‘The Challenge’s Izzy Fairthorne on That Elimination, the Triple DQ & More

Even a triple disqualification couldn’t stop The Challenge elimination arena from getting warmed up on Wednesday’s (September 16) new episode, “Is This Safe.” And while Team Orange was left in the very best position to win the daily, after Team Gray and Team Blue suffered such heavy talent losses, they just couldn’t pull it off.

Izzy Fairthorne had a unique problem with the daily challenge: She wasn’t able to participate due to her dietary restrictions. Team captain Tori Deal wasn’t either, but that didn’t stop her from sending Izzy into the arena — even after asking host T.J. Lavin if she could nominate herself and learning that yes, she could.

In the “Slideshow” arena, Cassidy Clark was able to get the better vantage point on the puzzle board and successfully completed hers first. It was the cap on a very emotional season for Izzy, whose emotional connection with Cory Wharton became problematic once he remembered he had people back home who wouldn’t appreciate him engaging in a showmance.

So how is Izzy now? TV Insider caught up with Izzy Fairthorne to find out!

At the very beginning, you had a really good showing in that first challenge. How did you feel at the start of this competition?

Izzy Fairthorne: You know what? I did feel definitely different from Challenge 41, the first one I did. I think I came in with more confidence, and I was like, “You know what? Hell yeah, I’m gonna make it to this final. I’m gonna win an elimination.” That that was how I went in. Obviously, didn’t work out, but that was the mindset going here, and I just felt so much ready than I did the time before.

Team Orange overall was pretty stacked with veterans. Did you feel like the odd woman out, or did they do a good job of kind of incorporating you into that group?

It’s hard to say because when I was in there, obviously, we I had people on the team like CT [Tamburello], Johnny Bananas, Tori, Michele [Fitzgerald], who have done this game a million times. They are the vets of the vets, and there was a positive to it because, obviously, we can learn from them. We can be like, “OK, they’ve done this before. They know what they’re doing.” The downside was that in the hierarchy, we were very low, even even though it was our second season. And I think that I just knew that that was going to come to me and bite me in the ass at some point, and obviously it did.

That makes sense. In this week’s challenge, you and Tori opted out. That was due to dietary restrictions, right?

Yeah. So Tori’s vegan and I’m vegetarian, and we actually could have done the challenge because if another team gave us a veggie option — there were veggie options in there — then we could have done it. But we just knew that no team was doing that for us, and it would have meant one of us was sitting out because we were never gonna eat meat.

I saw that there were onions or something like something that maybe you could have. You’re saying that you would have if you could have. 

One hundred percent. I mean, it was a girl’s day. I wanted to fight for my life in there. I was so ready to go, obviously, because I knew that if we lost that challenge, I was going in. So I was like, “I want to do as much as I can,” but also, you know, if the other teams are playing fairly, they would have got us a vegetarian option. But we couldn’t risk that because everyone’s fighting for their life in there, really.

True. So in the challenge, it looked like you were kind of mad at Justin [Hinsley] for not doing more with the eating himself. Can you just talk about that?

OK, I want to start off by saying Justin is one of my best friends. Obviously, I love him. However, watching him in that eating challenge when it was like, “This is gonna be if I’m gonna be in an elimination or not,” and Justin’s just, like, taking it so slowly, easy, like nothing matters. I’m like, “Yeah, that’s fine on it because it’s a girls’ day?” Do you know what I mean? Like, “Would you not be would you be doing that if it was a boys’ day?” So yeah, and everyone was laughing, and I was like, “This is not a laughing matter, guys. Like we need to do it.” And also, CT and Will [Gagnon], they were trying so hard. They were eating the most disgusting things and trying so hard. And then there was Justin there, and it was just like, “Come on, babe.”

So it sounds like you knew that if you guys didn’t win, that you would be the one. But then, when you got to the arena, Tori asked that question. What do you think that was about? Why do you think she asked that?

