Kaycee Clark reveals the truth behind shocking The Challenge: Ride or Dies premiere exits

Sydney Bucksbaum
·8 min read
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Warning: This article contains spoilers about Wednesday's season premiere of The Challenge: Ride or Dies.

It's becoming a concerning trend on The Challenge: a new season begins and cast members exit with little to no explanation as replacements are brought in with major fanfare. In the past two seasons alone, we've seen Natalie Anderson, Ashley Mitchell, Nam Vo, and Lauren Coogan disappear from the game with vague details (or sometimes none at all!) about why they're suddenly gone. And it happened again in The Challenge: Ride or Dies premiere almost immediately as Kaycee Clark and her brother Kenny Clark exited with no explanation aside from host TJ Lavin saying, "Well, stating the obvious, we live in crazy times right now, and already Kaycee and Kenny had to leave the game."

Two new teams were brought in to fill the Clark void (returning vet Vo and Emmy Russ; rookies Horacio Gutierrez and Olivia Kaiser), but since the reigning Spies, Lies, and Allies winner Kaycee is one of the strongest women on the cast, her sudden and unexplained exit is absolutely shocking. Since fans won't get to see what happened on TV, EW got Kaycee on the phone to reveal the truth behind why she and Kenny were pulled from the game.

THE CHALLENGE 38
THE CHALLENGE 38

LAURA BARISONZI/MTV

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Coming off your big win last season, I had high hopes for you this season. But I was shocked while watching the premiere to find out you left before the first challenge with no explanation. What happened?

KAYCEE CLARK: [Laughs] To leave before the first challenge! Well, what happened is the world likes to work in mysterious ways. This COVID thing, I don't mind saying it because this is probably the second time I've had it. The world has a sense of humor and was like, "Nope, Kaycee, we're going to pull you right back out." Apparently me and my brother had it. It was traveling, going to Argentina [to film this season], we ended up getting COVID and getting sick. The crazy thing is I didn't feel any of the symptoms. I mean, I had a light cold, but everyone had a light cold. But my brother and I had COVID, so we had to exit the game.

I'm so sorry, that timing is horrible.

Yeah, it's actually the same exact thing that happened for Big Brother: All-Stars: I didn't go on Big Brother: All-Stars because I had COVID. It was so crazy, and then now for this, it's weird how that keeps happening.

When you found out you had COVID again and were getting pulled from the game before the first challenge, what was your initial reaction?

Finding out that I had COVID and that my brother had it as well — which I think I might have [given] it to him, I don't know — I was like, "This cannot be real." This is my brother's first time being able to go on a Challenge and compete, our first time being able to compete together, and you're telling me that we have COVID and we've got to be pulled from this game? It was so devastating. This cannot be happening.

My brother and I, we kind of feel the emotions, and we're like, "Damn, this is really happening," but then we were like, "You know what? Everything happens for a reason. Maybe this was supposed to happen. Maybe we were supposed to be pulled out of this game and maybe there's a high chance that we can get back in." We just had no idea, but we did not want to lose faith right away just because we were pulled out. I felt more bad for my brother because I've done this before, I've done these crazy challenges, I got to experience doing it, but my brother has not. I was way more sad for him because if it came down to me not going back in the game and it was just me by myself because of COVID, I'd be like, "Okay, it is what it is," but I was more hurt for my brother. He potentially might be missing out on a really cool experience.

Was he a big Challenge fan before coming on the show?

He watched it because of me. My brother is my No. 1 fan, and he always watched me competing on TV from Big Brother and now on The Challenge, every season. He was excited that he was able to finally come on, and he couldn't believe it when I first asked him. He was just so stoked, and then for this to happen, it crushed me to see how hurt he was, but he kept it cool and calm.

Once you got pulled from the game, did you have to quarantine, or did you get sent home immediately? What happened after?

We got pulled from the game and had no idea what was going to happen. We went to the hotel in two separate rooms. At this point, I'm thinking, 'are we going to have an opportunity to get back in the game? How long am I going to be testing positive? Is there any possible way that with the little bit of time that we do have, can we get back into the game?' It was a lot of emotions, and then you could only imagine sitting in a room by yourself after just preparing for months to get on The Challenge and then that being ripped from you and sitting alone in a hotel. It was hard. I was calling my brother in his little hotel room to check up on him. We were doing a lot of meditating, a lot of trying to just heal from COVID, whatever we can — we were taking all kinds of vitamin C, Liquid IV, all these different things, just hoping and praying that we could get back in the game.

It was horrible also knowing at the same time that my girlfriend Nany [Gonzalez] was going to be in there [joining the game after the first elimination] and she's about to find out that my brother and I have been pulled from the game. I know Nany's going to flip out if I'm not there. It was an emotional rollercoaster, that's for sure.

Talk about horrible timing with her coming into the game right after you get pulled.

Yeah, you can't write this stuff! Even for my COVID test, they said it was positive and I was like, "No, no, I need to see it. I don't know if you guys are trying to do a storyline or anything, but this is not cool. I need to see the actual results." So they showed it to me and it said positive.

Coming into this season, did you plan on playing differently socially or politically, or changing your game up in any way?

No, I'm super simple. My strategy coming into this season is playing the same way that I have been: staying true to myself, don't make any promises I cannot keep, always keeping my head on a swivel with who I could trust, who I could not trust. I knew this season was going to be a little different — I have my brother coming on with me who never has played this game before, never even been on TV and then at the same time I'm also with my girlfriend. Having two people in the game that I'm like, "This my family," I can be overprotective. I was kind of worried. If someone says something bad about my brother or try to punk my brother, I'm going to go off. And then with me and Nany actually being in an actual relationship this season, there were just so many different variables that I was just still going to stick to my strategy.

You've also had some tough breaks with injuries, so where were you at physically at the start of the season?

Last season, I was five months post-op after having surgery. And then this season, it's coming in after a year post-op, so I'm feeling really good. I know a lot of people like to underestimate because it was a very tragic and intense injury. People were like, "Kaycee is still icing every morning during filming, she's still doing a lot of PT." A lot of people still think that I'm not able to fully perform, which, joke's on them because I can.

So far, you're the only person who has won Big Brother and The Challenge, so what are your feelings about returning for more seasons of both shows? Are you interested in going back to Big Brother, or are you just focused on The Challenge now? 

I'm a huge, huge Big Brother fan. I'm a super fan. That's what got me into this world. It's devastating because I was supposed to go on Big Brother: All-Stars, and that didn't happen. Everything happens for a reason but I would love to go back on Big Brother. I love The Challenge as well — I feel like I've found a home here. I feel like it's right up my alley with all the competitions and the challenges. It's just a high for me. I never expect a call, but I always stay ready for whatever comes my way. I'm super grateful that I do get to be a part of The Challenge family and the Big Brother family, and to see everything merging together, it's amazing.

The Challenge: Ride or Dies airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

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