Despite most episode footage showing The Challenge: USA’s cast members co-existing and seeming to get along, that’s not the case following the aired episodes for some castmates.
The show brings together stars from CBS’ popular reality television shows, Big Brother, Amazing Race, Survivor, and Love Island, with the goal to make the final and win a share of substantial prize money.
Some cast members are former winners of their shows or brought a good deal of competitive experience with them. Unfortunately, Love Island was seemingly at a disadvantage regarding The Challenge spinoff, but many of its cast members took the underdog role and ran with it.
Among the show’s competitors was Cashay Proudfoot, who commented about one castmate after seeing and hearing their comments during an episode and on social media.
The Love Island star went as far as sharing she doesn’t have anything nice to say about that castmate following their time filming the season.
This report will contain spoilers up through The Challenge: USA, Episode 9.
Cashay comments on post-show relationship with castmate
In Episode 9 of CBS’ The Challenge: USA, Cashay Proudfoot was the latest cast member to go into elimination and get sent home, as she lost to castmate Sarah Lacina.
Following the episode’s airing, Cashay appeared in interviews on various YouTube channels, including former Survivor star Wendell Holland’s channel.
Cashay had great things to say about castmates, including Sarah and Tyson, but when it came to another Survivor star, she wasn’t happy with his comments about her during the show or on Twitter.
Wendell asked Cashay about one of his former Survivor castmates and friends from the Ghost Island season, Domenick Abbate. Wendell won that Survivor season, with Dom one of the two runner-ups.
“Dom can catch these hands,” Cashay said about her Challenge castmate when Wendell asked where things stand between them.
She said they had a conversation after winning their elimination in Episode 3 and thought they were “good.”
“And then I watched the show back and hear how he was talking about me, and I just don’t appreciate it,” Cashay said, adding she sent him a direct message on social media to let him know.
“It’s not even just that he was trash-talking me on the show in interviews; it’s the tweet of him like literally praising Cinco [Holland] for our win. That I don’t f**k with,” she said, adding, “I just don’t respect that man.”
“I don’t have nothing nice to say about your friend,” she told Wendell, even adding there was no chance for reconciliation because Dom didn’t offer a genuine apology.
What did Dom say about Cashay?
It was the third episode of the season where Cashay got teamed up with Dom thanks to The Algorithm randomly assigning everyone teammates. Cashay’s ex-boyfriend, Love Island castmate Cinco Holland, was still there, which complicated matters.
In an early confessional, Dom brought up how he kept getting partnered with the Love Island women and could use someone “a little closer in age” and “a little closer in the [maturity] level.”
Back at the house, footage showed Cashay talking with Sarah about Cinco and how things felt with their relationship story. Dom took notice of what his teammate was doing and brought it up in another confessional.
“We’re talking dating games out here? I’m here playing a game of strategy. I do not care about your relationship with Cinco. There’s no place for that here,” Dom said in his confessional, mentioning it was a distraction for them as teammates.
“Everything that comes out of her mouth drives me absolutely crazy,” Dom said during a confessional when they were competing in the daily challenge.
James Wallington and Tasha Fox lost that daily challenge, with Angela Rummans and Kyland Young the winning team. With their decision on who to send into elimination looming, Dom started telling castmates he was ready to go in. Cash said that wasn’t a smart idea when they talked one-on-one.
“Thank you for teaching me the game,” Dom joked before walking off and telling Cinco, “She’s so smart, that girl of yours. So smart.”
Cashay saved Dom during elimination event
The “so smart” comments came back to bite Dom when they went into the Episode 3 elimination against James and Tasha. During an event called Plug and Play, Dom was inside a tank full of water. The water was rapidly draining through a pipe at the bottom as Cashay had to stack various blocks as a tower.
If a team’s water drained below a certain line on the tank as they were trying to stack their blocks, that team would lose the event. However, host TJ Lavin said the competitor in the tank could plug the drain pipe at the bottom to buy some time.
Dom nearly made a costly mistake, as he never put a foot or any other body part on the drain pipe to plug it, which allowed the water to rapidly drain out and nearly go below the line. Ultimately, Cashay still stacked the various blocks and let them stand for enough time to win the event, saving her and Dom from going home.
“If I would’ve lost because of a silly mistake, I don’t know how I would’ve gone home. So, thank God Cash got this done,” Dom said in a post-elimination confessional interview.
However, in a July 21 tweet following the aired elimination win, Dom brought up how their “win wouldn’t have happened” without Cash’s ex providing an assist from the stage.
Dom’s comments prompted Cashay to fire back in a reply, calling out Dom’s near-costly mistake and his failure to recognize her performance in winning the event.
As Episode 9 concluded, Cashay was no longer competing to win the game, while her former teammate, Dom, was still there and probably owes much of that to her saving them in elimination.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.
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