Yahoo News How Survivor alums dominated The Challenge: USA
When 28 CBS reality show alums arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the first season of The Challenge: USA, there was a healthy mix of competitors from Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and Love Island. But after 10 episodes, any semblance of balance is completely gone.
Of the 11 players left, six are from Survivor. Only two Survivor alums were eliminated over the course of this season, while the other three shows racked up way more losses. And with next week's two-hour finale featuring the last female elimination and ending in the grueling final that will crown two champions, it can officially be declared that Survivor alums have clearly dominated this season of The Challenge.
Jonne Roriz/CBS
While on set in Buenos Aires as the penultimate episode was being filmed, and looking around at the remaining competitors compared to everyone who started the season, the Survivor supremacy couldn't be denied. But each competitor had a different explanation for why the season ended up in favor of the Survivor alums. Danny McCray states it plainly, "I just think we are the best show. We're the most strategic. We're the most physically capable on The Challenge and it has shown. That's why we only have had two of us eliminated and six of us still headed for the finals."
But Survivor winner Tyson Apostol has a different opinion. "The Survivors have fared better in this game than some of the other game show alums probably partly due to dumb luck — Sarah [Lacina] just lucked out that she's here," he says, getting a dig in to his on-again/off-again alliance member. "But I pretty much drove the entire game all the way to this point. I've known every single thing that was going to happen. I've sucked a ton of people in around me and have lost very few of my allies. But when I did lose them, I had a plan B." He adds with a deadpan, "You're welcome, Survivor community."
Former Survivor winner Ben Driebergen thinks that the strategy it takes to win on his original show is what gave them all the upper hand on The Challenge: USA. "There's a lot of watching people's reactions at dinner, the side conversations, and the whispers, and so you can kind of gauge of where people's game is going," he says. "Being able to maneuver through other people's games and protecting your game is why I think Survivor players have done so well on The Challenge so far."
Survivor runner-up Domenick Abbate and winner Sarah Lacina both think it all comes down to loyalty. "Of the people left, there's still six Survivors. I mean, that's insane, because we started with eight," Lacina says. "We've only lost two throughout the entire season. I think it just goes to show that loyalty actually works and gets you through the game. I'm not saying we all like each other, but we've all stayed loyal to each other. That's why we're here."
But for Desi Williams, it all comes down to comfort — or rather, their experience without any at all — that makes The Challenge easier for Survivor alums. "Mentally, we're all pretty tough," she says. "We've played and done challenges like we're doing now literally starving and smelly and with none of the amenities. Physically, we're used to doing things in the water, out of the water, so we're adaptable. I can't say that I'm surprised that Survivors made it this far."
As the only Amazing Race alum left, Cayla Platt knows she made the right call in allying herself with the group of Survivor players from the start. "I feel I'm an honorary Survivor at this point," she says. "I had moments to prove my loyalty, which I did."
Laura Barisonzi/CBS
The last remaining Love Island alum Justine Ndiba just thinks that Survivor players are "insane" for what they willingly sign up for on their original show. "They can endure all types of things," she says, adding that she's worried for what that means in the final. "I don't know that I would be able to do some of the things that Survivor people have done."
As the only male Big Brother player left, Enzo Palumbo believes Survivor's success on this show is really due to Big Brother's failure. "Big Brother just cannibalized each other," he says. "We just went after each other at certain points in this game, and that's what it was."
After joining up in an alliance with the Survivor guys, Big Brother alum Alyssa Lopez is happy to see how this season played out. "I'm not really worried that there's more Survivor than Big Brother, just because I wasn't even trusting Big Brother to begin with," she says. "I'm really tight with the guys of Survivor. I feel like they had my back more than anyone from my season of Big Brother."
As for why the group of Love Island alums lost the most despite starting off this season with the majority, everyone's in agreement: competitors from the dating show just weren't prepared to play a game as strategic as The Challenge. "The Love Islanders just didn't really understand the social dynamic of this style of game," Apostol says. "I think the Love Island people probably waited too long to beg for mercy and then it was too late. You know what? Just stick to what you're good at: love. I'm good at slitting throats."
Check out what else the remaining players had to say about why Survivor alums have fared better so far on The Challenge: USA in the video above now.
The Challenge: USA two-hour finale airs Wednesday on CBS.
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