The Zach Nichols Podcast - Zach Nichols Podcast EP. 1 - Challenge USA Premiere Review + Exclusive Mailbag Q&A

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

Please rate & review!To watch or listen to the full version of this episode & to have access to exclusive content CLICK HERE to join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ZachnicholspodcastFOLLOW THE ZACH NICHOLS PODCAST HERE:PATREON | https://www.patreon.com/ZachnicholspodcastINSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/zachnicholspodcast/APPLE PODCAST | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-zach-nichols-podcast/id1702746031SPOTIFY | https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZiIZUdWEg8cAo1q8a0o1IThis episode is sponsored by Pro Found Orthodonticshttps://www.instagram.com/drjustinkammo/To watch or listen to the full version of this episode & to have access to exclusive content CLICK HERE to join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ZachnicholspodcastThis episode is sponsored by Pro Found Orthodonticshttps://www.instagram.com/drjustinkammo/FOLLOW THE ZACH NICHOLS PODCAST HERE:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/zachnicholspodcast/PATREON | https://www.patreon.com/ZachnicholspodcastPlease be sure to SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, & COMMENT HERE https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNV0OTpaRp9_pxcncEPjR7g*Contact [e-mail] for sponsorship opportunities*FOLLOW GOHT MEDIA HERE:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/gohtmedia/TIKTOK | https://www.tiktok.com/@gohtmedia?lang=enAPPLE | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/goht-pod/id1682428451SPOTIFY | https://open.spotify.com/show/5lp373lcVG0jvxyN9g8bOS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode of the Zach Nichols podcast, we reviewed the action-packed two-night premiere, including Josh's decision to take John A over Tori, and if Sebastian is crushing on Tory for political reasons, much, much more. To listen or watch our full episode, have access to exclusive content, and have first divs on limited seating to potential live events, please join our Patreon at Zach Nichols podcast. The link to everything is in the bio of our Instagram. This week's episode is sponsored by Profound Orthodonics, with offices and, Kigo Harbor, Bingham Farms, and Northville.

It's the only place you should be going to get Invisaline or braces in the Metro Detroit area. Make sure you check them out when it's time for you to have a perfect smile. Profound Orthodinics. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the first official edition of the Zach Nichols podcast. Let's get a round of applause, man. Isn't this the second edition? It's the first official.

Now that people know that we're actually coming out with it and they're waiting on it and every Tuesday they're logging in to listen, you're a big deal not right now I'm not gonna lie to you no no no I'm a big deal because I'm a father amen brother amen that's important before we get started please let me ask you something talk to me so today you text me and you asked me if I would like some jersey mics I did yeah I did is that your go-to sub shop I prefer jersey mics at this point in my life there was a time and honestly

subway is still underrated but I would go to subway And then there was back in Brighton, there used to be a Quiznos by Great Harvest Bread Company. And to this day, if I see a Quiznos, let me get the carbon iron, no mushrooms extra sauce. But let me ask you the same question. What's your go-to sub shop? Hot sub or cold-sub. Ooh, for me, it's got to be hot. If I'm getting a hot sub, it's Mancinos.

Oh, that's cheating, bro. That's cheating. If it's a cold sub, Jimmy Johns. Jimmy Johns. See, you're going with the Brighton classics. Dude, Jimmy Johns just does it better. They do. I have add-ons.

The pickles, the hot pepper relish. I'm a Jimmy John's guy through and through. I would rather eat out of a dumpster than eat Subway. He's wrong. I'm not going to lie to you guys. Subway, if you want to sponsor, maybe we can. I've had every sub on the menu. And I've heard some trash about their bread.

And I don't like Jared anymore. Oh, that's fair. That's fair. Come on, guys. You've got to be careful with who you choose. Do your background checks. Moving on. Let's move on.

Let's talk about this Challenge USA 2. Let's talk about it. I want to get some housekeeping. out of the way. First of all, for sure. Welcome to the first official episode of the Zach Nichols podcast. Thank you all so much for your support. It means the world's to us. Please be sure to continue to follow us, like our post, share them with your friends, subscribe to the Goat Media YouTube, where we will post the free portions of the pods. Like comment and share there, and then also on Apple Spotify is where the free portion will be. But if you are a superfan,

please, if you want the full episode, both the video or the audio, subscribe to our Patreon. It's an affordable amount that allows us to put on the show for you guys and give our unedited, unapologetic opinions that you want and crave about the episodes that are currently airing and some other stuff. What's going on? And it also gives us an opportunity to give back to our community and donate to charities. Absolutely. But we're talking real charities.

We're not talking like charities with people who are making money off them. We're talking like if a kid is sick or they can't afford something, parents hit us up, that's charity to me. Find someone that actually needs it. Like a kid is sick. Help them out. Yep, especially here in Michigan, anything we can do locally that we can do, we'd love to do it. Let us know.

Absolutely. That was one big thing whenever me and Zach started talking about doing this full time was he wanted to make sure that it wasn't just us entertaining. We have to give back to community, which I couldn't agree with more. And if we don't hear from anyone, we're going to donate to Brighton basketball or football. There you go, man. There you go. Keep it in the hometown. Can't see the jerseys.

