MTV/YouTube Johnny Bananas giving his classic toast at the start of a new season.
The competitions have gotten more intense on “The Challenge” in the last few years but one thing that hasn’t changed is that contestants will often go out drinking and fans can see the cast members party and build alliances on their nights out. However, veteran Cory Wharton recently revealed that for the upcoming season of “The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies,” production had to impose a drinking limit after things got out of hand.
On Us Weekly’s “Watch With Us” podcast, Cory said, “This season, we went to drink tickets. So once you ran out of your drink tickets, there were no more drinks for you. Per night, we would get a certain amount of drink tickets.” The new rule was implemented because the cast, which included 19 rookies and tons of international reality stars, “got a little wild one night or a couple of nights,” he explained.
Cory, who finished “Double Agents” in second place, told the outlet, “We kept getting put on, like, punishment. Basically [they said], ‘Listen, you guys are acting crazy to production and the security team. You’re not respecting them. So we’ve got to limit the drinks. It was wild this season,” he said. “We were like kids at a carnival. We had drink tickets! Once your drink tickets ran out, no more drinks for you.”
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In the Past, Contestants Could Drink What They Wanted & Were Responsible for Their Behavior If They Drank Too Much
In previous seasons of “The Challenge,” cast members didn’t have drinking limits and if they got too drunk during a night out, they had to deal with the consequences of their behavior, whether it was getting in a fight with a costar or hooking up with someone they shouldn’t. Cory told the podcast:
In the good old days when we used to be able to go to the bar, you could buy a bottle, you could buy whatever you wanted at the bar. It was on you [if] you got drunk and sloppy. Now production’s trying to control some of that.
It doesn’t seem like Cory was a big fan of the new system as he told Us Weekly, “I hope we can find a better system. They better not [keep it forever]. I’m not going to be doing that!”
During “Double Agents,” Ashley Mitchell spoke about her drinking on the show and explained that was why she ended up kissing Fessy Shafaat on her return to “The Challenge” house. She said the following day, she was extremely hungover: “I was literally laying on the bathroom floor… I have not had a hangover like that, I mean ever.”
One of the Rookies on ‘Total Madness’ Said It Was Difficult Going on the Show Sober
Chris “Swaggy C” Williams appeared as a rookie on “Total Madness” and revealed that all of the drinking that takes place on the show made him uncomfortable during the season because he’s sober. At the time, he told the “Challenge Mania” podcast:
As the weeks got on, I got more and more miserable being there. I would go to the bar with everybody, and I would just sit in the corner like, ‘yo, I don’t want to be here.’ … everybody’s all drunk and throwing up on the bus and yelling at 2 o’clock in the morning … this is not my way.
Despite joking about the downsides of the new system this season, Cory also told the “Watch With Us” podcast that things are different for him now that he has a girlfriend and two daughters at home. He explained, “When I used to go on the show, I was single. I didn’t have kids. I was like, ‘Who’s going to turn up?’ [And] I had my fun. I was real distracted on the show.”
Nowadays, the “Real World: Ex-Plosion” star said, “I go to the show and I feel like I’m locked in. I know why I’m there. … I have a lot of people at home that depend on me. So when I go to ‘The Challenge,’ I’m clocking into work. I’m away from my family and I’m there focusing and determined.”
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