‘The Challenge’: Jodi Weatherton Reveals What We Didn’t See of Era 1’s Disaster Moment

The Challenge had yet another boating mishap on Wednesday’s (August 28) new episode, “A Fatal Era.” This time, it was the OGs of Era 1 who struggled — to an almost comical degree — to paddle their canoe around the watery course, landing in the muck more than once. Their rowing time set them all so far behind Eras 2 through 4 that they couldn’t catch up, no matter how fast they ate the disgusting treats host T.J. Lavin laid out for them and then solved their brain teaser. With that, team leaders Jodi Weatherton and Darrell Taylor had to go straight into the elimination.

In the arena, Jodi faced off against a very reluctant Averey Tressler, who was dragged in by a stalemate with her fellow team lead Tony Raines, and she wasn’t able to get her heavy brick-laying puzzle completed fast enough to stay in the game.

TV Insider caught up with Jodi Weatherton to find out what exactly went wrong in that boating debacle and what we didn’t see in that elimination.

Before last year, you hadn’t been on The Challenge in about a decade. What drew you back?

Jodi Weatherton: Well, honestly, when I left after The Duel, I got married, had a family. I had no intention of ever coming back. I kind of forgot about it — not forgot about it, but just, that was another lifetime ago. It was another part of my life. And I resigned to the fact that that was that, and that’s not gonna happen again. But when I got the call for All Stars 2, it just felt different. Number one, it was still during the pandemic, so the world was kind of in a weird spot. A lot of other shows were kind of doing this whole revival. And so it just felt right and it felt really fun. It felt like a different vibe than the way the show had been in the early 2000s, and I was in a different spot; my kids were older, I’d been married for a while, and so it just felt like a fun idea to come back. So I was excited about it.

Related

'The Challenge': Paulie Vows Revenge Against Theo, Nurys Reveals Olivia Makeup We Didn't See

With how long you’ve been affiliated with The Challenge, do you feel a sense of ownership? And do you watch the other seasons when you aren’t on them?

I don’t watch any of the other seasons. So I feel bad. I feel like if I’m not on it, I just kind of disconnect. I don’t know why, but I haven’t really watched any of the other seasons.

In fact, when I came back for World Championship specifically, I really did go back and watch. I watched War of the Worlds 1. I just felt like, “I gotta watch something so I know who I’m potentially gonna be in there competing with. So I have an idea of who these people are.” So yeah, it definitely put me back in the fact that I hadn’t really kept up watching it because I was at a steep learning curve when I actually knew I was coming back on to meet some of the newer people. I had to do my homework.

Darrell said that you’re a real OG if you’re pre-T.J. Lavin. Do you feel that way, too? 

Absolutely. I mean, I was on T.J.’s first season, so, Gauntlet 2. That was his first season. And I remember being like, “Oh, it’s a different host!” And then we were all like, “Oh, he’s really cute!” All the girls. Because he’s like this young biker, and so yeah, all the girls were swooning. But yeah, I remember very vividly him coming on and it being his first season, and he was great at it, too. He could do everything in one take. He was really cool right away. He just hit the vibe of the show and really kind of created the vibe of the show.

You said in a confessional that you felt like you didn’t have a lot of allies in this, this season, but then you had Derrick Kosinski who seems like one of your oldest friends in The Challenge. Can you talk about who you were allied with?

Yeah. So I think for me, I came into this show with only two commitments made, and those commitments — I had talked with a lot of other people about, “Hey, let’s work together if we can,” you know what I mean? But like no solid, “I’m giving you my allegiance.” So the two people that I really had said that to were Derrick and Kellyanne [Judd]. Those are the only two people that I had any sort of commitment with at all. And then I really just wanted to kind of be able to have the freedom to make the decisions I felt like I needed to make to hopefully get to the end, which obviously didn’t work. But I just kind of wanted to take risks and be a little bit freer to move if I didn’t have a lot of built-in connections.

But I didn’t feel a lot of connections on my own team. I mean, out of all of the Era 1 people — this is only my sixth season, so I haven’t done a lot of seasons… Even though I’ve been around for a long time, I haven’t had the same opportunities as some of the other people on my team. I’m definitely closer to the guys on my team than I am to the girls. I think they’re all like friends outside of the show and hang out and I don’t have that same relationship with them. It’s not to say that we have any bad blood or anything. I just don’t have the same level of friendship. So I knew that that was gonna put me at a disadvantage on the girls’ side, and that’s really kind of where I needed that support.

MTV

So what made you decide to volunteer for the daily challenge?

