When it comes to recent installments of MTV’s The Challenge, the cast included a mixture of various reality stars pulling from the worlds of Survivor, Amazing Race, and Big Brother.
The latter show has brought some interesting personalities to the reality competition series, including Paulie Calafiore, Josh Martinez, Swaggy C, and Da’Vonne Rogers.
While it’s likely that more Big Brother competitors will show up on The Challenge, at least one says he was told he’s too old to be a part of the show.
That revelation comes even though seven-time winner Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio and several other recent competitors are older.
Former Big Brother star responds to fan about The Challenge
Former Big Brother 19 competitor Cody Nickson was recently doing a fan Q&A when a question popped up, asking if he’d ever been recruited for MTV’s The Challenge.
According to a Reddit forum’s screenshot, Cody replied with an interesting answer saying, “Talked with their people briefly, I am 35 and above their age limit for casting. Too old they said!”
That brought Redditors replying either saying they were surprised at the age being considered “old” or saying they wouldn’t want Cody on The Challenge, accord to Showbiz CheatSheet.
Interestingly, one person commented about former competitor Joss.
The Redditor claims Joss said he was told MTV wasn’t going to be casting any more UK people, but that may not be true. Check out Season 36 cast spoilers for details.
Nickson is younger than several recent competitors
While Nickson didn’t say when he was told he was too old to compete, something may be off here. There are several longtime stars of The Challenge above Nickson’s age of 35.
They may be just considered fan favorites, though.
Chris “CT” Tamburello and Aneesa Ferreira both appeared on The Challenge: Total Madness. Tamburello is 40, while Ferreira is 39. They’ve even defeated some of the younger competitors on the show.
Then there’s all-time Challenge G.O.A.T. Johnny Bananas. He’s 38-years-old and has won the most prize money in the history of the series. His latest win came on Total Madness last season, where he defeated younger players in the final.
Bananas appeared on a recent podcast, discussing how much the show has changed since it first started. That included a transition from just Road Rules and Real World cast members to including participants from other reality shows.
He even mentioned why Big Brother contestants “aren’t so great” at The Challenge since it’s a different style of a competition show.
Even so, expect to see the well-known Big Brother Challenge stars back at some point, as well as brand new Big Brother players. That could include Christmas Abbott, who recently expressed interest in the MTV series.
As far as Cody Nickson, maybe he can somehow get onto Mark Long’s OG series that is in the works, which will feature older reality TV stars who have been absent from the spotlight.
The Challenge is currently on hiatus on MTV.