‘The Challenge: USA’: Eliminated ‘Love Island’ Pair Were ‘Not Going to Beg’

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Challenge: USA series premiere.]

Reality titans from four of CBS’ hits — The Amazing Race, Big Brother, Love Island, and Survivor — are facing off on The Challenge: USA this summer, and one of those shows is down two after the premiere.

Survivor‘s Tyson and Big Brother‘s Angela won the daily challenge and so were able to choose the competition for the losing team, Big Brother‘s Azah and Kyland, in the elimination. While it seemed like The Amazing Race‘s James and Love Island‘s Shannon would be going in, he worked the system and was able to save them. Instead, Love Island‘s Cely Vazquez and Javonny Vega were sent in, and they lost.

Vazquez and Vega open up about their time on The Challenge: USA, what they would’ve done differently, and more.

Coming into this, what did you each expect? How did you prepare?

Vazquez: I was out here, running, taking boxing. I did so much. Honestly for months, me and Justine were training together and we were dying laughing yesterday because she was like, “Girl, remember when we ran up that hill?” We did five miles incline, and I was beating her, and she was like, “You were beating me the whole time for you to just go home first.” [Laughs]

Vega: I was running five miles every three days. I put on some weight from Love Island. Love Island, I weighed like 182 pounds, I went into The Challenge 210, for hall brawl. I was just ready to go. I didn’t know what to expect. I was playing puzzle games on my phone, math equations on my phone, just to get it down, and here we are.

Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount

Coming from Love Island, Cely, you’d mentioned that the social aspect was the easiest part. But it seems that you guys didn’t have the chance to use that to your advantage, did you?

Vazquez: Honestly, that’s the hard part because when Angela said my name, I was like, “How dare you? How dare you?” because I literally was eating her vegan food — I’m not even vegan! I thought we were friends, and I’m like, “How dare you do this to me?” Honestly, we were all good friends in there, and the one thing Love Island’s going to do is make connections and we were definitely trying to do that, but I guess Survivor and Big Brother are just built different.

Vega: Yeah, it’s built different. I went in there, I got to know everybody. Then they just threw us in there [out of] left field, but that’s part of the game. Even though you thought you know somebody, you’re cool with somebody, it’s really not. They’re playing the game. “Hey, we’re best friends now, but I’m plotting on you, too.”

But it also seemed like there was nothing you could do to keep yourselves out of elimination, especially as a Love Island pair and James working the system to save himself and Shannon. Is there anything you wish you’d done differently leading up to the arena?

Vazquez: Absolutely not. One thing about me, I was not going to beg. I think Javonny’s built the same. We heard that our names were getting thrown around, but I was like, if it was me, I would feel so pressed if someone was begging for their life. That’s the name of the game, you’re at The Challenge. Eventually, everyone’s going to have to do it. and so at that point, I was like, I’m not going to ask to not be thrown in.

Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount

Vega: Yeah, I thought it was going to come down to us anyway. James playing the game how it’s supposed to be played, he went ahead and politicked. I wasn’t going to kiss nobody’s butt. I kind of should have done a little bit more politicking just to talk to people and see how we could have saved ourselves, probably could’ve made a deal, but other than that, it happens and I’m ecstatic we went in there and we went to fight. We were mentally prepared for it.

Talk about that elimination because it looks brutal every time I see it on a Challenge.

Vega: We were conditioned for this. I ain’t gonna lie. Kyland had to hold it down for Azah, but me and Cely, we were good to go. We had way more energy. We were more into it. We were actually working as a team.

Vazquez: I feel like we went in crazy. We were so ready. I’ve never sweat before like that in my life. It was absolutely bonkers, but I think we just made one wrong move and couldn’t recover. But otherwise I feel like we were in there.

Vega: We were in there. It was that one wrong mistake we did. And we’d seen it last minute. As soon as I flipped the rope, it was like, “Look, Cely,” and the next [thing I knew] TJ [blew the horn].

Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount

That’s the problem with that elimination is that you make one mistake and you can’t just go back and fix it quickly.

Vazquez: Yeah. That rope is so heavy, too. That rope has no business being that heavy. It was insane, us trying to pull that together. Ugh. It was insane.

Javonny, do you regret bringing up Azah passing out after the 22 flights of stairs?

Vega: Nah, I meant everything I said, I ain’t gonna lie. I meant everything I said. When I said, “Yeah, Azah, that’s why you passed out going up 22 flights of stairs. You ain’t conditioned for this,” I’m getting in their heads and Cely’s like, “Why would you say that?”

Vazquez: I was like, Javonny really went there and then we lost. [Laughs]

Vega: [Laughs] I didn’t care. Win or lose, I’ll still stick to my word. That was lit, though. That’s good TV.

Cely, you and Justine brought up how close you are, and we saw her reaction to you being eliminated. Do you think your friendship would’ve remained the same if you’d gone further in the competition and perhaps had to compete against each other? We’ve seen how intense things can get on these shows.

Vazquez: Oh, no. J and I, we literally at this point share the same blood. There’s just no way anything could ever turn us against each other. We actually talked about that, too. I was like, “Girl, if they gotta put us in a hall brawl together, good luck.” She said, “You, too.” [Laughs] But we knew what it was gonna be. We knew it, but I’m just so happy that she’s still in there. She is the challenge.

Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount

Vega: That would’ve been funny if they would’ve put you guys in a hall brawl. I would’ve been like, “ooh.”

Vazquez: We talked about it. I literally was like, “Good luck, sis.”

Vega: I got my money on Justine. [Laughs]

Vazquez: Hey, I’m small, but I’m scrappy.

How will you both remember your time on The Challenge: USA?

Vega: Awesome. I met a lot of great, funny people there from every different show. Azah’s embedded in my head, her passing out. And then we were playing this game, the mafia. Everybody was just so cool. They had their own stories from their own shows, and it was just a great experience, a great time and something very unique, and there were a couple bonds built. But we were just there for five days.

Vazquez: It’s actually insane that our time was obviously the most limited, but we still made such amazing bonds. I watched the premiere last night with Angela and we were just like shooting shots at each other. I was like, Angela, “How dare you?” when she said my name, but everyone’s friends. It’s a competition show, but I’m just so glad that we had the time to get to know each other.

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What would you do differently if you competed in another season or a similar show?

Vazquez: I think maybe try to be a little bit more strategic. But I don’t think I would change much honestly. I’m still not gonna go out here begging people, but I think I would make harder decisions. I feel like Javonny and I are very similar in the fact that above everything, we’re just gonna have fun with it.

Vega: Same. Have a blast, play strategic more, probably be a little bit more political in there and still talk trash. Talking trash makes my big head a little bit more enjoyable. [Laughs]

So you’d both do another season?

Vega: Oh, for sure.

Vazquez: I would definitely do another season.

The Challenge: USA, Wednesdays, 9/8c, CBS