Top 10 Infamous Affairs and Indiscretions in MTV Challenge History
The big news from last week’s episode was Kailah chose to kiss Stephen Bear, cheating on her boyfriend. For the sake of topicality, I figured it’d be a good time to go down memory lane and look at the craziest/most infamous moments in Challenge history. Am I celebrating cheating with this article? A little bit. Do I think it’s trashy? A little bit. It is reality television, and for me, a viewer, the entertainment aspect of the Challenge is sometimes more important than the competitive aspect.
I want to note, cheating is bad, but sometimes a misfalling leads into long-term positives for all parties involved. People have to be prepared for the repercussions when they do cheat, that’s what is important. Attempting to make excuses is the pit fall many find themselves lost in.
Onto the list. Also, this list skews towards newer seasons. In the modern era, we know when people have boyfriends/girlfriends because of social media. In the older seasons, people were cheating on their boyfriends/girlfriends without worrying about getting chastised on Twitter.
10 Bear and Georgia — War of the Worlds 1
The funniest thing about Georgia and Bear’s showmance on War of the Worlds 1 is all the lies that occurred during it. First off, it’s hard to believe that Georgia didn’t know that Bear had a girlfriend before filming. People in the UK are very aware of the happenings of Stephen Bear, especially an up and coming reality star like Georgia. So when Georgia pretends to be shocked that Bear is face-timing his girlfriend and then he doubles down by saying it was his Cousin, the show gets absurd. Then you also add in a subplot of Bear being interested in hooking up with Nany as well on the side, and it’s some great family fun.
9 Paula and Ty — Exes 1
During Exes 1, Paula mulls over whether it’s worth cheating on her boyfriend at home with Ty for multiple episodes (ok, it was only two episodes, but seasons were only ten episodes then). If you’re mulling it over, then it probably means your relationship isn’t that strong.
If you thought it was weird that Paula hooked up with Mike the previous season, she upped it by going for Ty on Exes 1. Infamously, Camila and Emily decided to mock their showmance with Camila playing the role of Paula (wearing a blonde wig and stuffing her bra), and Emily spreading chocolate on her face (perform blackface) to play the role of Ty. Ty almost quit the season at that moment (an appropriate response), and considering everything that went down with Camila years later; it makes me mad at MTV.
Their showmance had to face each other in elimination with Ty and Emily defeating Paula and Dunbar. Paula is now happily married with kids. I like to assume Ty owns more hats now; he was kind of a hat guy back in the day.
8 Tony and Christina — Bloodlines
Within 24 hours of being in Turkey, Tony cheated on his pregnant girlfriend Madison (who he did his Real World season with, and people knew she was pregnant). Then you add in the fact that Tony wasn’t even Christina’s first pick for who she wanted to hook up with, and it gets messier. Christina wanted Stephen Buell (Thomas’s brother). Stephen was not interested because he had a girlfriend at home, so she settled for Tony.
The guy cheated on his pregnant girlfriend immediately, and he wasn’t even the first choice. This show is a fucking mess sometimes. Sidenote: Christina was low-key, a solid competitor.
7 Jasmine and Tyrie — Rivals 1
In the first episode of Rivals 1, Jasmine focuses on establishing to the fans that she is not trying to hook up with anyone because she has a boyfriend at home. That same night, she and Tyrie proceeded to have sex in the bathroom. Tyrie took one of Tyler Duckworth’s condoms in the process (yay safe sex! boo theft!).
What made the whole experience super weird from then on is the fact that Jasmine kept referring to Tyrie as a big brother. The big positive is Jasmine and Tyrie made for a hilarious Exes 1 duo and carried the entertainment portion of the season in the early stretches. Jasmine is married now with kids, and Tyrie blocked and unblocked me on Twitter.
6 Kailah and Bear
If you have followed Kailah on social media, you were probably aware of her boyfriend Mikey P. The consensus of her boyfriend was that he was/is a bit of a clout-chaser. The guy appeared on a dozen different reality shows, made subpar music, and held Kailah back from reaching her max potential on reality television. Everything about the guy was more about who he knew rather than the quality of anything he did himself.
When Kailah kissed Bear this week, it was a bad moment in the short-term, though a colossal win overall. It was a win for her haters for who get to drag her on Social Media. It was a win for her supporters as Kailah can figure out what she wants/deserves. It’s a win for overall fans because now Kailah adds a polidicking aspect to her game that wasn’t there before! Bear and Kailah also have far more mutual attraction in one kiss than any post I ever saw of Kailah and her ex.
Kailah has moved on, moved from Las Vegas to Florida, and seems to be dating Sam Bird (a UK Reality Star). Going from a bear to a bird sounds like a natural transition.
