With The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies, the veteran alliance seemed to be one united group as they began the season together.
It featured all of the veteran cast members coming together to form a pact or truce only to send rookies into elimination until all rookies were out.
While that alliance seemed to form easily, two-time Challenge champion Ashley Mitchell recently explained how Tori Deal did some work before the season to set things up for herself.
The Challenge’s Ashley Mitchell tells how Tori secured alliance
The Challenge star Ashley Mitchell appeared on Johnny Bananas’ podcast Death, Taxes and Bananas to talk about Spies, Lies & Allies.
Bananas brought up the veteran alliance during their chat, and Ashley mentioned cast members Tori Deal, Devin Walker, Nany Gonzalez, Kaycee Clark, and Josh Martinez.
“All them weren’t a big happy family as it’s coming across on the TV,” Ashley revealed during the podcast.
“From what I heard around the house was that Tori wasn’t really with them that much, is what I heard from I thought Kaycee and Nany. She was like on the outskirts, and she’s just getting brought in by Josh cause her and Josh were close,” Ashley shared.
She went on to say Tori and Devin were “more than happy” to join the group so they could be safer with the Big Brother allies during the season.
Ashley also revealed that she believes Tori set up a trip involving herself and several castmates to secure that alliance.
“That’s why Tori planned that big vacation for ’em was to make sure that her friends were in alliance,” Ashley shared.
Per Ashley, the trip arrived after the Double Agents season as Tori got a free hotel somehow, and she invited her good friends Josh and Devin to go on vacation with her.
“That’s the reason this game has changed a lot. People are doing a lot of out-of-the-game politics,” Ashley told Johnny.
Johnny joked with her that their castmate Weston Bergmann used to just “slide in DMs” of the castmates he wanted to work with on The Challenge, but now it seems taking a vacation is the way to do it.
Castmates bonded after Double Agents season
Based on their comments, castmates Josh and Devin may have been at odds during the Double Agents season, but they got to know each other better after leaving the show.
They got eliminated in the same episode as Devin lost to Darrell Taylor and Josh lost to CT Tamburello. Following that, they had to stick around the area and had to stay in the same hotel. So they used that time to set aside their differences.
The vacation Ashley’s referring to seems to be a separate trip she set up involving Josh, Devin, and herself. During that trip, Tori and Devin may have worked their social game to make sure Big Brother and others would work with them.
The result seemed to be a tight-knit veteran alliance on Spies, Lies & Allies. Unfortunately, that alliance only goes so far, as viewers saw things change in Season 37, Episode 10. Even so, Devin and Tori are still working together amongst cast members vying for a chance to compete in the final.
Based on Tori’s strategy, more Challenge stars might start looking into booking vacations with their castmates to ensure future success in upcoming seasons.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.