‘The Challenge: USA’: Tasha & James on ‘The Amazing Race’ Betrayal
Q&A
For one of The Challenge: USA plays, the latest episode was his second in a row in elimination. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out the same way as it did previously.
Survivor‘s Tasha Fox and The Amazing Race‘s James Wallington lost the daily challenge after she couldn’t balance the weight in The Challenge‘s version of Hangman. Big Brother‘s Kyland Young and Angela Rummans won, and Wallington had no problem campaigning to go against fellow Amazing Racer Leo Temory. However, instead, the losing pair faced off against Survivor‘s Domenick Abbate and Love Island‘s Cashay Proudfoot in elimination. Despite Abbate making a bad call, Fox and Wallington ended up losing and were eliminated.
Here, Fox and Wallington open up about their exit.
How’d you each prepare for The Challenge: USA?
Wallington: My training was no different than it was for The Amazing Race. I started working out every day, two months leading up to leaving. I would run with weights. I wanted to feel what my body would feel like if I was running a final and they threw a sandbag at me. So I started to prepare my body in a way that The Challenge would eat me up, chew me, spit me out alive, whatever. I just wanted to get my body used to the physicality of The Challenge, but I’m an endurance person, so it was a lot of running and maybe next time I’ll work a little bit more on strength.
Fox: I was the opposite. I’m a professional bodybuilder and I was actually training for a competition, so I was already in training mode. But in bodybuilding, the endurance isn’t as important as the strength and the composition of muscles. So if James and I would’ve kind of focused on what each other didn’t focus on, we probably would’ve been a little better.
Do you wish you’d swapped places for the daily challenge?
Wallington: I actually don’t think so. We made that choice because we knew where our strengths lied, Tasha being a professional bodybuilder, me being a runner. It just made the most sense. Tasha and I have replayed that day over and over in our mind ever since we got eliminated and it really just boiled down to communication and making sure that when I let go of the weight, it was while she was transitioning the pole to actually be comfortable. I moved a little too quick with attaching the weight and that’s ultimately what our downfall was. I don’t think it was the judgment call on who did what for that daily.
Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount
Fox: It made sense for James to be the runner because he’s a runner and he’s an endurance person. I was a cheerleader, balance is nothing. It wasn’t a hard challenge. We could have communicated better in terms of balancing the weight.
James, you’d been campaigning to go against Leo in the elimination, to do what was best for you. Because that didn’t work out, do you regret going for that betrayal like you did? It was a bit early in the competition.
Wallington: Yeah. Really what would’ve been best for me is [Big Brother‘s] David and [Love Island‘s] Shannon. What people aren’t seeing is that was an option that was discussed in deliberation — not brought up by Tasha and I, it was actually brought up by Kyland and Angela — and you saw earlier in the episode, too, [Survivor‘s] Tyson said to Angela David and Shannon’s names. That would’ve been better for my game, but also Tasha’s game because that way we’re not losing Survivor or an Amazing Racer, which those two shows happen to be working together, which is another dynamic you’re not really seeing.
I wasn’t actively trying to betray Leo. I just had to recognize who was in power, two Big Brother people, and because of that, the options that they had were either going to be Dom and Cash or Leo and Justine. The gamer in me also knew that if we were to go in against Leo and Justine, I would get money if we won and that would be enough for me to qualify to run TJ’s final. But I never pushed actively to get Leo out, despite what the show and the edit might have shown.
Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount
You both were quick to let go of your show relationships. Why?
Fox: At the end of the day, you just want to make it to the end and get to the final. When you start the show, you don’t know what the format’s gonna be and so initially you’re thinking, I’m sticking with the people that I know, I’m sticking with my show. [But the algorithm] literally changed the game. People started realizing, I could have anybody in this house as my partner so let me start building relationships and alliances outside of my show. Some people did it sooner than others, and those who did it sooner were playing a better game.