Yeah, they do. So I want to give a second to thank everybody that's helping us get this done. most notably Jenna and your family. Thank you for allowing Zach to spend the time here in the studio. Also, Monster Shoutouts, All the Challengers and all the personalities that have liked, followed and shared our content. Jenna, of course, Tony, Kayla, Mark, Joss, and Josh, Jordan, Marie, and Nani in the past. We really appreciate you. And we'd love to have you on the show sometime.

Hey, I want to give a big congrats to Marie. Yes. She's expecting. I think Marie is going to be in the Hall of Fame of Moms, if you want my personal opinion. I like that. Congratulations, Marie. She's got the intensity to be one hell of a month. Yeah, no kidding.

Also, happy birthday to Marie. Happy birthday, Marie. Thank you for all your support. All right. So, let's get into the challenge, USA. Yeah, shall we? Before we get started, just so you guys know, I'm not a challenge historian. Okay, I'm learning just like some of you might be.

I've seen a good amount of seasons, but I don't know everything. So I might need some help if I get a thing or two wrong. But I like a lot of the cast of this show, even though it's not as many, oh, Jesus, I would have liked to see. I do like the cast. But the good thing about there being a few O'Gs is for the first time, I think in a really long time, if ever, you get to see what the Big Brother people feel like coming into the MTV show, the flagship, if you will. So you kind of get, that's what we're learning and we're seeing secondhand through,

you know, Johnny, Wes, Corey, Amanda, Tori, and John A is what these Big Brother and Survivor people have experienced coming out of the challenge, the flagship program for the first time, like, everyone's against you, your backs against the wall, let's see who lasts the longest. That's a great point. For the first time, you're the outsider. Yeah, you're the out. You don't, like, you don't, you can't, you can't run the show. You, like, if they run the show here, then

it'll prove that the challenge is the greatest competition show of all time, and the players on the challenge are the greatest, because this is a, they were, this is a, this is a lot to deal with. Right, it is. And it, although it is their game, you know, it is the challengers game, it's something they've been playing for a while, they are vastly outnumbered. Right. And if they're able to continue to make alliances and influence the group, it's going to show a lot about, you know, the mental, the mental wherewith

all of these other challengers. Yeah. There's no way you let six people come in and run your program. Like, that's tough. And they started with 24. You're talking about, you know, a quarter of the group. It's kind of crazy. So six of 24. I'm still pulling for the OGs. though. Yeah, I think, you know, we might get lucky and have one of them make it make it to the final round, to the final. But, you know, there's a lot, the odds are not in their favor. And after watching two episodes, we know, you know, they might lose one. So we'll get right into it. They take us to the yacht. First thought I have here, Pauly coming in looking like a rock star. He's got the multicard hair. That was the first thing I thought about when I saw this. I'm like,

dude, and this is terrible because this is so hypocritical in me and it's poetic. It's, it's, it's, just so funny, but like the fashion of the opening scene, I don't fit it anymore because I was like a t-shirt and shorts guy, hoodie and sweatshirt and I mean, you got Pauly wearing roadkill. He looks like Mark McGrath had a baby with Cisco and Pauley's

what came out. He's got, he stole all of Lenny Kravitz's jewelry. Yeah, that's like that. That's Cravitz. The thumbs rings and the gym. Yeah. Just but wearing roadkill. And then, so yeah, no. But here's the thing, like that opening scene, you know everyone's going to see that

outfit. And I used to get my fashion sense from Adam Sandler. Yeah. Throw me a t-shirt, some shorts, and I'll be fine. You know, I'll wear a hat, hide my terrible haircut, whatever it's got to be. But they're really showing out. I mean, you see freaking Fessie looks like he's about to go skiing in the Alps. Yeah, man. Fessie. Fessie looks like he's going to freaking veil. You know what I? Yeah. He's about to go skiing. You do Alps for sure. Then you have, even West spifted it up. Like, I think he even wore like a nice little spiffies Canadian tuxedo. Yeah. Coming in on the, uh, the jet ski. Johnny always looks like a rock star from fucking Nickelback.

He does. You know what I'm saying? He kills that. And then my next thing is like, do you think Josh has a stylist? I would guess so. Okay, well, if he has one before he went on this season, he's like, listen, buddy, episode one I want dumb and dumber with a little Miami vice cocaine. He literally wore, he came in wearing a powder blue leisure suit.

And then it goes to his interview and he's wearing a hot, orange leisure suit. And I'm thinking, does he realize what he just did? The Harry and Lloyd. He literally just took the dumb and dumber banquet scene outfit and wore in the same episode. He literally blew his fashion load all over the first episode. Like, what can you do from there? You literally went Miami Vice, mixed with dumb and dumber. Where do you go from there? You can't go. Like, I thought I was spiffy when I would bust out a Hawaiian shirt. That's hilarious. When the braids on your head are the least loud thing that you're wearing, you're making a Josh came in so hot.

Miami Vice Dumb and Dumber. I will literally, like, you got to give it to him for that. Yeah. I would have saved one of them. What do you think of the no undershirt? What do you think of the no undershirt? The skin's showing. I think Josh's trying to show off the new bod.

He said he was the healthiest he's ever been. I think he's been in the gym. I think he's just trying to show it off. Get off his back. Well, I hope. Get off Josh's back. He's trying to show off the new and improved body. Yeah.