5 Tony and Camila — Dirty 30
On Rivals 3, Tony and Camila were partners. During this season, they were sent home for a scary drunk verbal altercation between the two where Tony cornered Camila. Fast forward eighteen months later, and after they both win a trivia daily challenge, Camila and Tony have a debaucherous moment in the back of a bus while drunk. It was Tony’s first career individual daily challenge win, and he rewarded himself by getting plastered and trying to hook up with the girl who he got disqualified for fighting with in the past. Even crazier is that Vevmo caught wind of this moment, the spoilers made their way to Tony’s baby mama Alyssa (current fiance), and she confronted him over the phone about it. Easily one of the most meta moments in Challenge history.
A huge thing that benefitted Tony from the fallout of the bus hook up is the fact that this is the same night that Camila went on a racist tirade throughout the house. Camila deflected fan attention away from their hook up by being racist, classic. Camila is now pregnant with her first child, and Tony has settled down in recent years, focusing heavily on his family.
4 Cara and Paulie — Final Reckoning
I like that Cara and Paulie started with Cara trying to make Kyle jealous. Nothing truly happened between them; then, they got separated by the Redemption House. Once they both returned to the main game, Cara and Paulie began a fling with Cara knowing that Paulie had a girlfriend at home in Danielle. Then after the show ended, Paulie maintained a relationship with both girls, telling Danielle that Cara was only a TV storyline and then telling Cara that Danielle was out of the picture.
Then you add in the fact that friends of Paulie viewed Danielle as the real relationship because she was more Paulie’s type (petite blondes). On the other side, people thought Cara was more apt for him because she is more into the BDSM type stuff that is Paulie was, even having sex with Paulie in Danielle’s lingerie (Paulie tweeted that). Cara and Danielle did a joint podcast where they both poured their hearts out, and Bananas sent Cara a gift basket to make sure his best friend was doing okay. A couple of years later, Cara and Paulie are somehow still together, and Cara is no longer friends with Bananas.
3 Zach and Brooke — Rivals 3
It’s one thing to go on a Challenge and cheat on your significant other. It’s another to call your boyfriend (who is a former/current Challenge competitor) and find out they are cheating on you because they called you the name of the person they were dating. What’s so crazy about this Challenge moment where Jenna calls Zach and gets called “Brooke” is the fact that Zach does not have Brooke’s number saved in his phone or any form of caller ID.
Zach cheating on Jenna while not being on the show is the Challenge equivalent of getting fired on your day off. It doesn’t make sense and makes me laugh every time I think about it. I’m glad Jenna moved on from Zach after this moment and found a guy that appreciates her.
2 Tori and Jordan — Dirty 30
To this day, I can’t believe Tori entered Dirty 30 with Derrick and then left the show with Jordan. Well, I can believe it, but I didn’t expect it. The Challenge became Temptation Island for these two individuals. What gets underrated is that Jordan entered the season with a girlfriend at home as well. Not to mention, fans were accusing Kailah and Jordan of hooking up early into Dirty 30 because of how close they were early in the season.
I want to end this one on a positive note. Tori and Jordan are #2 because their fling turned into a real relationship. Now they are madly in love together and engaged! Tori and Jordan found their soulmates by performing an act most would frown on. It sucks they hurt people by cheating. However, in the long-run, it was more than worth it for both of them.
1 Cara Maria, Abram, and Thomas — Bloodlines
Cara Maria cheated on Abram by providing handjobs, massages, and egg sandwiches to Thomas. What’s fucking nuts about this is the fact that she was trying to play a political game, and Thomas was not a power player in the game. When Cara won the second daily challenge, she was initially going to put Dario and Raphy in elimination. Then, Dario and Raphy strong-armed Cara Maria into putting Thomas into elimination instead, even though she was hooking up with Thomas. Hilarious. It would put this #7 or 8 on this list for that alone.
AND THEN ABRAM SHOWED UP ON EPISODE 4, AND THE WORLD BLEW UP.
Abram hadn’t been on the show in years, came back looking and sounding crazier than ever, and he was going to find out his long-time girlfriend was cheating on him with a preppy tennis player. People get mad at Battle of the Bloodlines for having a weak overall cast and not a ton of strong players. Still, the pure enjoyment of watching the tension between Abram and everyone on the cast (hell even production) makes this season so rewatchable. I’ll take Bloodlines over most seasons because week to week, it is a thrill. It all culminated in an elimination between Thomas and Abram’s bloodlines where Abram went completely nuts in the background and had one of humankinds most magnificent individual all-time performances (wasn’t even competing in the elimination, just shouting for half an hour straight). Abram is married now, and Cara is dating a perfectly sane individual now. Thomas owns a Reddit account and has Wifi from what I’ve seen. So he’s doing pretty well.
