be
able to take it not as personally that in a way,
I feel like because CT on the show the other
day was saying to us, he goes, you know, there's
not just saying about me, Like could you imagine whether
if they said it about a woman, and in the

(46:10):
back of my head, I didn't say it but I
want to be like, they've been saying it about a
woman for seasons and seasons, and I feel like the
reason that people let their friends and families say these
things about you guys without checking them, and some people
do check them, but like you know, you click on
the profile pictures of some of these people that say
this nasty stuff about your appearance, and you click on
it and it's like they're in church with their bunny

(46:31):
rabbit and their kid, or they're at a graduation. They
look like the nicest people, but for whatever reason, they
feel like they can say this stuff to you. And
I feel like it's genuinely because you and CT are
in this category of person on this show on MTV.
You've been in our lives for twenty years. That to
them it feels like punching up right, like they're almost
saying it because they expect more of you. And I

(46:53):
know that can be hard maybe to think of it
when it's yourself. You just think they're.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
They're mean people.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
But like when you see it happening to CET, does
a let you take a step back and be like, well,
I know they don't hate CT, and they're saying the
same stuff you know, does that make any sense?

Speaker 5 (47:06):
Yeah, I just I don't know if I looked at
it like that, it just kind of it just seemed mean,
So like, of course I wanted to step in and
be like, this PTSD shit is real.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
Like you get hurt one time on something, you kind.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
Of fear that thing and sometimes and oftentimes that thing
only pops up on the challenge, not in your real life,
you know, so I understand that. And he actually reached
out to me. He was like, of all people to
show me grace, I never expected it to be you.
And I'm like, well, yeah, motherfucker, just because you talk

(47:40):
it's a TV show, talk your shit, vote me in.
But like when it comes to like real human things,
like you're a human being too, you know.

Speaker 4 (47:49):
And we've known each other probably the longest out.

Speaker 5 (47:52):
Of anyone else, and we've seen each other in very
sad moments, and you know, he opened up to me
about a lot of things, and even with last night,
he was like, you really handled that well. And it
just I think showing that kind of kindness you never
know when somebody needs it. And I think it was

(48:12):
just a moment to be like to be just just
kind to someone else. It doesn't take a lot, but
it makes a difference and kind of shuts out all
the noise from these people that I don't care if
there are one hundred and ten pounds aren't getting up
that damn ladder, you know. It Just I think people
hold us up. They do to a certain you know,

(48:34):
a certain degree where where they forget that we are
human and that there are some things we literally just
can't do. And I don't think that should shut down
every other aspect of that person's ability, you know. I
don't think that should be oh well, if they can't
do that, they can't do anything, you know, or a
fuck them. I'm not following it anymore.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Well, well, I mean, like, I mean, we all kind
of have our kryptonite. Like we saw Turbo at the
end of this thing. You wait for Sidney because he
couldn't figure out the riddle, right, so he waits for Sidney.
Sidney gives him the answer. So my question to you is,
as far as like cheating went this this challenge, there

(49:16):
was so much when they're talking when they're talking about cheaters,
are they also talking about when we got up the
when we did the math equation with with Derrek's hair
and the r and the weird the weird shapes and
everyone's telling each other to to too. Is is that
also cheating? And is what Sidney and Turbo did cheating?

(49:37):
I'm just saying, I don't know, just wondering.

Speaker 5 (49:39):
Then everybody cheated because I came up to him and
he goes parthatory and I was like, okay, thanks.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Yeah. So that's my question is like when they said, man,
we saw.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
It all, do it?

Speaker 3 (49:53):
Well, yeah, we're walking, we're running up the freaking hill
and they're they've been all been sitting, you know, standing
in the sun for two hours. Yeah, they're gonna they
shot at us the answer and we knew it was purgatory,
right exactly. So but my point is, is that cheating?
And do you think that when TJ said we saw
at all this cheating, did they mean that you know
that it was you know, also the answer key the

(50:14):
two two two? Was it also the purgatory answer? Was
that all an encompassed part of cheating? We saw all
this cheating or.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
Was it just like all it's different?

