Rihanna Meets ‘The Challenge’ Cast in NYC

Rihanna is apparently a big fan of MTV’s The Challenge. She’s such a fan of the show that she recently met up with some of the cast members from the current season while in New York City. Josh Martinez, who appears on The Challenge and won Season 19 of Big Brother, even chronicled the meeting on Instagram.

The cast of The Challenge: Double Agents was in New York City on Thursday and Friday to film the reunion for Season 36, which is currently airing on Wednesday nights on MTV (multiple cast members noted on social media that they quarantined before filming the reunion in person). At some point, after they completed filming the reunion special, several members of the cast got to meet Rihanna. Based on a photo that Martinez posted on Instagram, he, Ashley Mitchell, and Big Brother alumni and current Challenge competitors Amber Borzotra and Kaycee Clark all got to pose for a photo with the “This Is What You Came For” singer. Additionally, several other Challenge-based fan accounts noted that Teen Mom OG‘s Cory Wharton also took a photo with Rihanna. (Martinez’s photo with Rihanna can be seen in the fifth image in the slideshow below.)

Rihanna’s meeting with The Challenge cast came shortly after Martinez appeared on the official podcast for the MTV series to describe how he and some of his castmates got to meet the singer on a previous occasion. The reality star explained on the podcast that he, Clark, and fellow Big Brother alum turned Challenge competitor Fessy Shafaat met Rihanna one day and she told them that she was a big fan of the show and, in particular, the Big Brother alliance. He said, per Heavy.com, “Long story short, we run into Rihanna in the city and it was me, Kaycee and Fessy, and she literally told us ‘can I be part of the Big Brother alliance?’ I almost fainted. I was like Rihanna, first of all, you know who I am? Second of all you’re asking to be in the alliance.”

“Guys she’s such a fan of the show and first of all she loves y’all she loves the show she says they [Rihanna and her boyfriend, A$AP Rocky] watch, they watch it every week,” Martinez continued. “And that was just such a sick experience to meet, like she’s a big time, and for her to watch our show, support it, love everything about it. She said she would love to do The Challenge.” The official Twitter account for The Challenge has implemented a few changes to reflect the fact that Rihanna is a fan of the show. They changed their display name to “Bad Girl TJ,” in reference to the show’s host, TJ Lavin, and the singer’s own Bad Girl Riri nickname. The account also posted a new header image that showcases how Rihanna follows cast members Clark and Kam Williams. Their Twitter bio currently reads, “The official Twitter account of MTV’s The Challenge and part time Rihanna stan account.” Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.