As the first season of The Challenge: All Stars has come to a successful close, details recently came out about one former champion who nearly was part of the OG cast.
Unfortunately, like many other former cast members from Road Rules, The Real World, and The Challenge, she had a busy schedule with her current work and life, making it impossible to participate in the show’s filming.
In a recent interview, Jamie Chung spoke about how she was “psyched” to possibly be on the show, but revealed why she couldn’t appear on the first season. In addition, she gave her thoughts about how the prize should have worked.
Former The Challenge winner says Mark Long contacted her
Jamie Chung is a former cast member from The Real World: San Diego season where her castmates included Brad Fiorenza and Robin Hibbard, both of whom appeared on several seasons of The Challenge.
Chung appeared on just The Inferno II season, but that was good enough as she was part of the winning Good Guys team. Her teammates included Landon Lueck along with Mike Mizanin and Darrell Taylor. Mike has gone on to fame in WWE as The Miz, while Darrell is a four-time champion who just finished as a runner-up on All Stars.
Jamie was nearly part of that first All Stars season with Darrell. In a recent Pop Culture interview (below), she was asked about the spinoff show.
She revealed she was contacted by Mark Long, who helped create the concept and appeared as part of the show’s cast. Mark was also an executive producer on the project. Jamie said she was willing to participate if there was some sort of charity involved in the competition.
“You know, it’s a large sum of money, but I think I’m in a place now where if I’m gonna fight for something, I’m gonna fight for the people that don’t have a voice,” Jamie said.
Unfortunately, the scheduling didn’t work out for Jamie due to another project she had going on during the time All Stars was happening.
“Sadly they wouldn’t let me come on because I was in New Zealand shooting something else, but they had a really strict quarantine and they didn’t want people to come in and out, and so the scheduling didn’t work out,” she added.
She said she was “so psyched” to be part of the project and was “entertaining the idea.” While she said they tried to find “ways to make it happen,” it didn’t work out.
“It’s certainly a part of my past that I have such great, fond memories of,” Jamie shared, adding that she’s been enjoying the episodes on Paramount Plus.
Jamie Chung to appear in revival of popular series
Following her days on The Real World and The Challenge, Jamie Chung pursued a career in acting and has been involved in several projects since. They’ve included Once Upon a Time, The Gifted, and Lovecraft Country.
Jamie, 38, is also married to fellow actor Brian Greenberg (One Tree Hill, How to Make it in America). They officially tied the knot in 2005.
As for Jamie’s current work, she appears on Lovecraft Country as Ji-Ah. For her next project, she’ll appear in the revival of the popular series Dexter. Jamie said for a long time, she really wanted to be a part of a show she loved, and Dexter was one of them.
As far as inside details about the revival she didn’t give any huge spoilers, but said fans of the show will be “in for a ride.”
“We have original cast members coming back. It literally picks up from the last season finale, and I do believe that Clyde Phillips and Michael C. Hall listened to the fans. I think they were left wanting a proper closure, so I think they’re definitely gonna get that,” Jamie said.
She went on to say she believes the Dexter revival will come out sometime in late fall. Meanwhile, with rumors of another season of All Stars and over 100 former The Real World or Road Rules stars expressing interest, one has to wonder if Jamie Chung may be part of a future OG season.
The Challenge: All Stars reunion arrives on Thursday, June 3 on Paramount Plus.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
The link above is an affiliate link. This means that for any qualifying purchase you make, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.