I definitely did not volunteer. I don’t know how they made it seem that way, but I definitely did not volunteer. So, actually, what happened was the first daily that we did, when we were sitting in the elimination chamber, and they’re making these decisions, basically Rachel and C.T. [Tamburello] said,  “We’re gonna be choosing between third and fourth place for whoever is gonna go in and get and compete against Katie [Cooley].” And I had already made it pretty clear that like, number one, I came in third by a lot, and I was already back with all of my lights when Aneesa [Ferreira] was just leaving to get hers. So I earned my spot — if we’re doing it that way, the fair way, right? For the first one.

I shouldn’t have been going in in the first place, but I knew that Rachel [Robinson] and Aneesa were friends. And so, I basically had kind of said to Rachel and to Tina, “If you guys wanna work with me, I’m gonna need to see some proof of it because I just really felt like I was kind of on the outs already in the girls’ team.” And so Rachel came up to me afterwards, after that decision was made, and even though C.T. is the one who did it, she’s like, “I did that for you.” And so it’s like, “Oh, now I owe people stuff.” I don’t like that.

And then when we came time to pick the leader, I had made the mistake of opening my big trap and saying — because we could kind of see what it was, we could see there was like a table and like potentially eating gross stuff and then we could see that we’re gonna put like the seasons in order — and I made the mistake of saying, “Oh, I know all of the seasons. I’ve been studying the flash cards.” Well, Rachel was like, “Oh, well, since you know them, you should probably be the leader on the girls’ side” because I was the only girl that knew them all, and she was like, “In case that had something to do with it.” And I’m thinking, “Of course, that’s not gonna have something to do with it, and now I’m being penalized because I’m prepared. That doesn’t even make sense.” So had I not said that it may have been a different situation where I could have maybe bartered a little bit like, “Hey, let’s draw — have the guys pick or something?” I don’t know, but I just felt like I, I don’t know, I shouldn’t have said that. I just was made a rookie mistake and opened my big mouth and shouldn’t have done that. But my assumption was we’re gonna compete as a team and then it’s gonna be like, whoever sucked the most can go in… Which was all of us.

I was gonna ask who is responsible for the boating mishap.

Dude, I do not even know. I literally was in the front of the boat so I couldn’t see what was happening behind me. I just knew that we were in the weeds and the side of the river more than we were on it. So I remember at one point, we got up on the river, and I don’t know if they showed this or not, but I tried to push off the bank because I was in the front, so I was the only one that could reach it. And this boat was so thin, and anybody that moved, I mean, it felt like the whole thing was gonna capsize. So you had to be really move very carefully. So I went to push us off and my oar broke, I was like, “Great, awesome.” So now I have this little part of my oar, and I’m in the front rowing with just the tip of it, and then Tina [Barta] gave me her oar because she’s like, “Here, I’m not really using it anyway.” So I started rowing with hers and then we went up on the bank again, and this time the front of the boat, I heard cracking noises like I was like, this is bad. So I jumped out of the boat. I was like, my a**  is on the line and if we don’t get our act together, like I’m 100% going into elimination. This sucks. So I jumped into the water to pull the boat out because I’m like, if I push with my oar, I’m gonna break my second oar and there’s no backup. And yeah, it was a mess. It was an absolute mess.

When I was in the boat, I thought it was Brad [Fiorenzia] because Brad was supposed to be steering and I’m like, whatever he’s doing back there is not working. Like, I don’t know, what are you doing? Like, is he like taking a break? I wasn’t 100% sure what was happening, but I don’t know whose fault it was…

MTV

When it came to the elimination, did you agree with Darrell that you guys wanted to go against Aviv Melmed and Derek Chavez instead of Tony and Averey?

So yeah, this is interesting. We had talked about it, and I definitely… If I had a preference — because you have to think, right? We could compete together, but more than likely we’re competing individually. And so if I had to choose between going against Aviv or Kaycee [Clark] or Casey in most things, I could probably beat Aviv — in size and just experience, she hasn’t been on the show in forever. She hadn’t been in an elimination, maybe ever. I don’t know if she went in one on her season or not — very few people do. I have more experience in elimination then because I don’t have much, so I have more experience than her in elimination. I’m a lot bigger than her. So in a lot of things I could maybe win.

Whereas with Kaycee, she’s been in more eliminations than me. She’s probably stronger than me, just given the fact that she’s younger than me and I know she’s really good at, fighting — I don’t know if it’s martial arts, but she’s good at a lot of stuff. And I’ve already gone into elimination against her, and I didn’t really feel like that was a great choice for me, potentially to go home second. So yeah, I did agree with him over who we should go in with.

