Why Did Nam Vo Suddenly Leave MTV’s ‘The Challenge’?

Nam Vo

MTV Nam Vo

Nam Vo was one of the returning stars on “The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies” competing as an international operative alongside American agents. The German reality star showed a lot of promise on his rookie season due to his physicality and intelligence but was medically disqualified near the end of the season due to a back injury.

Fans were happy to see him return for “Spies, Lies and Allies” so he could show more of his skills and personality, which is why his abrupt departure at the end of the first episode of the 37th season came as such a shock. Nam began the episode with all the other stars and chose Michele Fitzgerald, “Survivor” winner, as his partner. He wasn’t seen for most of the rest of the episode, including when his partner was called down to elimination.

After Michele and her elimination partner Corey Lay won the bout, host TJ Lavin revealed that Nam Vo had to leave and was “deactivated.” He said Ed Eason, from the first season of “The Circle,” would replace him. Following the episode, several stars discussed what went down and revealed that there had been a COVID-19 outbreak among the cast, leading to a second quarantine from which Nam was apparently too sick to return.

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Several ‘Challenge’ Stars Spoke About Some Cast Members Getting COVID-19 & That Nam Was Unable to Return

Michele and her costars Amanda Garcia and Ashley Mitchell went on Instagram Live after the premiere episode and discussed what went down between the challenge and the elimination and gave more details about why Nam left the game. They revealed that a COVID-19 outbreak among the cast shut down filming right after the first challenge and although Tula “Big T” Fazakerley was the first star pulled out of the house, other cast members soon became sick as well.

Amanda revealed that it was just a couple of days after the first challenge and before the first elimination that they were pulled out of the house. She said originally, only one person had COVID-19 and was taken out of the house, but the other cast members remained in the house without cameras filming, with Ashley describing the situation as a “zoo.” She joked that it was like “spring break.”

Amanda said they were originally all quarantined together there but then more and more people started getting COVID-19, “like 3 or 4 people got it.” Amanda then asked, “Did they ever say why Nam… did he ever announce why he was gone or no?” They all said no. Later in the Live, Michele said that it wasn’t mandatory for the cast to be vaccinated and they hadn’t all received their vaccinations so it was a shame that there was an outbreak.

Amanda agreed and said, “especially because one person literally had to leave the game for it.” Michele replied, “Poor Nam… It’s so sad what happened to him last season and this season. When I found out he had COVID, he told me the day before we were going back in the house.” She said he had it the whole week of quarantine and she felt really alone when she found out he wouldn’t be back as her partner.

Neither MTV nor Nam has addressed the reason for his departure publicly at this time. Amanda said she wasn’t sure if MTV could reveal that Big T or Nam had COVID-19 because it may be considered a medical disclosure which goes against HIPAA rules.


Nam Also Left His Rookie Season of ‘The Challenge’ Due to a Medical Disqualification Over a Back Injury

This is the second time in a row that Nam had to leave the game after he was medically disqualified from “The Challenge: Double Agents” his rookie season. In the latter half of last season, Nam was told by TJ that he had to leave the show because of his back injury.

Nam later revealed that he hid his injury from everyone as best he could to avoid getting disqualified and the pain was intense for weeks. He said the pain eventually “started to shut my body down.” He told fans he wasn’t eating as much, was unable to work out and “at some point I felt so dizzy I couldn’t really interact with the others anymore and keep my pokerface to pretend that everything is alright.”

He said he broke down crying when TJ revealed he’d have to leave the game and felt very disappointed in himself. Aneesa Ferreira also shared on MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast that she saw Nam vomiting after one of the challenges because of the pain.

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