Alyssa Lopez was among one of three stars from the first season of The Challenge: USA who returned for the second installment of the spinoff show.
After nearly reaching the final in Season 1, she was hopeful of improving upon that for Season 2, but ultimately found herself among the first six eliminations of the season.
That happened after she’d been one of the more vocal CBS reality TV stars targeting the MTV vets to get them out of the game early.
Due to anonymous votes and The Hopper’s unpredictability, it took just one vote cast by castmate Tori Deal to get put into the device and then drawn out by host TJ Lavin.
After losing to fellow rookie Cassidy Clark in the aired episode, Alyssa appeared in various elimination interviews on podcasts and media.
In several interviews, she discussed why she wasn’t prepared for her second season and addressed whether she’d appear on MTV’s version of The Challenge.
Alyssa Lopez says she didn’t prepare for USA 2 like Season 1
In the first season of CBS’ spinoff of The Challenge, Alyssa was one of several players from Big Brother 23 competing in a version of MTV’s competition series.
Thanks to aligning herself with the right people and playing to her strengths, she managed to nearly get to the final. Her friend Angela Rummans eliminated her right before that stage of the game, though. Alyssa returned for USA 2 along with two castmates from the first season: Tiffany Mitchell and Desi Williams.
While speaking with Mike Bloom about her experience on The Challenge: USA 2, Alyssa admitted she didn’t “train at all” for her second time on the spinoff.
“Last season, it was right after Big Brother. I had all this free time. I had a trainer. I was training. I lost a lot of weight with Big Brother and wanted to gain it back, and I felt how strong I was- for my size, obviously,” she said.
Alyssa indicated that before USA 2, she had started a business, and “it really started taking off,” so her focus was more on keeping that business thriving.
“It took up my entire free time. I did not train. I was not mentally prepared. I was still checking work emails on the way to the airport. I didn’t have like that time to be like, ‘OK, I’m doing this,’ and then physically train. I definitely saw the difference of like my strength,” Alyssa said.
Viewers saw Alyssa go into the Episode 5 elimination, where she battled Cassidy, whom she admitted was among her friends during the second season. Alyssa said she considered her like a sister.
They competed in a game involving each of them getting locked inside a large ball-like cage, which they had to roll around The Arena using their body weight to get to stations and collect four flags. Once they’d collected all four, the objective was to get to a finish spot, decipher a code using their flags on a lightbox, unlock their cage, and be the first to run to press a red button.
Cassidy was the first out of her cage and completed the task, eliminating the third Big Brother player from USA 2. Alyssa joined previously eliminated contestants Ameerah Jones and Paulie Calafiore.
Big Brother star has received calls for MTV’s The Challenge
At the end of her interview, Alyssa got asked about potentially appearing on MTV’s flagship show for The Challenge now that she’s been on two seasons of the CBS spinoff.
“I don’t know. I feel like I’m more for the CBS one. I would never say never. I mean, that call has happened, so maybe, if the stars align, but I would have to be really prepared for that one,” she said.
Alyssa mentioned that she showed up for USA 2 acting like she was on vacation and didn’t really train, but for the MTV version, she’d “need to go on like a boot camp” to get prepared physically.
Before the season premiere, The Challenge host TJ Lavin spoke to Hollywood Life and mentioned two Big Brother players he thought could compete on the main show. In addition to Alyssa, TJ said BB’s Tyler Crispen was a great competitor worthy of appearing on the MTV version.
Time will tell if either of these former BB houseguests will take their talents to MTV’s main show, but TJ has seen both up close and in action and is a great judge of Challenge potential.
The Challenge: USA 2 airs Thursdays at 10/9c and Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.