Wallington: I found home with Survivor, but so did Leo and Cayla and I would never have turned on Cayla and Leo. Because we were so few in numbers, we were always going to be an option if we were partnered with someone from another show who wasn’t in power. That’s just unfortunate with the numbers. I really wish the show had been even with everyone from different shows for the algorithm format for that reason. But hey, that’s what The Challenge is, right? You never know what you’re going to go into and you just kind of have to adapt. And the people who adapt are the ones who last.
Talk about that elimination — it looked like you should have won since Dom forgot to do the “Plug” part of “Plug & Play.”
Fox: It definitely looked like we should have won and I played that over and over again, because it was close. It was right on the line. There was a little confusion about, did it hit the line?
Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount
Wallington: I started to question my own sanity in the tank because I could see Dom and I was like, is he doing something that I don’t realize? I thought the whole point was to clog the drain. And when I started to see how quickly his was draining, I was like, oh, shoot. He just forgot that the drain was a thing. Watching it back, I knew his water was draining and I knew there was a little bit of hope there. But I did not realize how close it was. The water was at the line, Cashay had called check right when that kind of happened at the same time. If Cashay’s tower fell during that five second countdown, they would’ve been done because of the drain alone. It was so close, but it made for an exciting elimination.
The elimination itself didn’t look as exhausting as some others, but it did look like there was a lot more strategy to it and against the clock…
Fox: Yeah, and I talk about this all the time with James. I’m short, I’m 5’3”. We didn’t realize how thick the blocks were. That was a little bit of my struggle at the end, trying to get those last few pieces up and it was really tall. I think if I were in the water and James was building the tower, since he’s so tall, it would’ve been super easy for him to do that.
I was going to ask if you’d wish you’d swapped places …
Fox: Absolutely.
Wallington: In the moment we really thought we made the right choice. But yeah, if we could have reversed roles, maybe things would’ve totally been different for us.
Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount
Is there anything else you wish you’d done differently on The Challenge?
Wallington: No. I just wish the algorithm had gotten a virus and it would’ve died and gone away. I think that was the biggest curveball for a lot of people’s games. If the algorithm wasn’t there and it was a little bit more of a social [game], maybe there was a little bit more of a vote — like on a lot of the seasons of The Challenge, there’s always a house vote or there’s some sort of deliberation where people are nominated, whatever — I think socially I was in a really good spot where I could have just rode it to the end based on that alone.
Fox: I would’ve brought the things that I needed to sustain my body. On the island on Survivor, you literally have nothing. And so when I came to The Challenge, I didn’t bring my protein shakes. I didn’t bring all of those things that could fuel my body that other people did. If I get to play The Challenge again, knowing that is acceptable and it’s really needed, because these challenges are exhausting so you do need your supplements and protein and things like that, I would [do] that differently.
I was going to ask if you’d both do another season, because Tasha, you had said after the elimination that you would.
Fox: Yes. I got a chance to play Survivor twice and I did things differently and ended up in the finals. So if I got a chance to play The Challenge again, I know exactly the things that I would change, what I would tweak, and I would definitely go to the distance next time.
Wallington: I would 100 percent do it again, if it was CBS. I don’t know if I would do MTV. I would do the CBS one just because I love Survivor, Big Brother, Love Island, Amazing Race and to see everyone under the same roof as a fan, I was just living out this weird childhood dream. It was so exciting for me. Going back a second time on The Challenge, if you have the same group of people in a completely different format, the outcomes could be completely different. That’s what I think makes The Challenge so exciting is that it’s a fresh game that you have to adapt to. I would love to go back, see what the format is, and how I can adapt and adjust to what the format is presented to us.
Tasha, you would only do another CBS one or would you go over to MTV?
Fox: I’ll go anywhere they send me. At this point in life, I’m always ready for an adventure. Send me, and I will go. [Laughs]
The Challenge: USA, Wednesdays, 9/8c, CBS
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