Speaker 5 (50:23):
Because I asked if Cet could eat my food and
they were like no, Now that would have been like
cheating and helping. But I think the other thing because
it was a collective like everyone may have collectively like
cheated like through things at different times, but with the numbers,
it was like people were doing that at the same time,

(50:44):
like purgatory, like we were all running up and he
was just yelling it out.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Like who Personally, I don't And here's what I think
the problem is. If they didn't explicitly tell you that
you can't give the answers to the other teams, then
again it can't it can't be then it can't be
looked at as cheating.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
That being said, we talked about this on the breakdown.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
There are eliminations where they flat out tell you do
not yell a single thing, and there's ones where they
want you to yell, and that usually depends on would
yelling the exact answer completely ruined this for everyone And
if that's the case, you're not allowed to do it.
And if just like you know, yelling go Derek to
the left, whatever isn't gonna help you that much, then
they allow you to do it because they love that

(51:22):
drama of who's working with who and who isn't.

Speaker 6 (51:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
If they did not necessarily think about the fact that
people would just be giving the answers to everyone else,
and if they did, they probably would have told people,
you're not allowed to flat out give the answers. That
being said, people still could do it. You could probably
just do it a little, you know, subtler, then just.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Be like two to two. It's too too too it's
Derek's hair. But hey, that's sometimes when they do. Here's
the real issue I have with that, And he says,
so if the way.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
You do that, listen this mysteriousness on these people's faces
when they said Derek's hair as like part of the
equation unparalleled to any seriousness I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Derek, are you familiar with the discourse about your hair
that people feel like your hair has a certain look
to it?

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Am I looking good up on that run? I'm just
saying there's times where my hair does not look good.
In that moment where they pinned to my hair, I
was like proud. I was like, yeah, it does kind
of look like that symbol and I feel good about it. Oh,
Cedric of me.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Every year with you. Every eight months or so.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
There's like a Reddit thread that's literally just someone like
very sincerely being like, what do you think of Derek's hair?
Everybody and uh, and people weigh in. A couple of
people will mention the show Rugrats, uh and a pair
of twins. But look, eventually, look, I we cling to
it for a little I would grow.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
I didn't even need to tell you what character it was.
You just knew.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Hey, don't be mad when you're when you're aging, loved
one starts losing their hair. Okay, don't when high school?

Speaker 4 (53:04):
I said, right when you get to that age. We
already talked about it.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
When you get to that.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Hey, But here's what I'll say. There's two ways to
go about it. Obviously, you can do the plugs and
things like that. But the other way is to just
buzz it off. Go full Joe Rogan, go full kurd Angle,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Like that's and that's a new era. And that's a
new era.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Maybe in the Derek Kazinski story, if you show up
to one of these challenges, you know with the skull cut. Yeah,
but were after were you surprised that after all of
you cheated literally the most uh, the most widespread cheating
we've ever had, and instead of penalizing you or punishing you.
You guys got to go back and have like an

(53:42):
orchestrated feast, Like did that surprise you? Was that a
little bit of a weird juxtaposition?

Speaker 5 (53:48):
I mean it was weird, but it also like cool,
we're getting actual food.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Yeah, I didn't give it. Yeah we deserve that because.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
We don't hard.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
No, you, but Scott, you act like everyone fucking cheat,
like we don't know who cheated. Like they have footage
of d a little sound bite about about Nanny and
john A just blatantly being like I quit, I don't
care everyone else do this ship. I'm throwing my ship.
I'm leaving goodbye, you know what I mean? Like that's
what you had, the ship behind us.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Let me tell you this is most of us ate it.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Most of us suffered. We deserve a steak dinner. Okay.
Who took a couple of bites of that? And you
knew how how hard this was. I mean I was
like I was, I was up there, like I was like,
I was like, get rid of me. I was there
like if they if they kicked me off the show,
right and you were not sing that go I was

(54:49):
violently puke and they show any of that sick and
that's kept going.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
I need to stick up for the whatever six hundred
thousand viewers last night that were probably watching Survivor instead.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
You know who got cheated all of us because.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
We spend forty five minutes watching that, and all we
have to show for it is you, you know, wearing
a T shirt that says I spent forty five minutes
watching this challenge and all I got was a stupid
onion or whatever. Like you want us to believe that
eating onions are hard, which I get we can all
do that, but the whole point of the challenges that
you guys are doing hard shit. What annoys me is
that they didn't even find a way to make the
controversy into good TV. And the idea I had was this,

(55:27):
Like they said, does anyone want to confess?

