The Challenge: USA winner Sarah Lacina is speaking out about what happened during World Championship filming, including the rift between MVPs and Legends.
That stemmed from MTV Legends Johnny Bananas and Tori Deal, who represented the USA in the game, telling MVPs Sarah and Danny McCray to follow along with their Team USA game plan as it was in their best interests.
However, viewers have seen that’s not how Sarah and Danny want to operate, as they’ve won Survivor and the recent Challenge: USA spinoff.
It’s brought friction and arguments between the two sides, including several heated and tense voting sessions before eliminations.
Sarah has not backed away from speaking up and confronting Bananas or Tori during the episodes and continued doing so after the filming.
She recently talked about some of Bananas’ unaired behavior from the show, including the scene where she stood up to him and how former castmates messaged her after seeing it.
Sarah speaks about USA’s MVPs and Legends clashing in World Championship
Sarah appeared on Chillin’ with Dylan podcast, saying she chose to appear on this podcast because the “other ones” will “talk s**t about you” and then invite you on as a guest.
A question popped up about USA MVPs and Legends possibly not liking one another based on how episodes are presented. Host Dylan Deckard said Tori had been on the podcast about a month ago, saying multiple cast members arrived to the show thinking they were “top dog,” which caused some rifts.
“The Legends have been in control for so many seasons that they just got a taste of not having control, and they’re not handling it well,” Sarah said regarding the arguments.
Sarah said Legends and MVPs should’ve been a mutual partnership, using both partners’ strategies and not just one side’s.
“We have to work with them. Why can’t they work with us?” Sarah said regarding the MVPs and Legends as pairs.
“So in Johnny’s ideal world, in Tori’s ideal world, we just sit there and listen and do whatever he wants, and we trust their decades-old backstabbing relationships over the three seconds relationships we have,” she said.
She mentioned Bananas wasn’t making an effort with anybody in the house but wanted her to “blindly follow” what he said was best in the game. In addition, he wasn’t offering that much protection as she already had solid allies on other teams and didn’t necessarily need his help.
Sarah calls out Bananas’ behavior during The Challenge: World Championship filming
Sarah also spoke about that moment during one World Championship episode when she told Bananas not to talk to her like that, and he eventually left the scene.
Ahead of that, she said her castmate and ally Jonna Mannion had been crying because “Johnny had been a d**k to her.” Sarah also revealed “Johnny was being a d**k to” KellyAnne Judd, whom she was close with.
Additionally, Sarah revealed that during that funny scene involving the proposal between herself and Team Australia ally Emily Seebohn, Justine had her hat over her face because she was crying.
“We just got out of that nomination, and Justine’s like, ‘He doesn’t let me have a voice,’” Sarah said.
She said by the time that balcony scene arrived, Bananas had made Jonna cry, Justine cry, and yelled at KellyAnne.
In that scene, Sarah said she and Danny were trying to have a talk with Tori without Bananas there.
She shared that they were having a “good conversation,” but Bananas showed up, saying it looked like he should also be part of the chat.
Sarah said once Bananas started acting “condescending” toward her, she’d had enough of him, prompting her to go off.
“Johnny, I don’t have time to listen to your bulls**t. Shut the f**k up. You’re just a d**k to everybody,” she said in the podcast episode, adding she questioned why production keeps inviting him back.
Sarah says ‘former’ Challenge cast members thanked her for standing up to Bananas
During the podcast, Sarah also shared that she was surprised by how many messages she received from former cast members saying, “Thank you for standing up for him” or “Thank you for putting him in his place.”
She didn’t name any names but revealed it wasn’t only women but also men who messaged her to thank her for standing up to Bananas.
As of this writing, Sarah’s given her side of things, but fans will likely have to wait a bit to hear if Bananas responds or if he simply lets her comments stand without any reaction.
The Challenge: World Championship episodes arrive Wednesdays on Paramount+.