With The Challenge: Double Agents season, it became commonplace to mention how the Big Brother alliance took over the game. Based on the cast list for The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies season, that could change.
Survivor will have seven rookies competing on Season 37 of MTV’s show, including former winners Tommy Sheehan and Michele Fitzgerald. They’ll have fellow Survivor USA star Michaela Bradshaw there, and then four international Survivor stars joining the party.
During a recent interview, Michele spoke about her approach with a potential Survivor alliance when competing on her first season of The Challenge.
Michele Fitzgerald shares ‘people were scared’ of Survivor players
In the past few seasons of The Challenge, there were only a couple of Survivor players competing. Jay Starrett debuted on Total Madness. On Double Agents, Jay returned and had former Survivor winner Natalie Anderson there but unfortunately, they couldn’t do much as far as an alliance.
That could change with Spies, Lies, & Allies, as rookie Michele Fitzgerald said some cast members were “scared” about the Survivor show having numbers.
“People were scared of how many Survivors there were in the house, but also I never played with Tommy before. I’ve never played with Michaela. I’ve obviously never played with these international Survivor players,” she shared in an EW interview.
Interestingly, Michele’s castmate Tori Deal commented that people were “terrified” of one Survivor rookie who was a “monster” during the season, which seems to validate further how strong they are as competitors.
Among the international stars from Survivor are Romania’s Emy Alupei and Emanuel Neagu, Spain’s Logan Sampedro, and Turkey’s Berna Cambeldek. While that seemed to set up a Survivor alliance, Michele said she wasn’t necessarily trying to be part of one.
“I was trying to distance myself and assimilate separately from the Survivor crew, but you also have this shared life experience, it’s part of our identity. I came in definitely working with Michaela and Tommy, 100 percent. But I didn’t expect there to be like six other freaking international Survivors coming on this show,” she told EW.
Michele, 31, is the winner of Survivor: Kaôh Rōng which aired back in 2015. Now she’ll bring her experience to The Challenge alongside others who have competed on versions of her show.
Michele says she connected with several Challenge vets
Michele shared that she was expecting Survivor-turned-Challenge stars, Jay and Natalie, to be part of Season 37 but it was a “shock” when she got there, and two people she thought would be her allies weren’t there.
“I felt a little bit more prepared than coming in green like some of the international people. But it was pretty difficult going in and not having two of my favorite people there. At the time, I was crushed. I was trying to keep a straight face, but internally, I was freaking [out],” she shared.
That said, Michele seems to have her social game down and indicated there were a few of The Challenge stars she was working with or had a good connection with on the show.
“I was definitely drawn to the Big Brother group, naturally. I’ve known Josh [Martinez] from before this show. We’ve met a few times at reality TV events. I was working with Devin [Walker-Molaghan]. I really, really connected with Nany [Gonzalez] like pretty much off the bat, we had hotel rooms next to each other when we were quarantining, and I think she’s just really down to earth and cool,” Michele said in her interview.
Survivor may have strength in numbers, but it seems that based on Michele’s comments, she felt a smarter approach was to try to align herself with veterans familiar with The Challenge and who may help her stay out of elimination.
She spoke more about the concept of a possible Survivor alliance during an alliance strategies video that MTV’s The Challenge shared.
As the Spies, Lies & Allies episodes begin to play out on MTV, fans will see if Michele’s strategy worked to her advantage or hurt her in the game.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies premieres Wednesday, August 11 at 8/7c on MTV.