When Sarah Rice tuned in to watch her former The Challenge teammate Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio on the Netflix live dating show Pop the Balloon, one question came to mind.
“Who thought that was a good idea?” she asked on Thursday’s episode of the Brain Candy Podcast, cohosted with fellow ‘Challenge’ alum Susie Meister.
“Listen, everything he said was terrible, but let’s just take the concept of having a … middle-aged man, you are coming on a show with people who could literally be your children.”
Johnny’s controversial appearance on the dating show, which included him making allegedly racist remarks to a female contestant, should end his reality TV career, according to Sarah, who would be happy with that result.
“I don’t know if they would be smart to cast him on things after what we’ve seen,” she said on the podcast, adding, “I might be in a situation where I won’t even have to go against Johnny or be with Johnny or see him on a show again because he’s already dug himself a grave and buried himself.”
Back in 2016, Sarah and Johnny were teammates on The Challenge: Rivals III when he took all of their prize money for himself, possibly in retaliation for her sending him into elimination on Battle of the Exes II a year earlier.
Sarah later accused Johnny of cheating during the ‘Rivals’ season by taking Adderall, a drug he didn’t have a prescription for.
The bad behavior displayed on the dating show is nothing new for Johnny, according to Sarah.
“People I know and people I talk to [have] never been accused of or had to explain themselves for emojis or explain themselves for things they’ve said on live TV, never had to really do that, the fact that he’s done that twice in less than six months,” she said, referring to a gorilla emoji that appeared in a tweet Johnny sent to Big Brother winner Taylor Hale.
“I was on a show with him, I know what he would say, I know the comments that he would say about Nany [Gonzales] and about people of color or women or the LGBTQ+ community, and then, ‘Oh, it’s a joke, it’s a joke, it’s a joke.’ No.”
At this point, Sarah believes Johnny should know better.
“It would be one thing if he were a 25-year-old guy going out and doing that and it’s like, ‘OK, well this guy needs some time to grow up and mature,’” she said. “Dude, what are you doing?”
Whether Johnny learns from his appearance on ‘Pop the Balloon’ and the backlash or not, Sarah’s satisfied that viewers are getting a truer picture of a person she said has been helped by editing throughout his reality TV career.
“I am not someone who’s out here wanting people to fail, but what I do want is people to be exposed for who they truly are, and I think we’re getting to see a little bit more of that now, and for that I’m grateful,” she said.
Check out the full podcast episode below.
(Photos: MTV)
3 Responses
He’s always been detestable. That will never change.
He was disgusting 20 yrs ago and he still disgusting now.
He still thinks he’s giving ‘hot n sexy’ vibes when in reality it’s more like ‘dirty old man creep’ he’s been gross for a long time but for some reason they keep bringing him back.