‘The Challenge’: Big T Describes How She Navigated Being the House’s Target

During the first half of The Challenge: Battle of a New Champion, fan-favorite Tula “Big T” Fazakerley found herself in the hot seat. Alongside her good friend Melissa Reeves, Big T was targeted by the majority of the house and found herself in elimination three times. While she managed to secure two dominant wins against The Challenge: Australia and the reigning World Championship winner Kaz Crossley, she wasn’t able to pull out a third win against mercenary Kaycee Clark. In light of her elimination, Big T spoke with PopCulture.com to shed some insight into what was really going on during this season of The Challenge and shared her theory as to why she was targeted. 

When asked why she thinks that she and Melissa were targeted week after week, Big T said that it comes down to a couple of different factors. She said that she spoke with Challenge veterans who told her that being the “targeted person means that you’ve done the most amount of seasons, and apparently that’s what usually goes down.” Big T added that the large influx of competitors from Season 38 also played a part, saying, “They cemented those friendships and I noticed coming into the house, they seemed to have pre-made this giant alliance and little ‘ole me coming out of retirement coming from the UK [did] not made the cut to accept or be part of this.”

Big T has some ideas about why she was targeted, but she did find it hard to wrap her head around how certain cast members were treating her while this was going on. She said that she “felt genuinely very isolated” during the season. At one point, another member of the cast told her that they couldn’t hang out with her any longer because their alliance was starting not to trust them. 

“I just thought, that’s just nasty,” Big T said. “It’s one thing to play the game and to be in separate alliances, but it got to the point where I literally would have my tray for lunch and no one wanted to sit with me. I’d go to my room and just sit on my bed. If Melissa was away in an interview, I was literally alone on the bus. No one wanted to sit with me.” She went on to say that she confronted the cast to tell them to stop ostracizing her, adding, “I’m not a nasty person. Yes, you’ve been putting my name in, but I’m not taking it personally. The game’s the game. Let’s have fun outside of the game. And so, that’s why I just thought the vibe was very nasty.”

Big T reflected on how this was a much different vibe to experience than in seasons past. She explained that the vets in prior seasons were able to put the game aside so that they could still have fun. The reality star shared, “At least with the vets, they’re just like, Hey, I’m not working with you. I’m going to put you in, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s dance. Let me hear your story … And that’s an aspect that I love, not just about The Challenge, but doing a show, especially an international show. I want to get to know other people’s cultures. I want to get to know other people’s backgrounds, stories, experiences, and to not have the opportunity to really do that this season is very saddening for me.”

Despite being targeted and isolated from the very beginning, Battle for a New Champion was quite possibly Big T’s most dynamic season of The Challenge to date. Not only did she show the other competitors (and the viewers) what she’s made of from a physical standpoint, but she also came out during the season. Big T, noting that she does not necessarily love labels but would consider herself bisexual, said that she was blown away by the positive support that she received this season after sharing her story.

“I really want to take this moment to thank the fans, my friends, my family, because the response was overwhelmingly incredible. Because leading up to it, I was so scared. I was so scared what my family going to say,” she said. “And then so to have that amazing response, I didn’t expect it, and I didn’t expect to feel as happy and as wonderful as I did. And even now I’m beaming because it’s just such an amazing moment. And then I had some conversations with family members and they were really supportive, which I wasn’t expecting.”

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on MTV. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for Challenge coverage all throughout Season 39.