The Challenge: USA is firing from all cylinders.
As a spin-off of the main show featuring faces from Big Brother, Love Island, Survivor, and The Amazing Race, it has put exciting individuals together in a way many didn’t think possible.
On The Challenge: USA Season 1 Episode 2, Cashel Barnett and Tiffany Mitchell were thrown into the elimination, and it was a bit of a shocker for them both.
“I could kind of feel it in the air,” Mitchell tells TV Fanatic of the blindside.
“People do kind of get distant from people when they are the target. And no one was really communicating with me on a game level.”
“So I kind of felt on the outs.”
Tiffany explained that Azah whispered to her that she had heard her name being thrown around.
“I was just really hoping that it wasn’t true. I was not prepared. I was hoping it wasn’t true.”
Tiffany says the footage of Xavier telling Tyson he would help him do damage control for throwing Tiffany in was “shocking.”
The Big Brother 23 star said she was most shocked that he didn’t waiver when he confirmed he would help Tyson.
As for Cashel, he worked with his ex-girlfriend, Kyra, on the series premiere, but she seemed happy to have him leaving the house.
Cashel was not surprised by the way Kyra acted.
“I know Kyra intimately and know that she will do what she needs to do for herself. So I was not surprised. I was a bit bummed out. I was hoping to pair up with Sarah for the first challenge.”
“Me too,” Tiffany chimed in with a laugh, adding, “I’m just kidding.”
“While I was talking to Sarah, Kyra came up and grabbed me and said, ‘I need you for this first thing.’ She chalked it up to you’re the only person that I trust, the only person that can calm me down, but I think that was just a for-show move more than anything because it’s obvious she doesn’t need me. She’s got her own thing going on.”
As for who would have been a target for Cashel had he returned to the house, it would have been Tyson.
“Honestly, my number one target was Tyson from the jump. I just saw his athleticism and saw kind of how he was always kind of squinty-eyed looking around.
“After he won the first challenge, me and Tiffany were gunning for that second challenge.”
Tiffany said she wasn’t gunning for Tyson because she thought they could all work together, but she found it difficult to gun for specific people because of the algorithm.
“You can be gunning for someone that’s going to get paired up with somebody that you’re working with. So ultimately, you can’t really know what move you’re going to make until you know who’s partnered together.”
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.