Tyrie Ballard indicated that he and his castmate have been able to discuss a previous racially insensitive remark made about him on The Challenge.
The former Real World: Denver star returned to The Challenge: All Stars 4 after 11 years away, attempting to win the spin-off version of the show.
His OG castmates include Rachel Robinson, Veronica Portillo, Tina Barta, Adam Larson, Ace Amerson, Laurel Stucky, and Cara Maria Sorbello.
Tyrie appeared on six seasons of MTV’s competition series, beginning with his rookie season, The Inferno 3, which featured OGs such as Johnny Bananas, CT Tamburello, and Ace.
In subsequent seasons, some of his All Stars 4 castmates were on the same seasons, including Brad Fiorenza, Laurel, Cara, and Ryan Kehoe.
During a recent podcast discussion, Tyrie was asked about the previous “toxic” remark made about him and if he and his castmate had talked things out since then.
Tyrie says castmate ‘made restitution’ for previous racially insensitive remark
While on the Challenge Mania Podcast, host Scott Yager asked Tyrie if he could address his situation involving an unnamed castmate and a “toxic” remark that castmate made about him on the show.
Scott mentioned that a clip began circulating in 2020 “when a lot of people were holding folks accountable for maybe the worst thing they ever said or did in a moment of weakness or on social media, not realizing it had crossed a line or not.”
He asked Tyrie about a clip featuring a “toxic insensitive comment” a castmate made about him on The Challenge.
“I can keep this as vague as possible,” Tyrie said, explaining, “Me and that person have spoken and several times about the issue itself, and that person has made restitution not only by their words but by their actions.”
He said he believes people bring up that clip from the show to attack the other person “rather than check on [his] wellbeing.”
“I never liked that. I never appreciated that, and I wished that would stop—that person’s made restitution. We don’t need to bring it up anymore. We don’t need to talk about it anymore, and honestly, that person’s one of my best people,” he shared on Challenge Mania’s podcast episode.
Superfan shared details of Tyrie’s castmate’s remark
While Tyrie didn’t specify a cast member’s name on the podcast, a Challenge superfan account on Instagram shared his podcast comments and then a clip featuring one of his castmates in a video clip.
During the clip, Laurel’s voice is audible, and Cara appears on-screen, admiring a nearby small monkey. They and others there off camera discuss giving the monkey a name, and Cara suggests “Tyrie” several times.
Someone says they should call it “Ralph,” but Laurel disagrees with that name before the clip shuts off.
As shown in the Instagram post screenshot below, there are also Twitter comments in which Tyrie reacted to the clip going around on social media.
“S**t is flagrant as hell,” he tweeted, also tagging Laurel in a tweet suggesting, “We should chat [about] a video on your YouTube page.”
“I’ve seen the video. At this point I’m simply figuring out what the best course of action is going forward,” Tyrie tweeted.
Tyrie, Cara, and Laurel first appeared as castmates during The Challenge: Rivals – MTV’s 21st season that aired from June 22, 2011, to September 7, 2011.
Leroy said he returned to The Challenge after they made some significant changes
Tyrie’s All Stars 4 castmate, Leroy Garrett, previously announced he’d decided to retire from The Challenge due to production’s lack of handling of a castmate’s racist remarks and abusive behavior toward him.
During a recent podcast interview, he shared that part of his decision to return was because production had implemented new policies, including a two-hour training course, to address those topics with cast and crew.
“I felt like there’s no way I could come back if there wasn’t any type of changes made to make sure there was a zero-tolerance policy for any type of racism or any type of inequality amongst cast members,” Leroy shared.
“Now it felt like a safe place to be. You know I can’t erase the past. They were super involved in helping me build this zero-tolerance policy thing out, and that’s all I ever wanted- for what happened to me not to happen to anyone else,” he said regarding the situation.
The Challenge: All Stars 4 airs Wednesdays on Paramount+.