How Former Rivals From 'The Challenge' Aim to Win 'The Traitors'

Johnny Bananas

If anything can bring sworn enemies together, it's the promise of $250,000 (and eternal bragging rights). Or at least that seems to be the case for the former The Real World and The Challenge cast members now competing on Season 2 of Peacock's The Traitors. The murder-mystery themed reality TV show, which will see 21 celebrities "murdered" one-by-one in the hunt for cash, tapped three MTV legends this season in the form of Trishelle Cannatella, Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio and Chris "CT" Tamburello.

Each member of the trio has courted controversy separately, with Trishelle scandalizing watchers of The Real World: Las Vegas with regular hookups (including a threesome), Bananas once opting to swipe a whole prize pot on The Challenge for himself, leaving his partner with nothing, and CT shouting, "I will smash his head and eat it," after another brawl on the show. Not to mention there has been no love lost between the three in their 20 years of knowing one another. CT and Bananas were frequent rivals on the show, immortalized in the "Bananas Backpack" incident, Trishelle claimed that CT had "no respect for women" and she hasn't had kind words for Bananas in the past either.

But perhaps entering their forties has mellowed all three a bit. Now the trio are headed into a new reality TV frontier, competing on The Traitors, and rather than smashing each other's heads, they're planning on going after others. Ahead of filming Season 2 of the show, Parade sat down with the group to discuss their strategy for playing the game and why, for the first time, they're determined to work together:

Related: Six Big Changes Coming to 'The Traitors' for Season 2

Did you do your homework coming here? Did you watch Season 1 of The Traitors? Did you watch any previous versions?

Johnny: I didn't watch anything. I thought the show was called "Traders," like with a D. I thought we were gonna come on, like, a dating show where we're gonna be trading significant others. CT and I spoke before, and he was like, "You watch the show?" I said, "No."

CT: I did a little research, but I tell you what. I'm still trying to figure out some of the rules.

Trishelle: I watched all of them. So if y'all have any questions you can ask me.

Johnny: I didn't want to, because I apply the same kind of strategy when I go on The Challenge. We've done so many seasons. Every season is different. They're like snowflakes. So coming into this show, I didn't want to watch prior seasons, because I wanted to come in with my own game plan. I didn't want to think the show was going to go one way and have it go the complete opposite.

CT: Which was the move, because the rules are a little different now.

Trishelle: Yeah, it's a little different. I knew that it was going to be different because there were all reality people and no non-television people. I was hoping for non-television people actually.

Johnny: My plan was just to hide behind Trishelle. Let her take all the arrows.

Related: Meet the Full Cast of 'The Traitors' Season 2

The contestants are all coming from different genres of reality shows. Did you gravitate towards The Challenge folks over the others? 

Trishelle: No, I hate these guys.

CT: Honestly, it's the first time she's ever been happy to see either one of us.

Trishelle: We have a lot of history. We were doing Spring Break MTV like 20 years ago together. So I've known Bananas for two decades, and CT and I's last show was like 14 years ago. And I just didn't like him. I'm sure he didn't like me either.

CT: I remember, because I was a season after you. You were The Real World Las Vegas. You and your season were like the pinnacle of The Real World. And for whatever stupid reason, they decided to put us in the suburbs of France somewhere. You had that like, "We're from the Vegas season, so don't talk to me."

Trishelle: Ish.

Johnny: We've got a long history together. Trishelle and I have blackmail on each other from spring break. CT was my first rivalry on The Challenge.

CT: We called it the Cold War.

Johnny: It's like the US and Russia. But I feel like now, coming in here, regardless of who else comes into the house, I'm gonna know Trishelle and CT better than anyone else. From an overarching "protect this house" mindset, I'm like "We're all here representing the old-school Real World and The Challenge."

Trishelle: They're like my brothers, and I can talk bad about my brothers, but you can't. I have not seen them in a long time, but when I saw them it felt like home, and I was like, "Oh, my guys. I know they're gonna protect me."

Johnny: Sometimes the evil you know is better than the evil you don't.

CT: We basically grew up in this world. I used to be like that maniac running around with my head cut off, and I would probably still be if I wasn't so tired all the time.

Trishelle: He's changed so much, and I was like, "Oh my god, we're grownups now."

Johnny: Speak for yourself. You look at the cast, and I mean yes, there are some people who have done some competition reality television shows, but I've always said in order to do The Challenge, you got to be cut from a different cloth.

I was thinking that would put a target on your head. 

CT: Well, you would think that, but if they want to win some money, they need to win some challenges.

Johnny: And generally, on The Challenge, that is a strategy. You don't want to be perceived as a threat. If we weren't all competing as one big group to win a pot of money for everyone, if you were competing against them, you'd be like, "Let's get rid of the stronger people." But this is a different game. On The Challenge, you come in and want to downplay your abilities.

CT: Here you want to be present. You can't just hide in the shadows. It's a tough dynamic. I know some people believe being a Traitor is going to be easier, but I think it's going to be easier to find a few bad apples than it is to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Johnny: On The Challenge, we are placed in one of the most insane environments with the most complicated individuals that exist anywhere on earth. Coming into this, it's gonna be kind of the ultimate test of being able to see if the skills we've acquired over the years apply somewhere other than The Challenge.

CT: When it comes to The Challenge, it's like Big Brother and Survivor and Fear Factor all in one. So when someone says they come from Survivor or Big Brother, I feel like, oh yeah, I kind of did that, but they can't say the opposite.

Other than the cash prize, what are you most looking forward to in this process? 

Trishelle: For me, The Challenge at one point had gotten way too hard for me, just physically. And so I was just like, all right, I had plateaued and then I was just like not good anymore. But for this, it's completely different.

CT: Plus, you didn't care.

Trishelle: Oh, yeah, no, I didn't care. I stopped caring because I didn't like the people. There are better people in this show. But this is more of a mental and emotional toughness game. And I've always felt like I was super mentally and emotionally tough. So this is the perfect game for me.

Johnny: The Challenge has gone in a direction where, it's unfortunate, but it seems like they're starting to push us vets and old guys out and replace us with this new generation. And I love the fact that it's the three of us here are still representing the old guard, the OGs, the Vets. They don't make them like they used to. We're often imitated, but never duplicated.

How do you navigate that knowing that one or more of you might be a Traitor? 

Johnny: At some point, the knives are going to come out, regardless, it's going to happen. But I look at these two as people I can trust, and I think you're gonna go to bat for me at least early on.

Trishelle: In this game we understand that you can still be friends with someone and vote them out and turn and backstab them and it's fine. But I don't know if everybody else gets that.

Next, Everything You Need to Know About 'The Traitors' Season 2