With All Stars 4, Kefla Hare returned as one of the true OG cast members from MTV’s The Challenge.
His participation in the popular spinoff arrived over 25 years after he first appeared on MTV.
After debuting on Road Rules: Down Under in 1998, he competed in the second season of The Challenge, also known as Real World vs. Road Rules.
Kefla was among the winners that season, which included fellow Road Rules star Mark Long, who helped create The Challenge: All Stars spinoff for Paramount+.
Mark appeared in several more seasons after winning that second season of MTV’s The Challenge, but Kefla did not.
During a recent podcast appearance, he spoke about why that was his only season of the competition series on MTV.
Kefla shared why he didn’t return to MTV’s The Challenge after his Season 2 win
While on the Zach Nichols Podcast, Kefla spoke about not returning for MTV’s competition series.
He indicated that after winning The Challenge Season 2, he got an “interest call” for another season, which he thought was Battle of the Sexes. However, that call arrived soon after he and his girlfriend, now his wife, had just become engaged.
“I was like, ‘Nah, I think they trying to make me hook up with somebody.’ Trying to mess me up,” he said, adding that he told them, “I’m good.”
“The next one was The Inferno, but [his wife] was pregnant with the twins, and she had to be on bed rest,” Kefla said, explaining why he turned that down.
He also said that at that point, he believed their appearance fee for the show was $3,200, and that was it, making it less worthwhile. In those earlier days, there wasn’t any social media opportunity for cast members either.
Kefla said that speaking engagements and bar appearances were the only ways to earn money beyond The Challenge at the time.
“After that, I think they were like, ‘This dude is not feeling us,'” he said since he’d turned down two interest calls.
Kefla revealed that he spoke with one of the show’s producers on the phone at one point, who told him he was “high on the competitiveness” and “high on the likeability” ratings, but he was “low on the drama.”
“It was right when they was really starting to pop off drama. Drama was selling,” he told Zach and his co-host, adding that he worked in education while away from the reality TV show.
“I can’t go on there screwing everybody [or] fighting everybody. I’d never get a job,” Kefla said.
Kefla said he thought he ‘shut the door for good’ when he couldn’t be on an earlier All Stars season
During his chat with Zach and his co-host, Kefla revealed that he had kept the same phone number for potential casting calls from The Challenge over the years.
He admitted he wished he could’ve participated in the earlier seasons of All Stars, and revealed he was called to be an alternate for Season 2.
Although he initially agreed to it, he said he suffered an ankle injury that required surgery and had to tell them he couldn’t be an alternate. After that, he thought he would no longer get calls for All Stars.
“I said, ‘Man, I done shut the door for good. That’s it. They ain’t gonna call me back,'” Kefla said.
However, he said when he received the call for All Stars 4, his wife encouraged him to take the opportunity and that they’d do whatever it took to make it work.
The rest is history, as Kefla appeared in the fourth season of All Stars alongside other show winners, including Veronica Portillo, Cara Maria Sorbello, Laurel Stucky, and Adam Larson.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras premieres Wednesday, August 14, at 8/7c on MTV. The Challenge: All Stars 4 episodes are available on Paramount+.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
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