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Clearly, no one's going to confess, Anissa.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Would you have been okay with Even if it didn't,
the end result was still the same of.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Guess what, it's all getting scrapped.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
What about fool you guys into thinking, Hey, the only
way to keep your points is going to be if
you rat someone out, if you saw someone cheating, tell us,
we'll check the footage.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
If you're right, you get to keep your points.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Wouldn't that have been a fun five minute segment to
see people saying yep, I.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
Saw people in that shirt the Center interviews and.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Did some of you guys rat people out?

Speaker 4 (55:57):
They were like, raise your hand if you're cheated.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, we were asking us to admit it, and Sydney
admitted to eating of it.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
I just think it's fine.

Speaker 5 (56:06):
Listen, I'll take chuck a half pepper. Fine, I could
deal with that, but not chucking all of.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
It For someone who hates cheaters more than he hates quitters. Boy,
is he harder on quitters? Uh than he is on cheaters.
That was the easiest I've ever seen anyone get off well,
I guess since Nannie and Will.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
But but they made it, but they made a thing
out of it. I mean Will was the one that
was like, I finished this shit. The people like this
is a big deal because I'm only three points behind
these guys and this is bullshit. And then they're making
it out like he's gonna lose his girlfriend because he's
speaking up. There was a thing out of it. Turbo

(56:47):
and CT making fun of him at the dinner table.
We deserve that sticks. Scuy, I don't give shit. What
the fuck you say?

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Thank god, Okay, we have a few minutes left with Anissa.
I'd love to get general thoughts on these new threats, because, look,
I think mileage varies on you. Look, they've clearly been
very successful on the show, I think, but you know,
they clearly have a cockiness and a confidence that seems
very like two thirty four seasons into a Challenge season,

(57:16):
walk us through some of these new threats. Talk about
the ones you like the most, that you jive with
the most, and that you think are here to stay
as far as the Challenge franchise goes.

Speaker 5 (57:25):
I mean, I think there's power in numbers, and I
think there's also confidence in numbers. I think if there
were two or three rookies, I don't think they'd be
that loud. I think because there's so many of them collectively,
they can be loud together. And they're young and cocky
and good. I think it makes for good TV. I
think people like Leo, I think Sydney would, but she

(57:48):
doesn't want to Adrian one hundred percent, and I think that.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
Yes, I mean, it's annoying.

Speaker 5 (58:03):
Because like you could see people in the house and
you could see their personalities and I feel like they
haven't like SETTI will be back, Like they have a
lot to choose from from this cast. I don't think
that the fans were slighted. I feel like they got
a good bunch of kids that were capable and also
cocky or confident.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Uh, I mean, I mean, I'll even say, like Will
and d I mean two people that are just not
afraid to go and accidentally stir up some shit, you know,
like they're like they're like, like, Will's doing it on
that side. Uh, you know these I feel like these
kind of do it on both sides. And me, you
see her kind of coming up at CT, you know
what I mean, Like she's she's you know, the old

(58:48):
Johnny thing, like she's she can you know, she got
a little villainous activity.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
You like to play games.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
Yeah, and she was very fair about ship, which I
loved and respected about her.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
She's not a play She's not afraid to play with
the fire, you know, and it's not and she's like
and she'll do it, She'll light that fire right the
fuck up?

Speaker 2 (59:09):
And what do you think? What do you think about people?

Speaker 1 (59:11):
This is another thing like, we don't need to go
into the you know, it's a laundry list of things
that people say, not just about you, but in general.
What do you say about people who uh kind of
aid shame a little bit when it comes to like, say,
the new threats. Whether it's like you you talk about
how much, oh you want Jake to be your partner,
or you and Cedric you're saying how nice Cedric's eyes are,

(59:32):
and there's people are like, oh.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
That's where she's twenty years older than him.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Like, what do you say that to people who feel
that it's.

