‘The Challenge: USA’: Sebastian Talks Targeting Cory, Relationship With Tori & More

Since it might only take one ball in the hopper to send someone down to elimination on The Challenge: USA, having six in there is just asking for trouble. Such was the case for Sebastian Noel.

What didn’t help him: He tried campaigning to get votes for Cory Wharton to face Chris Underwood, one of the nominations by daily winners Tori Deal and Faysal Shafaat. (The other was Cassidy Clark.) He then tried to blame Chris, already in hot water with everyone in the house for telling people different things. The two competed in Trick, Trick, Boom, in which they had to bounce balls across panels (first three flat, then an additional two sideways) into barrels. Chris won.

Below, Sebastian talks his (failed) strategy, relationship with Tori, and more.

Things got messy in the house in this episode, especially as people campaigned for who others should vote for. And you tried to get people to vote for Cory, even as Tori worried about you doing that. Then you tried to put the blame on Chris. Did you really think that whole plan to get Cory sent in was going to work? Do you regret how you went about that, given the outcome?

Sebastian Noel: No, I don’t regret it at all. There’s only two Survivor dudes, and they’ve been trying to get us out the whole time because it was just Big Brother, Big Brother, Big Brother, Big Brother. So I knew the pressure was mounting on my back and I was going to get a lot of votes that night just because it’s simple math.

Cory and Fessy just float to the end and nobody really targets them. They just stay in their room all day long. And I was like, “Dude, this is my problem. This is why I didn’t win Survivor. I didn’t get these big boys out of the game, so why not now? Let’s get the pressure off my back, and let’s target someone big, someone that has had no balls in the hopper the whole season.” I think he had one. I told Tori everything, and she didn’t spill the beans to him. I think he just caught wind of it. But yeah, I felt very confident in that conversation and that decision, and I’m not mad about it at all.

Because it’s just process of elimination of who you could be campaigning for people to vote for at this point. There aren’t many people left.

Right. We were literally half the numbers. Survivor had seven and there were seven people not affiliated with Survivor left in the game. So it felt really good. But yeah, I think when Fessy and Tori decided who was going to go in that night, I was praying it wouldn’t be Chris because I knew if it was going to be Chris, I’d have a lot of numbers on my name, so that sucked. But you gotta work what you got.

Jonne Roriz, courtesy of Paramount

Speaking of that elimination, it was all about strategy. Talk about facing off with Chris, and do you think you could’ve done anything differently?

First of all, facing off with Chris is the worst nightmare. We only had two of us. It was just me and him, and he was literally my best friend out there and still is. I’m in his Airbnb right now. I came up to Charleston to watch the episode with him last night.

But we knew it was going to happen at some point. Day one, we’re like, eventually we’re going to have to go against each other, but it sucked going against him. But that challenge, I’m sorry, but that’s not the one anybody wants to go home on because it was so ridiculous. The sand on the floor in the elimination ring is so uneven and you really need those — I call ’em helicopter landing pads — platforms to be totally flat, and I think mine might’ve been a little to the left. The other one was [to the right].

You had to really get it right down the middle. They didn’t show it, but we were correcting those barrels. I was trying to push sand under to make ’em even, and I think Chris just had a more level platform, but it is a hard shot. It’s literally a trick shot. Throw a pinging pong down the stairs, bounce, bounce, bounce, get it into a party cup in the other room. It was a really, really tough elimination, but I thought I had it in the bag. I had a very similar challenge on Survivor that I actually won. So I was confident, but that s**t’s hard.

Then the sideways panels…

I know, and you’re overthinking it because it doesn’t work the first couple times. I’d run back down there and change the angle, and everyone was like, no, no, no. So it is a lot of math, a lot of physics to get that ball in the barrel. Unfortunately, Chris did it faster than me, but we were so close, we kept on banging at that fifth platform. It was just luck really.

How long did it last?

The first round, we spent a good amount of time setting those barrels up. It was probably like 25, 30 minutes, for both of us. And then I think we went another 10, 15 minutes before he sunk that last one. I think it was like 150 balls that had set up for us — we went through every single one of ’em. We had to go collect more.

Is there anything that didn’t air that you think fans should know about? 

