May 13, 2021 • 50 mins
On their first episode covering The Challenge: All Stars, Tori and Aneesa are joined by the Godfather himself, Mark Long, to discuss the excitement behind All Stars, what's to come on this season, and what it's like to come back onto The Challenge after so many years.
Watch the biggest event in Challenge history, The Challenge: All Stars, streaming now exclusively on Paramount Plus, and go behind the scenes after with MTV's Official Challenge Podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's up everyone. I'm Tori and I'm Anissa, and this
is MTV's official Challenge podcast, and guys, the weight is over.
Today we are getting into the very first episode of
The Challenge All Stars. Anissa, how excited are you? I
can't wait? This episode was so fun to watch. I mean,
it was so fun to be a part of, but
(00:22):
so fun to watch. It feels just like the classic Challenge,
you know, yeah, totally. It was amazing. So later in
the episode, we'll be interviewing the guy that we kind
of have to thank for all of this, to Mark
long as you guys call him the Godfather, So stick
around for that. Yeah, all right, let's get started. Y alright, Anissa,
(00:47):
let's bring back one of our favorite segments, except this
time it comes with a new name and a new
time and this is time Bomb. And in honor of
the twenty two o G All Stars that have come
back to the show, we have twenty two seconds system
up the episode. Are you ready it? Which is ridiculous.
I think it's absolutely absurd to think that I could
recap anything in twenty two seconds. I can't even tell
(01:09):
you what I ate for breakfast in seconds, you know,
I'm detail oriented, but I'm gonna try it out. I mean, ready,
hold on, wait we get there, all right, okay, wait,
we get there. Okay, three two one go. So we
show up in Argentina. It's really pretty our houses Hugh amongus.
We also have a house cat named Sylvester. He'll be
(01:29):
there later. Um. We also have a river in the backyard.
We meet t J. He's like, this is gonna be
an actual challenge where you're gonna play for five dollars
and everybody thinks we're playing back air games, but we're
not going to show up to the first challenge. We
gotta swim without life vest and go find the blocks.
I actually swam out there three times, but they don't
show it anyhow. A lot of people almost died. We're
clearly not good at math um. And then the silver
team wins, and that's okay, that was good. That was good.
(01:52):
It was a lot okay, alright, So Tori, you have
twenty two seconds, which is almost your age. Hey hate you,
but younger UM's two seconds. Are you ready? Three two one?
So they had to go back in the water. It's
(02:12):
a silver team versus the Copper team and the captainists
of Sela and they win, so they are super happy,
and she killed it in that swim. So everybody goes
back to the house and Litteria has to go into
elimination and he decides that he tells the house that
he wants to go again to Ace. Ace feels pretty
upset about that, but he's like, all right, I guess
I gotta go do it. Pull up to the elimination.
It's a hall. I mean no, it's not a hall,
it's a pole rettal. And then it just ended up
(02:34):
becoming a plunging situation and it needs to probably have
the best line out of the whole show. That was amazing.
I I mean it was hard to do, but oh yeah,
it goes home obviously that was an amazing episode and
needs to like how good does it feel to like
be linked back up with all of those people that
you've known for so long? It feels good. I mean,
(02:55):
I'm really happy to be with you know, people I
do know, people I haven't seen. I mean Tech was
a big surprise. Yeah I didn't. I didn't expect to
see him, but when I saw my long and strong daddy,
I was like, hey, Tech money, I mean because we
were all at the airport, like having wine together before
we flew out, and it was just so cool. I
(03:16):
was like cheers in with death and talking to I mean,
it was just awesome to see everybody and uh, you know,
just be with everybody as adults because we did this
when you know, we were younger. You know, a lot
of us haven't seen each other since our twenties, so
it's really so nostalgic, so nostalgic. Who do you think that?
Who do you think we get? Play of the Day? Oh,
has sela hands down. I think that she came into
(03:37):
this game, um being doubted a little bit. You know,
we had talked about it. Not to get into too
many personal things, but you know, I think there was
a lot of pressure. She stepped up to be captain
without even thinking about it. So she didos to her
That's one part of her play of the day. Not
only did she step up, but she got in. She
calls it a platypus, like a platypus and she just
(04:00):
am and it was amazing because she pulled She's five ft,
pulled stuff up with her feet like you don't even
see it, but she killed it. And I'm so happy
for her. Yeah, it was awesome to watch her. I
love that you even pointed out that she like asked
to be captain. She really did step up, and it's
cool when somebody takes that. Like she was like, if
we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. I'm captain,
(04:20):
let's go. Like that energy is awesome to watch and
she crushed that. So she probably felt so good after
she won. What do you think the dirtiest deed was.
I mean, you don't get to see it, but there
were people that legitimately did not go back out and
swim Okay, Ace didn't go back um Alton went in
(04:47):
and he started cramping up and it came back out.
So I was like, do you want you know what, boys,
I'll just go back in. So it was just one
of those things where it's like, um, I think especially
coming right from bull Agents where people you know, were
doubting me, to like really having to hold my own
and hold it up for the team too of like
just jumping in and being like, you know what, it's
(05:08):
got to get done. You know, we need to win,
and if I don't put my all into it, I'm
not being a team player. Yeah, that was a big
thing for me. Yeah, I mean, and there were a
lot of people who did give it there all, but
like you said, there was a lot of people who
just weren't able to pull it through. And do you
think it was because the water was cold or do
(05:29):
you think it was because they didn't realize that they
signed not my thing as did not feel this cold water.
I mean, I know that you will hear it from
many people that it was freezing. I don't really remember,
because I took a lot of deep breaths and I
took my time and I really swam, But I didn't
think it was I think it was the really putting
your all into it. If you got to the blocks,
(05:50):
the higher the number was, the lower it was going
to be in the water, and there was this buoyancy
so you had to fight against that get equalized. Then
you had to flip over and swim to it. So
it wasn't like this easy thing to do, and you
had no life jacket on, which rarely ever happens on
these challenges. So I think it's, you know, a mashup
of like all of these people not competing in such
(06:12):
a long time. Also, these people expecting it to be
not this crazy, because the last challenges they did it
wasn't this crazy. Um, so it's that. And then you know,
swimming out there in the unknown and the pressure of
like wanting to win and do well. So I think
it's a bunch of things at play that um made
this first challenge really like snap people back into reality,
(06:34):
like this is the challenge. Yeah, definitely goes by a
different name. Yeah, you can see it on people's faces. Yeah,
so crazy to watch. And you killed it, and you
and a Cella killed it. So it's like, kudos to
you guys, and you guys get to go back to
the house and like you just see you all party together,
and like I loved that you guys had that nineties
theme party. It just brought everything back because if you
(06:55):
look in those old interviews that were playing when you
guys came off the tour bus or the bus whatever
it was, um, like those those outfits were back then,
you know. So it's like you guys actually just made
it so nostalgic for all the viewers. Yeah, it felt
really good to do that. I mean I just was
so happy to be a part of it. And when
we when we do a nineties party, we go all out. Yeah,
(07:18):
I mean, we committed to making our brows skinny again.
We committed to you know that like that concealer colored
lips sick with a black liner or the dark brown liner.
We committed to butterfly clips that you wore this weekend. Um,
because I was doing like a nineties hip hop versus
(07:39):
like the craft, you know, like having like a mashup
of outfits. But you know, that's how it used to be.
It used to be fun. So hopefully people can learn
from this. And when I say people, I mean these
the newbies on the challenge learned that like a little
fun goes a long way, especially for your your mental
and emotional well being. Absolutely, and you could see it.
(08:00):
I mean, the vibes were just right. And I love
that Ace pulled up with that eighteen nineties outfit, Like
did he actually like he did it on purpose? Right?
He didn't actually think it was I mean, I think
he did it on purpose. But it's a so Ace
has always been like super funny to me, and I
think that he's a sleeper on the funny side where
you don't know that he's that funny unless you live
with him. But he's like a silly guy. He's smart,
(08:22):
he is funny, and I don't think he tries to
be funny. Yeah, but yeah, it would be very ace
like to bring this like old eighteen nineties costume so good.
It was so good. He a little secret. He was
always my challenge crush from from watching this. Yeah, isn't
that crazy? A little southern charm. Yeah, he's a cuteie. Yeah,
(08:42):
it was like nicest and it sucks that you know,
he had to go into that first elimination like you
could just see like I know, we know what it's
like with filming, Like just knowing that you guys had
to quarantine all that time where you even got there
and then somebody's going home like that doesn't feel Yeah,
because we did. I mean we did like a nine
day quarantine. That's crazy, I know, and I think that
was hard for a lot of people. But walking into this,
(09:06):
uh it was called the arena where we got to
do our eliminations. It was cool because it was like
a all of our faces were up there with how
many eliminations we had won, so we had stars. So
you know your girl had some stars. Yeah, so if
you lost, they burn yours so it's kind of like
this weird like place. But then to see pole wrestle,
(09:28):
I'm like, oh my god, they're about to bring back
all the old eliminations. So I got hyped because I
was this is the first elimination that I've ever done,
so it's very nostalgic for me. It was just crazy
to like see that and then see you know what
these men are capable of as they get older. And
I'll tell you one thing. Age ain't nothing but a
(09:49):
number shout out to literarian. I mean, he crushed that.
Like it was scary to watch. I was like, oh
my god, the competition is not slacking. This is intense. Yeah,
and he was like, baby, I was on a six.
I was like, I do not want to see you
on a ten. Yeah. You know, this is a guy
that played football like it doesn't leave you, and he's
a personal trainer like and he also has the heart
(10:11):
of a lion. So I think that you know, he
wanted it more and he was willing to do whatever
to get it. Yeah, the look on his face when
he saw it was a pole wrestle, he was so happy. Well,
he didn't know what it was. He was like, what's
a pole wrestle. Oh yeah, he was like, what's a
pole wrestle? I was like, alright, Daddy, just listened to
these to these rules first, t J will like, you
(10:33):
know exactly what you need to do. That he amazing
did not disappoint. Wow. Yeah, there's so many insane moments
in that. And then it was sad to watch as
go home so early, like I don't know, I feel
I felt bad, like he looked so defeated and like
hit dirt all over his face, you know. So I know,
and it sucks too because I think that it's one
(10:54):
of the I hope he comes back, but I do
think it's one of those things where you don't if
you don't have a lot of like strong relationships in
the house, it's sometimes easier to vote that way. And
Hazela could have used that life saver, which hasn't been
used since I don't know Gauntlet one or Inferno two.
I guess where they had like the life shield or
(11:14):
whatever where you got to get it and then you
could save people. So we haven't seen this um element
and forever. Yeah, and then Hazela, we didn't know what
it did. So Hassela was like I'm not using it.
I mean great, because you want to you want to
wait to see because you're it's what if she had
to pick somebody to go in. That's exactly what we thought.
So we were like, all right, we're not going to
(11:35):
use it. We'll just wait until next week maybe a
guy I'll use it, right, and then you'll be able
to see like what actually happens. Which it's such a
cool thing, Like it's a really cool trick to have
up your sleeve to be able to pull that. But
I also thought it was funny how she pulled those
receipts from what he said in her his interviews years
ago about her, and she remembered because she didn't remember
that she did a challenge with people on Gauntlet too.
