One of The Challenge OGs who knows a thing or two about being a champion recently reacted to how certain castmates are playing their game on Spies, Lies & Allies.
In particular, she called out members of the Veteran alliance who had been dominant through the season’s first eight or nine episodes.
That alliance was doing an excellent job of getting rid of rookie competitors until Episode 9 when it was time to decide on getting rid of one of their own.
That brought a reaction from The Challenge alum who called the show “hard to watch” due to the “sexism” she feels is happening in Season 37 episodes.
Former Challenge champ calls out Season 37 strategy and ‘sexism’
In a tweet that she shared on Thursday morning, two-time Challenge winner Rachel Robinson defended two other champions featured in Season 37, Ashley Mitchell and Amber Borzotra.
In her message, she said, “the sexism is blatantly clear,” with several veteran cast members seeming only to target those two specific champions but not Chris “CT” Tamburello.
The former Real World star CT has won more seasons than Amber and Ashley combined. However, his name wasn’t mentioned a lot as someone for others to target during Episode 9.
“This show is hard to watch…way to go Ashley for standing up for yourself! Amber way to fight,” Rachel said in her tweet supporting those Spies, Lies & Allies cast members.
In Season 37, Episode 9, viewers saw targets put onto Ashley and Cory Wharton, both of whom had been part of the strong veteran alliance. With Cory, it came down to the fact he appeared to be working with rookies, including teammate Bettina Buchanan, Priscilla Anyabu, and Jeremiah White.
Cory and Bettina ended up being the popular vote after Ashley stuck up for herself during deliberation. The daily challenge winners Nany Gonzalez and Logan Sampedro sent in Amber and Jeremiah as their opponents.
That put two veterans into the elimination with Amber and Cory. In the end, Cory and Bettina emerged as the winners, sending the Double Agents champion home. Some of her castmates breathed a sigh of relief, including Nany and Tori Deal, as they felt Amber was a threat to them winning.
Reactions arrive to Rachel’s comments about Season 37
Fans and non-fans reacted to Rachel Robinson’s comments about the vets’ strategy in Episode 9. Many comments arrived to suggest that cast members felt “threatened” by having to face the champions in the game, so they wanted them out of there.
Ahead of Amber’s elimination in Episode 9, she’d built a 3-0 record, including two Hall Brawl wins in eliminations.
Another person indicated it is because “CT doesn’t parade around calling himself a champ,” but Amber and Ashley “Millionaire” Mitchell do all the time.
“He could call himself millionaire CT and it wouldn’t make a difference,” Rachel replied.
Another individual replied to Rachel’s tweet, suggesting that CT has more friends in the cast than Amber and Ashley do. However, Rachel fired back to say it’s “telling” how cast members target “successful women time and time again by attacking their character.”
Something else fans mentioned in the comments was looking at things strategically. If the final involved running with a teammate of the opposite sex, it would seem wise for the men to keep around the women champs who have that experience.
In particular, Amber proved her endurance for running the Double Agents final with CT. In addition, she survived other parts of the final to help keep their lead.
As far as Ashley goes, viewers and castmates know what happened when there was that big twist as she took all the prize money for herself. It might make some cast members skeptical of having her as a potential partner despite her winning in two seasons.
However, some fans look at another aspect: the veteran men are scared to face CT in eliminations. A smart move might have been to try to send CT in early against some of the powerhouses in the cast, including rookies Corey Lay and Kelz Dyke, or two-time finalist, Fessy Shafaat.
There’s another possibility: cast members could make more money the longer they’re on a season filming. That said, one would think everyone wants to use an ideal strategy to make sure they aren’t going against the four-time champ CT when it comes to the big prize money at the end.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.