Reality

‘The Challenge USA’: Chris and Desi Address If They’d Return to Defend Their Wins (Exclusive)

‘Survivor’ alums Chris Underwood and Desi Williams emerged as the winners of ‘The Challenge USA.’
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The second season of The Challenge USA officially crowned its winners. Survivor alums Chris Underwood and Desi Williams emerged victorious and $250,000 richer each. Both Chris and Desi had something to prove this time around, with the former wanting to prove that he was worthy of taking home the win on Survivor and the latter wanting redemption after the first season’s final outcome. Now that they’ve both walked away with a championship title under their belts, do they have any interest in returning to The Challenge USA to defend their wins? They both shared whether they’d be interested in coming back to the show during an interview with PopCulture.com. 

While Desi has appeared on both seasons of The Challenge USA, she’s “on the fence” about returning for a third time following her win. She explained that she’s hesitant about appearing on the show again because of all the sacrifices one has to make to simply appear on the show. Desi said, “It takes a lot of sacrifice to leave everything, drop everything, have no communication really for seven weeks and hope my business doesn’t fail and my relationship doesn’t crumble. There’s just a lot that you put at risk when going on the show, especially [for] someone like me and Chris who [have] businesses and have jobs that do rely on us.”

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The Pursuit of Glory
“The Pursuit of Glory” – The final eight competitors battle it out in a grueling two-day final challenge where only one man and one woman will have the chance to be crowned champions and split the $500,000 grand prize, on the season finale of THE CHALLENGE: USA, Thursday, Oct. 19 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*. TJ Lavin is the host. Pictured (L-R): Desi Williams and Chris Underwood. Photo by Jonne Roriz, courtesy of Paramount ©2023 Paramount, All Rights Reserved.

She went on to say that she’ll “never say never” to a return but that it would have to involve the “right timing.” As for Chris, he’s in a similar boat. Much like Desi, he noted that he has responsibilities back at home, including being a husband and father, that would take precedence over a return to the CBS series. 

“I mean, it takes a lot to leave, especially with where I’m at in life with a business and with a wife and a kid and things are good,” Chris explained. “It would have to be like this penultimate, epic season to say yes to. So, the chances of me coming back for USA Season 3 are very low, I would say.”

Chris and Desi were both able to walk away with $250,000 thanks to their dominant wins on Season 2 of The Challenge USA. Judging by their interest in potentially returning for another season of the reality competition series, it seems like they may just be going out on top. Fans can now watch their respective journeys on The Challenge USA, the full season of which is available to stream on Paramont+.