But looking back now, I’m like, you know what? The one thing that I could have maybe beat Kaycee in was something like this, a riddle or a puzzle. Because, yeah, I don’t think she’s great at that, and that would have been a much more epic win than me pathetically going home to Averey.

Related

The Challenge Interview: Mark Long on Losing to BFF Derrick Kosinski

It wasn’t pathetic. Was it a matter of speed at the end?

Well, ok, so, I don’t know what you guys can really see from the episode. But when the guys went, they went first. and when the guys went, they were like, Darrell was literally right next to our team. He could have reached out and given someone a high-five. They were that close. And they could see all of his colors. They could literally see them all. And so they were telling him like, “Okay, this color next, this color…” And Tony wasn’t even trying, let’s be honest, like, what the heck. And so that was a pretty easy win. He just blew him out of the water, and then it came to me, I was in the lane that was the farthest away, and maybe it doesn’t look far on camera, but it was really far. I couldn’t even hear. I don’t even think they could hear me when I was yelling as loud as I possibly could, and I couldn’t hear them at all. I could hear a lot of they were trying. I could hear a lot of yelling happening, but I couldn’t hear anything. And so that was very frustrating. But Averey was just close enough that she was that much closer than I was. I think Devin [Walker] and Jordan [Wiseley] figured it out and were yelling things for her, and she was putting them in place — not saying she couldn’t figure it out on her own, but she was already in a much better spot than me because she’d already removed all her old colors and was laying them in. So I had to catch up. I had to take all of mine out and put all of them back in.

So, yeah, I just wasn’t in a great spot and I don’t know if they showed it, but when we started, I put green in first, and then, I think my whole team erupted, like, “Remove it!”  And I was like, “Okay..” So I don’t know why I listened to them, but I took it up and they’re like, “Just follow what she’s doing.” And I was like, “Well, who knows if she’s right.” So, I follow what she did and of course, it wasn’t right. And then if I’d stuck with green, I would have won. So, whatever, just trust yourself is what I’ve learned from this. Trust yourself.

MTV

Oh, man. T.J. had some really kind words for you and went after the elimination. What did it mean to you?

I don’t remember what he said… I always appreciate T.J. I still have my banner that says my name on it from The Duel. I actually have it in my closet here at our house, and T.J. signed it, and he said, “To the best competitor, male or female.” And, granted, that was only his second season. He never hosted. And there was a couple of times on that show where I beat the guys as well as the girls. And so that just meant a lot that he wrote that to me and I still really cherish that sign.

And he’s just awesome and he’s seen so many people come through and so it always means a lot when he gives you a compliment. Any time he’s like, “You crushed it today,” you’re like, “I got a compliment from T.J.!”

In this new tradition of bringing back some of the people that have been out of it for a while. I was thinking back to some of the other people from your time like Ibis Del Mar, Kina Dean… Susie Meister. Do you think any of them will come back as well?

I think that Ibis is maybe interested in coming back. And she’s, dare I say, gotten more beautiful than she was before, and she’s always been beautiful, and I think she’s more fit than she used to be. I don’t know, she’s aging backwards, but anyway, she’s gorgeous and she’s so fun. So she’d be awesome to have that.

Kina, I just think she has kind of moved along with her life and I don’t think she has interest in coming back. And then I know Susie would want to come back, but I think Susie is only coming back if Sarah Rice comes back there.

When I talked to Mark Long, he said he was putting together something for the 30th anniversary of Road Rules. I was just wondering if he’s reached out to you or feel like you’re interested in participating in that. 

I would definitely be interested in it. I currently live in South Korea. So that would be kind of a long haul. I am, I’m moving home next summer so I don’t know when exactly he’s planning on doing it, but that would be super duper fun, but he has not reached out to me yet. So we’ll maybe I’ll go bug him and be like, “What are you doing? I want to be a part of it.”

Who were you rooting for after you left? 

I really loved Cara [Maria Sorbello] and Jenny West. Jenny West is just the brightest light. I just loved hanging out with her in the house. Any time I was like just feeling down or not feeling with myself, I knew I’m gonna go find Jenny and she’s just gonna have all the wonderful things to say and she’s just gonna make me feel good and that’s just her. She’s great. So I would love to see her win.

Cara I mean, obviously I’d love to see somebody from Era 1 win, but a little bit of jealousy… I wish it was me, but I’m not there so it has to be somebody else. But yeah, and I’d of course love to see Derrick win on the guy side because that’s my original teammate. So I’d love for him to win it.

The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras, Wednesdays, 8/7c, MTV