Cassidy Clark Says She Won't Be Friends with Michaela After 'The Challenge: USA' Season 2
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Cassidy Clark from 'The Challenge: USA' season 2
The Challenge: USA season 2 is here! Every week, Parade.com will speak with the CBS reality alumni who were eliminated from the all-star competition.
It's arguable that Cassidy Clark had her most amount of power on the very first day of The Challenge: USA season 2. By random draw, she was given the power to pick the stacked blue team, which went on to dominate the first half of the game. But inside that safety, Cassidy was making a name for herself as a Challenge rookie, particularly when it came to her relationship with legend Wes Bergmann. After taking a shot at her previously, Wes rallied his green team around him to send her into elimination. And though Cassidy ultimately prevailed, defeating Alyssa Lopez and being safe for the rest of the team phase, she had no idea that her fight had only just begun.
When the game turned individual, the slope Cassidy was running up suddenly became that much steeper. She was one of the most unconnected people left in the game, not in with the vets and not completely protected by her Survivor alliance. As a result, Cassidy was nominated for elimination a whopping five times in a row, seen as an "easy vote" by the majority of the house. But while voting Cassidy may have been easy, getting rid of her was not. Through Hopper draws and wins against Alyssa Snider and Michele Fitzgerald, Cassidy made it all the way to the last round before the final. After losing the daily, Michaela Bradshaw made the easy decision to send Cassidy in yet again. But when she found out she was facing off against Chanelle Howell, Cassidy was thrilled, hoping the nerves of Chanelle's first elimination were rattled. Unfortunately, everything in Cassidy was rattled during the "Hall Brawl" elimination. Chanelle won, eliminating Cassidy and ended her dreams of a reality TV victory after a devastating Survivor defeat a year ago.
Now out of the game, Cassidy speaks with Parade.com about her rivalries with Wes and Michaela, navigating the game as an outsider, and whether she would make the leap to the MTV series after her time in the game.
Related: Everything to Know About The Challenge: USA Season 2
If my research is correct, you went to play The Challenge: USA season 2 only a handful of months after the Survivor 43 finale aired. Obviously, you were processing a lot in terms of re-experiencing that loss and dealing with social media fallout. So what made you decide to go onto The Challenge?
Yeah, it was pretty soon. And that was kind of intense, the finale, my first time being on TV and seeing such a strong reaction on both sides of people having different opinions about it, it was tough. It kind of put me in a in a bit of a funk mentally. And so when they asked me to do The Challenge, I was very hesitant at first, because I just didn't know if my little heart can handle being on TV again and having everybody talking about me.
But at the same time, I did well on Survivor, and I feel like I was able to see this side of myself come out that I hadn't really known was in there, being able to be physically dominant in challenges. Because I always kind of considered myself a clumsy artist in a way. And so I felt like, "Oh, maybe I can prove to myself that it wasn't a fluke that I did well in that way on Survivor." There was a part of me that was dreading being back on TV. But then also, I was like, "This could be an amazing opportunity to kind of have a bit of a comeback in a way." But moreso for myself. I wasn't really doing it for other people, it was moreso just for myself to get myself out of the funk, to go off on another amazing journey. And it didn't hold the same weight for me that Survivor did. So I was like, "I'm just going in guns blazing and do whatever I feel like doing, and we'll see how it goes." And it ended up working out okay for me.
True to that guns blazing mentality, you and Wes spark a rivalry after the first time you're sent into elimination. What was it like to make an enemy out of one of the most tenured vets in the cast?
Yeah, I really did come in hot with that rivalry with Wes. If I'm being completely honest, I did not watch very much of The Challenge preparing for the show, which was super silly of me. But like I said, I was very heavily considering saying no, because I just didn't feel like I was ready. But there was just this part of me that was like, "You can't pass this up." And I was worried that if I watched too much of The Challenge, it would make me nervous and scared to play, and then I would just say no. So I didn't want to prepare. So I wasn't in full understanding of what it meant to start a rivalry with Wes. I knew that he was a big time player. I watched him when I was in high school, and I remembered his name and all that. But I wasn't sure that I knew what I was getting myself into.
I just get very triggered by manipulative people just because of some stuff I've been through in my past. And so when somebody's trying to play mind games with me, you want to make sure to manipulate me and get me to do their bidding, that doesn't fly with me. I don't do well with that. So I think, when it came to Wes, and I was seeing that happen a lot. He was making people swear on their family members' lives. I was just like, "Oh, I cannot vibe with this."
And what you didn't see was he had voted for me, and then he had kind of pushed to nominate me. And so by that time, I'm like, "Alright, Wes,you clearly don't want to work with me. So whatever." Then I'm going to be elimination, and I'm like, "I might go home tonight. So I'm just gonna lay it all out on the table." So I kind of called him out in front of everybody. And it wasn't shown, but that's really what kind of kicked that rivalry further into gear. Because I was scared. And I had a lot of emotions going into my first elimination, and that was just my kind of way of boosting myself and coping with the fact that I might go home. Let me go out with a bang if I do. It was a decision on my part myself. But it worked out okay. It's never been my demise.
For a while, it seemed like you were involved in the Survivor coalition. But as the game turned individual, it became clear that Desi, Michaela, and Chanelle had something together, and you were on the outs. What was it like to be out on an island within that island-based group?
I think that there was multiple reasons for why that ended up playing out the way it did. First of all, like they saw Michaela, Desi, and Chanelle saw each other as sharp competitors. But don't want to go to a final with somebody that you are pretty sure you can beat? At the same time, with this tactic they had made to protect each other winning dailies and things like that, it makes sense. And Desi and Chanelle shared a room together, and they got really close through that. So they were always gonna have each other's backs. Me and Tori got close because we shared the room. You spent so much more time with the people that you're sharing a room with.
