Many of The Challenge fans consider Chris “CT” Tamburello either the greatest competitor of all time on MTV’s show, or at least one of the top three all-time greats.
CT, 45, won five seasons of the competition series, including wins on Double Agents and Spies, Lies & Allies, which were his two most recent.
However, his appearances in recent seasons, including Season 40, also known as Battle of the Eras, and Season 41, also known as Vets and New Threats, have featured a lesser version of The Challenge great.
He’s shown up looking out of shape for the competition and has struggled to perform well in various daily challenges.
In a recent Season 41 episode, he had trouble climbing up various objects for water challenges, suggesting he may be past his prime. That resulted in some castmates feeling that CT intentionally messed up in a daily challenge to automatically put his teammate, rookie Leka Sodade, into elimination.
Various rookies rallied behind a “Justice for Leka” cause, giving them a sound reason to put CT into a recent elimination. However, one of CT’s former castmates recently came to his defense, blasting the critics.
The Challenge alum calls for ‘Justice for CT’
During an episode of The Zach Nichols Podcast, Zach addressed the ongoing criticism about CT during Season 41 of The Challenge.
“I want you all to stop picking on my guy. Stop picking on CT, it’s pissing me off,” Zach said while discussing the show with his co-host, Pierre Bacall.
“If anyone’s gonna pick on him, it’s me! Leave him alone! Justice for Leka, my a**. Justice for CT,” he said, suggesting that phrase needs to be on a t-shirt.
Zach brought up Muhammad Ali, who many people consider the greatest boxer of all time.
“In the twilight of his career, guess what? He got his a** beat,” he said, adding, “They may have said, ‘He doesn’t have it anymore,’ but nobody treated him like this.”
He called CT “The Muhammad Ali [or] the Babe Ruth” of The Challenge.
“The disrespect, I’m done with it, and if you have an issue with it, you can come talk to me about it,” Zach said during his fired-up rant.
“If you’re gonna talk s*** and disrespect him that, means you’re gonna have to talk s*** about Muhammad Ali, and that pisses me off even more,” Zach stated.
Various castmates called out CT’s performance in Season 41
The criticism towards CT arrived from multiple rookies during Vets and New Threats. However, Turabi “Turbo” Camkiran also got involved in calling out his castmate’s performance.
During a discussion in The Challenge house’s kitchen, rookies Yeremi Hykel and Cedric Hodges were among those chatting with Turbo about CT.
They speculated that CT may have intentionally caused Leka to finish last overall, despite her hard work in the daily challenge, to compensate for CT’s poor performance.
Turbo seemed to agree with what his rookie castmates suggested, which caused a dramatic blowup between him and CT. When CT tried to apologize, Turbo showed no interest in his offer to discuss the matter.
He then playfully trash-talked CT from the shore during another daily challenge involving climbing an object over the water. Turbo suggested that he seemed able to climb then, since he didn’t want to finish last on a men’s elimination day.
Turbo and CT appear to be on good terms since the filming of Season 41, but one has to wonder if there could be more fallout from all the CT drama when The Challenge presents its season reunion.
By the way, the recent criticism seems also to be fueling CT’s fire, as he recently shared a photo from a late-night gym session.
Fans might remember the “dad bod” version of CT in previous seasons of The Challenge, who still performed well. Just imagine how the all-time great might perform in another season after returning to his previous physical condition!
The Challenge: Vets and New Threats airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