They squeeze this entire season into 40 minute episodes [and show] 0.0002 percent of what they filmed. You know what’s coming in the episode coming up, and then they don’t show it, so you’re like, where was that? But they focus a lot on the gameplay and the strategy, which is great, what the game is all about, but show us having fun. We went on field trips every weekend. We went on boats, we went to wineries, and of course they show us having fun, but a little more of that real life stuff like in the house. And then they only got a couple cute pictures or videos of me and Tori, like, what the hell? We were so cute the whole time. There’s cameras in every corner. Show a little more of our love. People want to see that, right?

Jonne Roriz, courtesy of Paramount

Speaking of, what is going on with you two now? Was that just a Challenge thing or no?

Neither of us expected it, to be honest. I just came off dating Jenna [Bowman] from Survivor for five years. Tori just got over Jordan [Wiseley], same story. So we weren’t really expecting that at all, but I think it is going pretty well. We don’t want to date, but we see each other. She’s 15 minutes away from me in Miami, so we’ve been really close, really good friends. We go to workout classes, we still hang out. I waited for her after I got voted out, and me and a couple other friends from the show all got an Airbnb in Croatia and just enjoyed our lives. So that was really cool. And then to have her be my neighbor in Miami, we’re definitely really close. But yeah, it’s still going on.

Would you do another season of The Challenge: USA? Is there anything you would do to prepare differently for it?

Oh my gosh, yes. I’m so ready to play again. This was just a teaser. I think I’m in the best shape of my life. I think I can only get stronger, more physically and then mentally… you learn. This was my first season on The Challenge, so you are almost observing everybody and the way they do things, like watching Wes [Bergmann] and Tori and [Johnny] Bananas [Devenanzio] play this game was amazing. It was mesmerizing to watch them play. So I think physically watching them, how they play the game, is going to help me so much down the road. And I think just practicing your math, your puzzles, everything that you can possibly do — working out, running every single day, because these guys are huge. If I have to go in a ring and wrestle Fessy, I want to be strong. I want to be the best I can be. So I learned so much. I know what I gotta do for that third appearance on television, and I’ll be back. I’ll be ready. I’m feeling good.

There was all that talk about Survivor strong and the Survivor alliance, but how solid was it?

Yeah, I think it is something special about these Survivor players. That’s how we play Survivor. You build an alliance and you stick with it and it works. The first season of USA, two Survivors won. We made it all the way ’til half the people were literally Survivors. It was seven of us and then seven others. So we really, really worked together, and I think it’s almost like a shield. You just move through the house with all seven of you and you vote together — especially the elimination just before mine with Monte [Taylor] and Tyler [Crispen]. We all threw our votes on Monte, and without all of us being so strong, I could have went in because I had six votes that time. So I think us using that power together is really beneficial.

Going back to the daily, you did make it to Stage 2 and almost won. Do you think you could’ve done anything differently to win?

I thought I had it. I was the second highest score. Nine points was pretty good, but little did I know Fes was a professional trampoline basketball player and he’s just a beast. I think going last would’ve been really, really good for me to watch, and then you see how many points you need, but I was so damn close. I needed that win so bad. I knew it. And it would’ve been a perfect little date with Tori at the end to decide who goes in because she was on the same page of who she wanted to throw in. She was working with Survivor, the girls, so she didn’t want to throw any of ’em in. So I think if I would’ve went and won that one… Yeah, I don’t know what I could have done differently. Maybe my jumps, just time ’em a little better, but I’m proud of myself. It was so funny. I had the number in five seconds, and then for 10 minutes people were running back and forth like, “Sea Bass, what’s the answer?” So I’m proud of myself.

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Dusty Says 'Challenge: USA' Elimination Loss to Wes 'Was a Punch to the Stomach'

You had the Survivor alliance, and there was team and individual play. Which did you prefer? Did it not matter as much because of Survivor?

I think it didn’t really matter, but honestly rolling with Blue, we were just a powerhouse. I was hoping, because they’ve done it in seasons past where they go teams all the way to the end, for [that]. I was so fortunate not to get swapped out to another team. But when we had Bananas, Wes, Tori, Fessy, and Desi [Williams], who’s beast, it was honestly a dream team that you could roll to the final with. So a little mad that ended. But I knew I had strength in numbers in the individual game. I already started working with Wes, and I was getting really close with Bananas and Tori, so I had other numbers working with me. But it’s the game. You have to move with it.

The Challenge: USA, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS