Cashay on ‘The Challenge: USA’ Exit: ‘I Was Happy to Leave How I Did’

The Fab Five wasn’t so fabulous when it came to working together in the latest episode of The Challenge: USA. In fact, their actions during the daily and subsequent deliberation led to two of them facing off in elimination.

Working together, The Amazing Race‘s Cayla Platt, Love Island‘s Cashay Proudfoot and Justine Ndiba, and Survivor‘s Desi Williams and Sarah Lacina should have been able to get Big Brother‘s Alyssa Lopez or Angela Rummans eliminated. Instead, Lacina lost the daily, and winners Williams and Survivor‘s Danny McCray sent in Proudfoot against her. Proudfoot was eliminated.

Jonne Roriz, courtesy of Paramount

Still, she left feeling like she was leaving a better woman than when she came in. “It was just challenging myself, putting myself in a hard situation,” Proudfoot tells TV Insider, “because I have two dislocated knees, I’m on a fitness show, like what am I doing? I purposely didn’t wear my knee braces for certain challenges because I didn’t want to be looked at as super weak. I walked in someone sad, heartbroken, unsure, scared, shy in a sense of being with so many competitors.”

Overall, “I walked out [feeling great]. I was happy that I had the experience that I can look back on and feel good about,” she continued. “I’m just happy and I’m proud of myself.”

As for where Proudfoot and her ex, Melvin “Cinco” Holland Jr. stand, “we’re not friends, we’re not in contact and I’m completely OK with that because things happen. You date, you break up, you live your life.”

Proudfoot discusses the Fab Five “alliance” and that elimination below.

The Fab Five was better as a concept than in the actual execution of an alliance. So I’m curious: How much did you trust each other going into that daily challenge where it seemed it was everyone for herself?

Cashay Proudfoot: Yeah. Desi and I did not talk game, we weren’t friends, we weren’t close. So I did not trust that woman as far as I could throw her. So for me, the concept of it was fine, but I don’t think we talked enough to really execute the plan of, let’s all do this one person and block them because some of us are putting blocks on Alyssa, some of us are putting blocks on Angela. If all five of us just put our blocks on one board, there’s no reason why we couldn’t get who we wanted into the elimination. But I just think it was more so like, “I’m gonna play my own game, but I’m also gonna help her. But I also don’t know where to put my block.” It was just really messy. That’s why I don’t think the concept of the Fab Five is as serious as the edit made it look because if it was, there’s no way we wouldn’t have won.

Jonne Roriz, courtesy of Paramount

You said that you and Desi didn’t speak, but you thought that she had your back. So talk about her throwing you into elimination.

Yeah. It’s kind of like if I was in power, even though I didn’t talk game with her and I didn’t trust her, I wouldn’t have thrown her in because I would’ve had to go through Justine, Sarah, and Cayla in order to do so. So I thought there was a mutual understanding as far as that. That’s why I just thought that she wouldn’t, but I also didn’t trust her. So a part of me felt like she still would. It’s just one of those things where we just didn’t connect and that’s completely fine, so throwing me in, I wasn’t like, “Oh, how could you?” I was like, I kind of get it. I didn’t really respect her. I knew that there was a chance that she was going to throw me in.

Watching it, it kind of felt like you, Justine, Cayla, and Sarah were more of a bonded group than the five total.

Oh my God, yeah. It was definitely just the four of us that were really close, in my opinion, because Desi wasn’t really involved. Me, Justine, Cayla, and Sarah would sit down and eat together. We had jokes. We would dance. There was actually a connection there for me. Bringing in Desi made me confused. I was like, “I don’t trust this girl. You guys trust her? OK, cool.” At the end of the day, if someone says that person’s cool or working with them, I’m going to have their back.

Jonne Roriz, courtesy of Paramount

You did try to talk to Danny, but it doesn’t seem like there was anything you could have done to keep him from throwing you in, right?

Oh, of course. My conversation with Danny wasn’t me pleading for my case. It was more so like, you need to understand that I’m a competitor. If you’re gonna throw me in, that’s fine. But you have to have it in your head that I’m not weak. That was my biggest thing. I’m like, yes, I can’t swim. I hated that he saw me as weak. I knew that he was gonna throw me in and I knew there was nothing that I can do, but I was still gonna have a conversation because I’m like, I hate that you just think that I’m like a deadbeat because that’s stupid and that’s dumb.

You said that Sarah “would eat” you if you went against her and you talked about faking an injury if it was a Hall Brawl. But you also said you felt better than you thought. So how confident were you before the actual elimination started?

I had some good one-liners this episode.

You did!

For me, I was just happy that it wasn’t a Hall Brawl and I was happy that it wasn’t a physical one-on-one, because again, she would eat me. So I felt good when I saw it. I was like, OK, cool, it’s something that I could at least compete a little bit. And I did. If you saw the second round, we were so close. So I was glad that it was a chance that I could compete. That’s why I kind of felt good and it was going against someone that I’m friends with and I respect versus going against someone where there’s hostility, no respect, didn’t like. I felt like I was happy to be where I was and I was happy to leave how I did.

Jonne Roriz, courtesy of Paramount

I was going to say, you had trouble getting the wheel going the first time, but then it seemed like the second time you had the hang of it, right?

Yeah. It was so heavy. And I think I just thought, when you see a hamster, he just hops on and he runs, you know? I could not figure out how to get that thing going. I was exhausted. But yeah, I’m just happy that I got it going a second time and I’m proud of myself.

You talked about the kind of elimination that you wanted to do — can’t talk, sweating — and it seemed like that’s exactly what that was.

Yeah. It was a lot… I was literally remembering how my legs were just like noodles afterwards.

The daily had you running up all the stairs, too.

Oh, that was fine. Even after the daily, me and Cayla were running. We did laps and we were training. Running is not an issue with me. I have very strong legs, but using that on a steel wheel was so hard.

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What’s something we didn’t see that viewers should know about?

I just wish y’all saw more of Sarah’s personality. Sarah’s just such a good time. She’s so silly. I just wish y’all could have saw more of the relationships in the house and just more of Sarah as a whole.

Would you do another season, and if so, how would you prepare differently if you would?

For me, it’s a hard no if I would do another season, but then again, you never know if my ego’s gonna bring me back. I took two weeks of swim lessons, but that’s because I thought I was gonna go on a vacation and not so much for the show. So I would just prepare differently for the show. I think since I am someone who works out often, I didn’t really do anything differently to prepare. I didn’t have trivia apps on my phone or binge the seasons. I didn’t walk in with a game mentality. I walked in like, hey, what’s up? So I think it would be different if I prepared more for it.

Is there another reality competition show you would do now that you spent time with people from other ones here?

I think I’m good on reality TV, respectfully, so no. [Laughs]

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