Speaker 5 (59:37):
Okay for men to have sixty year old men to
have fucking twenty year old girlfriends.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
I can't say that someone has nice eyes. People lie.
This is the thing they have training.

Speaker 5 (59:51):
That says no racism, no misogyny, no agism, and they're
just out there flinging things. You know what, motherfuckers, you're
going to be older too. It's not like you're not
going to get there. The fact that we can still
keep up and play this game should say something should
be commended more than being like y'all need to go, Well,

(01:00:11):
you wouldn't have you wouldn't be here if we weren't here, Like,
we're the reason why there is this show, you know,
So take us out, you know, and see what the
season would have looked like.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
The These are the same people, by the way, who
want you guys on the show. They just want you
guys to like only interact with the new threats, especially
the younger ones, on like a competitive level, like the
minute it gets hot and heavy in another way, Oh,
they want to play you know. Oh that's creepy, that's
weird whatever to me. You know, I just think time
times have change. Forty is the new thirty, fifty is

(01:00:45):
the new forty.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
I mean, I think.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
It's I think it's kind of healthy for them to
kind of talk their shit about us, because I think
it kind of lights a fire and gives us, you
know a little bit more to like fight for, you know,
instead of just like sitting back and being like I'm

(01:01:08):
gonna ride off into the sun set. Yeah whatever, you
guys are better than me. It's like, you know, when
you lose to you know, one of us, old Fox,
it's gonna be a lot funnier that way, and uh,
a lot more fun to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
I think a couple more questions somewhat hook up related?

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Who did you get in the split?

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Nanny or caseys of them?

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Who? People want that?

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Okay, next question, Uh, where do you stand? On America Gate?
A lot of people talking about the uh the escapades
of America this season her making out with random, random women.
I'm honestly surprised you weren't one of them. Uh and
then here she is nowhere to be found? Is that
the line?

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Right? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
I don't. I don't. May, I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
I wouldn't be with Eddie woman like under probably thirty two.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Oh but guy, what's the what's the guideline?

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
I don't know. It could be a little lower. I
just don't. I don't know. It's just it's just weird.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
What did you do? Why?

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Why have you noticed how obsessed the internet is hearing
all these rumors of her?

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
You know, whoever she's making out with?

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Is it CT?

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Is it so and so?

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
Is it? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
He he confirmed that on the podcast they did not. Yes,
even that made that very cool?

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Well why does everyone care? Why does everyone care so much?

Speaker 5 (01:02:31):
Needs something to talk about, you know, and it's like
God forbid of girls just free and doing her thing.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
I mean she was having fun.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
I mean Nanni.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
I mean, talk about comeback player of the year. A
lot of people think it's George Springer. Gotta be Nanni, right,
This is just like.

Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
Time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
It's like Rashid Wallace on the Pistons.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Is what Nanny this season is.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
And if you understand having she's just having a good
time and she's single and she's not trying to marry
the guy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
You know, so real quick, we have to plug. We
have to plug Buffalo. You're coming with us, Buffalo. You've
been there before. Uh, when we did it with you
the first time we were at the Comedy Club, we
did the whole she bang. We're doing again what we
did last year. We had so much fun doing it.
We're running it back at Wece, which is this bar
slash restaurant. Uh, it's in the a Loft Hotel. It's awesome.

(01:03:22):
They're awesome. They have a great brunch. But it's one
of these kind of hybrid meet and greet live shows.
Wherever the live live shows kind of condensed, we do
more of like a panel, Q and A and then
we just party with you guys all afternoon. But I
know you're excited to get back to Buffalo. You loved
it the first time. You're bringing your bff Tory Toy's.
We're gonna be slinging books, you know. She asked me

(01:03:42):
what's the weather like in Buffalo? I didn't tell her,
so she will be. She said, can I still wear
a bikini? I said, inside, you can, but.

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
It doesn't wear a bikini. We want to get like
little snowsuits.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Oh that would be.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
It's always still go Birds.

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
So I don't want anybody in my dms like so
you were in I still am.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Well, here's a big Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
They are playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are in
the NFC and technically more in direct competition with the
Birds then the Bills are. So it is great that
you can cheer on the Bills proudly knowing that if
they be Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
So I also want to show off this poster that
you signed for us in Phoenix. Right here, I'm showing
it off on video. If you're watching a challenge maniac
dot com, that's where you can watch all our interviews.
If you're just listening to this over at our free
podcast feed, that's fine too. But if you want to
signed poster of Anissa, look at that Anisa, you love this.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Art right here?

