MTV’s The Challenge is returning for season 37, and show alum Cory Wharton is dishing on how the new alcohol limits affected the cast. Ahead of the new premiere slated for next month, it has been revealed that producers placed an alcohol limit on the cast for the first time. After years of seeing the players get wild and unruly in the house and at the nightclub, things are changing this time around. Now that the contestants will be playing with a more sober mind, Cory is reminiscing about the “good old days.”
The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies brings together 34 players from all over the world, representing the most internationally diverse cast to date. The veterans include familiar faces for the long-running series, including Tori Deal, Nany Gonzalez, Nelson Thomas, and Josh Martinez. Double Agents winner CT Tamburello is back, along with the most criticized player of season 36, Fessy Shafaat. The rookies include reality TV alums from hit franchises like Survivor, Big Brother, and Love Island. The US Agents will work with International Operatives to make it through grueling challenges that push them to the limit both mentally and physically in order to get their hands on a share of $1 million.
Cory made it to the finals in season 36 but didn’t take home the big win. Now, he’s back for season 37 hoping to win it all. While he came into the game prepared for all the twists and turns The Challenge is known to bring, the MTV star was not expecting any changes to the party atmosphere the cast is known to bring, especially considering how limited things were in Double Agents due to the pandemic. Cory recently revealed how disappointed he was to learn that show producers placed an alcohol limit on the cast for the first time in Challenge history. “In the good old days when we used to be able to go to the bar, you could buy a bottle, you could buy whatever you wanted at the bar,” Cory recalled on the Watch With Us Podcast. “It was on you [if] you got drunk and sloppy. Now production’s trying to control some of that.”
But it turns out it wasn’t an initial rule coming into the house. The cast ended up being placed on “punishment,” for getting too wild one night. “This season, we went to drink tickets. So once you ran out of your drink tickets, there were no more drinks for you,” Cory explained. “Per night, we would get a certain amount of drink tickets.” This is something new for the cast, who has been used to having no holds bar when it came to drinking and partying during the competition. But after things “got a little wild one night or a couple of nights,” Cory says producers decided to put their foot down.
The Teen Mom OG star explained how the drink tickets were a consequence of their bad behavior. “Basically [they said], ‘Listen, you guys are acting crazy to production and the security team. You’re not respecting them. So we’ve got to limit the drinks,’” Cory revealed. With it being the first season back after an extremely limited season 36 amid the pandemic, it looks like the cast was ready to reunite and get the party started. But unfortunately, it came at the expense of the crew. “It was wild this season,” Cory admitted. But he hopes the alcohol limit isn’t something producers plan on instituting long term. “They better not [keep it forever],” he jokingly exclaimed. “I’m not going to be doing that!” The Challenge fans are excited to find out which of the cast members got so wild an alcohol limit was put into effect.
