So far, it feels like some teams on All Stars Rivals haven’t really gotten their moments to shine. Shane & Da’Vonne may be the biggest non-presence so far this season, but it also felt like Corey & Big T have flown under the radar. However, there was a major story line that was edited out of the show: Corey and Shane hooked up.
If you follow spoilers, this isn’t a huge surprise. Gamer told us about this while the show was filming, and if you’re a doubter, he confirmed the Aneesa and Sam hookup in the same Tweet. As we’ve seen, that hookup unfolded on camera.
After his elimination, Corey went on the Challenge Mania podcast, and he confirmed his entanglement with Shane is absolutely true. Corey said he and Shane got “really close, really fast.” (In the show’s timeline, it would have been around episode 1 or 2). Then, Shane said some “foul” things to Melissa, and there was a fall out.
Corey also spoke a little bit about how his relationship with Shane impacted the dynamics of the house. He felt many of his relationships were edited out of the show, and he wasn’t portrayed as having fun — but he had many friends and some rivals. Specifically, Katie & Veronica were targeting him & Big T, which is why he’d get frustrated when people burned their votes on him. Apparently, Shane was also working with Katie & Veronica to flip the house vote (presumably, Da’Vonne wouldn’t allow the team to vote for Corey & Big T, hence why Shane never actually voted for Corey).
We see this alluded to during episode 6 when Shane and Da’Vonne have a talk. Da’Vonne discusses the convoluted division in the house. Her side included people like Big T, Amber, and Nany while Shane had Veronica, Katie, Adam, Steve, Nicole, and Melissa.
Corey further revealed that he spoke with Frank and Shane prior to filming about working together to ensure they wouldn’t have a catty, stereotypical edit for gay men. While his relationship with Shane may have been more-than-friends for a while, then less-than-friends after their conflict, Corey and Frank got very close. This is why we see Frank and Shane calling each other untrustworthy during the Sundae Funday challenge on episode 5.
So, why didn’t we see this on the show?
Challenge Mania host Scott suspected that the story line may have been incomplete because Shane and Corey’s relationship began in the hotel, before the cast moved into the house. However, Corey said their interactions were filmed, so they could have made the story work.
Instead, Corey suspects that Shane had been off the show for a while and producers didn’t want him to have a story line that would make viewers hate him. Scott also asked if Shane’s interaction with Corey would have violated the show’s code of conduct (akin to Lauren or Ashley on Spies, Lies and Allies), and Corey gave a gray-area response. He doubts Shane intended to insult him based on his identity, but some of his comments may have had indirect implications based on our sociopolitical climate.
There’s also a rumor that this hookup could have had serious impacts on one cast member’s life outside the show (likely Shane’s) and production wanted to protect this person. This is an unconfirmed rumor, but this whole story is rooted in rumors, so I don’t want to omit this possibility.
I highly recommend listening to Corey on the Challenge Mania podcast for a more complete picture of what happened. However, Corey confesses he doesn’t want to reveal every single detail, which is understandable because this interaction is very personal and some statements are hurtful. But once again, viewers will never get a clear picture of this drama, because it’s just another juicy moment left on the cutting room floor.
UPDATE
Frank shared a response to Shane on Twitter. In the post, he calls Shane’s behavior during the Corey drama “insane.” This post should also serve as confirmation that these two are feuding.
Frank has further gone on to say that Shane denied the hook up and called Corey “aggressive,” which is the comment that could have different context based on racial and social demographics.
Stop Being Polite 