Former The Challenge winner Zach Nichols slammed Survivor star Jay Starrett based on his latest appearance on The Challenge.
Jay is currently among the cast members of MTV’s Season 39, Battle For a New Champion, where all the main cast members are vying for their first-ever championship on the show.
As cast members like Kyland Young and Ravyn Rochelle have been repeatedly put into elimination, Jay has managed to elude nominations thanks to being part of a strong alliance in the house.
He’s considered at the core of that alliance alongside his friend Michele Fitzgerald, a former Survivor winner and multi-time Challenger.
Since the alliance runs so deep, it’s started to make some of the cast who believed they were tight with the alliance that they don’t rank that high in the order of things.
On a recent podcast, Zach criticized Jay, who is competing in his fourth season of the show, as a “hypocrite” and “selfish” after recent moves occurred with his castmates.
Zach calls out Jay as a ‘hypocrite’ and ‘selfish’ in Season 39
During the Zach Nichols Podcast, the MTV star and co-host Pierre welcomed Challenge Mania podcast host Scott Yager as their guest. They discussed Episode 13 of Battle For a New Champion, discussing Jay’s top allies in the game.
Scott said he considered Michele Jay’s top ally, followed by Nurys Mateo, Olivia Kaiser, and Moriah Jadea.
However, Scott pointed out that due to Moriah’s showmance with James Lock, she “probably isn’t doing herself any favors” regarding being protected. That’s because other men will realize Moriah would protect James ahead of them in any elimination votes.
“Jay’s a hypocrite,” Zach said, adding, “Because if someone were to do this to him…If Nurys were to be like, ‘Hey, you’re still one of my number ones, but I’m gonna get rid of Michele,” Jay would have a conniption. He’d freak out.”
“He’s just doing this because he’s selfish, because he knows if he gets rid of Horacio, that just ties his cocoon tighter around him,” Zach said regarding Jay.
Jay and Michele’s alliance continues to run Season 39
During the podcast, Zach also mentioned that he felt Jay was really just operating as part of Michele’s alliance.
In Episode 13, viewers saw Nurys’ boyfriend, Horacio Gutierrez, randomly put on a four-person team with Asaf Goren, Colleen Schneider, and Michele Fitzgerald for the daily challenge. Since three individuals were part of Jay’s alliance, they sabotaged their chances of winning to ensure Horacio wouldn’t be safe from elimination.
That allowed the daily challenge winners to nominate Horacio as the first of two guys for The Arena. Later, a deliberation featured Kyland as the second one voted in, despite Kyland and others’ best attempts to swing the majority vote onto Jay.
Before that, Nurys talked with Jay, whom she’d known for five years, telling her friend about the difficult spot she was in regarding saying his name or her friend Kyland’s.
Ultimately, Nurys burned her vote at deliberation, so others decided to give an easy vote for Kyland rather than saying Jay’s name.
Jay initially debuted on MTV’s The Challenge: Total Madness, where he was among rookies with his now-Season 39 castmate, Asaf. The two are friends in Season 39, several years after Jay defeated him in the first elimination event on Total Madness.
During that season, Jay also defeated Challenge great Chris “CT” Tamburello in an elimination event, giving him one of his most-talked-about moments on the show.
Jay has yet to reach a final, but based on his Season 39 gameplay, he seems to be getting closer by the episode, with CT’s appearance at The Arena looming.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
I completely agree, Jay is a pr*ck, treating his female cast mates like crap, who have been keeping him safe. The motto of the show, to be the best, gotta beat the best, is a sham. Jay needs to prove himself against Kyland or Horacio. He’s scared, because he most likely won’t come back.