Reilly Smedley went out second on Big Brother 25. Three years later, she went out second on The Challenge: Cutthroat.
“I don’t know what this curse is,” she says. “All I’m saying is third time’s the charm, people.”
Reilly fell to Deb Chubb in “Line ‘Em Up” in the second episode of Season 42, the second Big Brother alum sent home in as many episodes after Cedric Hodges lost to Johnny “Bananas” DeVenanzio in the premiere. Her own captains, Cara Maria Sorbello and Josh Goldstein, put her up — a decision she’s still turning over, and one she argues had less to do with her ability than her size.
She’s also gone back and watched the elimination, which is its own particular kind of pain. There was a move she made that she shouldn’t have, and a rule about the sabotage ball she didn’t know she could use.
Below, Reilly talks about the second-boot curse, why she thinks her team wrote her off before she could show them anything, and the play she’d give anything to have back.
Gold Derby: You said you haven’t slept right in two years since your Big Brother exit, and now you’re second boot here too. How are you feeling right now?
Reilly Smedley: I have a lot of feelings right now. I’m handling this one better than I did my Big Brother experience, just because that was so intense and emotionally draining and awful, and it was my first time doing anything like this. I wanted it so bad. But I’m older now. I was 24, I’m 27 now. I view it differently.
When I got the call for The Challenge, I was like, hallelujah, the reality TV gods have blessed me with another chance to rewrite the narrative and prove to people what I’m made of. Give me a chance to rewrite the story. And boom — second boot again. I don’t know what this curse is. All I’m saying is third time’s the charm, people.
I was defeated and devastated after Big Brother. But this one, I looked back, I saw myself on the screen, and I was like, that’s not me. For personal reasons — I was dealing with stuff at home. I was not in the best mental or physical shape to go there and do what I had to do to be successful. I gave it my absolute all. I know I’m a beast. And I was so close in that elimination to winning.
I’m more motivated now than ever. Whether I get the callback or not, I’m going to bust my ass and prepare, because I am not letting second boot be my end of the story. It’s not going to happen. I will not allow it.
You were younger on Big Brother, and it was also live. With this one you at least had time to prepare before it aired.
The anticipation’s a little nuts. You can’t say anything or do anything or tell anyone or post anything.
I went into it with a different strategy. On Big Brother I went in guns blazing, came in hot as hell, won that first HOH, made enemies, made a big ass alliance, and played way too hard, and it bit me in the ass. So for this one I went back through all the details and thought about everything I’d done wrong. I’m like, I’m going to do it the opposite way. I want to work my way in socially, because social game means so much more in the Challenge house than the Big Brother house — these people have been there for years.
It didn’t show in the edit, but I really did spend a lot of time on my social game. I made sure I was making friends with people on the other teams. In a way I felt more comfortable with people on other teams than I did my own, which sucks.
Cara Maria and Josh put you up. At one point you said you wanted to rip people’s faces off. Talk about what you were feeling in that moment.
I went to bed the night before and asked Cara, hey, what’s it going to be? And she was like, probably [Alexis] Lete. And I was like, “okay.” Then I woke up in the morning to Anna Leigh [Wilson] smacking me on the leg. I was in the top bunk. She slapped my leg like, “It’s me and you, it’s me and you, Josh changed his mind.” I’m like, “Dude, come on.”
Obviously I’m not delusional. Look at me and put Lete beside me — she could eat me whole. I understand what he’s thinking. But I was literally like, “o”Okay guys, what are the competitions going to be, picking coconuts out of palm trees?” Just because I’m not the biggest person in the room does not mean I don’t offer mental skills. I have the memory of a literal freak.
That’s why I was so disappointed about the disqualification. They don’t show this in the edit, but we’re sitting there for three hours just waiting for our turn, strategizing and learning about each other. It’s a memory comp about our teammates. I’m sitting there like, I’ll go twice. We already lost Cedric. If it shakes out that I have to go up there twice, let me do it. I’m not afraid of heights, I’ve jumped out of planes. I have such a good memory, I can help in this competition. And when I got disqualified and everyone looked at me, I’m like, are you kidding me? I’m the last person you should be looking at.
And then the nomination.
I’m just like, you guys haven’t even seen enough. I haven’t had a chance to show you what I can do yet. And that’s so frustrating, because I felt the same way on Big Brother — except on Big Brother I actually did something. Here I didn’t even get to do anything yet.
A sequence of bad events, starting with Anna Leigh getting shafted and having all the rookies and the other teams being stacked. We already lose a person. We’re already down. Morale is low. We don’t have chemistry. Everyone’s fighting. And I’m just like, I actually can help.
My argument was this: isn’t the goal to put somebody in there with the intention of them coming back? Look at Lete — how is she going to lose? She’s a beast, she’s meant for this. I said, listen guys, I get it, we can’t lose Lete. But we have less of a chance of losing Lete than losing me in that arena, given our size. If you’re strictly gauging this on size and physical ability, then put our strongest soldier in. Give ourselves a better chance of having her come back.
You are treating me as if I’m disposable. You are okay with killing me off as opposed to somebody else because I’m not as big as them. And I was sitting there like, no one has any faith in me.
Talk about “Line ‘Em Up.” Cara Maria said she felt guilty because they were screaming at you. How much were you listening to people and how much were you in your own zone?
Physically I was in my own zone, which took away from my mental zone. Cara said it perfectly in her confessional — some eliminations you are just the motor, and your team, who has a better view of what you’re doing, can be the brain and the voice of reason.
I’m a rookie. I have so many things on my mind. Physically I’m exhausted, I’m about to throw up, I’m trying not to pass out and fall off this structure. The thing is the size of a house. And it’s funny, you see me in my interview throughout the episode looking disheveled and upset — that’s 1 a.m., after I’ve cried my eyes out. I have blood on me. I have dirt on me. I have 20 minutes to pull myself together and get in the interview seat.
I want to clear Cara’s name, because I love Cara. She reached out and said, “I feel terrible, I misled you and I did not mean to, I was genuinely trying to help.” And I was like, you did help me. So many things had to happen in order for me to get to that position of losing.
You said you rewatched it. What did you see?
You kind of black out during stuff like that. It’s so tolling that you don’t really remember what happened. T.J. [Lavin] asked me after, why did you make that last move? And I’m like, I don’t know, I don’t remember, T.J.
Then I watched it back and — oh my God. I did listen and put the purple ball on the blue stack. I don’t know why my brain didn’t compute that that was the wrong move in the moment. If I hadn’t done that, I probably would’ve maybe won.
And on top of that, the black ball rule. I remember asking the game makers beforehand, because they said every move you make is from the top of the structure — you cannot run your little booty down the stairs and put a ball under someone’s stack. So I locked down, everything from the top. I didn’t realize you could take the sabotage ball and put it under someone’s stack. Deb had already given me hers and I still had mine. If I’d sabotaged Deb, I would’ve given her 10 more steps to do, and I probably would’ve had a chance to win, if not definitely won.
Deb killed it, though. She did half of it without her shoes on. Deb absolutely deserved the win, she did amazing, and she proved people wrong that day. But deep down I’m like, so many things happened that I could have won. I’ve been living with that every day.
One word answer only: who did you want to win when you left?
Anna Leigh and Keanu Soto.
This interviewed has been edited for length and clarity.
‘The Challenge: Cutthroat’ season 42 cast photos: Meet MTV’s vets and new rookies
