A ‘Challenge’ Competitor Is Furious With Production for the Way They Cast Women on the Show
MTV’s The Challenge is officially preparing for season 36, and fans can’t wait to see which competitors were called back for another go at the big bucks. While the show features many memorable moments and personalities, one ex-Challenge contestant is upset with how production casts women. Shane Landrum recently went off on his Instagram Story about the show’s casting choices. Here’s what he said.
Some competitors from MTV’s ‘The Challenge’ think the show is sexist
Fans have praised The Challenge in the past for its diversity. Over the years, production has worked hard to be inclusive with their cast — but there’s still been plenty of problematic behavior from certain cast members in the past. Ex-Challenge star Susie Meister spoke to Buzzfeed about her experience, and she noted that women were often treated poorly by others on the show.
“Think about it: The goal of the people there is to win money and, there’s no doubt about it, when you have a co-ed team, the women are going to be less helpful in completing the physical challenges than the men,” Meister noted. “So women are often seen as baggage and [that] bleeds over into our dormitory-style living where we are seen as disposable or nuisances, so that often creates a feeling of gender war.”
Meister also added that the men on the show “try to take your tops off in the pool or whatever, and there’s unlimited alcohol. It’s sort of like a breeding ground for bad behavior.”
Ex-competitor Shane Landrum shared his opinions of the show’s casting
It looks like Landrum is ready to expose MTV’s casting crew completely. He took to his Instagram Story on August 4 to share his thoughts and feelings about how MTV chooses the cast, and it was clear he was passionate about what was going down.
“Ya’ll, I never talk about The Challenge, but this is the sh*t that pisses me off. The strongest people on that show are the f*cking women, and this f*ggot here, we are the only people to ever stand up to the Johnny ‘Bananas’ [Devenanzio],” Landon explained. And he then went on to say that casting prefers to pick players who are going to follow Devenanzio, a seven-time Challenge champ, instead of stand up to him and take charge against him.
“They’d much rather cast a bunch of white males who want to get along with each other and win a bunch of money than cast some real motherf*cking b*tches who know what it is, who are there to make a TV show, and also win sh*t, gamble hard, win f*cking big.”
Landon didn’t stop there, either. He continued on his Story about how casting prefers women as “side pieces” to the men on the show, and they’re not given the same opportunities.
Fans are reacting to Landrum’s Instagram callout
Challenge fans seem to think Landrum’s outburst is unwarranted. While Landrum certainly brings some fiery energy to the show, some suspect he’s upset he didn’t get a callback for season 36. And others think his claims are simply unfounded.
“He’s complaining about the show casting too many white males even though he’s a white male and he kinda bullied Da’Vonne for literally no reason during their season together,” a Reddit user noted over the outburst. “He sounds like a bitter hypocrite.”
“The cast is the most diverse it’s ever been,” another mentioned. “Shane is just flat out lying at this point, and a lot of people seem to be eating it up.”
It looks like Landrum may have deleted his rant from his Instagram Story before it expired on its own, so we’re not sure if he’ll speak further on the issue. And we’ll have to wait and see if he’s invited back to the show in the future.
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