The Challenge: USA icon Kiki McCray (a.k.a. Danny's wife) talks becoming a 'unique' fan-favorite

Sydney Bucksbaum
·10 min read

Kiki McCray has never been on a single episode of reality TV, and yet she's become a Challenge legend without even trying.

Every week on The Challenge: USA, Survivor alum/former NFL player Danny McCray mentions his wife during his confessional interviews. Without fail, every episode has featured a "My wife Kiki" this, or "my wife Kiki" that — and it's gotten to the point where fans actually now jokingly refer to Danny as "Kiki's husband." But throughout the past 10 episodes of the CBS spin-off of The Challenge, Kiki has only been talked about. Until now.

After getting home from a Spanish vacation with her husband, Kiki laughed as she spoke to EW on the phone about her "unique" journey towards becoming a Challenge icon without ever having gone on the show.

"The story of me is being represented accurately. Everything is true," she promises. "I am a ride or die for my husband, and I am a diehard Challenge superfan. I wouldn't have agreed to Danny going on Survivor if he didn't promise me that he was going to try to get on The Challenge next, so he's now living my dream, and now Challenge fans know me, so I'm just freaking out. I've been getting nothing but positive responses and outpouring so it's been great."

Below, Kiki tells EW what she thinks of Danny's weekly shout-outs, how she was the perfect partner for him while he was competing on The Challenge, why he'll never go back on Survivor, and more.

Danny and Kiki McCray
Danny and Kiki McCray

Danny McCray/Instagram

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What have you thought of all of Danny's weekly mentions of you on The Challenge: USA?

KIKI MCCRAY: At first I was like, "Is this all you're going to say?" Because that's pretty much the bulk of his TV time. I was really surprised but also excited that he was obviously so comfortable in sharing with the world just how obsessed he was with his wife — as he should be.

He really is setting the bar high for husbands everywhere.

[Laughs] Oh yeah, he's setting the bar high. And now I have a lot of work to do. I have to shop less and do things to live up to this title he's given me. But it's been really fun. We go out for dinner or to different events with the [Dallas] Cowboys and people will recognize him, but then only want to take pictures with me.

Have you noticed a difference in how much you get recognized by fans after The Challenge: USA?

Oh yeah, it's completely different from Survivor, and obviously different from the Cowboys, for sure, when he played there.

What has been your favorite weekly mention or story that he's told about you so far on the show?

First, can I say, he is spot on. People always want to know, "Are these things you've really told him before or is it things that he's like, 'Maybe she'd say this?'" No, every week that they call home, other people are crying about, "I miss you" and things like that, and I was like, "Let's talk game." My favorite one was when he said, "I can't die or my wife Kiki would kill me." I'm like, "You are so right!" I was yelling, I'm like, "Exactly. If you don't remember anything, you better remember that." So it's definitely all been true. I kind of have a dark sense of humor, and then I'm also a psychotherapist so outside of being his wife, I clinically understand what motivates him and a lot of it is fear.

Wow, it sounds like you're the best person to call while playing a game like this.

I think that he had an advantage over some of his other castmates in that aspect because not only could he get advice from me just about game, but I was also able to help him with understanding personalities and navigating different relationships and how to form them and how to keep them and also just getting out of his head and fighting through that imposter syndrome. I told him, "If we only have two seconds to talk, we are going to use it to talk game. Me and the baby are fine. You don't need to know anything else. If we're not fine, you will know."

That's also a major advantage: knowing that he doesn't have to worry about anything outside of the game while he's there. He can put all his focus into the game.

That's kind of been our lifestyle forever. When Danny played football, when they were in training camp or different times in the season, it was, "Go to Kiki, don't go to him, he needs to focus." And then for Survivor it was like, "Here's this number. If you use it, he's done," so that was a no-go for me. By the time we got to The Challenge, I was like, "What? You get to call home every week? What a great thing. But we're not going to talk about anything in real life. We're going to just maintain the same thing we've done because it's obviously worked for you."

Before he went on The Challenge: USA, did you know that he was going to be talking about you so much in his interviews on the show, or did that come as a surprise?

