Although Zach Nichols considers Laurel Stucky among his good friends, he said he had an issue with her behavior during The Challenge: Battle of the Eras.
Zach, who formerly appeared in multiple seasons of MTV’s competition series, was last on War of the Worlds 2 as a competitor, featuring Laurel.
Since then, he’s been away from the show, indicating issues someone involved in the show’s production has against him have prevented him from returning to the show.
However, he regularly makes his thoughts known on his Zach Nichols Podcast along with co-host Pierre Bacall.
The recent focus is on Season 40, which features many of Zach’s former friends and rivals from MTV’s 39 seasons of The Challenge.
He addressed Laurel’s behavior during the season, including her heated argument with castmate Cara Maria Sorbello in Episode 5.
Zach explains his ‘issue’ with Laurel in Season 40
“My issue is that Laurel is not prepared to suffer the repercussions of her actions,” Zach said in his Instagram podcast clip.
“She thinks that everyone should just be like, ‘Oh yeah, she did that, and now I’m just gonna let you get away with it,'” he said.
In Episode 5, Laurel hinted that she threw a daily challenge so her team would lose. Laurel admitted she wanted her Era 2 teammate, Emily Schromm, eliminated because she saw her as tough competition in the final.
The plan worked out as Emily went into elimination and lost to Era 1’s Tina Barta. However, the other Era 2 team member who had to go into elimination was Nehemiah Clark, who defeated Era 1’s Chris “CT” Tamburello.
Since Nehemiah won, he had to choose one woman from each of the four teams as a “target.” From his team, he selected Laurel, and she reacted by suggesting that Nehemiah didn’t know how to play the game and that it was a bad move.
Zach called out Laurel for saying Nehemiah “doesn’t play the game very well” after he selected her as a target.
“I’m thinking, ‘What are you talking about? You just threw a challenge, so he went into an elimination against CT, and you don’t understand why he would call you out?'”
Zach said every other girl on Laurel’s team tried to win the daily challenge and that she “basically didn’t give a rat’s a**” about winning it.
He praised Nehemiah’s decision as a “brilliant move” for him on The Challenge as it would force Laurel to try to win the next daily challenge to avoid going into elimination.
“If he wants to win, he needs Johnny [Bananas] and you to try your hardest,” he said, regarding Nehemiah putting a target on his teammate Laurel.
Zach said he asked Laurel and Cara about their fight
In an earlier part of Zach’s podcast, he and his co-host mentioned the dramatic altercation between Laurel and Cara Maria that viewers saw in Episode 5.
“As a reality TV fan, it was fantastic TV,” Zach said regarding the argument, but added, “Knowing what happened that was edited out makes me sick.”
He explained that the fact that it was edited out made him “sicker” and that it was replaced by the “only redeemable moment in [Cara and Laurel]’s 15-year friendship” made him “even sicker.”
He chastised the show’s production for the “heinous act.”
“I don’t care if I’m blacklisted or makes this even darker. You suck for doing that,” he said.
According to Zach, they contacted both Cara Maria and Laurel to invite them to be guests on the podcast.
He said Laurel gave a “hard No” but later said she would appear if they could “share profits with her.” Zach indicated that he agreed and told her they’d discuss the finances when she arrived. However, he said he didn’t hear back from her after that.
He said they had a “conference call” with Cara Maria, and she shared a lot about her incident with Laurel, which didn’t get shown in the episode’s final cut.
“I didn’t like necessarily watching that because I’m friends with both of them,” Zach said, adding, “I have my opinions, and I’ll share them later.”
He and his co-host also said that several other castmates confirmed what Cara said happened during the argument with Laurel.
“While it does take two people to have an argument, there’s a certain level you shouldn’t even go to,” Zach said.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
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.