(11:55):
She was like, you guys were there. She didn't really
remember that, but she remember what he said. That's funny,
isn't that crazy? Yeah? It was nuts. But I'm glad
that she quoted him directly and she didn't misquote him.
And he definitely said that, And yeah, that's what's great
about doing the show for so long. You have a
lot of receipts. Yeah, yeah, and you don't know when
you're gonna be able to get your when karma is
(12:17):
going to be served, and just took years to get there. Yeah,
it's just funny because all these people have such history,
you know, with each other. Yeah, Yeah, it's amazing. I'm
so excited we're gonna be able to talk to Mark
long to like he obviously was the one that, like
cannapulted this thing to the level that it's at right
now and brought it to life. So it's gonna be
so awesome talking to him. Yeah, Marcus like a big
(12:38):
brother to me. We've done this together for a long time,
and he's always been, um it was gonna be like
a beacon of hope and truth. No, he's always been
like this, very even killed like funny guy that knew
all the R and B jams. Yeah, and he was
just he's always just been a great guy. I Mean,
I couldn't say one bad thing about him. So I'm
(13:00):
so excited to pick his brain and get into you
know how we want o G came about. Yes, I
can't wait. Let's talk to him. All right, folks, we
have come to my favorite, favorite favorite part of the podcast,
(13:21):
and this is an extra special podcast for me because
this man has been so gracious with me. He has
been a wonderful friend. He has been quite quite easy
on the eyes over the year. Um. You may know
him as the Godfather. I know him as Mark Long Mark.
Thank you for being here with us today. The Wild
(13:49):
was a great intro that was you forgot international singing superstar?
Oh my god, I totally forgot. And if you haven't
heard his hit single Rio, I Go to Rio? Can
I Go to Rio? Um? That has only been played,
you'll love it. I recorded that. Oh my god, is
(14:10):
this a real thing. Yes, it's really good. I'll share
it with you at Oh. I cannot wait to listen
to it. That's amazing, hilarious. I was approached by two
producers after my road rules. They said, we want to
try to turn you into a pop byte pop star,
but down down in like South America. So I re
recorded a smash hite called I Go to Rio. But
it's well produced, it's fun, it's catchy and Tori you
(14:32):
you should listen to a gun. So that's it. I'm
planning on it. I'm so excited. That's so good. It's
I mean, it's it's brilliant. Um smile. The entire song yeah. Yeah,
it's hard not to because Mark is probably one of
the most likable humans I have ever been. You really
are nicky, Lisa. How does it feel want to be
(14:54):
back and to to know that, like you had your
hands in this the whole time. It's been surreal because
because um, you know, you know, television and TV producing
nothing happens fast. I mean it's usually you know, years
upon years. So I mean I had the idea a
while ago, but then when I actually put that tweet
out and the US Weekly picked it up and then
that went viral. That was in late July. So to
(15:15):
have the show, have me partner with Banter Murray, and
then the Paramount plus MTV partnership happening, and then it's
shooting and airing in seven eight months, it's pretty crazy.
Um insane, Yeah, it's insane. So it just was so surreely.
Then packing the night before I left. I know, you
guys have been doing it out for a while, but
just bringing out that big luggage and being like, oh,
(15:36):
this will be cool to throw in. Maybe I'll throw
in a fucking clown suit, you know what I mean. So, like,
I think you have like different things that you can
add like, for instance, I was like, I told everyone,
told production, have everyone bringing nineties outfit because we're going
old school and have a nineties party. So just starting
to think we will make good TV. And the first
episode was fucking phenomenal. I loved that so many people
(15:57):
reached out, and uh, I just I think it was time.
I think the fans are excited about it, um. And
I think it's good to have that new challenge old
school challenge balance. I think there's an audience for each
of them. Um. And like I said, you know, I
could see us going season six, seven, eight nine, and
then at some point doing a one off spinoff super
(16:18):
Bowl of the New Guys and the old Oh my god,
can I be on your team? We will do. It's
going to be a spinoff, one off episode of O
G S versus the New Kids, like the super Bowl,
and it will be the biggest thing this fucking network
(16:38):
has ever seen. Oh my god, it would be so sick.
I'm so hype right now. I mean Litterryan against uh
come on, yeah, literarians nasty. So in this vision, who
do you think would win? Oh? Come on, I mean
I've said it before. There's a there's a I've always
(16:59):
been a raid of my big brother. Right, He's older
and he's like a man, and I've always been younger,
even though I'm bigger physically, but I've always been afraid
of him. I think we're gonna come in with that
same mentality, like I'm gonna treat those kids like they're
my kids, and we're going to have a problem, you
know what I mean. So there's always that kind of
elderly respect. You know. We'll see. But I'm loving how
(17:23):
the fans are reacting to this. I want this to
go on many seasons with just our crew. M There's
so many names that have reached out since the first
episode that now are available somehow magically magically available. So
but I'm super thankful, super grateful. And one of the
coolest moments for me was when the show was totally
(17:45):
finished and rapped, t J actually reached out and he
was like, Dude, I've been doing this ship a long time.
This is one of the most fun times I've had
on a challenging years, And I was like, you know what,
that makes me feel good. And and the fact that
even if you got voted off or sent home, everyone
still feels like it was such a positive experience. There's
no negativity, and I don't think we're not as visceral
(18:07):
as these young kids. You see this story, you're those
younger kids get crazy on Twitter. I mean, I hate
it in the world. Yeah, I don't even go on there.
It's the worst. Well, the last time we saw you
was Dual Too with me. The last time actually was
X's but the last time with you. Last time with
you was to do You and I had a great
(18:28):
time on Dual Too. Well. Yeah, of course, I feel
like any time we're on a show together, we basically
have a good time. I don't there's never been a
bad a Nissa Mark moment. You know what, You're absolutely
right and I told this is someone else. Um by
having you on was just I mean, you're such a
figurehead of this show and for us, For me personally,
(18:50):
I feel like you've been on everyone I've been on.
I don't even know that if that's a fact, but
I feel like you have because you and I, like
if we haven't spoken in years, there's zero weirdness, there's
zero awkwardness. When we're together. It picks up like you're
a sister and it's like, yeah, oh, you know this
tory from cast members that you get along with totally,
especially with a Nissa's her her energy is the best. Lisa,
(19:11):
kudos to you. You did great going down and grabbing
that lot. I saw what we did and you were
that tried. They don't want to show me go. I
swam out three times. I went down like four times each.
They were like, oh, these these people that do the
regular show can't even didn't even make it out there.
I made it out there. We just had a struggle
piece one fifty that will haunt us. You know, those
(19:35):
moments in a challenge where it just doesn't work and
we don't know why it didn't work because we had
people that were going down there. Yeah. But I think
I watched this with my parents the other night and
they're like, their favorite line was and Aces getting plunged
like a twig. My dad laughed out loud for that.
So you were great on that first set. All I
(19:55):
could see. I mean, it may get it may get better.
It probably will. It this is about you. I want
to know what was most shocking for you coming back
after you know, being away for so long. Wow, Um,
I had to get really quick back in that road
rules mentality of living with a lot of people, you know,
having to be around everyone all the time. So I
(20:17):
kind of reverted into that road rules, I don't give
a fuck attitude, which is always the best attitude to have,
and uh, you know, nothing bothered at me at that point.
So I was always do you notice, I was always
trying to you know, calm the person down that hated
their food that day, or that wanted to lead because
they're fucking not getting off sleep. I'm like, go out
and just relax. So that was getting back and you know,
(20:41):
I don't my frame does not fit in a twin bed. Uh,
like I was a baby, you know what I mean,
Like I used to. But it's just that kind of stuff,
the basic stuff. But in terms of gameplay and strategy
and you know, and and you know, we try to
play as fair as possible, but at the end of
the day, it's five h dollars, there has to be
(21:02):
some sort of strategy and alliance. So I was instantly
thrown into game mode because you start seeing mode, well thought,
that person will probably have that person back, and you know,
I've known this person for this many years, so I'll
have their back. So it wasn't that anything shocked me.
It was the biggest thing that shocked me was the
fucking challenges themselves, because it wasn't like we showed up
(21:25):
and played pin the tail on the donkey in the backyard,
not at all, you douy didn't even have life jackets
that first, like that. And that was a long swim, right,
How long was that it was? It was? It was
far but more less than the swim. The water was
like fifty degrees, so it was almost like more of
a hyper ventilating type of thing that people were kind
(21:46):
of bothering the most in the actual swim. I mean,
you know what I noticed though, and I will call
him out on this right now. You've heard it here. First,
everyone gave a ship for sending Ace home or actually
you know, nominating him. If you watch this show again,
Ace does not even get his hair wet. He swims out,
he looks down a little bit with this thing, his
little couple of bangs are wet, and he swims back in.
(22:08):
I'm like, dude, if you're gonna do this, at least
go under the water and try or like pull up
something or do something. But like watch it again. Yeah, no,
he didn't go back in. I wish they would have
shown when I'm like, Ace, do you want to go?
And he was like, nas, I was gonna go in.
I'm like, neither one of y'all can do this. I'm
going to go back in, right, grown ass man. I
was like, just try it. Yeah. I was like, I said,
(22:29):
this is the final and we have to swim. I
need you to go look for some ship because if
I know, I'm putting my life out and Mark, I mean,
you came back like you were going for it every time.
So I'm like, if Mark's doing it, then I'm gonna
about the same effort. Everyone should be putting in the
same effort. He was the only one that did not
(22:50):
swim out a second time, and some of us had
swim out three times, you like, but by that alone
and him not getting his hair wet, and I'm like,
we made the right choice right there, trying to get
your hair wet. You know. I did feel bad for
him when he left. He was like crying about his dog.
I was like, I can relate to that. Listen, I
love a you know, hopefully we'll see him again, but
(23:12):
you know, you gotta you gotta go back in the water.
You gotta sit on the ice again. You gotta eat
the ship more than you think, you know, whatever you
do totally. So yeah, he don't know. I will chat
with him a little, really chat with him. Well, who
shocked you the most that day? Because there was a lot,
I would say, and I think from the viewers standpoint,
there was so much going on and I feel like
(23:33):
a lot of people did a lot of great ship.
But what were some shocking moments for you during that
first challenge? Well, shocking in a good way obviously, you
and e Sella being able to swim out, you coming
very close to pulling that thing up, which they didn't
show it. I lifted that block off and you saw
the cement come off the floor like our thing would
not pull off. You shocked me in terms of being
(23:57):
able to stack it up, step it up, he Sella?
And who who shocked me in terms of not being
able to Ruthie's from Hawaii. She should be like a
like a seal in the water, and and like she
grew up on an island, so if anyone can go
down there and swim, But I think the cigarettes in
the cold because she has literally she's a hunter pounds
caught up with her very fast, and you know, you
(24:20):
expect like the yes Is of the worlds and to
do a great job. So I wasn't really surprised on
that end. But even like a big easy man, I
mean the guys, he's one that that a should take
notes from. He gives it a hundred and fifty every time,
whether he fails or not. And I applaud that, and
I want to reward people for that, So I'd say
(24:41):
he's selling you. Nissa shocked me the most because you
did a great job. And he's is a sleeperman. She is.
She's a sleeper. Everyone sleeps on her and she always
pulls out. She always pulled it out in some crazy thing.