Look, he looks slim. He looks like he's, you know, ready to physically performing these challenges. I haven't seen it. in these first two episodes. But, you know, I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it, Josh. You talk this big game. Josh, brother.

You wait until Josh is in the, dude, that guy can swim like a freaking boat. Good luck. Good luck. That guy can swim like a pontoon boat. Well, he couldn't, he couldn't hold on to the stick in the second part of the episode. Hey now. As my boys on the I Don't Make the Rules Podcasts will say, that's a pause right there. But yeah, so John, real quick, back to Pauley.

You know, he's a guy that has a lot of character, an awesome competitor, definitely in shape. But I'm thinking what everyone else is thinking, which is this guy, he'll never feel validated until he wins a ring. I don't think anyone really will feel truly validated until they win a ring. I think Corey does for some reason. You know, here's the thing. Corey is one of the, I mean, so I can't speak. to Survivor, a lot of the Survivor people and a lot of the Amazing Race, I've never watched Survivor. Neither have I.

I've watched a little bit of Big Brother because, like, when I know someone on a show, I can watch it because I can feel like I get connected. But if I don't know you and I can't, if the first episode doesn't grab me, I'm not going to watch it. I'm sorry, but Survivor and Amazing Race, I tried. I watched like the first episode of a couple of seasons of each and I was like, nope, can't do it. I can't even do it. Yeah. But I will say, Corey and Fessi are the two best all-around athletes on the show at this point. That's a big statement.

No, no, they definitely are. From what I've seen, and from my know, I can't speak to a lot of these guys. I haven't seen enough of them. But I will say, Corey and Fessi, in my opinion, are two of the best all-round athletes, meaning they have quickness, they have agility, they are explosive. Are you not over-ranking strength? No, I'm not over-ranking strength because Corey's finished. He's finished finals.

If you finish a final and you're standing and smiling and talking, you do have endurance. Good point. The only weakness that Corey has is puzzles, and he's getting better at him. So the other thing is he's from Grand Rapids. And did you watch his boxing match? No, I didn't. He was completely outsized. The guy was longer than him.

And while Corey was attacking this dude, the whole match. And while a lot of his moves, like his moves were like refined, like boxing moves, a lot of what he brought to the ring, he learned from, fucking Grand Rapids, Michigan. Yeah, Bled backyard, bro. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm, those two would be my guys who I think are the best all-round athletes.

And I only give Fessie the nod over Corey because I know Fessie can do puzzles. However, Corey can eat. Corey will put that stuff down. That is a big deal. For those of you who've watched some of our previous podcast, you're talking to a challenger, he always puts an emphasis on eating because he knows that's where time is made up in the challenge. It's the worst, dude. Yeah.

It is the worst. Like, it's terrible. I respect it so much more because of how much you put an emphasis on it because I know it must be such a big impact in these finals. If you can eat and there is like if you go to a final and there's no eating, like thank your lucky stars. But if there is and you kill it, it's going to give you a huge advantage. It's the only reason why Hunter and Ashley probably won. Yeah. I'm a reckoning is because Hunter just put it down.

Yeah. So that's my point is I, but I will stand by this before it starts. They're not necessarily. Listen, this is Fessie's game to lose. Wow. He's got people on both sides. Wow. Zach's wasting no time.

He's got people on both sides. Yep. Good point. With the Big Brother side and the champ side. He's the biggest best all-around athlete. He's good at puzzles. And he killed, listen, the guy kills every mini final. Yeah.

He can move, wait. He can run and carry weight. The guy is a monster. He's my choice right now. If I had to put money on someone winning, it'd be him. Okay. And the only thing that would screw that is if there's eating.

That doesn't mean that I don't want Johnny or West to win. Okay, fair enough. Well, we are going to do a little draft here in a little bit. At that point, I'll make my final thing. Who you want to win, who you think to win are completely different things. Of course. But I really want to see an OG win. Yeah.

It doesn't matter who it is. Obviously, it'd be cool if it was Corey because it'd be his first. But I also want an old head to win because, like, those guys are 39 and 41. Yeah, they're, you know, you got that special, you know, connection. And if they win, we're still better. Yeah, fair enough. I don't know if I'm going to pick a veteran or not. I mean, the odds would be tell me not to do so.

The odds would tell me to pick someone from a big brother, from an amazing race, especially since they have the numbers, especially Big Brother people. But we'll get to that when we do a little draft. If you're going to pick someone from CVS besides Fessie, you got to pick Survivor. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. There's a one big brother guy that I like, but we'll see. So one final thought on Polly. I just want to say this.

It's got to be hard, essentially waking up next to the competitor that you haven't proven to be yet. I'm sorry, I just have to say it. Carr is so awesome. Car is so awesome. And every day when you wake up and you, you know what I'm saying? You give her a hug and you love her. And I'm sure he's proud of her. But I'm sorry, he's done what you have failed to do over and over and over again.

Okay. But how many cracks? She's had a lot more swings at it. She has. She has. She has. The kid's been on three challenges. Okay.

