‘The Challenge’: Deb Chubb Reveals All About That NSFW Moment, Sydney’s Injury & More

Deb Chubb had a heck of a rookie season on The Challenge. The Love Island alum found herself on a team full of experienced veterans and earned a come-from-behind victory in her first elimination bout — one which she then celebrated by showing off her sparkly pasties … a scene that might not have been uncensored if not for the series’ move from MTV to Paramount+.

When Deb had to face Cara Maria Sorbello in a puzzle arena on Wednesday’s (September 2) episode, though, she had much less luck.

In the episode, titled “Leave Room for Jesus,” Team Orange struggled mightily with the daily challenge — as did Team Blue — called “Trial By Terror.” Only Team Grey’s teammates were able to cross a suspended water platform by traversing the color-coded rings. Despite Deb’s gymnastics background, the heights just proved to be too intimidating.

So, when team captain Tori Deal had to make a decision about which of the girls on her team to send in, she said it was a 50/50 decision between Deb and Izzy Fairthorne, but she ultimately chose Deb to face off with Cara, the veteran with the most elimination wins of any woman in the show’s history, no less.

In “Air Time,” the two had to use rowing machines to see a series of symbols that they then had to replicate on a giant board in order, and though Deb put up a good fight, Cara walked away with yet another arena victory.

So how did Deb feel about her first season on The Challenge? What’s the status of her showmance with Will Gagnon? And how did she feel about Sydney Segal‘s massive post-injury outburst at her? TV Insider caught up with the reality star to find out all of that and more.

Very early on in the season, you made a big splash, not just by winning your elimination, but by how you celebrated. Had you planned that when you went into the ring?

Deb Chubb: It was Michele [Fitzgerald] and Tori’s idea. So Tori had these little NipTips that I think Aneesa [Ferreira] had made up for her. They were nipple covers with little fortunes inside of it, and Tori’s like, “You need this. It’s for good luck.” And then she was like, “And if you win, you should flash.” And I was like, “OK, whatever. I’m going in there.” Winning? Obviously, I had a good feeling, but you’re [not sure]. I was like, “Sure, whatever.” But yeah, I forgot. And then they’re like, “Celebratory flash!” I was like, “Oh yeah!” So funny…. I didn’t realize that that’s never been done before.

On a similar note, how did you end up in a showmance with Will, and where do you guys stand now?

Oh gosh, I literally watched a little bit of [Season] 41 before going in, and I was like, “Anybody but him. Anybody but him.” But then he just kept giving me attention, and my type is attention, and he has a really good personality, and so we ended up just getting along really well. And it was just comforting to have someone like that, and somebody who’s been on the show before as well. And now, I mean, we’re just friends now. I mean, we live close to each other, like 30 minutes away, so we kind of hung out a couple times, but nothing’s serious.

Sydney blamed you a lot for what happened to her. Did you feel responsible for that? And how do you how did you feel about her reaction in that moment?

I felt horrible about what happened. Horrible. I would not want to cause injury to anyone. I don’t even like to hurt flies — I make sure they go outside. But honestly, I was shocked because I’ve never really been treated like that by somebody, especially for something that was an accident. And I understood that she wanted her space, whatever. But then, when she started talking about my body, I was like, “Why? Why have we gone to this level? What does this have to do with anything? If you have a problem with me, please speak to me. We could hash it out. Would love that.” But she told me to stay away from her, to not talk to her. So I was respecting her wishes, and in the meantime, she’s talking s**t about me to everyone and about my boobs, crazy.

Well, when I talked to her last week, she walked that back a little bit and said that she regretted some of the things she said — well, regretted in her way. How do you feel about that, and has she reached out to you, or like made it clear to you?

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Yeah, she apologized, and she did say it was misplaced anger in Thailand, also. But I mean, I accept her apology. I forgive her. I just… She apologized, but I don’t know how genuine it was because she’s still saying things about me and commenting on my intelligence and my athletic ability, and I get that that’s like judgment about the game, but it’s still like, now it’s obviously kind of just putting salt on the wound because you obviously already have these horrible thoughts about me. So, I mean, I forgive her. I just don’t think that we’ll be friends.

OK, fair enough. I wanted to talk about this week’s episode. What did you think of Izzy’s comments that she was so taken aback that you guys were 50-50 in Tory’s mind?

[It was] kind of like a light bulb went off… I was like, “Oh s**t! We’re kind of screwed, and there’s really nothing we can do about this.” Really, the only thing we could do was win the elimination. And looking back, I wish I would have fought a little harder to not go in that elimination. But at the same time, Tori’s reasoning was, “Well, you haven’t gone in since I’ve been captain, and since I’ve been captain, you’re the newest rookie on the team.” And she was like, “I’m gonna toggle between you and Izzy, so then the next one, Izzy will go in.” And I was like, “OK, well, maybe this one will be a little bit easier physically. And she did say, too, if it was super cardio-based, then she would pick Izzy over me. But this one was, yeah, it was gonna be me.

Jonne Roriz / Paramount+

Would you have rather gone against Anna Leigh [Wilson] or [Alexis] Lete, instead of Cara?

Only in the sense of rookie-wise. I think they are very good athletically and maybe wouldn’t beat me in that sense, but I feel like, because it was kind of a puzzle memory thing, it would have been a fair matchup. Cara Maria, obviously, had so much experience, and I think that helped in so many different ways on the show. And she even told me she was like, “My strategy is just from experience. I’ve just done this, and I know how to do it.” And I was like, “That’s so fair. I respect that.”

You were the first to go home from Team Orange. What do you think it was about that team that made it so strong?

It’s so crazy because you would think that we would explode because of all of the clashing personalities, but in some way, I think that actually brought us together. We really figured out a way to communicate, and that’s, I think, ultimately, why Tori was a good option for captain because she was kind of the glue that held us all together. When things got hectic, we weren’t getting along. She would kind of direct everyone, get everyone back together. I just think we all are so alike; we all have very similar personalities, and I was there to win, but also not super serious about it. We just worked so well.

Obviously, this is your rookie season, and you got to work with a lot of the OGs. I mean, you’re talking about Johnny Bananas, CT [Tamburello]…. Did you have any kind of initiation ritual into their crew?

No, but we were just calling it rookie boot camp. We’re like, “This is just another level for your rookie boot camp.” I remember Michele and Tori were like, “We’re gonna put you through it,” and it was, truly, even just listening to them discuss how to go about the dailies and seeing them coach people and the eliminations and everything; I was just a sponge trying to absorb as much as I could. We should have done a little… initiation process, but we didn’t.

This was also your first experience with The Challenge fandom. This has been an interesting season because there’s a lot of pushback from fans about things that have happened with the showmances and things. Are you keeping tabs on that? What do you think people are understanding or not understanding?

I’ve been trying to learn a little bit of the history to try to figure it out a bit. The relationships — I mean, Bananas and Lete is so funny to me. It weirdly works, which is even better. Anna Leigh and Leo [Dionicio] is crazy. Cory [Wharton] and Izzy…I felt so bad for Izzy in there. Honestly, she was having such a hard time because it’s like, he’s saying one thing, but his actions are obviously leading her a different way. So he put her in a kind of difficult spot. Yeah, but I don’t know. That’s a sticky situation.

Do you want to come back and do this again?

Honestly, maybe. I think it would be fun to actually have time to train and prepare. And now that I know some other people, maybe get more advice from everyone, and yeah, I wouldn’t be opposed. I just really hope it wouldn’t be somewhere cold!

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