It's always was swimming too. Always just thought it was
it how it is for her being a slouch. Yeah, yeah,
she's a monster. I mean this episode like it was
(25:04):
watching it obviously, Like I told you, I wish I
was there. I'm sure so many people wish they were there.
I had like this amazing tone to it, like it
just felt like very like old school. Is this the
vibe that you were going for? You just wanted to
just like solidify the old school vibes and like bring
back this mentality. Yeah, because I even you know, here's
a little peek behind the curtain here. Um I let
(25:26):
him know. I said, hey, we all have nineties outfits.
We want to like have a nineties party right out
of gate, and they were like, well, you know, maybe
we should save it for later, because you know, some
things we got to get done the first few days.
I'm like, no, I said this, I want I want
everyone to be here. We let we actually, like you know,
it got squashed for a second, but then they came
back and they're like, hey, Mark, you guys do the
(25:46):
nineties party, and right, you're good, and I'm like, let's
do this. So everyone was like super psych But just
I've known from being doing him so many times back
in the day, and I've seen it on social media
what fans were looking for, what they wanted or what
they thought would be cool. So like just the impromptu
stuff that isn't on the show, Like, yeah, they plan
these badass challenges and awesome, and there's always that natural
(26:08):
competitiveness and you'll see the alliances as we go, But
like those little things that weren't in the script, so
to speak, like the nineties party. We have a great
um pajama party where everyone dresses up later down in
the in the series. So I always lean on some
stuff like that to kind of add in if the
other stuff isn't as great, because it's just a fun
it's fun, and let's everyone kind of step away from
(26:28):
the challenge for a moment and just kind of be
who they are, which is cool. Do you think that
that's what's missing from the current challenges, like that fun, carefree, silly. Well,
I've heard this a lot, and there's, like I said,
I love the new challenge, but there's there's a different
there's an audience for that, and there's an audience for
(26:49):
some of them are exactly the same. But you know,
some people tune in and just strictly see the competition
of it all and and how that breaks out with
our show. You know, I think some people see the
competitive this, but they're also expecting that kind of hijinks
and comedy and throwback to what it was. UM. I
do think a lot of kids today, the younger folks,
(27:10):
like even you know, the newer school of rookies. UM,
a lot of them show up worrying about how many
social media numbers are jumped up, and like, how's my
Instagram doing when I'm away? Like if noticed like on
all our calls, like no one ever talked about Instagram
or Twitter when we're shooting. Um, everyone called there like
moms or wives. Like it was never like talking to
(27:33):
their person running their social media saying, hey, how are
my numbers doing? Like this? We didn't give a ship
because I guess it's a different, you know, cultural thing,
but we grew up we didn't even care. I I
don't think Twitter and Instagram is not around when I
did mine, so um, I really didn't think about that,
you know. And it's nice to see people reacting in
my my social media numbers going up, but that's not
(27:55):
the goal of what this is. It's just let's give
the old school fan a great slice of life of
what they missed. The fucking soundtrack is on point. I
love um, but it's just I think nowadays, and I've
said this before, if we showed up, we would play
just as hard if we were playing for a temper
(28:16):
pedic bed as a you know what I mean, because
that's just how we've always done it. So that huge
chunk of money definitely adds to the stakes of the show,
but it's not needed for us to make make a
good show and and really have a great time doing it.
So I think, what I like to see more fun
moments on the new stuff, of course, because everyone you know,
(28:38):
they miss that, you know, um, but there's such a
you know, there's a love hate man when you watch that,
Like there's people that really like they don't like each
other that much on that new show, and it's it
shows like, oh it's crazy. Yeah, So I mean people
love that too, So I just hope, I hope we
can be a nice compliment to that show. Put it
that way. I think it's also like you said, like
(29:01):
when they're looking at you know, caring about followers and
whatever else. And yes, of course at a different time,
I get it, but we don't give a ship. So
I think that we partied differently, Like we had a
whole guest list and we literally would not let Durrell
in and we called him Darryl and he had a
wig on this weird like tongue flick and it was
just like we were so invested. Everyone went into character.
(29:21):
I mean, there was a line outside waiting to get
into the club and great like and we don't. We
just don't care. We don't have acid either. Once we
decided we're doing it, we were like, all right, we're
gonna be setting up the clubs in like ten minutes.
Everyone come and help out, like we actually like really
get him. There's not that one sour perv be like,
I'm not gonna do it everyone. Even so, we made
(29:43):
invitations too, we passed them out. Was just competed in
a different era. Um, you know, your guys challenges Tory
today are insane, Like I love to get a you know,
piece of those, but like, you know, I wanted to
just show that even though like your mom of three,
or you're forty nine years old or whatever the quote unquote,
(30:08):
you know the thing it is that helped hold you back,
it's it's not an issue. And as long as everyone
shows up and gives a hundred percent, like people identify
with that. And I think that's why even the Middle
America has really dived in and we've gotten such great responses.
I thought it was going to be received well from
what I've done on Twitter and social media, but the
fact now it's like it's above and beyond and it's
(30:30):
just so cool to open up my Twitter and just
see positive, positive, positive, positive pos. So it's just cool
for me, you know, yeah, I'm sure it's amazing, and
I'm sure like for everybody who who pulled back up,
Like it's been years since you guys have number one
seeing each other, seeing t J? Like, what was it
like seeing him for the first time. I chat with
(30:51):
TJ like every once in a while, whether it's like
a d M on on Instagram or something, but like
the first time that I knew it was real real?
Was we quarantined in at hotel right, Lissa and I
faced the I faced the streets so I could see
like the streets and whatnot. So the day we left,
when I saw the big bus full up with the
Challenge letters on the side, I was like, oh shit,
(31:14):
all right, it's real. You know, they didn't get little
minivans for us with a little Challenge sticker. This is
the real deal. And then solidify that when we pulled
up and t J was there, it just you could
see he was genuinely like excited, like he was like,
I can't believe some of you guys are back. He's like,
you know, what's up to Shell, what's up? And it
(31:37):
was like just like he couldn't believe it. So that's
when I knew it was real. That was the most
surreal moment for me too. It's just seeing that big
bus because I didn't want him to go, like I
didn't want to half step into this thing. And you
know we're showing up with like a little minivan and
there's a little challenge license plate on the front whatever
it was. But it was once I saw that bus
(31:58):
man and then I saw the house. Yeah, incredible, as
it's just great. Well, it was nice because we got
space because you said, like you know, jumping back into this,
we have to be on top of each other. I
mean we got single beds those small for the tall
man that you are, but we also like you know,
it was three to a room. Every room had a bathroom,
(32:20):
like you still had enough space to feel like you
weren't you know, ye doing this again, Yeah exactly, and
you know everyone was. You know, it's for its competitives.
As it gets you'll see everyone is always really cordial
with each other, in patient and opening doors and letting
the girls go first eat like it's just that's that's
(32:41):
just a different and Anisa was saying that she was
like coming home. She was like, you have no idea
how much better these guys are. I'm like, can I
not be there? I mean, they were amazing. It makes
experience so much, but I mean it I left on
a cloud of like, alright, I could probably to do
these shows again because you know, I haven't seen these
(33:02):
people in so long and they were they were so
kind and I feel like for you, Mark, I mean,
it's so exciting to see like it's like your camp friends, right,
you know, and to jump back in with them. But
what I really want to know is who were you
most excited to see? Oh? Man, Um, I was most
excited to see. You know, I've always felt like Derek.
(33:24):
I just I love the fact that that he came,
and he was on the first season and hopefully we'll
see him on many mores. But like he he's like me,
you know what I mean, Like, I'm I I love
the show. I'm a product of the show. I did
my first you know, my road rules is n so
you can do the math there, like this has been
my life for twenty five plus years. And the fact
(33:44):
that you know, having a Derek come that I've known
him forever that's so invested in the show still with
his podcast outside of this or whatever. But he was
great to see. And then like a Durell who I've
never played the game with but I've always had so
much respect for um. And then like the wild card
of like a yes and attack, which people are like
(34:05):
I can't believe you got tech or I can't believe
you got yes. It's like those are the people like
I knew and you know you and Lissa and the
Ruthie's and Beth and Cyrus's would all get crazy hype um.
But it was those wild cards of like tech or yes,
which was like all right now, like this is this
is what the show is all about. I love that.
Oh my god, it's so crazy seeing so many people. Yeah,
(34:27):
and it's cool. And I love the flashbacks. I love yeah, yeah,
flashback of the Sella, you know, calling a South for
telling her she was deadweight fifteen years ago, Like that's crazy.
So happy that she had it right like verbatim and
I quote and it was right and it was right.
She did her homework because the worst thing is to
quote somebody and misquote them. So hats off to Acella,
(34:50):
my baby, for you know, it is the ability to
do that and flashback even the very first flashbacks of
Katie showing old Katie with the plunger beating. Yeah, that
stuff is great, you know what I mean. So we're
gonna have a lot more of that. Um and you'll know,
you know, he said the show, it's not always Kumbaya
(35:10):
as we go, so now you know it's fun, but
it's always definitely yeah, it's definitely not kumbaya, especially after
that pole wrestle, like that was baby. I mean, I'm
not gonna say brutal, but I think everyone, like a
Nissa said, she was like, people were like, is it
always this brutal? And hesas like, yeah, I would. I'm
gonna kick your ass out there, Kendall not. It wasn't
(35:32):
to Kendall, it was to everybody, but everybody. I'm gonna
do the same. It's that like, I'm gonna put as
much effort in as Yeah, Latian did, and Latian said
that was him at a six. Yeah, nothing is easy,
That's what I'm saying. So like even the daily challenges,
like you'll see I thought even t J said this,
you know, they fucking amped it up. It wasn't like
(35:52):
they toned it down. If anything, they made it more
And I was like, Ship, Yeah, I didn't talked to Booth,
one of the producers. I'm like I saw him like
the first day. I'm like, man, I'm so psyched. Man,
I'm so glad you're attached. And he was like, you know,
if you stick around long enough, you let me know
after this all this, if you're stuff. I'm like, wow,
I'm like, oh, Ship. That that was like the writing
(36:13):
on the wall. So I was like, this is gonna
be this is gonna be tough, because you know, I
had conversations with some people before going like come on,
do it. It'll be fun. We'll probably do some stuff
like some balanced stuff, you know, maybe holding your breath
like whatever. So like the fact that we came out strong.
The thing that still gets me is that the audience
(36:34):
doesn't know. Like the water was so cold, like that
was like the like that was the of the hang
up of that challenge. It was so freaking cold. A
risk of walks out like a damn praying mantis. She's
like her body is like folding down. It was like
it was crazy. But yeah, they didn't go easy on us.
(36:55):
That's for sure. Do you think a lot of like
people came back and expected it to be a little
bit easy, and they were like, after the first challenge
just kind of like what then did I sign up for?
A lot of them pulled up was like, oh, we're
going to the water. Maybe we'll have to canoe across,
you know what I mean or something. But no, but
(37:15):
that set the tone for the whole season, and you
know people might have not like people started going to
bed maybe a couple of minutes earlier, or stretching or
maybe doing some fitness in between, because it wasn't gonna
be you know, an egg toss in the back right,
you know, really wasn't gonna be backyard games. I mean
(37:35):
even they showed a clip of it, even like we
do an ode to a challenge the ice which is
which is coming up? The ice melting thing? That was
a throwback challenge and Battle the sexes even that when
you see it, you're like, oh, this is gonna be fun.
