On the latest episode of Kail Lowry’s Barely Famous podcast, the former Teen Mom 2 star sat down with Real World-turned-Challenge competitor Jemmye Carroll to compare their respective reality TV experiences with MTV– the good, the bad and the (allegedly) underpaid.
Jemmye– who made her reality TV debut on The Real World: New Orleans in 2010, and went on to compete on nine seasons of ‘The Challenge’— discussed what she feels is wrong with the long-running MTV competition show, starting with who is casted to appear on it these days. Jemmye explained that the show used to cast “the entertaining people” from ‘The Real World’ and Road Rules. Around 2017, however, random people from other shows/networks like Big Brother, Are You the One? and Ex on the Beach UK began appearing on the show.
“ … and ‘The Challenge’ hasn’t been the same since,” she said.
While she said she understands why this change was made, Jemmye said she would have liked to have seen stars from other MTV reality series brought onto ‘The Challenge’ back in the day– particularly those from ‘Teen Mom’ and Jersey Shore.
“ … like, imagine ‘Teen Mom’ and ‘Jersey Shore’ on ‘The Challenge’ in 2014,” she said to Kail. “ … Like, you and [Mike] The Situation [Sorrentino] in the ‘Challenge’ house, that would have been a wet dream for MTV.”
During the podcast, Kail and Jemmye compared their respective reality TV filming schedules, with Kail noting that ‘Teen Mom’ filmed two seasons a year and Jemmye pointing out that people can “go years” without appearing on ‘The Challenge.’ Jemmye joked that the stars of the ‘Teen Mom’ franchise “took all the money” from MTV, as a ‘Challenge’ competitor in their 9th of 10th season typically earns around $90,000 to $100,000– before taxes.
“That’s not a lot though,” Jemmye said. “If you think about it, you’d bring home $90,000 and then you don’t do a show for two years. It’s not consistent money.”
While ‘The Challenge’ doesn’t provide cast members with a large or consistent paycheck, Jemmye pointed out that the show does allow its cast members to live a more-private life than those who appear on the ‘Teen Mom’ franchise.
“ … we can walk away from ‘The Challenge’ and be done,” Jemmye said to Kail. “You can’t walk away from a show like yours and be done, ‘cause you’re still so recognizable. It’s totally different.”
Jemmye said she believes that Kail– who left ‘Teen Mom 2’ in 2022– got out of reality TV at the right time, to which Kail revealed that she often wonders what the “exit strategy” is for other reality TV stars.
“I look at some of the cast members that I filmed with and I’m like, ‘What is your plan when this ends?’” Kail said. “Because it does end and it will end. So what is the plan? You don’t have a degree, y’all don’t have investments, y’all don’t have a financial advisor, what are y’all doing?”
While Jemmye ultimately followed up her season of ‘The Real World’ with multiple seasons of ‘The Challenge,’ she revealed this week that she had a pretty solid backup plan, had the whole reality TV thing not worked out.
“I was going to go to law school,” Jemmye said. “I had interned in [Washington] D.C. the summer before I got cast [on ‘The Real World’] and they were filming ‘Real World’ D.C., so I’d walk by the house every day and I was like, ‘These people look like losers, I’d be so much cooler on this show.’”
Despite Jemmye being “on the right path” of law school and working in politics before entering the world of reality TV, she said she’s actually grateful that her plans ended up changing.
“ … thank God, because now, looking at where it’s actually better to be on reality TV right now than living in D.C.,” she said.
Though Jemmye didn’t end up completing her law degree, she did graduate from college, which has allowed her to earn a living outside of reality TV by working for startup tech companies and doing “a lot of healthcare consulting on the side.”
“So, yeah, like, people don’t realize that … I have a job, I just don’t tell you about it, Twitter,” Jemmye said.
Jemmye noted later in the episode that she took three years off from ‘The Challenge’ in 2014 after her ex Ryan Knight passed away and that she left ‘All Stars’ 3 early because her father– who has since passed away– was sick. Jemmye said that while she thinks “there’s too much PTSD to go back” to ‘The Challenge,’ she’d be down to appear on ‘Big Brother’ or a Bravo show, though she revealed that The Traitors is her “dream show.”
Click here to listen to Jemmye’s episode of Barely Famous.
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(Photos: Instagram; MTV)
3 Responses
Jemmye is reminding me of Aubrey O’Day now and less like her old self.
KaiL iS bEauTiFuL with her sliced off gobler 🐖 🐷 🐽 #pigsisbeautiful
The two ugliest and least talented MTV “stars” have opinions on how MTV runs their network.