He's made it to the final. of, or maybe more than that, let's see. He did Final Reckoning and then the World of the Worlds, right? Yeah. And he was in two or three finals. Yeah, he has. Like I said, I'm not a historian. The season that I've seen, you talk all this talk, you act like you're

the big, bad wolf, and you can't get the job done. Pull me wrong, bro. Pauli's Achilles' heel is his pride and power. When he gets power, he completely loses his shit. You saw it. You saw it in... No, you saw it in Big Brother.

Yeah. Oh, I didn't. He ran the house for like the first half of the show. And he just, he just, he knew it. He was the man there. He won like all the physical comps. And that eventually people were like, dude, you're too good at this. Get the fuck out of here. Yeah.

I got him out. Now, War of the Worlds won. Had a lot of power. Didn't make it to the final. War of the Worlds two. Had all the power. Literally had everyone. I was like, because you weren't going for him.

No, I'm not going to go. Because I wanted to run the final. Yeah. And by the time it got to a point, like, listen, I wanted the final to be like, Me, Nani, Jordan, Tori, Kara, Pauley, Cam, Leroy, if we could. And that, to me, I didn't want Ninja there. I didn't really want, I mean, but here's the thing. It's like, there was a lot of people that could have ran that final.

We could have been great. We couldn't, we actually could have not lost a single. If we would have just stayed together to a team, our entire team minus Faith would have made it to the final there. But Pauley just, they got the power and they just were like, hey, if you disagree with us, you're out of here. That's why I was like, hey. Let me just sit on this fence.

Let me skate. Yeah, let me skate. Yeah, let me skate. And we know how that turned out, but, hey, Pauley, you got a believer over here. You're going to have to make one out of me. I'll just say that. They go through the rest of the, I'm just saying. We'll go through the rest.

They go through the rest of the challengers. They're Sebastian. Josh, of course, we know. Dusty, Luis, Luis, Chris. And then they let us know that there's going to be one women winner. one man winner, one male winner. How do you think this changes your mindset going into it? So far, just knowing that there's a winner on each side.

Rather than one only. I mean, not much. Not much at this point. It doesn't do much because it's like, listen, you go into these things, there's 30 people and in your head you're thinking, how the hell am I going to get to the end of this? Yeah. You know, so like them saying there's two winners,

I'm like, all right, cool. At least I won't get beaten a puzzle at the very end by someone and lose a chance at winning a ton of money. Right. So that doesn't change my opinion. What I need to know is when you see the voting structure and the structure of the game, like, this one, three big teams. Yeah.

I like teams because you can hide on a team. And more than likely, if you're good, people are on your team are going to try to keep you there because they want to win. And then if you have connections, people on other teams are going to be like, hey, he's cool. But they also don't want the repercussions. So I like the big teams for my game personally. Gotcha. It keeps you, you, dude, listen. I could write, dude, I could ride a fence for a solid season.

I would stay out of elimination for a long time, longer time with teams than when it gets individual. Well, you do a really good job in team situations because no one wants to face you in a final and you're not making them want you out of there. You know what I mean? So like if you're not putting yourself in a position where you're, you know, going for people

and also no one wants to see you in an elimination, you know, you're able to do that. And I think that's probably going to be Fessie. It seems like that's Fessi strategy so far. Dude. Some of the best parts of the episode we just got to say it are when Fessie's exes

are arguing or fighting and they zoom in on his face and he's just looking straight ahead because he knows there's half the cameras are on the fight and the other half of the cameras are on his face

and he'll just be staring straight ahead and that's why one of the reasons why you gotta love bananas on the show is because he's like Fassi get in here and handle your women dude. He, listen

I love those little quips those things in between scenes or exiting scenes. Those things kill me. And I would say Johnny Bananas does about 90% of them. Corey had a good one too. Remember, like they're in the room and they're arguing back and forth. Or they're, no, Tori's talking about like, I don't want to go in. But if I do go in, I'm going to come back in with all this vengeance.

And Tori's just like right before the scene cuts out, Tori's like, hell yeah. That kill, I don't know, for some reason, that kill be just like, it was like the most perfect. Like, hell yeah. It just was like, she's like, and if I come back, I'm raising hell. And he's like, hell yeah. Those things are what, like, kill me. I look for those things. Like, I love them.

And there was a few good ones. And you also, like, part of this challenge, too, is, like, if someone kills their interviews and they're just given, like, bomb one-liners, like, I want them to stay. And I'll tell you what, Johnny may have had one of the best analogies ever when we can talk about when you get there. But when Josh was on the stick, they're hung on the lollip. Yeah, give it to the mall. Johnny compared to him as a melting candle and he's a fit, dude. And then he looks over to the side and he just has this look of disgust on his face. I was like, that was literally like, that to me means more than like doing well on the challenge.

Like if you can literally make me laugh and want to watch that scene over, because they're cutting to Josh just absolutely melting on that thing, dude. And you saw his face, dude, his face was like, I'm going down. And Johnny just being like, you know, Josh is like a melted candle and just every second you're just watching them. and eventually just going to drip off and fall into the water. I was legit rolling. That was, to me, that was the best one-liner of any of the episodes. Yeah, that was hysterical.

But anyways, let's get back to where we're at. So we know where Paulie. So yeah, we know where Paulie. And then this is right before they introduced the hopper, right? And wait, wait, have they introduced like the OGs yet? No. Because we have to talk about this. Not yet, but we'll get into it.

