Cast Members Wanted Paulie and Cara Maria Suspended from The Challenge… Allegedly

Current Challenge cast member Paulie Calafiore (virtually) sat down with Morgan Willett to film an episode of her Off the Rails podcast, and the two explored many different aspects of Paulie’s Challenge career. But of course, his story isn’t complete without talking about the gap between War of the Worlds 2 and USA 2.

There have been a lot of rumors surrounding the break that Paulie and Cara Maria took from the show, but while talking to Morgan, he stated he was prepared to appear on season 35 (eventually named Total Madness). However, about a week before that season started production, Paulie filmed the War of the Worlds 2 reunion.

While the cast was in London, Paulie had a lot of drama with other cast members. While there, it seemed like he was squaring up for a fight with Josh off set, but the altercation never happened. However, Paulie recalls other cast members filming videos of the incident.

While Paulie never received confirmation that this was the reason he didn’t get to compete on Total Madness, he was pulled from the cast after the incident — despite having signed the contract. However, the other people involved in the scuffle were not punished.

Paulie also revealed that there was no failed psych test, that was just a rumor. However, Morgan seemingly gave credence to the other major rumor: Cast members asked production not to invite Paulie and Cara Maria back. He believes cast members sent videos of his semi-fight to production and threatened not to do shows with Paulie and Cara.

Morgan thinks Paulie is “right on the money” with his assessment. Remember, she was dating Johnny Bananas during this time, so she might have been a fly on the wall for some conversations between cast members and producers… allegedly.

She might have heard a few conversations with producers — but she can’t confirm anything. Apparently producers told Paulie that no such conversations ever happened, but Morgan finds that suspicious, alluding to the fact that she witnessed these discussions.

Of course, Morgan can’t confirm anything because “that would be wrong.” But, she’s no longer “brainwashed,” so she might have a few more secrets to spill down the line. She did say that certain Challenge cast members are more or less the casting team, so she definitely has more information to unpack.