With The Challenge: All Stars, many cast members appeared on MTV’s competition show years ago and are making a return to reality television after spending a long time away from it.
That’s the case for Laterrian Wallace, who made not only his return to The Challenge but also social media, which is something he wasn’t embracing, until now.
He recently revealed during a podcast interview that he wasn’t too interested in going on the OGs spinoff show, but a good friend and castmate on the show convinced him.
Laterrian’s reality TV journey included Road Rules, The Challenge
The 43-year-old Laterrian Wallace originally appeared on MTV’s Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour in 2000 alongside Theo Vonkurnatowski, now Theo Von, in the podcasting and comedy world. Back then, the reality series involved competitors traveling to different locations to complete missions. For that season, it included parts of the United States and South Africa.
Laterrian was one of several Road Rules cast members from the season to move to The Challenge, as he appeared on three installments. They were Extreme Challenge, Battle of the Sexes, and The Gauntlet.
While he appeared to be a strong competitor on the series, he never won a final. He also had a poor showing in an elimination against Alton Williams in his last appearance on a regular season of The Challenge, The Gauntlet.
That came into play as part of Laterrian’s story on The Challenge: All Stars as it was a sort of chance for him to redeem himself in eliminations after suffering what he felt was an embarrassing loss years ago. Also, the show became a chance to compete for $500,000, an unheard-of amount of prize money for some of the OG competitors.
However, Laterrian nearly didn’t go on the OG spinoff until a friend and star from The Real World convinced him why it was a “no brainer.”
Laterrian wasn’t interested in The Challenge: All Stars at first
In the OG days of reality TV, most of the cast members on MTV’s shows were participating just for the experience of being part of a fun show, rather than trying to parlay it into something bigger.
While some of The Challenge stars became entertainers after their time on the show, others returned to their normal lives, pursuing further education and regular jobs. Social media wasn’t as big then as it is now, and building a personal brand was a bit more difficult for the stars of MTV’s show.
Laterrain was the guest on a recent Challenge Mania podcast episode, and host Scott Yager brought up how The Challenge or reality TV wasn’t a career thing for most OG cast members. Instead, it was a break from their everyday lives. Scott also mentioned how reality TV now helps people build their brand or business outside of the show.
Laterrian admitted that back in the days that he did Road Rules or The Challenge “reality TV was scoffed at.” When he stopped doing the MTV show in the early 2000s, it was with the intent to get away from reality TV and “be taken more seriously” in his life.
He said he was even giving people a fake name after reality TV because he didn’t believe it would benefit him in his life for people to know he did that.
Years later, he was contacted to be part of Mark Long’s OG spinoff project and wasn’t really interested in returning to reality TV, but a friend got through to him after he helped him realize how it could help.
“What came with [reality TV] wasn’t anything nearly as positive as it is now,” Laterrian said on the podcast, adding, “It was a no brainer once I talked to Syrus [Yarbrough].”
“Syrus cursed at me when I was like, ‘Nah I’m not gonna do the OG Challenge’ and that’s the only time- Syrus has only cursed at me two or three times in the 20 years I’ve known him,” he shared.
He said Syrus, who won the Extreme Challenge season, helped him realize that competing on All Stars could help with his fitness training career, any appearances he might do, and other things Laterrian might want to do in the future.
Latterian mentioned his return to social media came because he realized he needed to embrace this opportunity to grow his personal brand for fitness and other endeavors.
“This is a fun ride, and I think I’m really gonna embrace it and enjoy the ride this time,” he said of returning to appear on The Challenge: All Stars. Based on his performance in the first episode, he’s probably made quite an impression on many of his castmates and viewers.
Laterrian can now be found on social media on his official Instagram @iamlaterrian and official Twitter account @latwall.
The Challenge: All Stars episodes arrive Thursdays on Paramount+.