So there's two fails on the first episode. And it was not by anyone on the cast. It was all by, it was just, all production. And my number one issue, no elimination round. Like, I want an elimination round. Unless there's a huge fight or something crazy happens, like someone gets voted off or kicked off or punched

them in the face. We, as fans, we need an elimination round. Did they not make it up for it by showing two in that next episode or no? They did. Okay. They did, but like, I need to, dude, what would have been better? Having one and then two. Yeah. Now, the second one was, you want

these vets to be intimidating, right? Yeah, you'd hope so. Like, when they come in, you want them to look tough. Have you ever been intimidated by two dudes on a jet ski? Not coming from Michigan. We spent a lot of times on lakes. And anytime I see two dudes on jet skis, I'm like, weirdos. Have you ever been intimidated by a guy riding bitch to a girl on a jet ski? No, not a chance. No. And I'm sorry, this may be the most sexist thing I've said thus far.

If you're on a jet ski with a female, take the reins. I don't care if that's her grandpa's jet ski and you've met the guy five minutes ago and you hop down, you take the reins. That's my only issue with Corey this far this season. And then, like, I mean, obviously two girls on a jet ski. Like a lot of pornoes start that way. So like, whatever.

Like that's not a big deal. But like, again, CBS, spring for, what, three extra jet skis or drop them from the sky or something better than tandem jetsky. You can't afford three more jet skis. I think they could. And Corey, my man, come on. You know better than that. Man, you're from Michigan, bro.

Come on, you don't sit. You don't sit in the back seat and the saddle. And hold the strap. Yeah. Yeah. That was so fierce. No, you can CBS. Do better.

Be better. Be better than that. Do better. Be better. They're trying to make these guys come on the show. Maybe they weren't. Maybe they're trying to play them. But you want these people to come in and you want them to look intimidating.

Spring for three more, at least three more jet skis. Or bring them all in on one boat. Yeah. Then it's not as bad. But that to me, I was like, oh. Yeah. And pretending that it was a surprise. Come on now.

Are we five years old here? Yeah, Wes and Johnny just looks so stupid. I know. It's really, okay, let me ask you this. One of our mutual friends, Ms. Roxanne, not really your friend, but your admirer, remember Bennett mentioned it how she asked for the request and he had got you to say, hey, Roxanne. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So a friend of ours, she wanted to know what's your opinion on Wes.

And then I guess my question, in addition to that is like, is it weird? How him and bananas are, like, best friends now? It's like... No, because if Wes, West explained it perfectly, their family. Yeah. We're all, like, anyone, like, the challenge is a family. Yeah.

You may not like them, but at the end, like that's why I'm sitting here saying, like I want an OG to win because, like, I may not like half of them. I may not like someone, but if it's them against someone from CBS, I'm choosing them. Yeah.

And that's the thing is, like, it's dysfunctional. You don't always like each other. You sometimes hate each other, but you always have each other's backs in those situations. So, no, it's not weird to me. And also, like, I don't know, I just, it just makes sense here. Like, what are they going to do? Try to cannibalize each other while the rest of the house is going for them?

Like, it just makes sense. And that's the other thing is I always worry that one of them is going to cross the line and do something stupid. But, no, it doesn't weird me out at all. I feel like the Old West might have tried to infiltrate this team and, like, be like, yeah, you know, no one likes me. And let's kind of band together. but they're sticking together pretty publicly here. Oh, he has to. Yeah.

Yeah, no. What do I think about Wes? Wes is like an older brother to me in the show. He's pissed me off. He's done things that have screwed me over, taught me lessons at the same time. But, like, I love Wes, and he makes me laugh. Like, watching him try to plead his case sometimes, I'm like, dude, you make it sound so well, but everyone knows your full shit. He's such a smooth talker, man.

The way that he... I forgot what he said in the elimination, trying to get them not to vote in bananas, but it was, it was like so smooth. And they're just like, it was smooth. It was.

And I don't know if this. I almost bought it personally. I know it's West. I didn't buy it. I do like what. Wes with a beard to me is better than any other West we've ever had. Yeah, the Gandalf beard.

Yeah. Like your eyes. Yeah. No. Wes is like, Wes and Johnny are like just like the two creepy uncles of the group. Yeah. Totally.

You know, but for different reasons. Uh-huh. Okay. So we'll move on. So they show this hopper and they kind of know, as soon as we see it, we know that this is going to be a big part of the season, just because it's a crazy contraption here.

And, yeah, they bring in the vets, and then they kind of get going, letting us know that we're going to start picking teams right now, and the hopper is going to choose the captains. So tell me what you think about this hopper right off rip. I mean, there was a hopper. I mean, I don't know if it was a hopper last season. There wasn't.

There was, like, an algorithm. So what it does is it evens the playing field. field. And that's all that. To me, it just shows that it's going to even the playing field. Like if this is how we're going to pick the captains fine. I personally don't know if I mean, I wouldn't mind being a captain in this case. But like a lot of times, like I'm like, I don't want to be a captain. Like, leave me out of it. Yeah. You don't want to be a spotlight. Right. But Josh seemed fired up. The issue with Josh that he has is like his, like, Josh is just like a fire hydrant without the top. And any, and it's just like, the emotion just pours out.

