‘Bachelorette’ Alum Daniel Maguire Calls ‘Ex on the Beach: Peak of Love’ the ‘Hardest’ Experience He’s Ever Had on TV (Exclusive)

For Daniel Maguire, filming Ex on the Beach: Peak of Love was less about finding a love connection than surviving living in the New Zealand villa with his fellow singles! Prior to the MTV spinoff’s Thursday premiere, Maguire revealed to PopCulture.com that making it through Peak of Love was way more difficult than his time on The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise and Million Dollar Matchmaker.

After learning he would be looking for connection with a bunch of his fellow housemates or their exes, Maguire admitted it wasn’t “realistic” for him to find love this time around. “I really respect the whole Bro Code, so I’m not gonna hit on my buddy’s ex,” he told PopCulture, adding, “Well, unless she’s the girl of my dream.”

Waiting for his ex to make her appearance was bad enough, but at 34, the Canada native felt totally out of place amid his much younger co-stars, most of whom wanted to party and stir up drama more than Maguire did.

“I felt like I was in high school or college, living in the dorms,” he explained. “It was definitely the hardest show I’ve ever filmed … being stuck in a house, it’s like being stuck in prison.”

“In the beginning, the fighting and the arguing to me was entertaining, but it got really old really quick,” he added. “I sometimes like to have my nose in the drama and be nearby, but I’m the type of person where I like to use words, and then words can sometimes get further than words.”

Not wanting to get kicked off the show due to a physical altercation, Maguire explained, “I don’t want things to escalate further, because I’m the type of person where I’m not afraid to throw down. So I don’t want to put myself in that kind of situation. …It’s hard to argue with stupid.”

Staying back from the drama and the fighting of the other couples as much as he could, Maguire assured Bachelor Nation fans that they’ll get to see some of his classic wordsmithing at work in the interview room.

“In interviews is when I kind of got my two cents in,” he told PopCulture.com. “A lot of people don’t understand everything I say. Pretty much everything I say, I’m messing around, I’m trolling or I’m being sarcastic.”

In the Ex on the Beach winter spinoff, the other singles looking for love among exes are RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Adore Delano, Georgia Steel from Love Island Season 4, La Demi Martinez of Glam Masters, Tyranny Todd of Are You the One?, Callum Izzard from Ibiza Weekender, American Idol alum Ryan Gallagher, Marlon Williams of The Real World, The Challenge alum Nicole Zanatta and former child star Allie DiMeco of The Naked Brothers Band.

Of course, the drama really comes when the exes enter the ski villa, and Peak of Love is no different. Included in this season’s list of exes are Love Island‘s Sam Bird and Niall Aslam, Temptation Island‘s Cameron Sikes and Carlos Chavez, The Real World’s Ashley Ceasar, The Challenge alum Jemmye Carroll and Laurel Stucky, as well as Jakk Maddox, Sydney Langston, Megan Nash, Magdalena Ruiz Todd Mauer, Paris Decaro, Trenton Clark, Tyler Ash and Emari Stevenson.

Ex on the Beach: Peak of Love premieres Thursday, Dec. 5 at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.

Photo credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images