How Did the Reality TV Antagonists of ‘House of Villains’ Earn Their Reputations?
Ten maligned reality stars have the chance to turn their reputations into riches with the E! competition House of Villains.
The new show, hosted by Joel McHale, pits these pariahs against each other as they battle to “outsmart, out-manipulate, and out-scheme each other” to win a $200,000 prize and the title of America’s Ultimate Supervillain, E! says.
How will it all turn out? Well, the tagline for the show says it all: “It rhymes with hit show.”
Scroll down to see the House of Villains contestants — and to learn how they fell out of viewers’ good graces.
House of Villains, Series Premiere, Thursday, October 12, 10/9c, E!
Anfisa Arkhipchenko
Arkhipchenko starred in 90 Day Fiancé Season 4, tying the knot with Jorge Nava after demanding that he buy her a $10,000 handbag, erasing his phone, and throwing a fit over the $45,000 ring he wanted to buy her. “Her manipulative behavior, aggressive attitude, and insatiable thirst for money made her a compelling and unforgettable character on the show,” Showbiz CheatSheet declares.
Johnny Bananas
This frequent star of The Challenge infamously took the $275,000 grand prize and ran at the end of the show’s Rivals III season, instead of sharing it with fellow winner Sarah Rice. “The seven-time champion — the most of any Challenger — is an undeniable threat every time he shows up on a season,” Entertainment Weekly observes.
Shake Chatterjee
In Season 2 of Love Is Blind, Chatterjee made offensive comments about then-fiancée Deepti Vempti’s looks and physique — after posing fatphobic questions to other potential matches on the show. Chatterjee didn’t return for the After the Altar reunion, with costar Kyle Abrams telling TODAY some cast members threatened to boycott the reunion if he did.
Jonny Fairplay
Fairplay ended up a Survivor villain in the show’s Pearl Island season, when he perpetuated a lie about a dead grandmother to curry sympathy among the other castaways. “It was actually fun to work with Fairplay on the show because he’s a producer’s dream,” host Jeff Probst told EW in 2005. “I wish we had a Jonny Fairplay every season. Personally, however, he’s an absolute jackass…”
Bobby Lytes
Lytes doesn’t seem afraid to stir up drama with (or throw shade toward) other Love & Hip Hop: Miami personalities — even coming into conflict with his cousin Trina occasionally. “Packing a mean punch with his merciless reads and boisterous personality, the 32-year-old is gaining more notoriety as one of the most impactful queer voices on television,” BET.com says.
Corinne Olympios
During Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor, Olympios rubbed the other contestants the wrong way by flaunting her supposed wealth, sleeping through filming, and indulging in risqué PDA with the man of the hour. “I acted like a psychopath,” she admitted on Viall’s Patreon series, per Cosmopolitan. “I was a completely different human at the time.”
Omarosa Manigault Newman
Manigault Newman frequently clashed with her competition in Season 1 of The Apprentice, getting into a vicious war of words with fellow contestant Ereka Vetrini, for example. She also touted a White House résumé history that, in actuality, included four firings, according to People. Years later, she returned to the White House for a year-long stint in Donald Trump’s administration.
Tiffany “New York” Pollard
As she competed for Flavor Flav’s affections on Flavor of Love, this “Head Bitch in Charge” did not suffer fools gladly — nor women who spit in her face, as Brooke “Pumkin” Thompson found out when Pollard shoved her to the floor. “[Pollard] was the ultimate villain, but it was hard not to love it all,” says Bossip.
Jax Taylor
During his tenure on Vanderpump Rules, this SUR bad boy confessed to cheating on Stassi Schroeder, was accused of cheating on Tiffany Matthews, and confessed to cheating on Brittany Cartwright. “I was the villain of the show for eight years,” Taylor said on the Forever Young podcast. “[I was] just being hammered.”
Tanisha Thomas
Never one to bite her tongue, Thomas became the queen of the pop-off during her clashes on Bad Girls Club. “It’s basically an invitation to the other person to hit me,” she told Television Without Pity in 2008, explaining the catchphrase. “I don’t want to punch that person, I want you to hit me first. So I say ‘pop off.’ It’s an invitation for you to start the fight.”
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