The Zach Nichols Podcast - The Davis Mallory Interview! | ZNP EP. 169

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All right. All right. Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast. Thanks. I'm here solo today, but we have a big guest. Yeah. And we're missing a big person now. We're missing a big presence.

He must have gotten lost another waffle house. But welcome to the podcast, Davis Mallory. Thank you so much, Zach. Gee, going to do it. Thank you. There we go. There we go. Gee's a little rusty.

Michael's also not here. For though, this won't air until this happens. Michael's getting engaged. Our producer is getting engaged. So, do a girl. So good thing, good for Michael. But Davis, I'm going to do Pierre's job. Yes.

He reads out the stat sheet. I literally told him I was going to miss having him here to hype me up before he. Yeah. Because I'll watch. I'll do my best. All right. Davis, originally from Real World Denver, which, in my opinion, is one of the best cast to ever be on the real world. That is a stat cast.

Thank you. Inferno 3, nearly a finalist. Dual 2 and rivals 1, which is. Progressively got worse. I wasn't going to say that. You have six daily wins, elimination record of one and three. And yeah, so a round of applause. Thank you so much for coming to Detroit.

Thank you for having me. Yeah, dude, you know, honestly, we were just about to talk about this, but I stopped Davis because I was like, listen, like, I want to know if he remembers. He said, have we met before in person? And the answer is yes, but do you remember it? Not at all. I was going to ask you today. I was like, I don't think we've ever met. Like, I know you from TV.

I know Jenna from TV. I don't feel like I remember meeting you in the real life unless I was drunk. It was we were both drunk. Okay. It was at the Battle of the Seasons, um, reunion after party at the Dublin house. Got it. Okay. Then that makes sense because I used to go to those when I lived in New York City and I would see people.

Yeah. And you, we actually had a really long conversation. I mean, whatever, but I remember it was you, Coli Johanna were the three people I met. I just remember being like, huh. Because you know, like when you're on the real world, you're like, like, it's like kind of how you feel when you walk into a challenge and you're just like, oh my gosh, here's all the people I watched. So I was just like, oh, I can't.

believe this. Yeah. So yeah, we did meet. We had a good conversation. Well, I don't remember what we talked about, but long conversation. You were just kind of giving me pointers and all that. And I do, you remember the first thing you asked was like, let me guess. Like, you did this just to get on the challenge. And I was like, yeah. Because I did. That's why I did the real world. was because I basically was like, wait, it can continue to spin off. But I want to talk about your casting story to start. Let's start the very beginning. So real world Denver, that was what, like 2006. Yeah, I was going to say five or six. So how did like, I know you're Southern guy. I know

the story, but like what, like, how did it happen? How did you stumble upon being on the real world? Yeah, I mean, I watched the world when I was in high school. Some of the seasons that were, I think the first one I ever saw was Hawaii with Ruthie. And then I think the last one I watched really seriously was like Chicago or Philly with like

Landon and Tanya. So those are some people that, and then I went to college and I just didn't have time for it. Like I was immersed in, you know, drinking and partying and stuff. So I really wasn't watching. And then in my senior year of college, I decided to try out for the show and just looked online how to go about it. And there was a bar in Tampa, Florida.

I was going to college in Florida. And literally that weekend, they had an open casting call. So it was just like weird how the timing was just so like, oh yeah, it's like tomorrow in my state. So I grabbed two of my girlfriends. We drove across the state. Went to a bar. We're drinking. I don't know if this is the way it went for you.

And then they ushered us in like 10 at a time. And then they just was like, why should I put you on the show? show. And I don't think what I said was interesting enough. And the guy just let everybody go up with this one, like, loud black girl. And I was like, no, I got more to say. Like, I felt like that wasn't my shot. So after he finished talking to her, I didn't leave. And I went up to him and just asked him where the bathroom was. And he gave me like a sympathy application. And he was like, here, like, fill this out. Like, I don't know why. He did that. But then it took me an hour to fill it out. Yeah, they're long. Yeah. They were thick. Yeah. Yeah, essay questions. The girls that I came with are like waiting on me. I'm like, I'm so sorry. This isn't going to take a long time.

And then I go back, three hour drive back across the state of Florida. And I get a phone call that night. And they were like, come back tomorrow. We want to have a one on one with you. And I was so drunk when I felt out that interview that as he's like reading some of my answers to me. I'm like, I wrote that. I actually got out of the seat and went over and looked. And I was like, oh, I really did write that.

Like it was just like whack stuff. Right. Because I was drunk. And I think, I don't know. He seemed to like me. And then I get a phone call a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks later and they're like hey we're waiting on a video from you I'm like what are you talking about they're like yeah we need like a day in your life and I was like nobody told me that right then I was just like

sprinting to get one made and then it just kept rolling forward but eventually I told my mom I was advancing and she talked me out of it like mother's no best and I actually called and told the producer I'm not going to do it anymore and I withdrew my submission yeah and then some senior level producer I'd never even met before calls me and tries to talk me back in and then I felt like I had it in the bag from that day on. Right. Because I'm like, why is he calling me unless he really wants me on the road? But I didn't find that I got on the show for probably five or six months later.

So, but I always knew that I had it because he talked me in. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's like the timeline. I think my casting call was like end of February, early March. And then we started, well, I guess we started filming in May or June. But my mom did the same thing. Really?

