‘The Challenge: All Stars’: Kam Williams Was ’95 Percent’ Sure Laurel Stucky Would Back Out of That Elimination

Kam Williams could probably foresee that once she got her coveted star on The Challenge: All Stars, she’d have to defend it against those who also wanted a ticket to the final. But perhaps she wasn’t expecting to have to return to the arena quite this quickly.

On Wednesday’s episode, Kam and the rest of the cast learned that it’d be a back-to-back women’s elimination night after the day’s challenge, which saw them tip-toeing across a high platform over water to latch onto a rubber ball and lower a puzzle. Kam came into the game on a bit of a high, after successfully winning her elimination bout with Tina Barta and making good on her promise to take Cara Maria Sorbello‘s star. However, things went sour for her as soon as the anxiety kicked in, and she wasn’t able to complete the challenge (ducking out with the blessing of her partner in that game and in real life, Leroy Garrett).

Unlike the last time she found herself in the sand fighting for stars, this time, it wasn’t the end she had in mind. She found herself sharing space with Cara in the losing team spread, and she was quickly voted back in for another whirl.

This time, there was a very solid chance that Laurel Stucky would replace her in the arena — Laurel all but promised as much, since she, too, needed a star. However, Kam says she wasn’t convinced that would happen at all and wasn’t surprised when she had to go in herself. And as for what happened in the “Caged In” elimination, well, it really did come down to just one ball.

TV Insider caught up with Kam Williams to find out all of the behind-the-scenes details — and a few updates — about The Challenge: All Stars Season 4.

Everyone seems to be really curious about the logistics of you saving all that milk for the baby for that long. How did that work?

Kam Williams: Well, first of all, production was so amazing because from the moment that they found out that I was coming … one of my main requirements was a freezer be located in my bedroom. So I was able to store all of my milk in there. And I also had a room in the house that I used to breast pump, so it was really cool. It was like a big room, it had a fan in it, and nobody else was allowed to use it. No cameras, no other cast members… not even production. I had a key to it and everything so they were very accommodating with that.

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Going back to the beginning of the season, you had a bit of a squabble with Ayanna [Mackins]. I guess everyone kind of did. Were you surprised though that she’d want to break up your alliance with Leroy?

I was because she just made it seem like, “I would never try to vote for any of you guys.” So, initially, when we had that confrontation, I just sort of questioned… “You said this. This is what I heard.” But then that eventually just blew up.

And you seemed to have some thoughts about Rachel [Robinson] trying to play to Cara [Maria Sorbello]‘s game and not taking her star. What made you upset about that?

I think with how I play my game, I play it very strategically. And yeah, I would have just liked to see that. The thing is, Rachel didn’t make a non-smart move. She made a smart move for what she felt was best for her game, which is amazing, and it wasn’t a dumb move. It was a very safe move. I just — for me, and I’m sure some of the audience at home — wanted to see the pot or something being stirred a little bit like, “Hey, like, really make a move.” So I’m just always like, I want to see a move be made at all times.

So on that note, you were able to get Brandon [Nelson], who was somebody that initially came into this game with Cara, to turn. And then you and Leroy also had a personal friendship with her. When did it go wrong? When did it really change that you were so gung-ho against her?

The turning point for that was, I would say, with the whole altercation with Ayanna. It was edited out so that didn’t look as bad as it actually was, but it was  — it did go to a certain point to where the entire house not only agreed to vote Ayanna in, which they probably already would have been voting her in, but it was to the point where they also voted Rachel in… because I thought Rachel was the best competitor to take Ayanna out. And in that moment, I think that it was just beyond the game. It was like a moral thing. Just do the right thing. Do what’s right. And I know that some people are like, “Well, you still got what you wanted. Why did you have those feelings?” But I think on the same token, we could have said to Cara, “You could have said to Rachel, ‘Hey, you were going in anyways.'” So I just wanted to stand with my friend. So it was about the right thing to do from a moral standpoint.

Okay, so there was one moment where you kind of wanted to go in, and you couldn’t, and that was in the one that ended up being between Jasmine Reynaud and Nicole Zanatta. Were you hoping to either go against Veronica Portillo or Jasmine in that one?

I didn’t know who I would have ended up going against because it was just between the girls that were in a losing group, right? All I know is I just wanted my star… I’m more so [against] the theme of, “Let me stay out of elimination. Let me hope that maybe I get a star tossed to me.” I am someone that’s like, “Hey, throw me in, and let me get my star. I’m ready to get it over with.” Because I think I was just very anxious about like, I’m not just gonna sit here and waste time. If I get my star, cool. I feel great moving forward with the game, but if not, I get to go back home to my eight-month-old. So that’s just where I was coming from. I’m not about to sit here and have everybody playing my game for me. So I was willing to step up when nobody else was. So that’s why it was kind of a bummer because nobody else wanted to go into eliminations. I did.

Speaking of that, how do you think you got everyone to come and play to your game to get you in when you finally did? Even Tina Barta, who obviously you took out?

