The Challenge star Wes Bergmann seems to be calling out cast members from the CBS spinoff show, The Challenge: USA, after hearing complaints some made regarding the living conditions.
CBS’ spinoff features stars from reality TV shows The Amazing Race, Big Brother, Love Island, and Survivor, competing in daily challenges, eliminations, and a final, much like t show.
However, it’s been toned down in some ways, with fewer physical battles in the daily events and eliminations than on MTV’s show.
The Challenge spinoff has also featured a unique living arrangement, with cast members sleeping in bunk beds stacked in one or two large rooms inside a warehouse-like complex.
That particular setup didn’t sit well with some of the cast members, nor did some of the other conditions, including the food they received while participating in the show.
That prompted Wes to fire off a tweet that seemingly addressed complaints made by some cast members after their aired eliminations from the show.
The Challenge’s Wes Bergmann calls out’ living condition’ complaints
This past Wednesday, The Challenge: USA, Episode 9 aired on CBS, featuring the remaining reality TV stars with at least one from each of the four shows remaining.
For Love Island, it was down to Cashay Proudfoot and Justine Ndiba, as all of their other castmates got eliminated in previous episodes. Among those eliminated Love Island stars was Shannon St. Clair, who may have been one of the individuals Wes was reacting to.
“B***hing about the living conditions on a show called ‘The Challenge’ is literally the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in my entire life,” Wes said in part of his tweet.
He went further, suggesting how to make the show even more challenging than it already is.
“I vote we make the conditions worse; the challenges harder; final longer; & you have to complete an athletic & IQ-based combine to join,” his tweet said.
Several of CBS spinoff’s stars brought up living conditions
In Episode 6 of The Challenge: USA, Shannon and her teammate Derek Xiao from Big Brother were sent into elimination at the Arena against Enzo Palumbo and Shannon’s Love Island ally Justine.
They competed in Spelling Eeb, a game that started with spelling words backward but ended with having to stack numerous tires before your opponents did.
Ultimately, Enzo and Justine edged an injured Shannon and Derek, who didn’t use the best stacking strategy, costing them the win.
After cast members’ elimination episodes air on CBS, there are usually exit interviews with them on various YouTube channels.
In an interview for US Weekly (below), Shannon mentioned enjoying the show’s overall competitive aspect but said she didn’t enjoy the living conditions. Derek echoed her sentiments in the video interview, specifically noting the food situation.
Shannon also mentioned living conditions complaints during her time on MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast, when hosts Devyn Simone and Da’Vonne Rogers asked if she’d consider going on The Challenge again.
“I’m just gonna say no again because of my living experience in that compound,” she said during the podcast episode. “Like the living conditions I think, were what really got me. It wasn’t the challenges. It wasn’t the people. It was the living conditions.”
“So for me, the hardest challenge was living in a bunker with strangers, and the food was not great. People got like food poisoning and had to go to the hospital. It was not very ideal at all for living conditions, and I think that I’m very adaptive to my environments, so that’s just why I say I wouldn’t,” Shannon said.
Was Wes calling out Shannon and Derek?
Shannon previously appeared on CBS’ Love Island USA Season 3, where cast members lived in a gorgeous villa in Hawaii for the reality TV dating show. She said if she ever considered going on the show again, she’d need more time for training and “a little DL about what the living conditions would be like.”
Derek appeared in a more competitive reality TV show, Big Brother 23, where contestants get locked inside a house away from the outside world and have stringent rules. It was probably more comfortable and cozy than he experienced in The Challenge: USA compound, but it was still a stressful living situation.
Wes’ tweet didn’t specify which cast members he was referring to when it came to The Challenge, although it seems Shannon and Derek could be some of the people he’s addressing.
Based on his tweet, Wes seems to believe casting for The Challenge and any future spinoffs will need to determine the cast members truly built to compete in the game and its sometimes difficult living conditions. Things didn’t look so bad for Wes and his OG castmate’s living situations during The Challenge: All Stars 3.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.