If he's happy, it pours out. If he's upset, it pours out. Like, he has no ability to cap it and lock it and keep it in. Oh, and he had to give that toast. He had to give that toast. Guys, I'm so honored to be competing with you guys this vacation or this. I think Johnny was, like, happy to hand that over because, like, dude, it's got to be, it's just got to be a lot of pressure to have to write a speech every season.

I mean, so it's not a pressure for Josh. He was, he was ready for them. I will say Josh to my boy, but that one. All I heard out for that one was What, want, want, want, that was, you could tell he was nervous, too. He was like quivering. Yeah.

No, I mean, look, I guess I never, okay, you kind of put it in perspective to me. I guess it is kind of like a passing the torch type of thing where, where, and I guess that is kind of nice. I would never. I'm all set. I don't do that.

I'm good. Who else had some bad toast? There's been some bad ones before, but that one was rough. Yeah, it was just too eager, man. You got to play it cool. You got to play it cool. So back to the, he gets that first pick and he acts like he wins the lottery,

loses his mind. You haven't won a challenge. You haven't, I don't even think to this, to this exact moment. Is he on blue? No, he's on. He's red. He's red. Yeah.

Still haven't won a challenge guy. But he gets a first pick and he chooses John A over Tori. Interesting pick. Yeah. Okay, here's a thing. So Tori is a beast in every sense of the word. Her social game is sometimes a little messy. I think he's just a super fan of Johnny,

and I'll tell you, really happy to see what she's been able to accomplish on All-Stars. The only hesitation I would have is it's a lot easier to run finals against, like, you know, people who are in their, like, 40s, late 30s, than it is to do it against some of the people on the flagship. Now, I'm not going to take anything away from her because I think that what she has done in her life in general is incredible. I couldn't be happier for her.

She's in a great place. And she's got confidence out the roof. And that is really nice to see. I don't know if that would have been my first pick because I just, I don't know. See, but here's the other thing is he's, I think personally he picked her because she's almost like this, she can solve puzzles like as well, close to as well as CT. She's that type of competitor where she's got some of the physical stuff that you need, but she's also like really, really good.

She'll look at a puzzle and just get it. Yeah. It's unfair for me to hate the pick in retrospect, knowing what we know. I know you don't like the pick because I think you're looking at it like. A lot of people will be like, All-Star seems like a more fun, laid-back. a lot of the old timers coming back they don't work out like they used to where it's like the people on the flagship are still like

training like professional athletes type of thing so I get or I get both sides but also like the ability to she can run and she can solve puzzles and that's huge and it's not like you're losing much of anything else and she carries herself with confidence that's probably one of the reasons

now the confidence that she carries yourself with is, it's crazy, like, from where she came to what, you know, where she is now huge. So I get the pick. I wouldn't have made it. Yeah. I would have been, like, she would have been, like, a second or third round pick for me. Sure. But, um.

I would say this. Like, I would say this. As an objective opinion, there's no way that I'm taking anyone, anyone, anyone over Tori in a final, from that group. No. Right? There's other women. You can dislike her.

Yeah. And you can dislike her. like her sloppy gameplay sometimes, but you have to admit she is a shit brick house. As a person, as a, as her personal choices and the way that she does her relationship, whatever. I don't care about any of that. And she's not bad at puzzles either. That's the thing. She's a beast and she's good at almost everything.

Physically in that house, there's no one that can touch her. No, I will have to admit. You know who I think is going to be her biggest competition that she may have ever had is Desi. I'm glad you said that because I did fall in love with Desi in this episode. I know you did. You texted me and you tag me in that and I saw it and I think she responded. She did. She posted something that she was blushing, but then I found out she was engaged and I felt stupid.

Right. But see, I love you still. On USA1, she made it to the final and she got kicked, she got booted from the final in the first leg because her partner couldn't swim. I heard about that. And I do need to go back and watch that. I'm sorry, guys, I haven't. I will. And she dominated that entire season and then she got to the final and she killed the swim and he quit on her.

and I just want to like here's like a little PSA I'm not talking if you're a bad swimmer this dude had a life jacket on and panicked and said he couldn't catch his breath that he was gonna suffocate or something so here's my thing if you're that afraid of water by all means come on the challenge

so we can make fun of you but don't let yourself get to a final because you don't want to be the person who causes someone else to lose a chance at that money I've almost been that person and I can swim very well Thank you for enjoying the free portion of the Zach Nichols

podcast. If you'd like to watch or listen to the full unedited version Please be sure to join our Patreon at patreon.com slash Zach Nichols podcast. The link is in the description No matter if you're watching on YouTube listening on Apple podcast or Spotify She did that live on pop challenge.

Thank you so much and we hope you joined it twice. That to me like she's the I don't even think she's like the underdog here. I think she's the clear, because her alliances are better. She was on a season of the challenge already, so she's not intimidated by big

situations. Right. She wants it too because she got screwed that dude. Trust me. She's got the eye of the tiger. See, like, we didn't talk about this, guys, and like it's crazy that you're saying this, and I'm glad you told me about last season. Like I said, I do have to go back and watch because I am kind of behind on this. But

the confidence that she had in that nomination, guys, I really think for unbiased, I think Tori and Bananas are the best picks. And that's who we're picking, guys. And that confidence, not demanding, not by intimidation, by logic and strength. She has the confidence to take this game. Well, definitely.

