Johnny Bananas SaysThe ChallengeAnonymous Fan Accounts Are 'the Real Culprits' of Starting Show Drama (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio at the premiere of ‘Jay & Silent Bob Reboot’ at the TCL Chinese Theatre in October 2019 in Los Angeles.Photo:Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

WhenThe Challengeoriginated asRoad Rules: All Starsin 1998, the competitors couldn’t have imagined a world where they stayed in touch with one another and shared their lives with fans year-round online.

“It’s a year-round spectacle,”Johnny “Bananas” Devenanziotells PEOPLE in a joint interview withAneesa Ferreira. “Didn’t used to be. It used to be like, you do a show, you don’t see each other for however many months, occasionally a Twitter beef would pop up here and there, people would talk it. Social media’s definitely changed the game. But it makes it entertaining, gives the fans something to do in between [seasons].”

Over the years, anonymous fan accounts have popped up to share all the receipts from any contestant quarrels that may play out on social media. And sometimes, these accounts add fuel to the fire. Devenanzio, 42, calls the fan accounts “the real culprits” behind a lot of the show’s tension.

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Ferreira, 42, tells PEOPLE that the social media element makes competing onThe Challenge“a little bit trickier.”

“Before, you did the show and you guys don’t talk on the off-season, really,” says Ferreira, who will be looking for her first win onThe Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras. “So if you hated somebody, the beef continued. There was no make-ups, there wasn’t anything until you saw each other again. You have more access to people now.”

Aneesa Ferreira at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the New York Hilton Midtown in May 2019 in New York City.Jim Spellman/WireImage

Jim Spellman/WireImage

“As someone who hosts the official podcast, unfortunately and fortunately, it puts kind of a target [on you],” Ferreira says. “We have to talk about this in a very unbiased but still entertaining way. It’s hard, because you think people are judging you and also the friendships that develop outside of the house, you go in the house, and then all of a sudden you guys aren’t friends. It’s very weird how that can happen.”

Devenanzio says he’s “run into the same problem” as Ferreira as the host of theDeath, Taxes and Bananaspodcast.

“I’ll have somebody on and whoever the person is that’s my guest, they’re going to have their opinions about another person,” theReal World: Key Westalum says. “I try and stay as neutral as I can, but sometimes I can’t. And then that turns into something that I got people pissed off at me. So it’s like a double-edged sword.”

At the end of the day, though, Devenanzio thinks the antics that unfold online between seasons only help fuel interest inThe Challenge.

“People don’t watch NASCAR to watch cars go around in a circle, they watch NASCAR to watch the crash. And it’s the same reason people watchThe Challenge,” he says. “People watchThe Challengefor the fights and the flare-ups and the drama. People have their sides and they choose who they want to root for and who they want to root against. I think it’s a good and a bad thing.”

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source: people.com