Oh, my mom was so pissed. We actually had my mom on the podcast. And she told the story. And because my mom is very Christian religious. And she was just like my sister literally my mom and my sister told me at the same time. My sister was like, how are you going to honor God on a show like that? And I was just like that's like the deepest question I ever got. But I was like I have to do it.

Like who gets this opportunity? Like my goal obviously like I wanted to like like with like withhold my morals that I was taught. And it's hard. You know just in general because of what? you don't think about is like even if you're raised a certain way if you go out to the bar with your friends like you're still going to do stuff that you wouldn't be proud of like your parents seeing so like that was kind of like my internal battle was like I have a side to me that I am with my friends that I'm out when I'm social but like when I'm around my parents like it's

everyone's a little bit different right like not different but like you just you know and I was like they're going to probably watch this but my parents never watched an episode neither did mine yeah my mom was she watched clips like when people are like oh my gosh you should see this is so funny she'll watch that but she's never watched a full episode. My dad tried to watch my first episode of the real world and was like, nah. So anyways, yeah, that didn't, you know, there's still to this day, what, I did total of like 12 seasons. If you count the real world and the champ stars and like, they've just seen clips, which is probably better. Yeah. You know, and that, you know, they had, they seen enough of the clips

online. But anyways, you, so Denver, you've ever, you'd never been there before. You were from. I had been to Denver once in high school. I went on, if you know what young life is. Yeah, my sister was a young life teacher. My mom and dad met as young life leaders. And my sister was on staff for Young Life. Gotcha. And I'd been to Frontier Ranch, which is in color. Yeah. So you'd been there.

Yeah. But like your cast, like I was, I mean, your cast had some heavy hitters. Yeah. I mean, it was you, Jen, who was obviously one of the, like, best female challengers to never win. Tyree, who's obviously a big name on the challenge. As he won? I love him. He's never won.

Yep. Yeah. Then there was Alex Smith, who was a, I think he was a bigger character on the real world. And you had Brooke. who again like I'm saying like your cast had like personality to the max so yeah talk about that experience like so when you went in there obviously also like one of the probably one of the biggest real world blowups of all time you were part of you and but just talk about when you went in there yeah culture shock obviously yeah I mean one

one verse came into my mind as you were talking and it's that verse that's like a good character is corrupted by bad company and that was like an adage that was you it's quoted in the Bible, but it's actually not a biblical reference. It's like it was like kind of a yeah, like an old adage. And, um, I don't know, it just came to my mind as you were speaking. But yeah, for me, like I came out of college and I was just like pre-med. My mom really wanted me to be a doctor and I just dropped everything to go on the show. My mom was really disappointed that I wasn't going forward with with that plan of my life. Um, I had, yeah, I think it was just a wild season of, I mean, I was, I don't know how old you were, but I would think I was 22 when I did

mine. 20. I think I was like 20. I think I was 23 turned 24. Yeah. Okay. So I had graduated. I had already done the whole, I'm going to like out in college. I was like, I'm going to be a doctor. And then I got to home college. I was like, no. So then I thought about physical therapy. And I was kind of doing that while I was playing some like professional indoor football. And I was just like, I really was at a crossroads where it was like, what am I going to do? And then this kind of fell on my lap. So I was like, well, I'm going to do this. It's going to be like my second attempt at college. Yeah. And then it just snowballed for the.

the rest of my 20s and into my 30s. But yeah. Yeah, I mean, I watched a lot of your season when it aired because we would always, like, that was my senior year, 2006 was the end of my senior year. And then I went to college in the fall. And so we would always during camp, I would always watch MTV during football camp. Yeah. So I was definitely watching real world Denver back then.

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I remember watching it. What year was San Diego in? San Diego was 2000. We filmed in 2009 or 10. Okay. And now we filmed in 2010 it aired in 2000 2010 and then my first challenge I did was 2011. Okay. So yeah, I was and then my last season I was on was 2000 and it was aired in 2018, I think. No, 2019 because I was still doing cameos. Okay. Yeah. So that's a pretty big gap. I would have thought you'd have something more frequent or more recent. No. So that 34 and then Jen and I got married in 2020 and I was like I'm done. Like I'm I'm still. stepping away. I didn't know. Are you a dad? I'm a dad. Almost five. Five. I got four and one in the hopper. Wow. Three were planned. Yeah. The other two were just total whoopsies. Wow, bro. But yeah, so I got a son.

He's four. And then I got a three-year-old daughter, a two-year-old daughter, a nine-month, ten-month-old daughter. And then, yeah, I'm going to have Irish twins here in about three months. Yeah, it's crazy. Honestly, it's Jenna. That's what Jenna wanted. Everyone knows that already. It's crazy. Did she come from a big family? So I came from, I'm one of five. She's one of four, but she has two half siblings. So she's basically one of six. Yeah.

So yeah, I'm a dad. And then just recently, so then we started to do this, right? And I'm like, all, you know, whatever. Like, Pierre kind of like coaxed me and Gino. I was like, I wasn't really set on it at first. And Pierre was like, no, like, we'll do it. It'll be great. And I was like, all right.

And then when I started doing it and I started like getting back into the mix of being around like, you know, my old friends and all these. New people, I was like, damn, like, I really do miss it. So that concludes the free preview of the Zach Nichols podcast. So go to Patreon and subscribe to see the rest of the shit that we talk. Go do it now.