MTV/NBC Host of "Celebrity Sleepover" and longtime veteran of "The Challenge," Johnny Bananas.
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio has been on a break from “The Challenge” and he recently spoke about potential career opportunities he could pursue in addition to his current hosting duties on NBC’s “1st Look” and “Celebrity Sleepover.” Bananas actually revealed he would consider following the path of Mike “The Miz” Mizanin and going into professional wrestling.
In an interview with ScreenRant, Bananas was asked if he’d consider professional wrestling and he said, “I’ve actually said that in the past. I’ve actually publicly called The Miz out multiple times to see if he’d bite, but if that was ever offered to me, I’d do it in a heartbeat. It would be hilarious.”
He went on to explain that he thinks wrestling “would be a great space for me to make an impression” and that the Miz’s success in the world of acting, hosting and the WWE is “pretty much the blueprint of exactly the steps I’d like to follow and the trail I’d like to blaze for myself.”
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Bananas Said ‘The Challenge’ Has Really Evolved & ‘Total Madness’ Pushed Him to the Breaking Point
Bananas also told the outlet that the show has really evolved in the past years and now “it really does impact you in a whole different way.” He explained that the 35th season, “Total Madness,” was extremely difficult for him: “[It] pushed me to my breaking point mentally, physically, and emotionally. And that’s why I think that win was such a monumental accomplishment, just because of what I went through. It would have been gut-wrenching otherwise.”
He said the season was really difficult to recover from even though he won and it gave him a reason for what he went through. “I couldn’t imagine having put myself through all that and having not won,” he added.
The seven-time chap said the show has really evolved and the new show now has a lot of fans but also some old fans who are less happy with the new direction. He said the “real, old school, traditional” fans are probably really happy with “All Stars” because it’s brought in some of the nostalgia of challenges that average people could see themselves competing in.
Johnny Bananas Has Been Focusing on His Hosting Projects & Said He’s Taking a Step Back From ‘The Challenge’
Bananas has been making good use of his time off from “The Challenge,” hosting a new show called “Celebrity Sleepover” on which he interviews various guests over video from his home and theirs during the pandemic. He’s also the host of travel show “1st Look.”
In a recent interview with Heavy, Bananas said that he feels it’s time to step back from the MTV show for a while to focus on other projects and expand other sides of his television personalities. He said, “For now, I think it’s time for me to maybe take a step back, explore my other avenues and spread the love a little bit, let somebody else win, you know?”
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