Anissa was that fun? It is terrible. Put in your
map like it was just a lot a lot of bouncing,
(37:58):
a lot of moving, I mean, bruises everywhere, cuts like
it is sliding with someone on top of you and
you're back on ice for like hours at a time,
creates terrible bruising and terrible sorts. So it's like even
the ones that looked fun aren't fun. No, no, but
it was. I'm glad they did some throwback stuff like that,
which is cool. I wanted that as well, like that
(38:20):
throwback kind of feel. I mean, but I think you,
I mean, you came and you've always been a beacon
of fitness, and I guess what it looks like to
be just like you're a specimen. You're one of those
guys that just always and it's not even like and
it's always proportionate. It's like the shoulders matched, the legs match,
the I mean, how did you train for this season?
Was it any different than any other season? Because I've
(38:42):
always thought you looked amazing. Well, thank you, thank you,
thank you. I'm trying to pull it together for my
late forties. As I said, trying what I know. I
have a girlfriend now that works out with me. Every
day we go after it, we go and do it
and uh you, that's one thing, um that I think
(39:02):
why it works, especially my relationship is we're both passionate
about it. And now for us, it's not it's not
even about how you look now after you work out.
It's like it makes me feel so good emotionally or
mentally when I'm done working out. And then the positives,
I mean, the extra bonuses you're actually you're stay in shape.
But like I did everything I did. I did pick
(39:22):
up my cardio a little more. That's the only thing
I can really tweaked was I did you know, more
running or you know the treadmill when it's like this,
you're going up. But like, there was no real magic
to what I did because I just knew that every
day the playing the playing field would kind of be
evened out. It wasn't gonna be all tug of war,
(39:43):
you know what I mean? So who how can you
train from melting ice with your ass? You know what?
You can't very hard? But um, you know, and I
like and you probably like this in the centri. I
like having things to look forward to to get in shape.
Yeah too, I like that goal and you're like okay,
and then you do whatever it is. So yeah, I
(40:05):
as soon as I started getting traction from this and
I knew it was going in a good direction, I
was like, Okay, I'm gonna act, you know, I'm just
assuming this thing is gonna go and I'm gonna pick
it up a little bit and train for it. And
it's you know, it's again it's a mental thing for me.
It's like my church being in the gym. Yeah, and
just it's just I don't know, it's amazing now, Like
if I don't go to the gym, I feel I
(40:26):
feel bad, like I feel relatable once it becomes part
of your everyday thing, like I mean, I mean, but
it didn't help that we had that like old school
prison yard style. Wait, and Argentina wasn't wasn't cold, so
like you would like I'm gonna take some pre work
out and talk to Jim and be like, yeah, I'm
(40:47):
gonna work out at like twelve one whatever. I'd like
to work out before lunch, like or in the morning.
It's so hot and there's no O zone. The weights
were like, oh wow, like ancient the bar was short.
It's probably like a twenty five pound bar. Everything's in kilos.
I still don't know how to do it. And we
see your guy's gym toy. It's like this like uber style,
(41:08):
like yeah, technologically advantaging and it's like cement weights. Mark.
I even asked production. I was like, is there any
way we could get a stationary bike? Like I know
you guys can't grab as the peloton, but could you
get something because I need to do cardio besides running
over bees every day? Oh my god. And there were
many too. Yeah for me. Once I got used to it,
(41:30):
I'm like, of course it's going to be old school weights.
Why why wouldn't it be you know what I mean?
Why you know? So it's just one platform in the
yard where you could work out literally, and we were like,
you know what, I'm going in the river? Yeah, at
least you had a river like that river looks so nice.
It was gory. That river was the best and it
was so cold that you could you know, it was
(41:52):
like doing the ice plunge after you work out, Like
we would go in there and it's just soaked because
it was like so great, Like having that thing was
was a blessing to us. I don't think. I think
like three people went to the Jacuza the entire time. Wow.
I went, and once it was so hot, I was like,
I'd rather just be one with nature in here with
the rocks and there was so fish. I wonder whoever
(42:15):
gonna show Tech jumping and naked. I hope they do,
because that's the first time I saw his penis. I
was in the shower and I was like, oh, what
do we have there? Oh my god, we have a
naked tech running in the lawn like it was tech
of something else. He is a magical human being. I
love that no one left there feeling salty, even you know,
(42:37):
everyone's seen in the previews. There's some person that t
that t JS piste off because they quit and it
shows in the preview. I won't say guy or girl.
Even that person has reached out to me since saying hey,
you know, I wanted to reach out you personally. You know,
I had the most amazing time babba. Yes, yes, I
(42:58):
got a long text. That's awesome. So I'm excited to
see that. Oh my gosh. I do have a question though,
to go back because I remember, you know, reading these
tweets about we want o g S. Where did that
even come from? Like what happened? So obviously you know
it's I got the shirt on too. I wish people
(43:20):
could see how cute Mark looks right now, and is
we want O G shirt. So anyway, so I was
talking with a few people. Obviously the term o G.
Everyone knows the term O G. It's like, you know,
original Gangsters or whatever you say. But like I said
to my Daddy's like, what did I said the working
titles like we want O GZ. He's like, what's O
G old guys. I'm like, no, it's not old guys,
(43:44):
but kind of um. And then we just but we
decided to start the hashtag we want O G s
because we wanted someplace where people could go and hashtag.
And you know how social media works. So once that
thing called fire, um, it just it became like a
movement on it own. On its own. I just pushed
(44:05):
it along. But like the fans and stuff really carried
carried that torch. Um, and they're so excited, man. I mean,
like I said, they're so excited that that this came out.
And uh, you know, we have nine awesome episodes. We're
gonna do an hour reunion. Um, so it's gonna be.
It's you know, it's a great compliment to the version
(44:26):
on MTV. It's such a great compliment and you know,
there's a there's something for everyone on that there show,
and there's something for everyone on our show, and the
fact that TJ is kind of a through line of
that is perfect. Totally. Yeah, it was so installgic to watch,
and I feel like, like you said, there's such a
fan base for it, so it's like kind of owed
it to the fans. There's people have been watching the
(44:46):
Challenge for twenty years. There's so many thank you's I've gotten,
you know, every interview I've done, people being like, all right,
first of all, this is fucking awesome that this is
going on, like before they even start talking. So they've
all grown up with us, and I think they're all
kind of psyche to see this thing move on and
go many seasons. A hundred percent. I think like even
after that, I watched the first episode twice, like in
(45:07):
a row. I was like, I need to I need
to watch it again. I loved it. I think a
lot of people are like a lot of people, you know,
we're we're kind of like you guys do on your shows,
the live tweeting on Wednesdays, we're live tweeting. We're watching
it from eight to nine Eastern and we're all live
tweeting during it. So even though scheduled. Everyone knows the
(45:28):
cast will be watching it Thursdays at eight Eastern and
we'll all tweet during it. So it's fun to kind
of have that movement, feel like you're on a little
ride with people. You know. I love it. I was
on it, and I love it, not because I was
on it. I just like I would have loved it anyway.
But it's even I look at it and I'm like,
oh my god, it's it's it was so amazing. If
only people were there to see how amazing it really was.
(45:49):
Like it's crazy because it's like it was more amazing
than if you can imagine that it was more amazing
than what was shown. But we know that it's a
TV show, so they can only show so much. But
I mean, I mean maybe there's a chance of like
ship they should have shown later. Yeah, definitely definitely show that, Horry.
You never know, Tori. A couple of years. I'm doing it, man,
(46:10):
I'm putting in my time now. That's where I want
to be right over. Um So if there were a
challenge Hall of Fame, who would be in it? Oh,
I've been asked this. I want to say, it's easier
to answer, but it's harder to answer, but it's easy.
Um U, I go ct I go bananas, I go Anisa,
(46:34):
I go coral, and listen. I started this thing a
long time ago. Yeah, and if I'm not up on
that platter, somehow something's wrong, because let me tell you,
I will tell you this. This thing will not be
a one and done. I can see this thing going
(46:56):
for many, many seasons and then culminating, like I said,
with the Super Bowl, super Bowls of reality competition, and
it will be the most watch things ever on whatever
service or network it's on. I want to do it
so bad, except like I said, I want to be
on your team. So let's do it in a few years.
See Tori, I feel like you'll still be on the
(47:17):
new team, but I love you and I'll do what
I can from the other side. Thanks guys, Thanks Mark,
Secret alliance wink wink, even though it's not secret because
we're on the podcast, but thanks to change. Thanks to Change. Mark,
Thank you so much. I mean, I know you're a
busy guy. I know you gotta go do like I
don't know, a couple of crunches to keep up with
(47:37):
at twelve pack, and you have a bunch of interviews
because you're a busy dude, and I mean, you did
such a magical thing for us, the cast, and for
the viewers, and definitely I'm just so proud of you,
so happy for you, so happy that I had the
chance to to reconnect with you, and um, I just
I think it's amazing what you've done. Thanks both of you.
(47:59):
Thank you guys at I'll be watching both of you
wherever it is, whether it's online or on the other one.
Thank you, Thank you. A good day. Alright, Anisa, Well,
(48:20):
that was amazing. Mark Long is a legend and it
was so awesome to have him on the show. So
how cool was that to pick his brain? Yeah, so
I love. I want to know some secrets because I
wasn't there, so I need to spill the tea, give
us some secrets from behind the scenes of filming. So
I will say that when you go in, they really
upped it with the aesthetics. They have all of our
(48:42):
helmets on the thing, our names are on the wall,
and then all the names of the challenges, and there
were quotes in every room said by different people, and
there were paintings on the wall. So there's a painting
of me, like a thing of me, a drawing of
me and Chavon doing this like back off thing where
I had to the thing off of her. Um Wes
(49:03):
and uh Derek, we're doing pole wrestle. So I'm like,
oh my god, are these clues? Like are we going
to be doing the eliminations that are in the pictures?
So there were a lot of There was a lot
of stuff because the life shield or the lifesaver came
from one show, and that one show was on one
of the plaques in our living room. So we're thinking
that maybe this has something to do with what's coming up. Oh,
(49:28):
like there were hitting clues in the house. Wow, that's exciting.
It's like a game within a game. The other thing
is that you don't know. I've never seen so many
guys pack so many surprise outfits for parties. I'm just
gonna say that, So look forward to lots of different outfits,
(49:49):
lots of drama. Yeah, and probably more uh secrets as
I go on, when I when I can remember them. Yeah,
I can't wait. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Well,
I loved this episode, Anisa, you absolutely crushed it and
can't wait to watch the next one. So where can
we follow you, Anissa and where can we send you
(50:10):
listener questions? You can follow me on Instagram at Anissa
MTV that's a m E s a MTV and Tori
where can they find you, Beautiful? You can find me
at tori Underscore deal. I'm so excited you guys. I'm
a fan with you all right now watching this season.
It's amazing. So if you want a fan girl out
with me, slide into the d m s and yeah,
(50:31):
feel free to send me listener questions and make sure
that you watch the biggest event in Challenge history because
The Challenge All Stars is streaming now exclusively on Paramount Plus.
