‘The Challenge: USA’ Champs Danny McCray and Sarah Lacina Break Down Their Historic Win and Reveal If They Would Compete on the MTV Flagship [EXCLUSIVE]
The Challenge: USA has officially crowned its champions for season 1 — Danny McCray and Sarah Lacina. After their historic win, Showbiz Cheat Sheet got the chance to talk to Danny and Sarah about their first Challenge experience. We talked about their willingness to be part of the show’s very first cast, their strategy for winning the $500,000 prize, and whether or not they would compete on the MTV flagship. Here’s what they had to say.
You guys went from the last two qualifying for the final to winning the final. Was that the strategy all along?
Sarah: Yeah. Danny and I talked about that most of the season. Like, Hey, man, let’s lose every challenge and turn it on at the end.
Danny: Listen, I’ve been watching The Challenge for a long time. And what I continue to tell people in the house was these daily challenges do not correlate to what is going to be happening in the final. So you find a way to get your money. And some of these people who are considered a beast in the daily challenges will not be considered a beast when they get to the finals. Our focus was just getting enough money to get to the final, no matter when it came. We knew we’d be able to prove ourselves once we got there.
Sarah: Yeah, I think you can ask anyone. I’d rather lose every daily challenge and win the final than win every daily challenge and lose the final.
So when you get the call (to be in ‘The Challenge: USA’ cast), was it an immediate yes?
Danny: For me, it wasn’t because I had just finished Survivor. I had a six-month-old when I left for Survivor. So when I got back and I was trying to spend that time with my daughter. So, I was like, ‘All right, are you going to really leave again?’ So I had to really close the door to talk to my wife, Kiki, make sure she gave me the okay to go. (SBC ‘Shout out Kiki‘)
Sarah: Oh, never heard of her (joking). Yeah. So for me, The Challenge always seemed like it would be more of my type of show over Survivor. I like to compete and whatnot. So definitely I was like, ‘Oh, this is awesome. I really want to do it.’
But I have a full-time job at home and thankfully they want me. I mean, they’ve let me play Survivor three times and how many times can I keep asking? So once I got the approval — my chief is great — He’s like, you know, we’ll support you in whatever you do. I’m like, All right, let’s do this.
So you make it to the final and you realize you’re with partners again. The algorithm’s back. What’s your immediate response?
Danny: Sarah, I’m sorry, I’m so glad Cashay is gone because look at what happened to Desi (she was partnered with Enzo who quit in the first leg, so she was disqualified too). That is what I was imagining happening. If Cash was my partner in the final, she would have quit. But it would have taken us way longer to get to the end if Cash would have been my partner. So I’m like, ‘Thank goodness the moves that we made ended up paying off.’ And we got a bunch of strong women living in the final, so you really can have a better choice of partner.
Sarah: Yeah, I would say it definitely worked out well for the guys. (everyone laughs, poor Desi) But now once they realize where I’m a partner, you know, it’s always scary because it can go one or two ways and it can either be a tremendous help or it can be a detriment. You know, it’s just it’s one of those things that you just have to work through. And I expected it. It happened. We got through it. So it’s all good.
How heartbreaking was it for you guys to watch Desi? She handled it with class.
Sarah: Yeah. A lot better than I would have.
Danny: It’s because me, Dom and Desi were working together for the entire day, and it was really just, hey, do whatever we can to get to the end. ‘Desi, you can prove yourself. I think you can really win this.’ And she really gave it all she had. And you see that she was prepared to go out there on the final and compete with the best.
I think it would have been her there [in the end]. And Angela probably competed for the number one spot. And just to see it be taken away from her like that, absolutely upset me. It upset me, and got me out of my game for a while just cause I know all the work that she put in to get to the final.
How bad were the onions and garlic? Would you ever rather it have been bull testicles?
Sarah: Cayla had maggot cheese on The Amazing Race, and she was, like, begging for maggot cheese. So I don’t know if I’ve never had bull testicles. Hopefully never will. But I would say that onion and garlic were pretty bad.
Danny: I think it’s more like what the onions and garlic does to your body versus how it tastes and like what it is, right? It messes with your taste buds. It messes with everything. Like you can’t taste anything, it’s burning when it comes through your pores for the rest of the day and you’re burping it and farting it and it is just it literally takes the toll on your entire body.
Now getting to the overnight part when Angela decided not to really compete. Were you guys shocked when she was eliminated? I mean, Sarah, your face was pretty good.
Sarah: No, I wasn’t shocked at all. And, you know, before every checkpoint, there’s a sign that tells you what your task is. And the sign literally says that you have to get the code at the bottom of the pole once you remove the dirt and then build it back up and release these two bags. And you had to have those bags to continue to the next stage. So, I mean, it was written right there. So, yeah, I didn’t expect her to be able to continue when it said you had to.
Danny: Yeah. Same here. I had it in my mind that she probably wasn’t going to be able to continue. And, you know, fortunately for us, it was like, hey, anybody who doesn’t continue the money goes back into the pot. So it was not like I wanted to convince her to go back.
Right. Well, and then how happy were you to see a sudoku?
Danny: I’ve never been so happy in my life. Never before in my Life. You practice on stuff and you never know when it’s going to come in handy. And that is one thing that I never thought I was going to have to use again. I hadn’t seen a Sudoku on the challenge before. I’m like, this is my chance. Now you know I did very good on all three puzzles. But I was very happy to see Sudoku.
Which actually knocked everybody out. Did you ever see that happening?
Danny: It was cold up there. It was cold out there. It was wet. It was rainy. So with Sudoku Tyson said, if you get it wrong the first time, you’ve got to start all the way over. There’s no way for you to figure out what one number you didn’t put in the correct place. So that’s in your mind. So now you have a process that you might be up there for another 35, 40 minutes. And I think that’s what got them.
So, Sarah, you look pretty refreshed and not tired when you were talking to T.J. at the end. Might that have been a little bit of a continuity problem?
Sarah: So, our clothing attire wasn’t the best. And they’re like, oh, you know, after we warmed up inside and got some hot fluids in us, they’re like, okay, we have to go out and shoot with T.J. And I’m like, ‘what am I going to put on?’ And they’re like that (her wet uniform), and I was like ‘no’! So l had the Dr.’s sweat pants on some random guy’s t-shirt. It’s amazing what some warm food and dry clothes will do for your appearance.
So now we know you guys are going to this international challenge competition, but would you guys compete on the flagship?
Danny: You know what? I used to say yes to this pretty quickly. Now I’m just not really sure. I think it depends on the format because the last few seasons they’ve been bringing all these OGs back, like true friends. And they make it kind of unfair for the new people to come on the show. Not something that I’m interested in doing. I would rather have a fair playing field.
Sarah: I would love to. It just depends. I have a family and a full-time job, so, I mean, that’s always going to come first. So I guess if that works out, I would definitely love to, but it’s all going to depend on timing for me.
I think what they should do is have a couple more seasons of ‘The Challenge: USA’ and then do an all-stars with USA VS OGs from the MTV version, That’d be fair.
Danny: I’m okay with it. I just want it to be fair. I’ve seen the OGs stick together and then just knock out all of the new people that come on the show. And I’m like, this is no fun. This is no fun.
The Challenge: USA Season 1 is now streaming on Paramount+.