But here's the other thing is the other thing that you might be thinking of is sometimes that if you were to lose, if you're on this team and you lose, sometimes that team votes for who's going in, which is why Josh picked Pauly. Right. Or maybe not. I don't know. Actually, that doesn't make sense because Pauley would vote for him. So I think a lot of people were straying away from bananas because they didn't want to have to play the mental game against him.

Like if he's on your team and you lose and you have to vote one of your teammates in, people didn't want to play the social game against him. So I was upset that he didn't get picked sooner. Like this is a seven-time winner. This is someone who has a legitimate argument at the best to ever do it. He's won the most, which gives him a leg up in that. And you're going to let him sit in the deck for that long. You're going to let the Joker, like that's, like, that's the wild card. Dude, that's a Trump card in a lot of situations.

And you're going to let him sit around for that long. That just shows me that either people don't think he has it anymore or people are afraid to have them on their team because they know that they'll go before him. Yeah. I was listening to, I think that's a great point. I was listening to the Challenge Fandom podcast for the first time. time, Rick, who is a co-ist for them. He's been super supportive since we started.

So I just wanted to see what they had to say. And they made, one of them made a great pick, a point, which was, once you hear there's one man and one woman winner, like, kind of stay away from that guy. Yeah, exactly. Why are you going to put the winningest guy on your team if there's one? But here's the thing you also have remember. When they say that there's one male and one female winner, that means that this team, this three big team situation is only going to last for so many weeks, episodes.

however you want to look at it. So, my opinion. Dope shirt, by the way. Oh, yeah, we got, Jenna bought me this from Outer Banks because I was, you know, I had my, we just actually went to the Outer Banks last week in North Carolina. Oh, it's awesome. Not because of the show, but because my sister reads a lot of Nicholas Sparks books. Oh.

And she's been going there for a couple of years now. She invited the whole family. And so Jenna's never want to turn down a vacay. Why not? So we went and, you know, sometimes it's a little awkward drinking in front of your in-laws. So, like, I know my brother-in-law, like, tips and toes around that and, like, might try to, like, maybe sneak a little vodka and just lemonade here and there. And, like, this is my family. Like, we're going to have some beers, bro.

Yeah, we're going to crack a few open. We were, listen, we were drunk and grownups. Yeah. And when we saw this shirt, we were like, dude, that's perfect. Now, what I will say is if you're looking for a great beach, go there. Don't go to the touristy park. Go to Hatteras. Go away from everyone.

And you're going to have about a football field where the. beach to yourself. But I will also say taking infocation with two kids under two is not relaxing. Yeah. It can't be. Not even at all. Not when you're driving. No. Well, yeah, we had to drive because flying in there was a little bit difficult. And we were just like, listen, let's just drive. Instantly, Jenna regretted that decision. I'm so scared to drive anywhere with her now because I thought she was going to like rip my head off because not because of me because the kids were out of control. Yeah. She took the wheel or no? She took the wheel? On the way there, she drove half. What a beast.

Barbie beast, guys. But that's because she didn't want to sit in the back with the kids and deal with them. Like, we couldn't get, like, it was just a mask. But anyways, Outer Bank's amazing. Let's go back to what we're talking about. Back to bananas, right? We were talking about how he was picked a little bit later. Bullshit.

Yeah. So that goes on. There are some other things in the draft, but we'll keep it going along. And then. Who's like your sleeper? Like, if you had to pick one person. Ooh, I love that. That was like, you're looking at.

And you're like, I think that they could do well, but I don't know. how like mine because mine if you say mine I'll be pissed go Tyler from Big Brother Tyler okay all right not my pick Nope I got Chris from Survivor okay yeah no listen Survivor people are good but here's the thing

I watched a little I watched a lot of that season of Big Brother yeah and Tyler had he was handing out deals like he was Oprah like you get a deal you get a deal you get a deal but ever he kept it low key he finally it finally caught out to him but I think that he won a lot of the comps too he was very good at

competition. So if he can see, but the challenge competitions are more physical. So he's got to prove to me that he can handle these competitions. Right. And he did make it across in the lollipop challenge. He did. But do you also kind of feel like he was watching like in sync when Justin Timberlake had like the ramen noodles on top of his head?

And yeah, I feel like he was like, yo, I want ramen noodle here, but I want to boil that ramen. Yep. You know, like it looks like he's trying to smuggle ramen out of prison all the time. He's a bra for sure. I think he said at some point he's like, y'all, this is like big brother. like yeah like very

actually I think he's from either north or South Carolina if I remember correctly listen I if he can keep that same social game and energy that he had from his first big brother season

not the all stars because kind of had a meltdown yeah and he's a comp beast here like I think he has a good shot because I also think he's going to fly into the radar and he's got a likable personality but yeah that would be my sleeper but I'm picking if I got a pick after I

and I'm seeing the teams I'm looking at them yep I'm picking Fessie to win Okay. I don't, he would be my third pick of who I want to win, probably fourth. I think I would want to see either one of the OGs win. I'd like to see Corey get a win. He deserves it. He's given the challenge a lot.

