The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies season is underway, and viewers either love it or hate it. Many of the show’s longtime stars, including Johnny Bananas and Wes Bergmann, are still watching and reviewing Season 37 episodes.
Johnny Bananas, who now hosts a weekly podcast about the series, hasn’t said he totally hates the season but has commented he thinks it is “somewhat painful to watch.”
Seeing a post about Bananas’ recent comments brought one of the show’s multiple-time champions to give their thoughts on that perspective.
The Challenge’s Bananas calls Season 37 ‘painful to watch’
Just as The Challenge Season 37, Episode 6 aired, Johnny Bananas debuted a new podcast episode featuring Spies, Lies & Allies cast member Fessy Shafaat. Before that, he had on Kyle Christie just days before Kyle welcomed his first child with girlfriend Vicky Turner.
In his talk with Kyle, he asked the former finalist when the season might get good, indicating that the seven-time champion isn’t enjoying the MTV series. In the podcast’s debut episode, Bananas discussed with guest Bill Simmons what he thought of the season so far, suggesting production was trying to do too much.
Based on a tweet from The AshleysRR (below), Bananas indicated that the reasons for the current season’s “significant ratings drop” come down to all the new faces being added and the “constant twists.”
Challenge fans last saw Johnny Bananas two seasons ago on Total Madness, where he won the final, making it his seventh time winning the show. He has since been on hiatus, enjoying time away from reality TV with his girlfriend Morgan Willet and hosting other shows, including 1st Look and Celebrity Sleepover shows on NBC.
Previous reports have arrived about the Season 37 ratings, indicating that earlier episodes were some of the lowest ratings in the reality competition series’ history on MTV.
Challenge champ reacts to Bananas’ comments
Another individual who has been away from The Challenge several seasons is Cara Maria Sorbello, who last appeared on War of the Worlds 2 alongside her boyfriend, Paulie Calafiore.
Cara has her share of fans and anti-fans, as some want to see her back on the show with her boyfriend, and others want them nowhere near The Challenge again.
She sometimes gives her thoughts on the show, although she previously admitted she isn’t watching the current season. However, she reacted to Johnny’s comments as an Instagram fan account shared them.
“It’s really sad that he is speaking negatively about the challenge. The show Is and always will be bad a**. If there is a problem it is definitely not the new faces. It’s the returning ones. And he was a big advocate for the worst of them,” Cara wrote in her comment.
Rumors have suggested that Paulie and Cara have not received calls to return for The Challenge since WOTW 2. This is due to what Paulie described as other cast members acting like “snitches.” He previously mentioned in an interview that many castmates look for things to run to production in their effort to prevent him and Cara from being on the show.
Those things could include comments they made during interviews or to castmates or social media posts they shared.
Paulie had maintained that he plans to return to The Challenge and win multiple seasons, but after he was done with a possible appearance in the Winter Olympics as part of a bobsledding team.
However, a report from Adirondack Daily Enterprise in early August indicated that Paulie will not be part of the Olympics in Beijing in February 2022. The former Challenge finalist shared that he tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of an important competition, which ended him being part of the selection process for the Olympics.
That said, six Spies, Lies & Allies episodes have now aired, and with a cliffhanger ending for Episode 6, many fans are hoping they’ll see more drama and entertainment in the coming weeks. If ratings continue to drop, it could be back to the drawing board for Season 38.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.