YouTube/MTV Johnny Bananas Devenanzio on 'The Challenge: Vendettas'
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio has been very vocal about the current season of “The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies” thanks to his new podcast on The Ringer network, “Death, Taxes, and Bananas” and he also shared his thoughts about the 37th season on the “Challenge Mania” podcast hosted by Derrick Kosinski and Scott Yager. However, two-time champ Cara Maria Sorbello didn’t like his criticism and called out her co-star.
In that appearance, the three discussed the lower ratings for the current season and Bananas said they’re in the toilet. He said, “‘The Challenge’ is going the way of the buffalo… It’s making a rapid descent towards extinction and it’s somewhat painful to watch.”
He said in his opinion, the show’s success was due to its simple concept and there are now too many twists that fans have trouble keeping up and the twists have lost their shock value. He also said the “influx of rookies” that fans don’t know has also likely affected the show. “I get what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to expand the brand globally,” he said, “but I think the mistake they’re making is like, ‘The Challenge’ fans, the fandom… they don’t want to meet new people.”
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Cara Maria Wrote That Bananas’ Negative Comments Were ‘Really Sad’ to Hear
Despite his criticism, Bananas acknowledged that rookies are necessary for the show to continue to do well long-term but that he believes there were too many rookies introduced too quickly. However, he added that he didn’t want to just criticize the show and clarified that he doesn’t want “The Challenge” to go away. “I look at ‘The Challenge’ like a family and like my kids,” he explained. “I spent a decade and a half of my life putting sweat toil and tears into this and I wanna see it be successful.”
A “Challenge” gossip account took a screenshot of a tweet summarizing Bananas’ comments and posted it on Instagram and two-time “Challenge” champ Cara Maria replied in the comments. She wrote, “It’s really sad that he is speaking negatively about the challenge. The show Is and always will be bad a**. If there is a problem it is definitely not the new faces. It’s the returning ones. And he was a big advocate for the worst of them.”
Cara Maria has actually met some of the new faces on the show as she recently posted some photos of a visit she had with Paulie Calafiore of “Spies, Lies and Allies” rookies Corey Lay and Michaela Bradshaw.
Cara Maria & Johnny Bananas Have Been at Odds for a Few Years Now & He Blamed Her Relationship for Their Friendship Ending
Bananas and Cara Maria have had a tricky relationship over the years as they worked together on some seasons of “The Challenge” as veterans of the show but the two have since had some public feuds. As “War of the Worlds 2” was airing in 2019, Bananas said in a PEOPLE interview, “We had our issues in the past. We put all our differences aside. We had this amazing experience on one of the Challenges where we actually became really close and really good friends.”
The seven-time champ told the outlet that once Cara Maria began dating Paulie, their entire friendship changed and he spoke of a “darkness” that he said came over her and changed their relationship. He also told HollywoodLife, “Cara Maria found herself in an unfortunate position with a very sociopathic, narcissistic human being, and I feel bad for her.
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