The Challenge’s Cara Maria Sorbello is a two-time winner of the show and has been on multiple seasons, likely giving her an inside look at how things work and how the show has evolved.
During a recent interview, she touched upon the popular notion that certain challenges or eliminations on the show might be “rigged” or “set up” to help specific players win.
In addition, Cara Maria was asked which cast members she would want to run a final with in a partner situation that she’s never been partnered with before, and she had team names ready to go.
Cara Maria speaks on Challenge being fair for players
Over the many seasons of The Challenge, speculation has popped up that production may have rigged certain aspects of the competition to help out certain cast members. While much of that comes from some viewers’ speculation, it recently arrived via a cast member during the Double Agents season. That was based on Lolo Jones’ online comments she made after her on-screen exit from the show aired.
In Lolo’s Twitter comments, she mentioned a daily challenge being staged, with the rules adjusted to allow Chris “CT” Tamburello and Tula “Big T” Fazakerley to win. Despite Lolo’s claims, other cast members denied what she said, including Devin Walker.
During her recent appearance for an #ALISTERS interview, Cara Maria was asked whether or not certain challenges or eliminations are set up to favor certain players to “help them.”
“The Challenge is what The Challenge is. It’s a reality TV show above anything, but the producers take a lot of pride in making sure that they do things as fairly as possible. So I would never say that,” Cara shared.
“You know, nothing can ever be perfect. They’re creating games out of nothing…You never know what’s gonna happen because it’s not something like a soccer game that’s played over and over and over again. It’s like a brand new thing that nobody’s ever done,” she added.
Viewers have seen various instances during elimination events where a rule popped up that hurt a competitor, disqualifying or taking away their win. That happened with CT in a previous elimination where he made a carabiner mistake and was informed he’d lost due to DQ.
In a more recent season, Laurel Stucky thought she had defeated opponent “Ninja” Natalie Duran in elimination but ended up losing due to a misplaced peg.
Those situations might upset viewers who felt a competitor was denied a win, but these were rule issues, and not all rules are necessarily clear to viewers for each elimination. In the situation for Laurel, both competitors were still able to try to finish the elimination properly, whereas in CT’s case he was simply disqualified.
That said, some fans still point out that several of the eliminations favor competitors who are bigger in size or have a more athletic background rather than giving a level playing field.
There are often puzzles involved in some of the eliminations, which could be another variable to makes things more fair. Several of these eliminations appeared on Double Agents, but there was also Hall Brawl and Ring of Spies, which were head-to-head physical battles.
Cara comments on who she’d like to team with and when she’ll return
In another part of her recent interview, Cara was asked which men’s and women’s competitor she’d want to “run a duos season Challenge with” that she hasn’t before. Cara’s answers included one of the show’s all-time greats, and one competitor who seems on the verge of achieving championships.
“I mean the most easy answer ever, I’d love Team Boston. I’d love me and CT. If I can’t partner with Paulie [Calafiore], give me CT,” Cara said for her men’s pick.
As for a women’s Challenge star she’d love to team up with, Cara chose Kam Williams. She even gave them a name, “Team Kamra.” Cara and Kam were together on the War of the Worlds 2 season, reaching the final as part of a huge alliance for Team USA. However, they’ve never been partners for a duos season. Neither have Cara and CT.
“I’ve been really blessed to have the best partners you could ever ask for in Challenge history,” Cara added.
Among those partners have been Darrell Taylor, Heather Cooke, Laurel Stucky, Abram Boise, and her cousin, Jamie Banks, with who Cara won the Battle of the Bloodlines season.
So when might fans see Cara Maria return for The Challenge? It seems that is still a big mystery, as she doesn’t even seem to know the answer herself.
“I think you need to ask MTV about that, because your girl’s as in the dark as you guys are,” Cara shared during the interview above.
Cara went on to say that she loves the support she continues to get from fans while away from the show and that she hopes she “gets to make them proud one way or another again.” When asked one male and one female competitor she wants to see back on the show, Cara quickly replied.
“Paulie and me,” she shared, showing that the interest to return to the show is definitely there. In terms of “non-biased” answers, she mentioned Cooke, Turbo, and Theo Campbell.
Fans will have to wait to see if Cara ever makes her return for a future season of The Challenge. Her boyfriend Paulie Calafiore has continually been dropping hints that he will return, so it’s possible Cara could return at some point too. Her biggest fans would certainly welcome it.
The Challenge Season 37 premiere date is TBA for 2021 on MTV.
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