Michele Fitzgerald Breaks Down Her "Micheletdown" with Michaela on 'The Challenge: USA' Season 2

Michele Fitzgerald on '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.

When Michele Fitzgerald came onto The Challenge: USA season 2, she truly represented two worlds. She played an equal number of seasons on Survivor, where she has played successfully and never been voted out, and The Challenge, where she has more recently appeared. So, in a battle between MTV and CBS alumni, she was set up perfectly. That position initially got thrown for a loop, though, when Michele was put into the very first elimination of the season, partially orchestrated by her enemy Amanda Garcia. After prevailing, she had a heated confrontation with the fellow vet, showing the bad blood ran as red as the jersey of Michele's cursed team.

Despite popping off, Michele was able to not pop on anyone's radar for a good majority of the game after that. As a Survivor alum, she was protected by and included in many of the plans helmed by those women. At the same time, she had the safety of the vets, who didn't take a shot at her once Amanda left the game. It was only a matter of time, though, before Michele would be forced to choose a side. Last week, she chose to go with the vets' plan, spurning the Survivor girls by voting Chris Underwood into elimination. And that karma came back around very quickly. Chris and Desi Williams won the next daily, and got their immediate revenge on Michele for her betrayal. She went from drawing a line in the sand to going into the sand, sent against Cassidy Clark. During Michele's big move, she partially wanted to protect Cassidy, seeing her as someone she could beat. But she experienced firsthand how that's easier said than done, losing to the elimination queen of the season.

Now out of the game, Michele speaks with Parade.com about her reaction to getting targeted early on by the vets, her difficulties playing the middle, and what we didn't see from the "Micheletdown" with Michaela.

Related: Everything to Know About The Challenge: USA Season 2

Obviously, your game was predicated on maintaining relationships with both the MTV veterans and the Survivor alumni. But was that something you were immediately planning on doing once you saw those vets come around the corner on the jet skis?
Yes, I knew it was going to be tough for me to balance because I have relationships. Not even with just Fessy and Josh, who are technically Big Brother. I have played with Tori and Bananas, and I have relationships with them. But there are limits and levels to all of it. I was playing with some of the vets, but not all of them. I was playing with some of the Survivors closer than with others. Yes, I knew I was gonna be stuck in the middle. And I just was trying to figure out how long I could be in the middle of the road. And I was honestly impressed by how long I was able to navigate it because it kept kind of working out in my favor. I was like, "Oh, well I could throw a Big Brother person in here." I was surprised it didn't all fall apart earlier, to be honest with you.

Well, you talk about working with the vets on different levels. You get a dose of that low level early on. Jonna ends up betraying your team's plan and voting for you to go into elimination. And you and Amanda had a feud that had a few flare-ups during your time in the house together. Talk to me about both of those relationships in the early stages of the game.
It was definitely interesting. I had met up with Jonna prior to the season. We had done an event together. So I was surprised when I had gotten three balls. And then I was like, "Well, blessed that you voted for me, because at least it gives me a target to put my attention on for these upcoming weeks. Okay, great. I have this thing to hide behind that." Amanda and I have gotten into a feud. Now, every single time, I don't really have to expose my cards. I could just be like, "I'm voting Amanda." I could just look like blind hate was fueling me.

It made my life a little bit easier that they went against me, to be honest. And we see in progression every single person who voted for me, Jonna, Lewis, Amanda, all go home in a row. And I don't get a ball after that. So thank you guys. And thank you, Amanda, for giving me airtime. Because your vendetta against me is unwarranted. And at least we got some TV and drama from it.

Now let's move over to the Survivor side of things. You were a part of the "Secret Garden" alliance with Survivor and Big Brother women. But things came to a head during the red team nomination ceremony. Josh was threatening a deadlock, and you decided to go against the Secret Garden and vote in Luis instead of Wes, saying, as you mentioned before, that he voted for you. What was your thinking behind that, and how did you deal with the fallout from that vote?
So what isn't shown is that I actually have a pretty close relationship with Wes in the game. I'm pretty close to him outside of the game. So I knew that I was never going to be able to vote Wes in that nomination. So, for me, Dusty throwing his vote like that really put me in a bit of a pickle. Because I was hoping that Dusty would not do that, and then I could just be like, "Oh, my hands are tied." But I really had to expose myself for voting Luis, because Dusty threw his vote. So people were mad at me. I definitely had some backlash.

