Almost thirty years ago, the Road Rules: All Stars debuted, which later became The Challenge. The series has returned for its 42nd season and first season streaming on Paramount+. This season sees the return of Cutthroat, featuring 24 contestants battling it out on three teams for a chance at the $250,000 cash prize. Within the first two episodes, we saw Team Orange, led by Challenge veterans CT Tamburello and Johnny Bananas, battling it out. I sat down with Team Orange to talk about a pivotal moment of the second episode.
The game was called “If you know, you know” and each team had to answer a series of questions about a fellow teammate that was in a box blocked off, and the team that answered the most questions right won. Team Orange was dominant, but host TJ Lavin announced that Team Grey had won, and everyone was confused. Well, Team Orange devised a plan where they would pick certain answers, whether they were right or not, and got called out and disqualified.
The Challenge S42 Cutthroat Interview with Team Orange (Izzy Fairthorne, Will Gagnon, CT Tamburello)
Ricky Valero: As captain of the Orange Team, I have to know whose idea it was to cheat in the second competition. Because I thought it was a brilliant idea until the competition was over?
CT Tamburello: We were well within the bounds of the rules. He’s just mad that we thought of a game plan and they didn’t see. They didn’t know how we did it. We basically designed our own language within, like, five minutes. Yeah. It was well within the bounds. It was pretty good. I’m not going to lie.
Izzy Fairthorne: It was impressive; I’m not going to lie.
Will Gagnon: Yeah, it was pretty good. It was very fucking impressive. And then to execute it flawlessly? Give me a break. They were so shook. Every single one behind the camera was like, “What the fuck just happened?”
Tamburello: The best part about it was, like, off-camera they’d be like, “We know you guys cheated; we just don’t know how.” “Well, we’re punishing you anyway… but we don’t know how you did it.” Yeah. “But we know you did it.” Oh, okay.” Yeah. “Oh, you guys are way too good.” I, I tell you this, I truly believe that we were within the rules. We were.
Gagnon: We didn’t cheat, and they’re just mad because they didn’t figure it out.
Fairthorne: We’re not bitter at all, by the way.
I also asked other members of Team Orange about their reaction to what went down. Johnny Bananas, Tori Deal, and Michele Fitzgerald.
Tori Deal: TJ told us, “Win the game to the best of your ability.” And you put four people on a team who have played this game together for how many years, and you have probably the most stacked rookie lineup of all time, Deb Chubb. Duh. Like, between us and Deb Chubb, we were going to figure out something.
And honestly, I think that we were celebrating so much because we were like, “This is the smartest thing we’ve ever done. How could they rip this away from us?” But it was just like a pie in the face, because I think it’s like the Wizard of Oz doesn’t want to be out-wizzarded.
Johnny Bananas: They were so embarrassed. And by they, I mean the people who put the game together. They were so embarrassed and dumbfounded, ’cause I think they look at us sometimes like we’re idiots, all right? And we might not, or I’m speaking for myself, I might not be the most book-smart human being, but I am very street-smart, and I’ve navigated my entire life by figuring out how to game the system.
So you put us in a group together, you put our minds together, and we are going to figure out the easiest, most efficient way to do something, and we did. We did not break any rules. We did not do anything we weren’t allowed to do. And I think, I mean, Tori said a pie in the face or egg on the face, whatever; I think that’s what it was more than anything. It was like, we can’t let them get away with this. Here’s the thing. Even though we didn’t win that challenge, we did, and everybody else knew that we did.
Michelle Fitzgerald: I felt like it was a truly horrible moment, it getting pulled out from under us. But I will say it was also, coming off the heels of Johnny just going in, I felt like there was a bit of tension about what this team will be. Everybody’s saying that we’re going to be an absolute hot mess, because look at the personalities that we have on our team. And the fact that we were able to come together and strategize something—now obviously it got pulled out from under us, but like seeing the unity that we could form, how quickly we could come up with a plan and implement it and collaborate, and I do think it like brought us together.
Now, it unfortunately ended the way that it ended, but I do think it was like truly a unifying moment for Orange, because we were so—well—… broken on the heels of what had happened just the day before.
The Challenge Season 42 Cutthroat episodes 1 and 2 are streaming on Paramount+.
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