The Challenge OGs cast rumors continue to heat up as former competitors from MTV’s reality competition series are said to be quarantining ahead of filming the spinoff series.
That includes veterans like Mark Long, Derrick Kosinski, Darrell Taylor, and Aneesa Ferreira. Darrell and Aneesa are part of MTV’s latest season, The Challenge: Double Agents.
While it appears there are cast members in place, the production also has alternates on standby, including one former Real World star who made it to the finals on Rivals II.
Rivals II star added as alternate for We Want OGs
Heather Cooke, who debuted back on The Real World: Las Vegas in 2011, has been recently revealed as an alternate cast member for the upcoming spinoff series, tentatively called The Challenge: We Want OGs.
Alternates are standby cast members who are available if another cast member tests positive for COVID-19 ahead of or during the filming of the spinoff show.
Cooke only appeared on one season of The Challenge with the Rivals II season in which competitors were teamed up with people they had some bad blood with. Cooke’s partner was her former Real World castmate, Naomi Defensor, as they had clashed over another RW castmate, Leroy Garrett.
Interestingly, Cooke’s Rivals II partner ended up leaving the game, and that brought in Cara Maria Sorbello as a replacement partner. The duo reached the finals but lost to the team of Emily Schromm and Paula Meronek.
Cooke, who is now 32, showed herself to be quite a competitor alongside Cara Maria. She left the show with over $17,000 in prize money but never did another season after that.
She was featured in a YouTube podcast interview last July, where she gave her thoughts on the show. Another YouTube show has ranked her amongst the top 10 “one and done” competitors on The Challenge.
Cooke appeared on the Rivals II season with plenty of other heavyweights in Challenge history, including Aneesa, Johnny Bananas, Chris “CT” Tamburello, Wes Bergmann, Leroy, Zach Nichols, Camila Nakagawa, and Nany Gonzalez.
Other rumored cast members for spinoff series
The reveal of Heather Cooke as an alternate for The Challenge OGs cast comes after recent rumors that Jonna Manion and Jemmye Carroll are also quarantining. Both competitors also appeared on that Rivals II season of the show.
It was also revealed that Ryan Kehoe and Cohutta Grindstaff are part of the prospective cast members for the spinoff series, which doesn’t have an official name or release date as of this writing.
Several fan accounts based on MTV’s The Challenge reality competition series have been sharing posts that show off rumored cast members. Based on the speculation, there are currently 14 females and 14 males quarantining in Texas before heading off to a filming location.
The Challenge: Double Agents host TJ Lavin is rumored to be hosting this series, but it’s yet to be announced whether this will go on MTV, Netflix, or another platform. MTV shows the current season’s episodes, while CBS All-Access has seasons No. 11 through 33. Cooke’s Rivals II season was Season 24 of The Challenge.
Two former seasons were added to Netflix this past December with Real World/Road Rules Challenge’s Inferno II and The Duel. That fueled rumors that the OG spinoff was going to happen. It also brought rumors that the show might go on Netflix.
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The Challenge: We Want OGs series release date is TBA. The Challenge: Double Agents airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.