I think because I openly wanted to go in, and I just had the numbers on my side that time around. And it just made sense. It literally it just made sense. You voting somebody in that’s saying, “Hey, I don’t want to go in,” you could possibly make an enemy. You voting for somebody who’s saying, “Hey, I want to go in,” you just made a friend. Because [they’ll say], “I looked out for you. I helped you get your star, Kam. I did this for you. Maybe you can help me out when I’m ready to get mine.” So I think that I always lay these facts out there and present it to whoever I’m pitching to why my point makes the most sense. And I think that that’s why sometimes a lot of things will go in my favor.

Going into this episode, you were really afraid of the heights. Was there a moment where you felt like you could do it? I mean, because you’re not a person who normally would walk away from something. What was the situation?

Not at all. So to be honest, going into the challenge and leading up to it, I thought, “This is gonna be such an easy jump. Just jump and go do it!” And then for some reason, out of nowhere, I just started getting all these voices in my head, which is something that — sometimes I get very anxious. So I think we got to see that play out for me. And it was just a lot going on in my head. I literally thought like, “Hey, if you do this, you will not make it back home to see your son.” And that’s literally all that it was, but I also knew that with me not jumping in that moment, it was like the conversation I had with myself is, “If you don’t jump, you’re going to have to go into elimination. You know that, right?” Then I was like, “I would rather do that than this.” Because there were other heights-over-water challenges that I easily did, but I don’t know why for this one. It was just so different, but it was a very real moment.

And Leroy was obviously very supportive of you. What did it mean to you? You guys’s relationship is so much different now than it used to be when you did Challenges together before — what did it mean to you to be at this point in your relationship together on The Challenge this year? 

I mean, who gets to say that they are on The Challenge with somebody that they’re dang near married to, right? Like, this is my person. I can trust him, and my ultimate support system is him. It was so easy for him to support me because he knows what goes on behind closed doors in my life, within our lives. So he knows that this can sometimes be a thing for me, right? So he was like, “Hey, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’m gonna absolutely support you.” And that just felt so amazing because he was like, “This game doesn’t matter, when it comes to how you feel mentally.” So that was just so amazing because his gameplay was at stake, too, right? So the fact that he supported me in everything, that’s why I’m marrying the guy, you know?

Jonne Roriz/Paramount+

Speaking to you guys’s personal life, there was a moment in the episode where he says something like, “Oh, Kingston is going to have a little sister.” And obviously, history is borne out. What’s it like to watch that in retrospect now?

It is so funny and it just shows you like the power of the tongue and manifesting things and speaking things into existence. And I think that’s just a lesson for people, that’s why it’s so important to like speak positivity within to your life or just be careful with your words because your words do plant these little seeds in your life. So that was one of those things. It worked out because I love my baby girl.

So speaking of words and the power of them, were you surprised at how much vitriol there started to be between the house? It seemed like there was a huge divide and everybody started getting really personal about it.

No, because that’s what happens. That’s what happens in this game. We’ve seen it so many times. That’s how it can be like, especially as we get closer to the end, everybody starts getting paranoid. You want to know like, “Okay, who is like my number one, my number two, number three? We’re so close to the end. I want to make sure that [I’m safe].” So yeah, that doesn’t surprise me at all. I think as the weeks go on, that anxiety for everyone gets even realer because you feel that stress and the pressure, and it’s like, we’ve made it this far. So we don’t want it to go away. So I definitely understand that.

Was there any part of you that anticipated Laurel actually backing out of coming into the arena?

I thought that there was like a 95 percent chance that she wouldn’t come down and like a 5 percent chance that she would, to be honest. I think that Laurel was hoping to get her ideal elimination, which would be something physical to where she knew a million percent she’d beat Cara. And I think that I was her Plan A — like, “Okay, if there’s something that I felt like Kam could do it because she’s gonna be she’s good at elimination. So if it’s like a puzzle or throwing axes, I’m gonna let Kam do that.” Because it can be a tug of war or a pole wrestle, she probably would have wanted to do that herself. But yes, I think she picked me just in case she didn’t want to do it, and from a gameplay perspective, I think that that was very smart of her. And yeah, I agree with that. That was so smart. And I wouldn’t have expected her to do anything else because I would have done the same thing.

You were super close to actually to winning that one. Do you think it really just came down to that one ball being left at the end? 

For sure. It definitely came down to that one ball. I just missed it. I don’t know what happened to it. I literally just missed it. But you know what? I kept going until T.J. [Lavin] blew that horn. I didn’t slow down at all — because anything can happen in these eliminations. It is what it is. And the best person won that night, which was Cara because she had all her balls.

You guys ended up showing some good respect to each other, too. So I’m assuming now that things are fine between you guys? 

Absolutely. For me, I just — with the things that went down in the beginning of the game, how I started playing the game was like, “Okay, in regards of our friendship, that’s just like a real-life thing, and for the game, may the best person win. Let the game be the game.” So that’s how I looked at it.

Can you give a preview of what fans might see next time you’re on The Challenge and what differences you might bring?

I think that next time going in … the stress of going and still being postpartum and all of that, I got that out of my system. So even this time around with being postpartum, I thought, “Let me snap back.” Because I have to give my body grace. I did have a major surgery for birth and I had a C-section. So that was a lot to go through for my birth, and I’m also going to give myself next time around, tons of time to train to get back to… I guess not “get back to” but just like getting my body to a place to where I’m more so physically ready. You know, so pretty much I’m gonna get into shape!

The Challenge: All Stars, Wednesdays, Paramount+