The Challenge isn’t only known for intense competitions, fights, and drama but also its showmances and hookups.
During the USA 2 spinoff, viewers have seen a few presented, including Survivor star Sebastian Noel’s interest in Tori Deal, as well as Big Brother stars Tyler Crispen and Alyssa Snider.
The CBS spinoff is generally a tamer version of The Challenge, focusing more on competition and strategy than the MTV show, which previously featured drama and hookups.
Zach Nichols, who had relationships with several MTV castmates during his reality TV days, recently spoke about how many hookups are never aired and remain a secret amongst cast and crew.
Interestingly, he revealed that one of those hookups during a previous season led to special parties getting shut down for the cast and crew forever.
While Zach didn’t give any names, several of his former castmates spilled some tea to give fans an idea of when it happened and who it might have involved.
Zach Nichols talks about cast hookups from The Challenge
Zach, a former cast member on The Real World: San Diego and multi-time Challenge competitor, now co-hosts a podcast with GOHT Media to cover the competition series.
While speaking about the USA 2 season airing on CBS, Zach brought up how there weren’t many showmances on the spinoff, with Sebastian and Tori’s getting early spotlight but seeming to fizzle.
“There’s been so many hookups that haven’t even made the air. Like it would suck to be the only showmance. Like they kind of touched on Seabass and Tori at the beginning. I kind of feel like Tori’s pumped the brakes on that,” Zach said.
While he commented that they seem to have turned into friends, he also said it’s still possible they are hooking up, and it’s not really being presented that way.
“That’s happened before. Dude, listen, I could drop some hookups on here that would just blow minds. Maybe we’ll do that someday,” Zach said to his co-host.
The full podcast episodes appear as part of a Patreon subscription. Zach went on to say that maybe if their amount of Patreon subscribers doubled, he would reveal some of the hookups on the podcast.
He also mentioned that he didn’t just know about “cast on cast” hookups but also cast members hooking up with production or crew members.
“I could throw some real names under the bus here,” Zach said, adding, “I could ruin some lives.”
Did Challenge OG reveal which castmate’s hookup ended ‘wrap parties’ forever?
In a clip shared on a Challenge superfan’s Instagram account, Zach spoke about a specific incident involving an unnamed castmate’s hookup.
He spoke about how The Challenge cast and production used to have something called a “wrap party” after the final finished.
“Cast and crew would come together and party their a**es off, usually like a day or two after the final, and there were some cast-on-cast hookups, some crew-on-cast hookups, and one in particular ruined the wrap party for cast members forever,” he said.
From there, Zach’s co-host talked about how they would need to get to a higher number of subscribers on their Patreon for the full podcast episodes before Zach spilled any further tea.
“What do I care? Production’s done me so dirty in the past, I would love to just embarrass them,” Zach said regarding giving more details.
Interestingly, the screenshot below shows that another former Challenge winner, Susie Meister, attempted to give details about which cast member it was.
“Save your money, it was Dunbar [Merrill],” Susie wrote in a social media comment shown in a screengrab.
She added in another follow-up reply comment that the crew member was named “Pam” and was probably “having regrets” about it.
Another fan account replied to Susie’s comment, claiming that Zach was talking about former Challenger Heather Cooke being involved in the hookup. They also brought up how Dunbar was the first elimination of the season Zach was referring to.
Another castmate says wrap parties ended after the Rivals II season
Another of Zach’s castmates, Jemmye Carroll, popped up in the superfan’s IG post comments, seeming to have other details.
Based on her comment, Zach was referring to a cast member’s hookup after the Rivals 2 season finished filming. Jemmye indicated the wrap parties officially stopped after this season. She also told everyone she posted about it on her subscription-based Patreon.
Zach appeared in that Rivals II season with The Real World: St. Thomas’ Trey Weatherholtz as his rival teammate. Dunbar was paired up with rival Tyrie Ballard from The Real World: Denver but got eliminated early that season.
Jemmye was also on the season, teaming up with her rival, Camila Nakagawa. They finished in third place in the final behind runner-up team Cara Maria Sorbello and Cooke and the winners, Emily Schromm and Paula Meronek.
Susie wasn’t among the Rivals II cast members, but she may have known about hookups through conversations with a castmate such as Dunbar or her friend Sarah Rice, who also appeared in that season’s cast.
Based on all the tea, it definitely seems it was after this Challenge season that they put a wrap on the post-final wrap parties for the cast and crew due to someone’s hookup.
The Challenge: USA 2 airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.