So I couldn't really insert myself into that bond that had already been formed for so long. I did my best to have conversations with them, have strategic conversations throughout the whole game and all of that. But once they had all decided to turn on me and make this path with Tori, there really was nothing I could do to sway them. Because they weren't afraid of me, and they were afraid of Tori. And so they were not afraid to go back on their word as much with me as they were Tori. And it is what it is. It obviously sucked, but at the same time, I don't have any regrets about what happened, because it allowed me to prove myself. I wasn't really able to do that in the dailies very much. I was going up against really strong competitors. So this was my path to to prove that I belonged there, and that it wasn't a fluke, what I did on Survivor. I don't really have any regrets about it. But, at the time, it was tough.
Any regrets about that confrontation you had with Michaela? Does that go back to what you said about Wes about speaking up when you see someone playing mind games?
I think that's why I specifically had issues with Wes and Michaela, because they both have a similar style of gameplay. And I just think they both have a little bit of a superiority complex. They can be condescending, and they dish out respect very sparingly. I don't like being talked down to. I don't like when people try to use their intelligence as a weapon. And so I think that's kind of why I didn't get along with the both of them. Michaela is just a hard person to work with for me in an alliance, that's all I'll say about that. She's done her best to drag me through the mud in every interview she's had. But I'm not gonna waste my 15 minutes with you going into that, because I just feel like we're just never gonna be on the same page. She's she is a great player; she's highly intelligent, and she's a great athlete, and good for her on that. But I don't really like the way that she treats people whenever she's not getting along with them. We're just never going to be friends. But that's okay.
Let's talk about the vet side of things. You mentioned rooming with and having a relationship with Tori. And in the early stages of the season, you seemed to have a friendship with Josh. Did you try to work with the vets when it was clear the Survivor girls didn't want to work with you?
I always knew that the vets were going to do whatever they wanted to do, and that they didn't really care that much about me as a player. But like I had formed pretty decent relationships with them throughout my time on the blue team. A lot of them ended up joining the blue team, so with Tori and with Cory and Fessy and eventually Bananas I got pretty good. I honestly got pretty close with Bananas, maybe not in the way that we were gonna play the game together, because we didn't have a ton of trust built or time spent together to be able to really solidify anything like that. Also,I don't know how good I was for any of their games.
The issue with the guys was they they were under the impression that it may be a partners final, because a lot of the finals, you run it with a partner. And so this whole time they they have an incentive to keep the stronger women, because if they have to run a final, they want somebody who can keep up them. So I was also fighting that perception from the guys front that like, "Will I be a good partner in a final? Do they want to bring me to the end?" So it was hard to get in with with the guys in that way. But I do feel like I was forming like decent relationships with them. It just didn't end up being like enough to want to get them to want to save me. I mean, there was a time or two when I think Josh had my back. And I was able to appeal once or twice to Faysal or Cory not to vote for me. But, other than that, it wasn't going to make a lot of sense for them to work with me.
The whole Chanelle debacle where I called her out in the arena, that wasn't personal to her. That was me trying to appeal to the vets and their philosophy of, "You need to earn your place as a rookie. You need to go into elimination. That's how you earn your stripes. That's what makes you worthy of earning a final." If anybody else had been in Chanelle's place where they hadn't won a daily or an elimination, I would have said the same thing. It wasn't because I thought she was weak, or because I thought she couldn't do it. It was just me trying to get the target off my back specifically and trying to appeal to the vets in that way. It didn't end up really working, but it was all I could do.
In honor of the infamous "[expletive] They Should Have Shown" episode of the old-school days of The Challenge, what's one moment from your time on the show that you wish you had made the edit?
I mean, when I called Wes out on the stand in my first nomination, I thought that was a pretty cool moment. Because a lot of times whenever I'm speaking on the spot, or don't have a full trust in myself, what I'm going to say is what I want to say. But that night, I said it so well ,so eloquently. I had this whole speech plan. And honestly, it's silly, like who even cares. But maybe that moment would have been cool to see because he was such a huge player in the game. And maybe it was a little bit of stupidity, but I had the courage to to stand up to somebody that big. So I thought that was kind of a cool moment. But it probably would have made the the Wes minions online come after me even harder. So it's probably for the best that was shown.
There wasn't a lot of time to show lmy social relationships when I was really close to specific people like Alyssa S., Tyler, Michelle. I was close to Tori; I had a good relationship with Josh, and even Bananas. There were so many times when I would sit next to Bananas and he played the guitar and I felt like he was serenading me. I mean, he probably wasn't, but I was the only one sitting there paying attention. So cute little moments like that that I think just showed that I wasn't alone in the house. I wasn't ostracized. I wasn't this pariah, who nobody wanted to work with. It just made more sense for people to come after me because I was just the easy person to throw in over and over again. But that doesn't mean that I didn't feel like I had good relationships in the house.
I know you said you didn't know a lot about The Challenge coming into the season. But now that you've played, would you ever make the jump over to the MTV series?
I think so. It's difficult for me because, yes, I want this. I want to say yes. But if it's between this one and the CBS one, I might choose the CVS one again. Because I liked the dynamic of playing with other CBS contestants, people from different shows. And I think it levels the playing field a little bit. Whereas the people on the flagship show are all bodybuilders and there's this common theme of just targeting the rookies over and over again. So I'm a little fearful of the MTV one, because all those girls, they're all Tori's. I don't know that I would do that well, in the flagship show. I want to think that I would, but I'm not delusional about the fact that I'm not the biggest baddest girl out there. So I want to say that I would say yes. But it was between now and the CBS one, I think I maybe would enjoy going to CBS on a little more, just because I feel like I have a chance to shine there. Rather than just get like pummeled into goo on the OG show. [Laughs.]
