On a recent episode of his podcast, Zach Nichols shared with fellow Challenge star Johnny Bananas that he “100 percent” still believes he hasn’t been asked to return to the competition series because he’s “on the blacklist.”
“ … I’m on the blacklist, buddy,” Zach told Bananas on The Zach Nichols Podcast, before going on to confirm he “100 percent” believes this is why he hasn’t appeared on the show since 2019’s War of the Worlds 2.
As fans may remember, Zach competed on nine seasons of ‘The Challenge’ between 2012 and 2019. While he maintains he’s still “on the blacklist,” he revealed this week that conversations with production about his potential return have happened over the years, though he’s failed to make the final cast list in more than six seasons.
“ … I’ve had conversations, and it started out like, ‘Oh, we didn’t know you even wanted to come back,’” Zach told Bananas. “ … I had the conversations, I thought things went well, but then after All Stars 5, when they casted Frank [Sweeney], Sam [McGinn] and Ashley [Kelsey]– the three that I won [2012’s Battle of the Seasons] with– but didn’t bring me on that show, when I literally was in Mark [Long]’s ear, like, ‘If there’s one [to make my comeback on] this is the one.’ … I didn’t even get [an] availability [phone call from producers].”
Zach went on to claim that his wife, Jenna Compono, whom he met on the MTV series, has been pushing for his return to ‘The Challenge’ more than he has. He also claimed that the last time producers from ‘The Challenge’ reached out to him about possible casting, they did so through Jenna.
“The last availability call I got was [The Challenge: USA [Season] 2 [on CBS] … I got an availability call, but they didn’t call me, they called Jenna to ask if I was available,” he said.
Zach said that while Jenna told production that he was, in fact, available to compete, he believes that he “may have burned some serious bridges” that prevented him from actually being cast on that season, as well as others.
Despite Zach’s claim of “burning bridges,” Bananas argued on the podcast that other seemingly polarizing cast members have been able to return to the show, including Ashley Mitchell, Paulie Calafiore and CT Tamburello– the latter of whom Bananas claimed, “used to beat the sh*t out of f**king everybody, including the production team.”
“Unless your name is Dee [Nguyen] or Camila [Nakagawa], I don’t think there’s ever, like, a permanent blacklist,” Bananas added.
(As fans may recall, MTV severed ties with Dee in 2020 after she posted offensive comments about the Black Lives Matter movement on social media as her season of ‘The Challenge’ was airing. Meanwhile, Camila launched an infamous tirade against castmate Leroy Garrett during 2017’s The Challenge: Dirty Thirty, only to get herself banned from the show later that year for an unrelated incident.)
While Bananas seemed to doubt Zach’s claim of being “blacklisted,” Zach went on to note some of his accomplishments on ‘The Challenge’– including the fact that he won a season and was a finalist on three others– arguing that he was benched by the show, despite performing well.
“I feel like I was just getting into where it would’ve been my prime,” he said, before going on to reveal that, despite “a bunch of stuff” happening, he did end up getting a call in 2019 for Season 35’s The Challenge: Total Madness, only to later be told by production that he “didn’t fit the theme.”
As The Ashley previously reported, Zach spoke about his alleged “blacklisted” status on an April 2024 episode of his podcast, telling listeners that there were a “combination” of reasons as to why he hasn’t returned to ‘The Challenge,’ one of which being his “run-ins with a few producers” over “stupid things.” While he didn’t reveal who he was referring to at the time, Zach told listeners if they wanted to “fill in the blanks, you can figure it out.”
“ … I don’t really like to back down and so I didn’t,” Zach said of these alleged run-ins. “And there was a few times where I pushed things a little bit farther, but I don’t want anyone to walk all over me … .”
He also alleged that after competing on ‘War of the Worlds 2,’ he received a message from an individual connected to someone from production with whom he’d “butted heads with in the past,” who told him that after the ‘War of the Worlds 2’ finale, said-producer stated, “I will do whatever it takes to make sure that kid never gets on another show.”
Zach had also stated on an earlier episode of his podcast last year that he wasn’t anticipating a call to join the Season 40 cast of ‘The Challenge’ (which he seems to have predicted correctly, as he did not go on to compete that season), nor was he expecting a call for any season beyond that. He also seemingly indicated at the time that his days on ‘The Challenge’ are behind him.
Watch a clip from Zach’s podcast below.
RELATED STORY: ‘The Challenge’ Stars Jenna Compono & Zach Nichols Welcome Fourth Child; Zach Says Wife’s Delivery “Was a Total Breeze” for Him
(Photos: Instagram; MTV)
5 Responses
He was an abusive piece of shit. He can stay gone. A long with the other 2 on the permanent banned list Kenny and Evan thanks to their sexual assault of Tonya. But Bananas doesn’t like to bring them up because ppl will realise that he’s still friends with them.
A quitter and a cheater. The toxic reason the show is unwatchable. Time to move on fellas.
I’d rather see Barbie Beast Jenna back on the show than Zach. Jenna made it to three finals and always held her own.
Zach isn’t even good at the Challenge. He acts like a big baby.
Camilla may have been permanently blacklisted. She should have been years before. They didn’t even boot her because of the disgusting racist tirade against Leroy. It was because she took a producers golf cart drunk and wrecked it and almost hit a member of the camera crew with the golf cart. What pisses me off is that she won that season and MTV happily handed her $450,000!
Their allowing CAMILLA to actually WIN after that disgusts and burns me to tis DAY!!! There are MANY Challengers who don’t deserve invites for sure but SHE is at the TOP of my list EVERY SINGLE TIME! Foul bitch!