On his recent episode of the Death, Taxes, and Bananas podcast, seven-time Challenge winner Johnny Bananas spoke with the retired Leroy Garrett about one of the fellow legends of the show, CT Tamburello.
CT, who won his fourth championship on Double Agents, seemed to be someone who may have prevented Leroy from achieving a win late in his Challenge career.
During their conversation, Leroy and Johnny spoke about CT’s most impressive ability, which might not be his physical or puzzle-solving skills, but instead his ability to manipulate castmates without them being aware of it.
Bananas and Leroy discuss CT’s impressive Challenge skill
At 41, Chris “CT” Tamburello’s appearance on The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies is his 19th season in his career, an impressive feat for cast members.
His four championships currently have him tied with fellow legend Darrell Taylor and three behind The Challenge G.O.A.T., Johnny Bananas.
Bananas, who has been off the show for the past two seasons, spoke with guest Leroy Garrett on the Death, Taxes, and Bananas podcast, someone quite familiar with CT from their appearances on the show.
During their conversation, they spoke about how CT has an ability to “manipulate the dog s**t” out of others without them realizing it’s happening.
Leroy brought up a few instances during his time on The Challenge when that happened. One occasion was during Rivals II, where he said CT tried to talk him into voting Johnny into an elimination and later realized what was going on.
Another story Leroy brought up involved CT getting sent off to a hotel to cool down after an incident. Leroy said he was hoping CT would get kicked off so that he wouldn’t have to worry about him getting to the final.
“I literally was hoping that CT had got sent home in a couple different Challenges,” Leroy shared, adding, “and he comes back with candy to manipulate me to make me feel like, ‘Nah Lee, why would you want that to happen? Here’s some candy.'”
Bananas mentioned in the video above that competitors use different strategies on The Challenge, ranging from Wes Bergmann’s technique, to his, to CT’s. However, Johnny said he’s not sure CT’s manipulative skills are something he could replicate as a strategy, making them impressive.
Leroy mentioned that he thinks CT “still puts fear in a lot of people” and that many newcomers don’t want to get on The Challenge legend’s bad side.
Leroy’s Challenge career included multiple finals appearances
With Leroy seeming to close the door on his career on MTV’s The Challenge with Double Agents, it ended his quest to win a season.
Leroy, a former cast member from The Real World: Las Vegas (2011), made his debut on The Challenge: Rivals, where he reached the final with RW castmate Michael Ross. So did the teams of Johnny Bananas and Tyler Duckworth and Kenny Santucci and Wes Bergmann. Bananas and Tyler would claim the win for the men’s teams.
Battle of the Exes II was Leroy’s fifth season of The Challenge, and he reached his second final. Initially, he was teamed up with Real World: Portland’s Nia Moore, who got kicked off the show ahead of the final.
Theresa (Gonzalez) Jones arrived as Nia’s replacement. However, she and Leroy finished as runner-ups to Jordan Wiseley and Sarah Rice.
Leroy would appear in other Challenge finals with Vendettas, War of the Worlds 2, and Double Agents. Cara Maria Sorbello became the sole winner of the Vendettas final, which had neither CT nor Bananas competing. However, the War of the Worlds 2 and Double Agents finals each featured CT amongst the winning competitors.
Unfortunately for Leroy, he could not capture a Challenge season victory in his 12 appearances on the show.
However, his career on Double Agents closed with a full-circle appearance in the final alongside his Real World: Las Vegas castmate and friend, Nany Gonzalez. A montage of highlights played towards the end of the Season 36 finale, revealing that Leroy had plenty of memorable moments to take with him from his time on The Challenge.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.