And then you can go behind the scenes with us
on MTV's official Challenge podcast.
What's up everyone. I'm Tori and I'm Anissa, and this
is MTV's official Challenge podcast, and guys, the weight is over.
Today we are getting into the very first episode of
The Challenge All Stars. Anissa, how excited are you? I
can't wait? This episode was so fun to watch. I mean,
it was so fun to be a part of, but
(00:22):
so fun to watch. It feels just like the classic Challenge,
you know, yeah, totally. It was amazing. So later in
the episode, we'll be interviewing the guy that we kind
of have to thank for all of this, to Mark
long as you guys call him the Godfather, So stick
around for that. Yeah, all right, let's get started. Y alright, Anissa,
(00:47):
let's bring back one of our favorite segments, except this
time it comes with a new name and a new
time and this is time Bomb. And in honor of
the twenty two o G All Stars that have come
back to the show, we have twenty two seconds system
up the episode. Are you ready it? Which is ridiculous.
I think it's absolutely absurd to think that I could
recap anything in twenty two seconds. I can't even tell
(01:09):
you what I ate for breakfast in seconds, you know,
I'm detail oriented, but I'm gonna try it out. I mean, ready,
hold on, wait we get there, all right, okay, wait,
we get there. Okay, three two one go. So we
show up in Argentina. It's really pretty our houses Hugh amongus.
We also have a house cat named Sylvester. He'll be
(01:29):
there later. Um. We also have a river in the backyard.
We meet t J. He's like, this is gonna be
an actual challenge where you're gonna play for five dollars
and everybody thinks we're playing back air games, but we're
not going to show up to the first challenge. We
gotta swim without life vest and go find the blocks.
I actually swam out there three times, but they don't
show it anyhow. A lot of people almost died. We're
clearly not good at math um. And then the silver
team wins, and that's okay, that was good. That was good.
(01:52):
It was a lot okay, alright, So Tori, you have
twenty two seconds, which is almost your age. Hey hate you,
but younger UM's two seconds. Are you ready? Three two one?
So they had to go back in the water. It's
(02:12):
a silver team versus the Copper team and the captainists
of Sela and they win, so they are super happy,
and she killed it in that swim. So everybody goes
back to the house and Litteria has to go into
elimination and he decides that he tells the house that
he wants to go again to Ace. Ace feels pretty
upset about that, but he's like, all right, I guess
I gotta go do it. Pull up to the elimination.
It's a hall. I mean no, it's not a hall,
it's a pole rettal. And then it just ended up
(02:34):
becoming a plunging situation and it needs to probably have
the best line out of the whole show. That was amazing.
I I mean it was hard to do, but oh yeah,
it goes home obviously that was an amazing episode and
needs to like how good does it feel to like
be linked back up with all of those people that
you've known for so long? It feels good. I mean,
(02:55):
I'm really happy to be with you know, people I
do know, people I haven't seen. I mean Tech was
a big surprise. Yeah I didn't. I didn't expect to
see him, but when I saw my long and strong daddy,
I was like, hey, Tech money, I mean because we
were all at the airport, like having wine together before
we flew out, and it was just so cool. I
(03:16):
was like cheers in with death and talking to I mean,
it was just awesome to see everybody and uh, you know,
just be with everybody as adults because we did this
when you know, we were younger. You know, a lot
of us haven't seen each other since our twenties, so
it's really so nostalgic, so nostalgic. Who do you think that?
Who do you think we get? Play of the Day? Oh,
has sela hands down. I think that she came into
(03:37):
this game, um being doubted a little bit. You know,
we had talked about it. Not to get into too
many personal things, but you know, I think there was
a lot of pressure. She stepped up to be captain
without even thinking about it. So she didos to her
That's one part of her play of the day. Not
only did she step up, but she got in. She
calls it a platypus, like a platypus and she just
(04:00):
am and it was amazing because she pulled She's five ft,
pulled stuff up with her feet like you don't even
see it, but she killed it. And I'm so happy
for her. Yeah, it was awesome to watch her. I
love that you even pointed out that she like asked
to be captain. She really did step up, and it's
cool when somebody takes that. Like she was like, if
we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. I'm captain,
(04:20):
let's go. Like that energy is awesome to watch and
she crushed that. So she probably felt so good after
she won. What do you think the dirtiest deed was.
I mean, you don't get to see it, but there
were people that legitimately did not go back out and
swim Okay, Ace didn't go back um Alton went in
(04:47):
and he started cramping up and it came back out.
So I was like, do you want you know what, boys,
I'll just go back in. So it was just one
of those things where it's like, um, I think especially
coming right from bull Agents where people you know, were
doubting me, to like really having to hold my own
and hold it up for the team too of like
just jumping in and being like, you know what, it's
(05:08):
got to get done. You know, we need to win,
and if I don't put my all into it, I'm
not being a team player. Yeah, that was a big
thing for me. Yeah, I mean, and there were a
lot of people who did give it there all, but
like you said, there was a lot of people who
just weren't able to pull it through. And do you
think it was because the water was cold or do
(05:29):
you think it was because they didn't realize that they
signed not my thing as did not feel this cold water.
I mean, I know that you will hear it from
many people that it was freezing. I don't really remember,
because I took a lot of deep breaths and I
took my time and I really swam, But I didn't
think it was I think it was the really putting
your all into it. If you got to the blocks,
(05:50):
the higher the number was, the lower it was going
to be in the water, and there was this buoyancy
so you had to fight against that get equalized. Then
you had to flip over and swim to it. So
it wasn't like this easy thing to do, and you
had no life jacket on, which rarely ever happens on
these challenges. So I think it's, you know, a mashup
of like all of these people not competing in such
(06:12):
a long time. Also, these people expecting it to be
not this crazy, because the last challenges they did it
wasn't this crazy. Um, so it's that. And then you know,
swimming out there in the unknown and the pressure of
like wanting to win and do well. So I think
it's a bunch of things at play that um made
this first challenge really like snap people back into reality,
(06:34):
like this is the challenge. Yeah, definitely goes by a
different name. Yeah, you can see it on people's faces. Yeah,
so crazy to watch. And you killed it, and you
and a Cella killed it. So it's like, kudos to
you guys, and you guys get to go back to
the house and like you just see you all party together,
and like I loved that you guys had that nineties
theme party. It just brought everything back because if you
(06:55):
look in those old interviews that were playing when you
guys came off the tour bus or the bus whatever
it was, um, like those those outfits were back then,
you know. So it's like you guys actually just made
it so nostalgic for all the viewers. Yeah, it felt
really good to do that. I mean I just was
so happy to be a part of it. And when
we when we do a nineties party, we go all out. Yeah,
(07:18):
I mean, we committed to making our brows skinny again.
We committed to you know that like that concealer colored
lips sick with a black liner or the dark brown liner.
We committed to butterfly clips that you wore this weekend. Um,
because I was doing like a nineties hip hop versus
(07:39):
like the craft, you know, like having like a mashup
of outfits. But you know, that's how it used to be.
It used to be fun. So hopefully people can learn
from this. And when I say people, I mean these
the newbies on the challenge learned that like a little
fun goes a long way, especially for your your mental
and emotional well being. Absolutely, and you could see it.
(08:00):
I mean, the vibes were just right. And I love
that Ace pulled up with that eighteen nineties outfit, Like
did he actually like he did it on purpose? Right?
He didn't actually think it was I mean, I think
he did it on purpose. But it's a so Ace
has always been like super funny to me, and I
think that he's a sleeper on the funny side where
you don't know that he's that funny unless you live
with him. But he's like a silly guy. He's smart,
(08:22):
he is funny, and I don't think he tries to
be funny. Yeah, but yeah, it would be very ace
like to bring this like old eighteen nineties costume so good.
It was so good. He a little secret. He was
always my challenge crush from from watching this. Yeah, isn't
that crazy? A little southern charm. Yeah, he's a cuteie. Yeah,
(08:42):
it was like nicest and it sucks that you know,
he had to go into that first elimination like you
could just see like I know, we know what it's
like with filming, Like just knowing that you guys had
to quarantine all that time where you even got there
and then somebody's going home like that doesn't feel Yeah,
because we did. I mean we did like a nine
day quarantine. That's crazy, I know, and I think that
was hard for a lot of people. But walking into this,
(09:06):
uh it was called the arena where we got to
do our eliminations. It was cool because it was like
a all of our faces were up there with how
many eliminations we had won, so we had stars. So
you know your girl had some stars. Yeah, so if
you lost, they burn yours so it's kind of like
this weird like place. But then to see pole wrestle,
(09:28):
I'm like, oh my god, they're about to bring back
all the old eliminations. So I got hyped because I
was this is the first elimination that I've ever done,
so it's very nostalgic for me. It was just crazy
to like see that and then see you know what
these men are capable of as they get older. And
I'll tell you one thing. Age ain't nothing but a
(09:49):
number shout out to literarian. I mean, he crushed that.
Like it was scary to watch. I was like, oh
my god, the competition is not slacking. This is intense. Yeah,
and he was like, baby, I was on a six.
I was like, I do not want to see you
on a ten. Yeah. You know, this is a guy
that played football like it doesn't leave you, and he's
a personal trainer like and he also has the heart
(10:11):
of a lion. So I think that you know, he
wanted it more and he was willing to do whatever
to get it. Yeah, the look on his face when
he saw it was a pole wrestle, he was so happy. Well,
he didn't know what it was. He was like, what's
a pole wrestle. Oh yeah, he was like, what's a
pole wrestle? I was like, alright, Daddy, just listened to
these to these rules first, t J will like, you
(10:33):
know exactly what you need to do. That he amazing
did not disappoint. Wow. Yeah, there's so many insane moments
in that. And then it was sad to watch as
go home so early, like I don't know, I feel
I felt bad, like he looked so defeated and like
hit dirt all over his face, you know. So I know,
and it sucks too because I think that it's one
(10:54):
of the I hope he comes back, but I do
think it's one of those things where you don't if
you don't have a lot of like strong relationships in
the house, it's sometimes easier to vote that way. And
Hazela could have used that life saver, which hasn't been
used since I don't know Gauntlet one or Inferno two.
I guess where they had like the life shield or
(11:14):
whatever where you got to get it and then you
could save people. So we haven't seen this um element
and forever. Yeah, and then Hazela, we didn't know what
it did. So Hassela was like I'm not using it.
I mean great, because you want to you want to
wait to see because you're it's what if she had
to pick somebody to go in. That's exactly what we thought.
So we were like, all right, we're not going to
(11:35):
use it. We'll just wait until next week maybe a
guy I'll use it, right, and then you'll be able
to see like what actually happens. Which it's such a
cool thing, Like it's a really cool trick to have
up your sleeve to be able to pull that. But
I also thought it was funny how she pulled those
receipts from what he said in her his interviews years
ago about her, and she remembered because she didn't remember
that she did a challenge with people on Gauntlet too.
(11:55):
She was like, you guys were there. She didn't really
remember that, but she remember what he said. That's funny,
isn't that crazy? Yeah? It was nuts. But I'm glad
that she quoted him directly and she didn't misquote him.
