CT Pro Tip: Don’t show up to the Challenge out of shape.
Just kidding, that’s not a CT pro tip, because the 5-time champion showed up to this season in rough shape. Dad bod CT is back in full force, and he delivered an unimpressive showing on the Day Zero mountain trek.
In fact, CT came in last place throughout this challenge. At one point, he was shown meeting up with Aneesa, and they’re declared the last-place competitors. Unlike Aneesa, CT never passed anyone. He moseys into the house with Nia in dead last.
In CT’s defense, he said he wasn’t going to kill himself on this first challenge because he felt it wouldn’t really matter — and he was mostly right. It just determined the partner selection order, though he could have gotten a higher placement if he did better, but it’s not like he was sent home.
This was similar to the War of the Worlds draft, but it seems a mediocre performance wasn’t overlooked this season. On War of the Worlds, CT was the fourth veteran male selected; on Vets & New Threats CT was the last veteran male picked.
This meant he got partnered with Tay, who was the last-place female “New Threat.” While the mountain climb didn’t test every skill (at least, I don’t think it did, it’s not like we really saw it), CT & Tay are not looking very intimidating.
Dad bod CT might not look like a huge threat on the surface, but we can’t forget that CT won War of the Worlds 2 while he was out of shape (Champs vs. Stars 2, also, but no one counts that). In this case, CT’s outer appearance didn’t match his inner abilities, but CT did have to heavily rely on relationships and alliances to get to the end of War of the Worlds 2.
A couple years after War of the Worlds 2, CT started to get back into shape, and he won back-to-back seasons: Double Agents and Spies, Lies and Allies. On those seasons, he was strong and excelled in both finals.
CT’s War of the World 2 victory proved that he should never be discounted, but the leaner CT on Double Agents and Spies, Lies and Allies was clearly the superior competitor. So when dad bod CT returned for Battle of the Eras, he struggled. CT still had moments of success, but when he couldn’t hide behind his alliances, viewers saw that he wasn’t as strong as he once was.
We also can’t forget why CT went slow on the mountain climb challenge on Vets & New Threats: He didn’t want to hurt his back. He irritated his back on Battle of the Eras when he fell into the water during the trivia challenge, and it slowed his stride that season. It seems CT’s age is catching up to him, which is unavoidable, but being out of shape isn’t going to help him win season 41. We saw this on episode 1 where CT was simply fighting not to get last place.
I would never count CT out, but I’m also not betting on him winning this season. Coming in last place and being the last veteran male picked is not a good look. This is uncharacteristic of CT, and it proves that other competitors are noticing that he’s not performing as well as he did in the past.
Then again, last time CT defaulted onto a team (as a reinforcement on War of the Worlds 2), he won the season. This could be an unexpected stroke of luck that helps him win Vets & New Threats.
Stop Being Polite 