He's given MTV a lot. He has. But I would also think that Fessie, dude, this is your challenge to win, dude. Like, this is your soft toss. It's not saying it's going to be easy, but you got the OGs. You have your big brother people. You're a CBS kid. And your 65-240.

probably pound, like, one of the best all-around athletes to ever do the show. People always ask me, who wins in Hallbrough? I don't ever want to know. Yeah. I don't know. I don't want to know. I think nowadays, him, you know. And he got 10 years on him.

That's a lot of weird here. But also, he's, dude, 6-4-2-40 he can dunk. He's posted videos of him running routes, catching balls. Like, the kid is a freak athlete. He's playing, like, slam ball right now. He's, you know, on a professional, like, or not, was it? slam ball. It's on the trampolines. Oh yeah. I think it is. He's like the stopper, dude. He's like the defender, dude. This kid is a freak athlete. He wins all the, um, the, um, the mini finals every season he does.

This is his season to lose. Dude. If I had like, if I, if I, if I, if you could bet on this, like I would throw some cash on him. Well, um, we can. We can. We're going to do a little bit. We're going to do a little game. You ready? I'm going to tell you the rules. All right. Let's compete. All right. Um, so I want to play a little game where essentially we choose. Um, there's 11, 22 people left. Obviously we're doing this episode before. four or after episodes one and two where I got you a list of all the challengers here. Now there's 22 people left. We'll do a draft.

And the way that we're going to score it is however order that they go out, they get that point. So like if we had drafted Amira, she would have had one point. If we had drafted John A, she would have been worth two points. And the person with the highest points at the end of the season is going to win. So I'm going to give you the first pick. So if you want to pick Fessie, now's your chance. Well, yeah, I'm going to pick. I mean, I'm going to, you know what?

I can't do that because it's, you know, I'm not going to go outside of the family. Okay. So my first pick is going to be bananas. Okay. I like that. All right. For my first pick, I'm going to take, I'm going to take Corey. How about that?

All right. And I'll take Fessie. Okay. And then I'll bounce back with Wes. All right. Now I got to get smart. Mm-hmm. I'm definitely going to go for a Survivor guy.

Give me Chris from Survivor. Okay. Okay. Stole my pick. Wait, are we doing all guys and then all girls? No, you can pick whatever. Oh, shit. You want to switch your pick?

Yeah, I don't want Chris from Survivor. I want Desi. Okay, great. I'll take Chris here. All right, then I'll take Tori. Damn it. Okay. I'll take your guy, Pauly here.

All right, and then give me, give me Josh. You got Josh? Yeah, yeah. Have I taken Wes? Yeah, you got Wes. Okay, so you got Josh. I'm going to take. you got Josh, huh?

Mm-hmm. All right, give me um, give me Alyssa. Which one? Snyder. Oh, really? Yeah, I like her.

Maybe I just like her, but Let me see. There's a lot of women I like on the show. Well, you know, I got to, I can't get into that with you. I need someone, I need somebody single on this show, man. Do I already have fessie? Yeah, I got fussy. Yeah, you got fussy.

All right, I want, uh, now it gets kind of tricky. Give me. I'll take Tyler. Okay. You're going to go Tyler here. I'm going to go Cassidy. I'll go Michaela.

Give me Michelle. Oh, that was my next pick. Can't stand here, but that was my next pick. Give me the other Alyssa. You took Snyder. I'll take Lopez. Okay. I'll take Dusty.

Oh. Let's see. I'll take Seabass. Nice. He's a sleeper pick. He's a sleeper pick. a stage five clinger. Yeah.

Yeah. He is. All right. Listen, people, if someone ever tells you that they like you, like they're attracted to you very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much. And then they tell you, thank you. It means he likes your ass. It means he likes you.

But if all the response to that is thank you, run. You're getting friends on, my boy. Yeah. All right. I don't have a ton of options here. Give me. I heard she's from Detroit. My cousin, Sam, told me that.

Give me Tiffany. Give me Chris from Survivor. I think, didn't I take him? If you did? Yeah, I think I did. All right, then I'll take Monty. Okay, and then we just have a few left here. Wait, is that everybody?

No, there's still a few people. Oh, wait. I took Michaela. You took Olly. Yeah, he took Cassidy. No one took Louise. Oh, yeah. Okay, so left is Louise, Chanel, and Amanda.

All right. I know I'm ended up with it. I don't either. We can leave her out if we have to. No, I get it. I get her for my last pick. Okay. So wait, hold on.

Is it on me? Okay. I'm going to... There's Chanel. You said Chanel. So I get to pick Chanel or Louise. I'm going to take Louise and leave you with Chanel. Perfect.

Okay. All right, cool. We got the rosters. We'll be keeping track of that starting this next week. So good luck. Yeah. All right? So we got the team.

So then they're going to the first challenge, right? Yep. Thank you for enjoying the free portion of the Zach Nichols podcast. If you'd like to watch or listen to the full unedited version, please be sure to join our Patreon at patreon.com slash Zach Nichols Podcast. The link is in the description. No matter if you're watching on YouTube, listening on Apple Podcast, or Spotify, you can find it there.

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