With The Challenge Season 38, viewers see many familiar faces return to the show for an installment called Ride or Dies, including several former champions.
Among them are recent champs Amber Borzotra and Kaycee Clark, each bringing a newcomer to the show as their teammate. Amber, who won Double Agents with Chris “CT” Tamburello, brought her boyfriend, Chauncey Palmer, to Season 38.
Kaycee is the reigning champion from Spies, Lies & Allies, which she also won alongside CT. Kaycee returned for The Challenge: Ride or Dies with her brother Kenny Clark.
Based on promotional videos released ahead of the season, viewers also saw other former champions are part of the show, including Johnny Bananas, Jordan Wiseley, Laurel Stucky, and Darrell Taylor.
The premiere episode brought a surprising moment, though, as Kaycee and her brother Kenny disappeared ahead of the first daily challenge with no reason given for their leaving.
However, trailers and promotional videos that previewed Ride or Dies season highlights have featured Kaycee, prompting fans to wonder if she’ll return on The Challenge Season 38.
This report will contain some spoilers about the upcoming Ride or Dies season.
What happened to Kaycee and Kenny in Season 38?
During the Ride or Dies premiere episode, Kaycee and her brother Kenny appeared in early scenes, including the starting cast’s boat trip to The Challenge house and the nighttime socializing.
Kaycee was featured in conversation with Tori Deal, while Kenny could be seen in the background chatting with Fessy Shafaat.
While they appeared in parts of the first episode, they suddenly were gone once the competitors arrived on-site for the season’s first daily challenge. Host TJ Lavin announced the big surprise, mentioning the crazy times we live in.
He said they had to leave, giving no reason for it, and revealed that he brought in two new teams to replace them. Nam Vo with Emmy Russ and Olivia Kaiser with Horacio Gutierrez were those teams.
While TJ didn’t give any reason for Kaycee and Kenny’s departure, The Challenge and Big Brother star opened up about it in an exclusive interview, indicating that they got COVID-19 at some point during their trip to or arrival in Argentina for filming.
That resulted in them being kept in quarantine longer than the rest of the cast members, and ultimately, TJ announced they had to leave.
Does Kaycee return for The Challenge: Ride or Dies?
Spoilers arrived online during The Challenge: Ride or Dies season filming and shed light on how much jostling production had to do as far as the cast goes.
Two replacement teams were in the premiere episode because another team was edited out of the footage and never mentioned. That team featured Aneesa Ferreira with her friend James Simon. They remained in quarantine longer than the rest of the cast, with Kaycee and Kenny.
James was sent home by production, and that’s why Aneesa will eventually enter the game with her official teammate, Jordan Wiseley, who needed someone to partner up with because his initial teammate, Nia Moore, couldn’t participate.
Based on The Challenge 38 super trailer and other promotional videos, fans probably know by now that Kaycee and Kenny are in more of the season, so it’s no secret they’ll be back. However, additional spoilers may give the reason for their return.
Apparently, there will be a point when Nam’s rookie partner, Emmy, will quit. The exact circumstances of that situation aren’t clear yet, but usually, when someone quits, their teammate is out of the game. That’s unfortunate luck for Nam in his third-straight season.
With that, it could’ve given The Challenge producers a reason to bring back the Spies, Lies & Allies champ Kaycee with her brother for another attempt at winning Ride or Dies. Fans have seen it before, with Ashley Mitchell and Tula “Big T” Fazakerley returning in recent seasons after their eliminations.
So Kaycee does return to The Challenge Season 38, but the exact circumstances and how they play things out in the episode are currently unknown.
The Challenge: Ride or Dies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.