And he definitely said that, And yeah, that's what's great
about doing the show for so long. You have a
lot of receipts. Yeah, yeah, and you don't know when
you're gonna be able to get your when karma is
(12:17):
going to be served, and just took years to get there. Yeah,
it's just funny because all these people have such history,
you know, with each other. Yeah, Yeah, it's amazing. I'm
so excited we're gonna be able to talk to Mark
long to like he obviously was the one that, like
cannapulted this thing to the level that it's at right
now and brought it to life. So it's gonna be
so awesome talking to him. Yeah, Marcus like a big
(12:38):
brother to me. We've done this together for a long time,
and he's always been, um it was gonna be like
a beacon of hope and truth. No, he's always been
like this, very even killed like funny guy that knew
all the R and B jams. Yeah, and he was
just he's always just been a great guy. I Mean,
I couldn't say one bad thing about him. So I'm
(13:00):
so excited to pick his brain and get into you
know how we want o G came about. Yes, I
can't wait. Let's talk to him. All right, folks, we
have come to my favorite, favorite favorite part of the podcast,
(13:21):
and this is an extra special podcast for me because
this man has been so gracious with me. He has
been a wonderful friend. He has been quite quite easy
on the eyes over the year. Um. You may know
him as the Godfather. I know him as Mark Long Mark.
Thank you for being here with us today. The Wild
(13:49):
was a great intro that was you forgot international singing superstar?
Oh my god, I totally forgot. And if you haven't
heard his hit single Rio, I Go to Rio? Can
I Go to Rio? Um? That has only been played,
you'll love it. I recorded that. Oh my god, is
(14:10):
this a real thing. Yes, it's really good. I'll share
it with you at Oh. I cannot wait to listen
to it. That's amazing, hilarious. I was approached by two
producers after my road rules. They said, we want to
try to turn you into a pop byte pop star,
but down down in like South America. So I re
recorded a smash hite called I Go to Rio. But
it's well produced, it's fun, it's catchy and Tori you
(14:32):
you should listen to a gun. So that's it. I'm
planning on it. I'm so excited. That's so good. It's
I mean, it's it's brilliant. Um smile. The entire song yeah. Yeah,
it's hard not to because Mark is probably one of
the most likable humans I have ever been. You really
are nicky, Lisa. How does it feel want to be
(14:54):
back and to to know that, like you had your
hands in this the whole time. It's been surreal because
because um, you know, you know, television and TV producing
nothing happens fast. I mean it's usually you know, years
upon years. So I mean I had the idea a
while ago, but then when I actually put that tweet
out and the US Weekly picked it up and then
that went viral. That was in late July. So to
(15:15):
have the show, have me partner with Banter Murray, and
then the Paramount plus MTV partnership happening, and then it's
shooting and airing in seven eight months, it's pretty crazy.
Um insane, Yeah, it's insane. So it just was so surreely.
Then packing the night before I left. I know, you
guys have been doing it out for a while, but
just bringing out that big luggage and being like, oh,
(15:36):
this will be cool to throw in. Maybe I'll throw
in a fucking clown suit, you know what I mean. So, like,
I think you have like different things that you can
add like, for instance, I was like, I told everyone,
told production, have everyone bringing nineties outfit because we're going
old school and have a nineties party. So just starting
to think we will make good TV. And the first
episode was fucking phenomenal. I loved that so many people
(15:57):
reached out, and uh, I just I think it was time.
I think the fans are excited about it, um. And
I think it's good to have that new challenge old
school challenge balance. I think there's an audience for each
of them. Um. And like I said, you know, I
could see us going season six, seven, eight nine, and
then at some point doing a one off spinoff super
(16:18):
Bowl of the New Guys and the old Oh my god,
can I be on your team? We will do. It's
going to be a spinoff, one off episode of O
G S versus the New Kids, like the super Bowl,
and it will be the biggest thing this fucking network
(16:38):
has ever seen. Oh my god, it would be so sick.
I'm so hype right now. I mean Litterryan against uh
come on, yeah, literarians nasty. So in this vision, who
do you think would win? Oh? Come on, I mean
I've said it before. There's a there's a I've always
(16:59):
been a raid of my big brother. Right, He's older
and he's like a man, and I've always been younger,
even though I'm bigger physically, but I've always been afraid
of him. I think we're gonna come in with that
same mentality, like I'm gonna treat those kids like they're
my kids, and we're going to have a problem, you
know what I mean. So there's always that kind of
elderly respect. You know. We'll see. But I'm loving how
(17:23):
the fans are reacting to this. I want this to
go on many seasons with just our crew. M There's
so many names that have reached out since the first
episode that now are available somehow magically magically available. So
but I'm super thankful, super grateful. And one of the
coolest moments for me was when the show was totally
(17:45):
finished and rapped, t J actually reached out and he
was like, Dude, I've been doing this ship a long time.
This is one of the most fun times I've had
on a challenging years, And I was like, you know what,
that makes me feel good. And and the fact that
even if you got voted off or sent home, everyone
still feels like it was such a positive experience. There's
no negativity, and I don't think we're not as visceral
(18:07):
as these young kids. You see this story, you're those
younger kids get crazy on Twitter. I mean, I hate
it in the world. Yeah, I don't even go on there.
It's the worst. Well, the last time we saw you
was Dual Too with me. The last time actually was
X's but the last time with you. Last time with
you was to do You and I had a great
(18:28):
time on Dual Too. Well. Yeah, of course, I feel
like any time we're on a show together, we basically
have a good time. I don't there's never been a
bad a Nissa Mark moment. You know what, You're absolutely
right and I told this is someone else. Um by
having you on was just I mean, you're such a
figurehead of this show and for us, For me personally,
(18:50):
I feel like you've been on everyone I've been on.
I don't even know that if that's a fact, but
I feel like you have because you and I, like
if we haven't spoken in years, there's zero weirdness, there's
zero awkwardness. When we're together. It picks up like you're
a sister and it's like, yeah, oh, you know this
tory from cast members that you get along with totally,
especially with a Nissa's her her energy is the best. Lisa,
(19:11):
kudos to you. You did great going down and grabbing
that lot. I saw what we did and you were
that tried. They don't want to show me go. I
swam out three times. I went down like four times each.
They were like, oh, these these people that do the
regular show can't even didn't even make it out there.
I made it out there. We just had a struggle
piece one fifty that will haunt us. You know, those
(19:35):
moments in a challenge where it just doesn't work and
we don't know why it didn't work because we had
people that were going down there. Yeah. But I think
I watched this with my parents the other night and
they're like, their favorite line was and Aces getting plunged
like a twig. My dad laughed out loud for that.
So you were great on that first set. All I
(19:55):
could see. I mean, it may get it may get better.
It probably will. It this is about you. I want
to know what was most shocking for you coming back
after you know, being away for so long. Wow, Um,
I had to get really quick back in that road
rules mentality of living with a lot of people, you know,
having to be around everyone all the time. So I
(20:17):
kind of reverted into that road rules, I don't give
a fuck attitude, which is always the best attitude to have,
and uh, you know, nothing bothered at me at that point.
So I was always do you notice, I was always
trying to you know, calm the person down that hated
their food that day, or that wanted to lead because
they're fucking not getting off sleep. I'm like, go out
and just relax. So that was getting back and you know,
(20:41):
I don't my frame does not fit in a twin bed. Uh,
like I was a baby, you know what I mean,
Like I used to. But it's just that kind of stuff,
the basic stuff. But in terms of gameplay and strategy
and you know, and and you know, we try to
play as fair as possible, but at the end of
the day, it's five h dollars, there has to be
(21:02):
some sort of strategy and alliance. So I was instantly
thrown into game mode because you start seeing mode, well thought,
that person will probably have that person back, and you know,
I've known this person for this many years, so I'll
have their back. So it wasn't that anything shocked me.
It was the biggest thing that shocked me was the
fucking challenges themselves, because it wasn't like we showed up
(21:25):
and played pin the tail on the donkey in the backyard,
not at all, you douy didn't even have life jackets
that first, like that. And that was a long swim, right,
How long was that it was? It was? It was
far but more less than the swim. The water was
like fifty degrees, so it was almost like more of
a hyper ventilating type of thing that people were kind
(21:46):
of bothering the most in the actual swim. I mean,
you know what I noticed though, and I will call
him out on this right now. You've heard it here. First,
everyone gave a ship for sending Ace home or actually
you know, nominating him. If you watch this show again,
Ace does not even get his hair wet. He swims out,
he looks down a little bit with this thing, his
little couple of bangs are wet, and he swims back in.
(22:08):
I'm like, dude, if you're gonna do this, at least
go under the water and try or like pull up
something or do something. But like watch it again. Yeah, no,
he didn't go back in. I wish they would have
shown when I'm like, Ace, do you want to go?
And he was like, nas, I was gonna go in.
I'm like, neither one of y'all can do this. I'm
going to go back in, right, grown ass man. I
was like, just try it. Yeah. I was like, I said,
(22:29):
this is the final and we have to swim. I
need you to go look for some ship because if
I know, I'm putting my life out and Mark, I mean,
you came back like you were going for it every time.
So I'm like, if Mark's doing it, then I'm gonna
about the same effort. Everyone should be putting in the
same effort. He was the only one that did not
(22:50):
swim out a second time, and some of us had
swim out three times, you like, but by that alone
and him not getting his hair wet, and I'm like,
we made the right choice right there, trying to get
your hair wet. You know. I did feel bad for
him when he left. He was like crying about his dog.
I was like, I can relate to that. Listen, I
love a you know, hopefully we'll see him again, but
(23:12):
you know, you gotta you gotta go back in the water.
You gotta sit on the ice again. You gotta eat
the ship more than you think, you know, whatever you
do totally. So yeah, he don't know. I will chat
with him a little, really chat with him. Well, who
shocked you the most that day? Because there was a lot,
I would say, and I think from the viewers standpoint,
there was so much going on and I feel like
(23:33):
a lot of people did a lot of great ship.
But what were some shocking moments for you during that
first challenge? Well, shocking in a good way obviously, you
and e Sella being able to swim out, you coming
very close to pulling that thing up, which they didn't
show it. I lifted that block off and you saw
the cement come off the floor like our thing would
not pull off. You shocked me in terms of being
(23:57):
able to stack it up, step it up, he Sella?
And who who shocked me in terms of not being
able to Ruthie's from Hawaii. She should be like a
like a seal in the water, and and like she
grew up on an island, so if anyone can go
down there and swim, But I think the cigarettes in
the cold because she has literally she's a hunter pounds
caught up with her very fast, and you know, you
(24:20):
expect like the yes Is of the worlds and to
do a great job. So I wasn't really surprised on
that end. But even like a big easy man, I
mean the guys, he's one that that a should take
notes from. He gives it a hundred and fifty every time,
whether he fails or not. And I applaud that, and
I want to reward people for that, So I'd say
(24:41):
he's selling you. Nissa shocked me the most because you
did a great job. And he's is a sleeperman. She is.
She's a sleeper. Everyone sleeps on her and she always
pulls out. She always pulled it out in some crazy thing.
It's always was swimming too. Always just thought it was
it how it is for her being a slouch. Yeah, yeah,
she's a monster. I mean this episode like it was
(25:04):
watching it obviously, Like I told you, I wish I
was there. I'm sure so many people wish they were there.
