The Challenge: All Stars 2 has featured OG cast members returning to the show after years away from the competition, with many of them now having families or significant others back home.
That includes Fresh Meat star Casey Cooper and Real Worlder Cohutta Grindstaff, who had significant others but no kids yet.
The teammates received a big surprise in All Stars 2, Episode 7, which brought good and bad news. This report will feature spoilers up through the seventh episode of the spinoff series.
The Challenge OGs received surprise in All Stars 2
In All Stars 2, Episode 7, another memorable moment arrived for the OG cast members. This time around, it came from Casey Cooper, who had orchestrated one of the game’s significant power moves several episodes earlier.
She mentioned she had been feeling exhausted and began having her suspicions. After taking a pregnancy test, Casey confirmed that she was, in fact, pregnant.
She called home to share the exciting news with her fiance Kyle, who was overjoyed at the announcement and told her to hurry home. However, Casey was unsure how to handle things going forth with the All Stars 2 season.
She and Cohutta Grindstaff were teammates and had been nominated for the episode’s upcoming elimination but survived the voting process. That put Nehemiah Clark and Melinda Collins against Teck Holmes and Ayanna Mackins.
However, when they all arrived at the Arena for the competition, host TJ Lavin shared that there wouldn’t be an elimination. He said Casey could no longer continue in the game, and because Cohutta was her teammate, he would also be leaving.
She revealed the news that she was pregnant to her castmates gathered at the Arena and broke down in tears. Cohutta offered his support and a hug, and other castmates congratulated Casey on the big news before they made their exits.
Cohutta reacts to exit from All Stars 2
Following the All Stars 2 episode’s release, many of the cast members shared reactions online, including Cohutta Grindstaff.
He didn’t have much choice in the matter and even mentioned in his confessional during the episode that some things are “bigger than The Challenge.” However, he suggested in his IG post’s caption maybe they could’ve let him fight for his spot in the game still.
“Well. Grandpa always said you can’t knock a home run everyday. Twas’ a good run. Big congrats to @case_coop on her little one and for your information Cohutta is a gender friendly name. That being said you would think the folks over at @challengemtv or @tjlavin could at least roll a damn table out and let me arm wrestle one of those fellas for their partner… or both of em’,” Cohutta wrote on his IG post.
Some fans seem to agree with Cohutta’s assessment. In the previous episode, Kendal was unable to continue due to medical DQ, although she and her teammate Laterrian Wallace were in the elimination. There wasn’t a women’s elimination, but the men still competed as Laterrian defeated Tyler Duckworth.
In Episode 7, Casey and Cohutta weren’t voted into elimination. However, some fans suggested maybe Cohutta could have battled the male on the worst-performing team from the daily challenge, Teck Holmes, for a right to stay in the game.
Casey, castmates comment about pregnancy situation
Casey Cooper shared a few reactions to the episode on her social media. That included an image someone created on Instagram, which Casey posted on her story.
It shows her and Kendall Sheppard side by side with “These queens were robbed” written above them. Kendall departed in the previous episode for unspecified medical reasons after suffering a potential injury during the daily challenge.
She noticed she had a displaced rib and had difficulty breathing, requiring her to go to the hospital to get checked out. TJ revealed at the elimination that she could no longer continue.
On Twitter, Casey also shared some reactions via retweets and replies to others’ tweets. One of those was a comment her castmate Ayanna Mackins posted supporting her.
Ayanna replied in the comments, as did superfan and insider @GamerVev, creating a dialogue about the need for The Challenge to begin offering pregnancy testing to women on the show.
When Ayanna questioned if it might be a “slippery slope” to force testing on women and that there could be “privacy” issues.
“Privacy? they aren’t giving anyone the results. We give the same samples for other tests they run. Also, There are HIPPA laws… I’d rather know I was pregnant and make a decision that’s best for me and my life before going on ANY reality tv show. Period,” Casey wrote in one of her tweet replies to Ayanna.
Casey also retweeted The Challenge alum Jemmye Carroll, who appeared on Season 1 of the spinoff series. In Jemmye’s tweet, she also said there needs to be a way to prevent women from competing while pregnant on The Challenge.
“We have to figure out a way to STOP letting pregnant women compete.. any suggestions? Oh wait, a god damn pregnancy test during our medical exam & then another one the DAY before we move into the challenge house. It’s truly wild how this keeps happening,” she wrote.
With the All Stars 2 reveal, Casey is the first woman to compete while pregnant on the spinoff series. On MTV’s main show, several women competed while pregnant in the past several seasons. They included Spies, Lies & Allies’ Bettina Buchanan, Double Agents’ Natalie Anderson, and Total Madness’ Melissa Reeves.
Of those competitors, Natalie exited the Double Agents season early on after learning she was pregnant via a pregnancy test. Sadly, she later had a miscarriage, which she opened up about in interviews and on social media.
Spies, Lies & Allies rookie Bettina had an idea she might be pregnant and confirmed she was upon arriving home. After the airing of her elimination, she revealed that when she returned home, she chose to have an abortion.
In Total Madness, Melissa Reeves reached the final and chose to quit due to feeling physically unable to continue. Melissa has been away from the show since Season 35, raising her daughter, who was born in May 2020.
The Challenge: All Stars 2 episodes arrive Thursdays on Paramount Plus.