Big Brother stars have become regular additions to MTV’s The Challenge, with fans getting to know competitors such as Josh Martinez, Fessy Shafaat, Amber Borzotra, and Kaycee Clark.
With the new spinoff, The Challenge: USA, a set of former Big Brother castmates will enter TJ Lavin’s competition show and try to use their social and political savvy to navigate their way far into the game.
However, Kyland Young said as they got into the game, he felt like he and his castmates would be immediate targets. In addition, he shared there were two particular individuals on the show who stood out as major competitive threats.
Kyland Young comments about BB stars as targets
With The Challenge: USA, multiple cast members from CBS’ Big Brother 23 will be competing in the game, including Alyssa Lopez, Tiffany Mitchell, Derek Xiao, Kyland Young, and the season’s winner, Xavier Prather.
One would think that gives them a competitive advantage with a built-in alliance for the competition show. However, Kyland Young said during a US Weekly interview that he felt they were “immediate targets” upon their arrival.
“As soon as I walked into the house and saw a third of my season’s cast, I was worried because I knew that everyone else was super mixed up,” he said of the other show’s cast members.
“I could see very quickly people were from different seasons. People had rivalries and alliances. And also, people had been on seasons over the course of years, whereas we had just finished a few months earlier. People just saw us work together.”
In Big Brother 24, Kyland was part of The Cookout alliance, which took control of the game early and dominated throughout the season. The group members also included Azah Awasum, Tiffany Mitchell, and Xavier Prather, who will appear with Kyland in The Challenge: USA cast.
He said while he was happy to see his BB 24 castmates, it was challenging because other people would always associate them as working together no matter what he was actually thinking.
Kyland reveals biggest threats, castmate he grew close to
It’s no surprise that Kyland Young identified two former stars from CBS’ Survivor as the biggest competitive threats upon his arrival to The Challenge: USA. They were Survivor: Blood vs. Water winner Tyson Apostol and Survivor: Game Changers winner Sarah Lacina.
“The immediate threats [were] Tyson and Sarah, for sure,” he said, adding, “I have never even watched Survivor, and I knew who they were. So the fact that I was like, ‘I’ve never watched Survivor, but I’ve heard of both Tyson and Sarah as being just bada** competitors in their game,’ I knew that was a sign that they were somebody to pay attention to.”
While there were some definite threats, and he and his Big Brother allies may have been immediate targets in the game, Kyland also revealed he grew close to one of his BB castmates he hadn’t worked with on his season.
“Me and Alyssa [Lopez] got to bond, which was really nice,” he told Us. “We were in the Big Brother house, kinda always on opposite sides.”
“In The Challenge, we created a really tight, homie bond,” Kyland said, adding, “Now we text every day and check on each other. I was always impressed by her, but now getting an opportunity to tighten that bond, for somebody who was one of my least close bonds coming out of Big Brother, was really nice.”
While Alyssa wasn’t part of The Cookout, she may be part of a bigger BB alliance in The Challenge: USA. Viewers will see if Big Brother can overcome their early disadvantage of being immediate targets in the game as they compete.
The Challenge: USA premieres Wednesday, July 6, at 9:30/8:30c on CBS.