I had like this amazing tone to it, like it
just felt like very like old school. Is this the
vibe that you were going for? You just wanted to
just like solidify the old school vibes and like bring
back this mentality. Yeah, because I even you know, here's
a little peek behind the curtain here. Um I let
(25:26):
him know. I said, hey, we all have nineties outfits.
We want to like have a nineties party right out
of gate, and they were like, well, you know, maybe
we should save it for later, because you know, some
things we got to get done the first few days.
I'm like, no, I said this, I want I want
everyone to be here. We let we actually, like you know,
it got squashed for a second, but then they came
back and they're like, hey, Mark, you guys do the
(25:46):
nineties party, and right, you're good, and I'm like, let's
do this. So everyone was like super psych But just
I've known from being doing him so many times back
in the day, and I've seen it on social media
what fans were looking for, what they wanted or what
they thought would be cool. So like just the impromptu
stuff that isn't on the show, Like, yeah, they plan
these badass challenges and awesome, and there's always that natural
(26:08):
competitiveness and you'll see the alliances as we go, But
like those little things that weren't in the script, so
to speak, like the nineties party. We have a great
um pajama party where everyone dresses up later down in
the in the series. So I always lean on some
stuff like that to kind of add in if the
other stuff isn't as great, because it's just a fun
it's fun, and let's everyone kind of step away from
(26:28):
the challenge for a moment and just kind of be
who they are, which is cool. Do you think that
that's what's missing from the current challenges, like that fun, carefree, silly. Well,
I've heard this a lot, and there's, like I said,
I love the new challenge, but there's there's a different
there's an audience for that, and there's an audience for
(26:49):
some of them are exactly the same. But you know,
some people tune in and just strictly see the competition
of it all and and how that breaks out with
our show. You know, I think some people see the
competitive this, but they're also expecting that kind of hijinks
and comedy and throwback to what it was. UM. I
do think a lot of kids today, the younger folks,
(27:10):
like even you know, the newer school of rookies. UM,
a lot of them show up worrying about how many
social media numbers are jumped up, and like, how's my
Instagram doing when I'm away? Like if noticed like on
all our calls, like no one ever talked about Instagram
or Twitter when we're shooting. Um, everyone called there like
moms or wives. Like it was never like talking to
(27:33):
their person running their social media saying, hey, how are
my numbers doing? Like this? We didn't give a ship
because I guess it's a different, you know, cultural thing,
but we grew up we didn't even care. I I
don't think Twitter and Instagram is not around when I
did mine, so um, I really didn't think about that,
you know. And it's nice to see people reacting in
my my social media numbers going up, but that's not
(27:55):
the goal of what this is. It's just let's give
the old school fan a great slice of life of
what they missed. The fucking soundtrack is on point. I
love um, but it's just I think nowadays, and I've
said this before, if we showed up, we would play
just as hard if we were playing for a temper
(28:16):
pedic bed as a you know what I mean, because
that's just how we've always done it. So that huge
chunk of money definitely adds to the stakes of the show,
but it's not needed for us to make make a
good show and and really have a great time doing it.
So I think, what I like to see more fun
moments on the new stuff, of course, because everyone you know,
(28:38):
they miss that, you know, um, but there's such a
you know, there's a love hate man when you watch that,
Like there's people that really like they don't like each
other that much on that new show, and it's it
shows like, oh it's crazy. Yeah, So I mean people
love that too, So I just hope, I hope we
can be a nice compliment to that show. Put it
that way. I think it's also like you said, like
(29:01):
when they're looking at you know, caring about followers and
whatever else. And yes, of course at a different time,
I get it, but we don't give a ship. So
I think that we partied differently, Like we had a
whole guest list and we literally would not let Durrell
in and we called him Darryl and he had a
wig on this weird like tongue flick and it was
just like we were so invested. Everyone went into character.
(29:21):
I mean, there was a line outside waiting to get
into the club and great like and we don't. We
just don't care. We don't have acid either. Once we
decided we're doing it, we were like, all right, we're
gonna be setting up the clubs in like ten minutes.
Everyone come and help out, like we actually like really
get him. There's not that one sour perv be like,
I'm not gonna do it everyone. Even so, we made
(29:43):
invitations too, we passed them out. Was just competed in
a different era. Um, you know, your guys challenges Tory
today are insane, Like I love to get a you know,
piece of those, but like, you know, I wanted to
just show that even though like your mom of three,
or you're forty nine years old or whatever the quote unquote,
(30:08):
you know the thing it is that helped hold you back,
it's it's not an issue. And as long as everyone
shows up and gives a hundred percent, like people identify
with that. And I think that's why even the Middle
America has really dived in and we've gotten such great responses.
I thought it was going to be received well from
what I've done on Twitter and social media, but the
fact now it's like it's above and beyond and it's
(30:30):
just so cool to open up my Twitter and just
see positive, positive, positive, positive pos. So it's just cool
for me, you know, yeah, I'm sure it's amazing, and
I'm sure like for everybody who who pulled back up,
Like it's been years since you guys have number one
seeing each other, seeing t J? Like, what was it
like seeing him for the first time. I chat with
(30:51):
TJ like every once in a while, whether it's like
a d M on on Instagram or something, but like
the first time that I knew it was real real?
Was we quarantined in at hotel right, Lissa and I
faced the I faced the streets so I could see
like the streets and whatnot. So the day we left,
when I saw the big bus full up with the
Challenge letters on the side, I was like, oh shit,
(31:14):
all right, it's real. You know, they didn't get little
minivans for us with a little Challenge sticker. This is
the real deal. And then solidify that when we pulled
up and t J was there, it just you could
see he was genuinely like excited, like he was like,
I can't believe some of you guys are back. He's like,
you know, what's up to Shell, what's up? And it
(31:37):
was like just like he couldn't believe it. So that's
when I knew it was real. That was the most
surreal moment for me too. It's just seeing that big
bus because I didn't want him to go, like I
didn't want to half step into this thing. And you
know we're showing up with like a little minivan and
there's a little challenge license plate on the front whatever
it was. But it was once I saw that bus
(31:58):
man and then I saw the house. Yeah, incredible, as
it's just great. Well, it was nice because we got
space because you said, like you know, jumping back into this,
we have to be on top of each other. I
mean we got single beds those small for the tall
man that you are, but we also like you know,
it was three to a room. Every room had a bathroom,
(32:20):
like you still had enough space to feel like you
weren't you know, ye doing this again, Yeah exactly, and
you know everyone was. You know, it's for its competitives.
As it gets you'll see everyone is always really cordial
with each other, in patient and opening doors and letting
the girls go first eat like it's just that's that's
(32:41):
just a different and Anisa was saying that she was
like coming home. She was like, you have no idea
how much better these guys are. I'm like, can I
not be there? I mean, they were amazing. It makes
experience so much, but I mean it I left on
a cloud of like, alright, I could probably to do
these shows again because you know, I haven't seen these
(33:02):
people in so long and they were they were so
kind and I feel like for you, Mark, I mean,
it's so exciting to see like it's like your camp friends, right,
you know, and to jump back in with them. But
what I really want to know is who were you
most excited to see? Oh? Man, Um, I was most
excited to see. You know, I've always felt like Derek.
(33:24):
I just I love the fact that that he came,
and he was on the first season and hopefully we'll
see him on many mores. But like he he's like me,
you know what I mean, Like, I'm I I love
the show. I'm a product of the show. I did
my first you know, my road rules is n so
you can do the math there, like this has been
my life for twenty five plus years. And the fact
(33:44):
that you know, having a Derek come that I've known
him forever that's so invested in the show still with
his podcast outside of this or whatever. But he was
great to see. And then like a Durell who I've
never played the game with but I've always had so
much respect for um. And then like the wild card
of like a yes and attack, which people are like
(34:05):
I can't believe you got tech or I can't believe
you got yes. It's like those are the people like
I knew and you know you and Lissa and the
Ruthie's and Beth and Cyrus's would all get crazy hype um.
But it was those wild cards of like tech or yes,
which was like all right now, like this is this
is what the show is all about. I love that.
Oh my god, it's so crazy seeing so many people. Yeah,
(34:27):
and it's cool. And I love the flashbacks. I love yeah, yeah,
flashback of the Sella, you know, calling a South for
telling her she was deadweight fifteen years ago, Like that's crazy.
So happy that she had it right like verbatim and
I quote and it was right and it was right.
She did her homework because the worst thing is to
quote somebody and misquote them. So hats off to Acella,
(34:50):
my baby, for you know, it is the ability to
do that and flashback even the very first flashbacks of
Katie showing old Katie with the plunger beating. Yeah, that
stuff is great, you know what I mean. So we're
gonna have a lot more of that. Um and you'll know,
you know, he said the show, it's not always Kumbaya
(35:10):
as we go, so now you know it's fun, but
it's always definitely yeah, it's definitely not kumbaya, especially after
that pole wrestle, like that was baby. I mean, I'm
not gonna say brutal, but I think everyone, like a
Nissa said, she was like, people were like, is it
always this brutal? And hesas like, yeah, I would. I'm
gonna kick your ass out there, Kendall not. It wasn't
(35:32):
to Kendall, it was to everybody, but everybody. I'm gonna
do the same. It's that like, I'm gonna put as
much effort in as Yeah, Latian did, and Latian said
that was him at a six. Yeah, nothing is easy,
That's what I'm saying. So like even the daily challenges,
like you'll see I thought even t J said this,
you know, they fucking amped it up. It wasn't like
(35:52):
they toned it down. If anything, they made it more
And I was like, Ship, Yeah, I didn't talked to Booth,
one of the producers. I'm like I saw him like
the first day. I'm like, man, I'm so psyched. Man,
I'm so glad you're attached. And he was like, you know,
if you stick around long enough, you let me know
after this all this, if you're stuff. I'm like, wow,
I'm like, oh, Ship. That that was like the writing
(36:13):
on the wall. So I was like, this is gonna
be this is gonna be tough, because you know, I
had conversations with some people before going like come on,
do it. It'll be fun. We'll probably do some stuff
like some balanced stuff, you know, maybe holding your breath
like whatever. So like the fact that we came out strong.
The thing that still gets me is that the audience
(36:34):
doesn't know. Like the water was so cold, like that
was like the like that was the of the hang
up of that challenge. It was so freaking cold. A
risk of walks out like a damn praying mantis. She's
like her body is like folding down. It was like
it was crazy. But yeah, they didn't go easy on us.
(36:55):
That's for sure. Do you think a lot of like
people came back and expected it to be a little
bit easy, and they were like, after the first challenge
just kind of like what then did I sign up for?
A lot of them pulled up was like, oh, we're
going to the water. Maybe we'll have to canoe across,
you know what I mean or something. But no, but
(37:15):
that set the tone for the whole season, and you
know people might have not like people started going to
bed maybe a couple of minutes earlier, or stretching or
maybe doing some fitness in between, because it wasn't gonna
be you know, an egg toss in the back right,
you know, really wasn't gonna be backyard games. I mean
(37:35):
even they showed a clip of it, even like we
do an ode to a challenge the ice which is
which is coming up? The ice melting thing? That was
a throwback challenge and Battle the sexes even that when
you see it, you're like, oh, this is gonna be fun.