But the thing is, I also knew things that people in the Secret Garden were doing, where their votes lied. And so, if people like people were like, "Why did you vote for Wes?" and I could be like, "Well, Chanelle, look at the things that you did in your secret vote." We all had some inside tea on each other. And it was like, you can't be too mad because here's what you did too. We were all playing together, but we're all playing for our interests as well. And that was apparent in the beginning of the game.

Now, on that note, let's start getting into the series of unfortunate events that led to you speaking to me today. Last week, your hand was finally forced, having to choose between voting with the vets or Survivor. You chose the vets. Talk to me about the logic that went through your head with that decision.
I don't really regret doing that, personally. Because, for me, Chris had said my name. I had been working with Chris, and he threw me under the bus. He had been playing really messy and sloppy. And so for me, he's the only person who really wronged me. So voting for him, I felt, first off, it eliminated this guy. All the guys that I had been working with the whole game like Fessy, Josh, Bananas, they all wanted it to be Chris. I felt like I was doing them a solid.

I also felt like by voting Tori, who had had my back, I was [expletive] over Tori. I was [expletive] over Cass. I felt like I was just throwing Cass to the wolves. I felt like Cass would probably have to go home, so that didn't benefit me. Why would I want somebody like Cassidy to go home and keep all these strong women? And so I felt like I was doing a lot of the right things. It only really screwed over the Secret Garden and Chris. I wish I had just told Chanelle and Desi. I think that that's where I went wrong. If I had told them that I was voting for Chris, I honestly think they would have voted for Chris too. So I wish I had just been transparent about the move rather than doing it in secret. That's my only regret.

Part of the fallout from your vote was that confrontation with Michaela. Talk me through your perspective on the so-called "Micheletdown."
That was a long fight. It was like 45 minutes. And it's funny because I talked to Bananas about it after, and he's like, "I have done how many seasons of this. And I've never seen a fight like that." Because usually people go around in circles when they fight. You rehash the same things over and over, and you say it louder, or you say it in a different way. But we've played two seasons together. And the tension had been built up. We had a lot of tea on each other. There was a lot of pent-up drama between us. One thing would get thrown in, and then another, and then another, and then another. It was 45 minutes of it just exploding.

And I love Michaela. But we are just very, very different players, and we're very different people. She plays very logical. And I play very emotional. And we had been trying to play together the whole game, but we communicate very differently. We respect different styles of gameplay and communication differently. And so it had just gotten to that point, and I was like, "You want to throw me under the bus? Well, here's all the shit that I think that you did. You were trying to throw Tori in, and by throwing Tori in, you were gonna throw Chanelle or Desi against her. How's that not shady, but the shit I do is shady? You want to call me sneaky and snakey? Well, that's sneaky and snakey too!" li

You want to expose me and make me the villain? I'm a mess. But I'm not a villain. And that's what I was trying to say. "Don't villainize me in this moment. Because you do the same shit. And you made a deal with Cory too." I just feel like it's kind of easy when somebody is down and out [in] the way I was down and out to just pile on. [But] we all did that. Don't paint me like I'm the worst when you're doing the same thing, honey.

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?
There was a big, big fight that happened between Josh and Fessy. And I think Bananas might have been there too. It was in the previews, but it was never shown. And it was a drunken fight. So Fessy was rapping, and he said to Josh, "You think you're Bad Bunny. But you're really a sour gummy." And he was just really, really drunk. And it escalated into this massive fight. And chairs got thrown, tables got flipped. And it wasn't shown! We all were waiting for it to get shown. And it wasn't, it was sad.

Well the good news for us is that you are far from done with The Challenge. In fact, you'll be on the upcoming season Battle for a New Champion on October 25. Did you just jump from one Challenge season into another?
Yeah, I would not expect a lot of growth in it. [Laughs.] I mean, listen, I had two weeks between filming. This was a really intense season for me. So I go into season] 39 a bit frayed at the edges. I wouldn't say I learned a lot between the two. So expect more meltdowns, more fights, more hookups, more drama. There's not a lot of change in me. [Laughs.]

Next, check out our interview with Tyler Crispen, who was eliminated on The Challenge: USA season 2 episode 11.