Kiki McCray Is the Real Star of ‘The Challenge: USA’
The Challenge: USA featured popular vets from CBS shows reality shows competing in the competition for the first time. Vets from Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and Love Island made up the cast who were competing for the $500K prize. And, the winners of the show’s first season were Danny McCray and Sarah Lacina. But, the real star of The Challenge: USA Season 1 was Danny’s wife Kiki — and she didn’t even compete.
Kiki McCray says she’s been ‘represented accurately’ on ‘The Challenge: USA’
Kiki McCray has never appeared on The Challenge: USA. In fact, she’s never been in a single episode of reality TV. But, she became a “unique” fan favorite in season one thanks to her husband Danny’s never-ending mentions.
Every week, the former NFL player would mention “my wife Kiki” in his confessionals. And it happened so often, that fans started jokingly calling Danny “Kiki’s husband” on social media.
After being talked about non-stop all season, Kiki finally spoke up in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. And she revealed that the story of her has been “represented accurately” and “everything is true.”
“I am a ride or die for my husband, and I am a diehard Challenge superfan. I wouldn’t have agreed to Danny going on Survivor if he didn’t promise me that he was going to try to get on The Challenge next, so he’s now living my dream, and now Challenge fans know me, so I’m just freaking out. I’ve been getting nothing but positive responses and outpouring so it’s been great.”
Danny McCray’s wife is the real star of the show
Kiki admits that at first, she was surprised that she was getting so many mentions during Danny’s interviews. She thought, “Is this all you’re going to say?” because it was “pretty much the bulk of his TV time.” However, she was excited that her husband was “obviously so comfortable in sharing with the world just how obsessed he was with his wife — as he should be.”
“He’s setting the bar high. And now I have a lot of work to do. I have to shop less and do things to live up to this title he’s given me. But it’s been really fun. We go out for dinner or to different events with the [Dallas] Cowboys and people will recognize him, but then only want to take pictures with me,” Kiki revealed.
Everything about Kiki McCray was ‘fair game’ during her husband’s ‘The Challenge: USA’ confessionals
Kiki says that her favorite weekly mention was when Danny said “I can’t die or my wife Kiki would kill me.” She admits that he was “so right” and she was yelling at the TV. She noted that everything Danny has said has been true, and there was nothing about her that was off limits.
“It was all fair game. There were no rules or anything like that,” Kiki said. “People always ask me about Survivor because when it gets cold, they have to cuddle and all of those things, and I’ve just never really been a jealous spouse. I got thick skin in that department. I really just wanted him to focus on the game, both games when he was playing, and give it 100 percent his all.”
The Challenge: USA Season 1 is now streaming on Paramount+.
