Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio may have seven ‘Challenge’ wins under his belt, but the 44-year-old also has a lot of resentment towards MTV– the network on which he won those titles.
In a new interview on the ‘Legally Goff’ podcast, Johnny revealed that the currently airing season of ‘The Challenge’ won’t be his last, while insisting that he’s “just getting warmed up.” One factor that seems to have contributed to his decision is the fact that ‘The Challenge’ is now airing on Paramount+ instead of MTV.
“We’re on a new network, which is great,” Johnny said. “We got a new mothership.”
As you may know, after airing on MTV from 1998 to 2025, the long-running competition series moved to Paramount+ this year for Season 42’s ‘The Challenge: Cutthroat.’
This week, Johnny told podcast host Brooke Goff that, while he’s “very careful” about how he chooses to talk about his former employer, he’s also not above slamming them for failing to capitalize on his reality TV star power.
“ … there are so many aspects of me that is so happy that I no longer have to deal with the 20-year emotionally abusive relationship I was in with MTV,” Johnny explained. “The biggest issue that I had was no matter how much I accomplished on that network, no matter what I did, no matter how much my stock level rose, no matter how talented I got at doing things other than ‘The Challenge,’ it was never capitalized on by MTV.”
Johnny– who made his MTV debut on 2006’s ‘The Real World: Key West’– went on to say that it “blows [his] mind” that, despite avoiding personal controversies over the years and going on to become a star on ‘The Challenge,’ MTV seemed determined to keep him “in this box on the network.” He also suggested that MTV could have done more to elevate his career, being that he’s “logged more hours on camera than anyone in the history of reality television.”
“[MTV] never capitalized on that, it was like they never saw the value in that,” Johnny claimed. “And I would see people around me from other shows that hadn’t been around nearly as long, that didn’t have nearly the body of work, that weren’t nearly as talented, getting these opportunities to host or [do] spin-off shows or whatever … .”
Another thing that Johnny found “upsetting” was that MTV didn’t want to help him “expand [his] brand” on their network or any network.
“So, they wouldn’t help me grow within the network, but then they would also throw up roadblocks and prevent me from doing [other shows],” he said. “Two seasons of ‘Celebrity Big Brother,’ [they] shut it down. ‘Ridiculousness’ … and that’s a show on their network, they prevented me from doing that till finally I got the green light. ‘[Late Night with] Jimmy Fallon,’ they literally tried to prevent me from going on Jimmy Fallon … .”
(Despite MTV’s alleged “roadblocks,” Johnny was the host of NBC’s ‘1st Look’ from 2018 to 2023; he also competed on Food Network’s ‘Worst Cooks in America’ in 2020 and hosted ‘Celebrity Sleepover’ on NBC in 2021.)
Although Johnny was out of his exclusivity contract with MTV when he was cast on Season 2 of ‘The Traitors,’ he claims that MTV still tried to “prevent” him from appearing on the Peacock show. He also accused the network of attempting to have him “pulled off” of E!’s ‘House of Villains.’ Johnny pointed to these examples (and others) as proof that MTV had a “weird, personal, petty vendetta” against him.
“ … It’s actually wild that I’ve managed to get to the point that I’m at and have my brand where it’s at that I can capitalize on [it], while being held back … ,” he said. “Which makes me wonder, had they actually been a little more supportive and had they actually helped me elevate my brand, where I’d be now, because it would probably be in a whole different realm.”
Johnny said ultimately, he believes the situation between himself and MTV “all comes back to power.”
“To be fair, I think there’s other networks that do the same thing, I think there’s businesses out there [that do it] as well,” he explained. “The more notoriety a person gets, the more desirable they become. The more power they have, the less control you have over them. And I felt like there was always this power struggle between me and the network when there didn’t need to be.
“I’m a f**king loyal dude,” he continued.
Later in the podcast episode, Johnny reiterated that he’s “super excited to be working with Paramount,” and he’s pretty certain they feel the same way about him.
“I mean, they obviously like me because they made me the damn face of the poster for the new ‘Challenge,’” he stated.
New episodes of ‘The Challenge: Cutthroat’ are released Wednesdays on Paramount+.
Click here to watch a clip from Johnny’s interview on the ‘Legally Goff’ podcast.
(Photos: MTV; Instagram; E!)