Well, I was so happy when she asked that. I thought, “Oh, my goodness, I’m not going in. She’s going down for me,” and she was obviously just asking, probably just in case I left, and then Michele was going in, and she could go in for Michele because obviously that’s her girl. And you know what? This whole Tori and Michele thing, everyone’s like, “Are you annoyed?” And I’m like, “Well, no, because if it was me and Adrienne [Naylor], I would be doing the same.” And everyone’s like, “Could you could you done something else to not go in?” No, I couldn’t. I thought about it all. Honestly, I thought it all. Like I just couldn’t.

In the elimination arena, it seemed like you were taking some advice from the crowd, particularly Bananas, to let the door go so that then you could push it later. Do you feel like maybe he he gave you bad advice there?

Listening back, I feel like it was bad advice. Yes. But at the time, when you’re in an elimination, your stress levels and heart rate are so high. And when you’re getting advice from vets or someone that you trust, someone on your team, you’re going to take it because you’re like, “There must be a way out of this.” Yeah, looking back, I wish I didn’t take his advice because I could have held on to that ball for a long, long time. But yeah, so next time, don’t take advice from Johnny.

Jonne Roriz / Paramount+

It didn’t seem like he was doing it maliciously. So when you left, were you still rooting for Team Orange to pull it out?

One hundred perfect I was rooting for Team Orange. I mean, we went through so much. Obviously, you guys see a small bit of the show, but the bonds that you create with those people are amazing. You’re with them all the time. You’re working with them, and you just want them to go and smash it. You’re like, “After all of this we’ve done, you’ve got to go and win it.” So yeah, but I was also obviously rooting for Adrienne, low key, because she’s my little bestie, and she went through a lot before we went in there. So I was just like, “I hope she does well.”

This season, obviously, a lot of your arc that was shown, at least, was your your kind of connection with Cory [Wharton]. And I know that you had wanted to say something to him when he had to leave for family reasons. Have you gotten a chance to reconnect with him and have any conversations since then?

I’ll be honest. I think it’s taken out of context on the show about why I was so upset and wanted to speak to him. It wasn’t because he was leaving and I was so upset about it. It was because of his situation going on at home. And I think you see everyone else crying in there and how upset they are for him. And I was exactly the same. It’s you can’t even put yourself in that position for what he was going through, no matter what happened, and that’s what I wanted to speak to him about, just to make sure he was OK. After the show, obviously, I reached out to see if his daughter was OK, of course, but we didn’t have contact after that.

Was there anything that happened this season that you wish had been shown from you?

To be honest, I feel like a lot of my story on the show was obviously, I mean, Team Orange was great, and then there was obviously the Cory situation, which was heightened quite a lot. But in there, I had grown so much from the season before, and just in the challenges, how much I wanted it as well. And you see clips of it, but I was so determined to get to the end this season. And I don’t know if they show that enough, to be honest.

I think a lot of fans are curious about what happened when you guys got the triple DQ news. Is there anything you could say about that, what happened behind the scenes, even if it’s just from your perspective?

Well, obviously, I wasn’t there. I’ve heard about what happened, but I’m going to be honest, it’s not my place to say. It’s the people who were in that situation to say because I can’t be talking about stuff that I don’t know verbatim. It wasn’t a great situation. Obviously, they left. T.J. came in, told us they were gone, and it was just a massive shock. And yeah, you’ve got to go to the source’s mouth for that one.

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I understand that. I guess one thing you could say though is like … it seemed like from the way they framed it though that you guys just went right back into game mode afterwards. Everybody’s like, let’s focus on who’s going to be team captain. It was interesting. It seemed like you guys went back into focus.  

No, no. I mean, it happened, yeah. But everyone was so shocked. Everyone was so sad. It messed up everything in the game, and also, our friends had gone. So it was an emotional time. But I think obviously you didn’t see all of that, and then at the end of the day, we’re in there, and we’re like, “OK, the only thing we can do now is lock in.”

Were you hoping that, because of the DQ, maybe they wouldn’t have the arena, like they did with Cory?

I was praying for that. Yes.

The Challenge, Wednesdays, Paramount+