Anissa was that fun? It is terrible. Put in your
map like it was just a lot a lot of bouncing,
(37:58):
a lot of moving, I mean, bruises everywhere, cuts like
it is sliding with someone on top of you and
you're back on ice for like hours at a time,
creates terrible bruising and terrible sorts. So it's like even
the ones that looked fun aren't fun. No, no, but
it was. I'm glad they did some throwback stuff like that,
which is cool. I wanted that as well, like that
(38:20):
throwback kind of feel. I mean, but I think you,
I mean, you came and you've always been a beacon
of fitness, and I guess what it looks like to
be just like you're a specimen. You're one of those
guys that just always and it's not even like and
it's always proportionate. It's like the shoulders matched, the legs match,
the I mean, how did you train for this season?
Was it any different than any other season? Because I've
(38:42):
always thought you looked amazing. Well, thank you, thank you,
thank you. I'm trying to pull it together for my
late forties. As I said, trying what I know. I
have a girlfriend now that works out with me. Every
day we go after it, we go and do it
and uh you, that's one thing, um that I think
(39:02):
why it works, especially my relationship is we're both passionate
about it. And now for us, it's not it's not
even about how you look now after you work out.
It's like it makes me feel so good emotionally or
mentally when I'm done working out. And then the positives,
I mean, the extra bonuses you're actually you're stay in shape.
But like I did everything I did. I did pick
(39:22):
up my cardio a little more. That's the only thing
I can really tweaked was I did you know, more
running or you know the treadmill when it's like this,
you're going up. But like, there was no real magic
to what I did because I just knew that every
day the playing the playing field would kind of be
evened out. It wasn't gonna be all tug of war,
(39:43):
you know what I mean? So who how can you
train from melting ice with your ass? You know what?
You can't very hard? But um, you know, and I
like and you probably like this in the centri. I
like having things to look forward to to get in shape.
Yeah too, I like that goal and you're like okay,
and then you do whatever it is. So yeah, I
(40:05):
as soon as I started getting traction from this and
I knew it was going in a good direction, I
was like, Okay, I'm gonna act, you know, I'm just
assuming this thing is gonna go and I'm gonna pick
it up a little bit and train for it. And
it's you know, it's again it's a mental thing for me.
It's like my church being in the gym. Yeah, and
just it's just I don't know, it's amazing now, Like
if I don't go to the gym, I feel I
(40:26):
feel bad, like I feel relatable once it becomes part
of your everyday thing, like I mean, I mean, but
it didn't help that we had that like old school
prison yard style. Wait, and Argentina wasn't wasn't cold, so
like you would like I'm gonna take some pre work
out and talk to Jim and be like, yeah, I'm
(40:47):
gonna work out at like twelve one whatever. I'd like
to work out before lunch, like or in the morning.
It's so hot and there's no O zone. The weights
were like, oh wow, like ancient the bar was short.
It's probably like a twenty five pound bar. Everything's in kilos.
I still don't know how to do it. And we
see your guy's gym toy. It's like this like uber style,
(41:08):
like yeah, technologically advantaging and it's like cement weights. Mark.
I even asked production. I was like, is there any
way we could get a stationary bike? Like I know
you guys can't grab as the peloton, but could you
get something because I need to do cardio besides running
over bees every day? Oh my god. And there were
many too. Yeah for me. Once I got used to it,
(41:30):
I'm like, of course it's going to be old school weights.
Why why wouldn't it be you know what I mean?
Why you know? So it's just one platform in the
yard where you could work out literally, and we were like,
you know what, I'm going in the river? Yeah, at
least you had a river like that river looks so nice.
It was gory. That river was the best and it
was so cold that you could you know, it was
(41:52):
like doing the ice plunge after you work out, Like
we would go in there and it's just soaked because
it was like so great, Like having that thing was
was a blessing to us. I don't think. I think
like three people went to the Jacuza the entire time. Wow.
I went, and once it was so hot, I was like,
I'd rather just be one with nature in here with
the rocks and there was so fish. I wonder whoever
(42:15):
gonna show Tech jumping and naked. I hope they do,
because that's the first time I saw his penis. I
was in the shower and I was like, oh, what
do we have there? Oh my god, we have a
naked tech running in the lawn like it was tech
of something else. He is a magical human being. I
love that no one left there feeling salty, even you know,
(42:37):
everyone's seen in the previews. There's some person that t
that t JS piste off because they quit and it
shows in the preview. I won't say guy or girl.
Even that person has reached out to me since saying hey,
you know, I wanted to reach out you personally. You know,
I had the most amazing time babba. Yes, yes, I
(42:58):
got a long text. That's awesome. So I'm excited to
see that. Oh my gosh. I do have a question though,
to go back because I remember, you know, reading these
tweets about we want o g S. Where did that
even come from? Like what happened? So obviously you know
it's I got the shirt on too. I wish people
(43:20):
could see how cute Mark looks right now, and is
we want O G shirt. So anyway, so I was
talking with a few people. Obviously the term o G.
Everyone knows the term O G. It's like, you know,
original Gangsters or whatever you say. But like I said
to my Daddy's like, what did I said the working
titles like we want O GZ. He's like, what's O
G old guys. I'm like, no, it's not old guys,
(43:44):
but kind of um. And then we just but we
decided to start the hashtag we want O G s
because we wanted someplace where people could go and hashtag.
And you know how social media works. So once that
thing called fire, um, it just it became like a
movement on it own. On its own. I just pushed
(44:05):
it along. But like the fans and stuff really carried
carried that torch. Um, and they're so excited, man. I mean,
like I said, they're so excited that that this came out.
And uh, you know, we have nine awesome episodes. We're
gonna do an hour reunion. Um, so it's gonna be.
It's you know, it's a great compliment to the version
(44:26):
on MTV. It's such a great compliment and you know,
there's a there's something for everyone on that there show,
and there's something for everyone on our show, and the
fact that TJ is kind of a through line of
that is perfect. Totally. Yeah, it was so installgic to watch,
and I feel like, like you said, there's such a
fan base for it, so it's like kind of owed
it to the fans. There's people have been watching the
(44:46):
Challenge for twenty years. There's so many thank you's I've gotten,
you know, every interview I've done, people being like, all right,
first of all, this is fucking awesome that this is
going on, like before they even start talking. So they've
all grown up with us, and I think they're all
kind of psyche to see this thing move on and
go many seasons. A hundred percent. I think like even
after that, I watched the first episode twice, like in
(45:07):
a row. I was like, I need to I need
to watch it again. I loved it. I think a
lot of people are like a lot of people, you know,
we're we're kind of like you guys do on your shows,
the live tweeting on Wednesdays, we're live tweeting. We're watching
it from eight to nine Eastern and we're all live
tweeting during it. So even though scheduled. Everyone knows the
(45:28):
cast will be watching it Thursdays at eight Eastern and
we'll all tweet during it. So it's fun to kind
of have that movement, feel like you're on a little
ride with people. You know. I love it. I was
on it, and I love it, not because I was
on it. I just like I would have loved it anyway.
But it's even I look at it and I'm like,
oh my god, it's it's it was so amazing. If
only people were there to see how amazing it really was.
(45:49):
Like it's crazy because it's like it was more amazing
than if you can imagine that it was more amazing
than what was shown. But we know that it's a
TV show, so they can only show so much. But
I mean, I mean maybe there's a chance of like
ship they should have shown later. Yeah, definitely definitely show that, Horry.
You never know, Tori. A couple of years. I'm doing it, man,
(46:10):
I'm putting in my time now. That's where I want
to be right over. Um So if there were a
challenge Hall of Fame, who would be in it? Oh,
I've been asked this. I want to say, it's easier
to answer, but it's harder to answer, but it's easy.
Um U, I go ct I go bananas, I go Anisa,
(46:34):
I go coral, and listen. I started this thing a
long time ago. Yeah, and if I'm not up on
that platter, somehow something's wrong, because let me tell you,
I will tell you this. This thing will not be
a one and done. I can see this thing going
(46:56):
for many, many seasons and then culminating, like I said,
with the Super Bowl, super Bowls of reality competition, and
it will be the most watch things ever on whatever
service or network it's on. I want to do it
so bad, except like I said, I want to be
on your team. So let's do it in a few years.
See Tori, I feel like you'll still be on the
(47:17):
new team, but I love you and I'll do what
I can from the other side. Thanks guys, Thanks Mark,
Secret alliance wink wink, even though it's not secret because
we're on the podcast, but thanks to change. Thanks to Change. Mark,
Thank you so much. I mean, I know you're a
busy guy. I know you gotta go do like I
don't know, a couple of crunches to keep up with
(47:37):
at twelve pack, and you have a bunch of interviews
because you're a busy dude, and I mean, you did
such a magical thing for us, the cast, and for
the viewers, and definitely I'm just so proud of you,
so happy for you, so happy that I had the
chance to to reconnect with you, and um, I just
I think it's amazing what you've done. Thanks both of you.
(47:59):
Thank you guys at I'll be watching both of you
wherever it is, whether it's online or on the other one.
Thank you, Thank you. A good day. Alright, Anisa, Well,
(48:20):
that was amazing. Mark Long is a legend and it
was so awesome to have him on the show. So
how cool was that to pick his brain? Yeah, so
I love. I want to know some secrets because I
wasn't there, so I need to spill the tea, give
us some secrets from behind the scenes of filming. So
I will say that when you go in, they really
upped it with the aesthetics. They have all of our
(48:42):
helmets on the thing, our names are on the wall,
and then all the names of the challenges, and there
were quotes in every room said by different people, and
there were paintings on the wall. So there's a painting
of me, like a thing of me, a drawing of
me and Chavon doing this like back off thing where
I had to the thing off of her. Um Wes
(49:03):
and uh Derek, we're doing pole wrestle. So I'm like,
oh my god, are these clues? Like are we going
to be doing the eliminations that are in the pictures?
So there were a lot of There was a lot
of stuff because the life shield or the lifesaver came
from one show, and that one show was on one
of the plaques in our living room. So we're thinking
that maybe this has something to do with what's coming up. Oh,
(49:28):
like there were hitting clues in the house. Wow, that's exciting.
It's like a game within a game. The other thing
is that you don't know. I've never seen so many
guys pack so many surprise outfits for parties. I'm just
gonna say that, So look forward to lots of different outfits,
(49:49):
lots of drama. Yeah, and probably more uh secrets as
I go on, when I when I can remember them. Yeah,
I can't wait. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Well,
I loved this episode, Anisa, you absolutely crushed it and
can't wait to watch the next one. So where can
we follow you, Anissa and where can we send you
(50:10):
listener questions? You can follow me on Instagram at Anissa
MTV that's a m E s a MTV and Tori
where can they find you, Beautiful? You can find me
at tori Underscore deal. I'm so excited you guys. I'm
a fan with you all right now watching this season.
It's amazing. So if you want a fan girl out
with me, slide into the d m s and yeah,
(50:31):
feel free to send me listener questions and make sure
that you watch the biggest event in Challenge history because
The Challenge All Stars is streaming now exclusively on Paramount Plus.
And then you can go behind the scenes with us
on MTV's official Challenge podcast.
Hosts And Creators
Tori Deal
Aneesa Ferreira
Devyn Simone
Da'Vonne Rogers
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