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
I know I do love that one.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Yeah, it's a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
And this is based off of your new cast photo which,
as we said, Uh, obviously you've been You've been.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
I've been using the same photo of you for years
and then finally cut out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Yeah, so if you buy it, next person to buy
a ticket to Buffalo at Challengemania dot live and email
me the receipt at Challenge Mania podcast dot com is
going to get this awesome signed Anissa poster mailed to them.
And that is November fifteenth, I should say, in Buffalo.
But okay, we gotta let you go. Any parting words
for us for the maniacs, how exact?

Speaker 4 (01:05:10):
Everyone in Buffalo?

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:05:13):
Yeah, And I love you guys, and thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
Again for declining years. I wasn't kidding. You declined.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
You were asked several days, not several days, about a
week or two before Challenge Many a Phoenix, which you
had been on the hook for to go to the
VMA's which is the MTV vm as now on CBS.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
Make that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
But they asked you to go, and you in fact declined.
I believe Taylor Swift and who's Olivia Rodrigo or you
know whomever was.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
There, Carrie, Ryan, Carrie.

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
Yes, so you declined all them to live in Levita
Loca in Phoenix.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
With us, right right?

Speaker 5 (01:05:51):
Because I looked at it like I said yes, And
then I was like, I did make a I did
make oh what's called.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
A video for Ricky Martin. No, I am a video
telling me what you are't gonna be there.

Speaker 5 (01:06:07):
No, but I agreed to something, and once I do that,
I'd like to see it through.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
And that's true.

Speaker 5 (01:06:14):
You, I know, would make you upset, and it's unlike
me to cancel on a challenge Mania or really.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
And it did help that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
It did help that we in fact do pay for
your travel and lodging, and they in fact did not
offer to do so that probably helped a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
But hey, they.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
Have influenced the decision a little bit more. But it also.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Shouts car Maria.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Shouts at car Maria for still going, even though she
was the only one of you guys who said yes,
and they did not even allow her to bring a friend.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
So God bless her.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
She's out there on that red carpet by herself, beating
the MTV drum on CBS, which, by the way, Anissa,
did you see yesterday the official challenge Instagram telling their
followers in fact to watch Survivor on CBS at eight
o'clock on Wednesday? Did this make it to your desk
at all? They had They had an Instagram post that

(01:07:02):
said before they were new threats, they were threats on
Survivor D and they had picture of d It had
a picture of Sydney, It had a picture of Michayla
and then it said tune into the premiere of Survivor for.

Speaker 5 (01:07:12):
They were like, don't watch us all all do something
for nothing?

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Yeah, well, I mean who shows the challenge?

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
They not make it worth your while.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
I mean it's it's it's wild because like it is
all part of the same team. Now like hopefully hopefully
we get the same thing from them when you know,
like like don't we have commercials on like CBS now,
Like don't we have aren't there a challenge commercials? Which
is like helpful? Like this maybe not something that would

(01:07:42):
happen all the time, right, because I mean catfish just
got canceled.

Speaker 5 (01:07:46):
Cat Fish whatever, I mean, how many times can he catfish?

Speaker 4 (01:07:49):
People are watching catfish?

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
I think it's because I think it's because they ran
out of Catrick. They finally caught them all. They caught
every single.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
Cat Now we just have scammers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
Now we have scammers, theaters.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
No, it's what it is, the romance gammers.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
To watch.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
The only people who ate less than you guys last
night were on Survivor and that's because they starved them.
And he said, thank you so much, we love you.
We'll see him buffalo and have a great week. All right, guys,
this sends your time here on Challenge Mania. Take care
of yourselves and hopefully we'll see in the futures.

Speaker 6 (01:08:48):
The Challenge Mania shop is open. Head over to Challengemania
dot shop today for the best way to support the
podcast while looking good doing it. New designs and items
added every few weeks. Maniacs time to mobilize. Check out
Challenge Mania dot Shop today.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
M HM