In the truth festival universe, there’s one guy who stands above all of them as the most prolific persona of MTV’s The Challenge: John “Johnny Bananas” Devenanzio. Although CBS purists are getting their first taste of him on The Challenge: USA season 2, some longtime fanatics of the franchise have recognized the truth star for just about two decades.
Recommended VideosFrom hilarious jabs to cut-throat decision-making, Johnny Bananas exemplifies The Challenge and its rough-around-the-edges nature.
Hate him or love him, Johnny Bananas has frequently helped construct the franchise since his debut in 2006 and is among the largest stars it’s produced. He’s additionally its maximum winningest Challenge contestant ever through hoisting seven flagship championships.
So, when did the 41-year-old get his start on The Challenge, and how did it go? That’s what I’ll take on in this article — and spoiler alert: it didn’t cross well for the “Banana Man.”
Let’s get into The Duel!
Johnny Bananas took part in The Duel after his time on The Real World: Key West
Johnny Bananas made his MTV debut as a 22-year-old forged member on The Real World: Key West in 2006 alongside the likes of Paula Meronek and Tyler Duckworth — two other fact TV stars who’d ultimately grow to be Challenge champions as neatly.
Later that 12 months, Johnny, Paula, Tyler, and Svetlana Shusterman (any other Key West housemate) joined sixteen different notables from The Real World, Road Rules, and Fresh Meat for the franchise’s thirteenth season: The Duel. This used to be when the truth competition collection used to be called Real World/Road Rules Challenge and it was once solely fueled by MTV ability.
It used to be a season stacked with contestants who remain one of the crucial greatest names to ever grace The Challenge, together with Chris “CT” Tamburello, Diem Brown, Aneesa Ferreira, Wes Bergmann, Tina Barta, Evan Starkman, Beth Stolarczyk, Kenny Santucci, and Derrick Kosinski.
Unfortunately for Johnny Bananas, each identify listed above lasted longer than him in his inaugural season. In fact, he was the first competitor eradicated.
The Duel marked the first-ever Challenge season that was an individual-based game. Whether it was once groups or pairs, a contestant’s destiny had at all times been connected to somebody else up till season 13.
The 10 males and 10 women have been part of their own bracket, and although the daily challenges routinely had players competing in male-female duos, they had been on their very own when it came to removing rounds and in the end, the general challenge.
Being a rookie player, The Duel’s layout didn’t bode smartly for Johnny Bananas and the rest of his Key West housemates as they had been the latest individuals of the MTV family relative to the other players. It’s a Challenge staple; the veterans in most cases attempt to get rid of newbies first.
Ahead of each and every day by day problem, host TJ Lavin would announce whether it used to be male or feminine removing day. Then, the problem would produce a female and male winner. The Duel’s first day by day mission had the boys on the chopping block, and Eric Banks and Robin Hibbard came out on best.
Because it was once a males’s day, Eric earned immunity from “The Duel” — the season’s elimination grounds.
Then, Eric began the selection procedure, something that was adopted for everything of the game. In schoolyard type, Eric used to be tasked with selecting one lady who would then pick out one guy — so on and so forth till one man used to be left standing without being chosen.
Well, the overall two males no longer picked were Johnny Bananas and Tyler, whilst their ex-roommate Svetlana was charged with opting for between them. As history has it, she becked the Banana Man over, stating she had extra self assurance Tyler would live to tell the tale a loser-go-home sport over Johnny.
So, since he was once the last man, Tyler used to be instantly nominated for elimination.
In a fun twist, the player in the scorching seat was charged with calling out somebody to meet them within the sand. Besides the daily problem winner (Eric), Tyler had all the male roster to choose between. But, he decided to duel Johnny.
Tyler then decided on a card. All in all, The Duel featured 4 other removal games — “I Can,” “Pole Wrestle,” “Push Me,” and “Ascender” — and a game was at all times selected at random forward of the competition. As fate had it, Tyler drew the I Can card and the cast made their method to The Duel; and Johnny Bananas’ ultimate festival of the season.
I Can was once a easy recreation. Each player would take their flip announcing how much of a definite object they might carry. Then, their opponent would both one-up them or challenge them to boost the quantity they declared.
For Bananas and Tylers’ battle, they had been confronted with dozens of watermelons. And once Tyler said he could raise 31 of them, Johnny Bananas challenged him to do it.
“I’m considering at the back of my mind 31 watermelon, that’s a large number of watermelon,” Bananas mentioned in a confessional.
The fruit was then loaded right into a crate and Tyler easily lifted them for five seconds — the time he had to hit to be victorious. That’s all it took for Johnny’s marketing campaign for $150,000 to go up in flames.
His time in Brazil ended. But, his tenure as a Challenge celebrity used to be still in its infancy. And after greater than 20 seasons and a number of other trophies, Johnny Bananas is still going strong.
Johnny’s longtime rival Wes Bergmann earned his first championship on The Duel, and they’re each lately competing on The Challenge: USA
In some attention-grabbing Challenge lore, The Duel was also a very powerful display for Wes Bergmann — a person as synonymous with the franchise as Bananas. Season 13 was once Wes’ second stint on the truth festival show after starring on The Real World: Austin.
And in complete opposite fortune, Bananas was the first particular person to go domestic while Wes received The Duel alongside Jodi Weatherton at the feminine facet.
Although their interaction was once restricted in The Duel, Johnny and Wes would develop the most important contention within the franchise’s historical past. But, they settled their red meat all over season 35’s Total Madness and now work together each and every time they’re on a Challenge. They’re each lately competing on The Challenge: USA season 2.
And spoiler alert: when Wes concept he was going domestic after his elimination match with Dusty Harris wrapped all through episode 6 (the newest episode at the time of this text’s publication), Johnny Bananas embraced him in what used to be a amusing and reasonably heartwarming moment between the two Challenge icons.
TJ later revealed that Wes was once the winner. He then proceeded to abandon his Green staff and sign up for Bananas’ Blue squad.
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