I was surprised. He did kind of give me a heads-up, but he said that he talked about me a lot on Survivor too and we didn't see it this much, so I wasn't expecting this. When I met with all of his castmates after Survivor, they all knew my whole life story, so I know that he does talk about me a lot when he's bored, I guess, but I didn't know it was going to be to this caliber.

THE CHALLENGE: USA
THE CHALLENGE: USA

Jonne Roriz/CBS

I was definitely wondering about that because, like you said, we didn't see him mention you like this on Survivor. So it sounds like the Survivor editors just edited those out whereas The Challenge editors have decided to make it this season-long running joke, which is just incredible.

I thought that when there was less people in the game, the more they have to film and talk about, the less that it'll happen. But no, I had to create a Twitter just because all of this was going on, and one episode, he did the shout-out late and my Twitter was blowing up. They were like, "He finally mentioned you!" and "I only watch for Kiki," so I was like, after this, they're going to make sure to mention me every week. I love it.

Before he went on The Challenge: USA — and I guess Survivor too — was there anything you told him he couldn't say on camera? Anything that was too personal or private or off-limits?

It was all fair game. There were no rules or anything like that. People always ask me about Survivor because when it gets cold, they have to cuddle and all of those things, and I've just never really been a jealous spouse. I got thick skin in that department. I really just wanted him to focus on the game, both games when he was playing, and give it 100 percent his all. When he did Survivor, he was coming out of playing football and he just was trying to find a different drive and competition and purpose for himself, so my main focus was to make sure mentally he was doing something again that he loved. I just wanted him to be happy and have fun.

When Danny was on Survivor, you didn't get to do the family visit. Does this new Challenge notoriety feel like a good substitute for that?

No! We really wanted to do the family visit and run out there and see him compete live, but COVID, and I was pregnant, and all of those things. It's two totally different things. This is great but it doesn't really make up for missing the family visit on Survivor, only because I know that he will never, ever do Survivor again. So I'll never, ever be able to go to Fiji because he's like, "I have PTSD. I don't want to go to Fiji."

I hope he changes his mind! It'd be great to see him back on Survivor.

[Laughs] No! No, he's not allowed. Never again!

Since you're both Challenge superfans, is there a chance we could see Danny return to the show in the future with you by his side? We've seen a season in the past where loved ones compete together ...

[Laughs] Oh gosh. Danny is by far the athlete in the family, and I am like a quitter. If it's getting too hard, I'm like, "Hey, where's my wine?" I just want to watch. And also, we have a two-year-old and I just don't think that I would be able to leave her for that long. We just went on our first vacation away from her visiting one of his Survivor castmates, Sydney [Segal], and it was six days and I felt like I was dying. I don't know. You never know if things work themselves out, so I'm not going to say no. But a group of friends and I just finished a sizzle [reel] and we're pitching around a show together, so hopefully if that gets picked up, then maybe my new fans will get to see me there.

What have you thought about the way that Danny's competed so far this season?

I think he's done great. Danny is a logic-driven solution-focused person naturally, so I knew that The Challenge would be great for him. He's also a very likable guy, he's a guy's guy and he grew up in a house full of women and now lives in a house full of girls and so he's able to form relationships with females very easily too. The most important thing for me is that, "You've already done Survivor. They know that you're a former professional athlete, so you need to fly under the radar," and that was his game plan. And that's what he did.

But I was kind of annoyed that it took him so long to qualify for TJ's final. I was like, "What are we doing? Why aren't you down there? We need to win or you need to get down there [in an elimination]. We're not even going to make TJ's final!" I had asked him about that, and he was like, "I always came in the top," and I'm like, "If you're not first, you're last. I don't want to hear it." [Laughs] So when he qualified a couple of weeks ago, I was so excited, I was screaming through the airport.

What do you think about his chances to win in the final?

Oh my God, I'm extremely nervous because as all Challenge fans know, these daily challenges are not a preview of the actual final. I mean, you could be swimming across a river with helicopters. Who knows? The things that we see weekly doesn't give us insight on what the final actually is. Although I know how hard he's trained, I feel like it's a huge mental game in The Challenge final, over endurance, over swimming, over running. He's already been there this long at this point so I'm just anxious to watch. It could be anybody's final at this point.

The two-hour Challenge: USA finale airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content: