After announcing his retirement from MTV’s The Challenge, Wes Bergmann has taken on a new role in the second season of House of Villains. Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, the three-time champion shared his feelings about stepping away from the franchise and his experiences on the new show.
“There was a 10 times difference in time commitments,” Bergmann, 40, explained. “On House of Villains, I could show up fat and dumb and out of shape and do just fine. Whereas on The Challenge, I have to train for six months, leave the country, and check into prison for three months.”
Bergmann relished the lighter atmosphere on House of Villains, where he enjoyed mingling with castmates from various reality shows, including Teresa Giudice (The Real Housewives of New Jersey) and Tiffany “New York” Pollard (Flavor of Love). “I could tell right away that I was going to be friends with Safaree,” he said, adding that their interactions were more about forming friendships than strategy in the early stages of the competition.
So far, his approach has kept him off the Hit List. In the season premiere on October 9, the Supervillain of the Week, Safaree, nominated Kandy Muse, Victoria Larson, and Larissa Lima for elimination. “I was collecting data at the beginning of the game,” Bergmann noted, referencing conversations with House of Villains season 1 finalist Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio.
Despite his departure from The Challenge, Bergmann admitted to feeling a bit of FOMO while watching the current season, The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras. “I’m going to be The Challenge’s biggest cheerleader,” he stated. “But getting to do different things with very different types of people checks off more of my bucket list than what would’ve amounted to my 22nd or 23rd season. There was starting to be a law of diminishing returns of what I was getting out of The Challenge.”
Bergmann expressed that several of his Challenge colleagues would thrive in the House of Villains environment, specifically mentioning Ashley Mitchell, Amanda Garcia, and Devin Walker. However, he remains noncommittal about participating in The Challenge: All Stars, noting that while the filming commitment might be shorter, the challenges remain just as demanding.
“Everyone likes to say, ‘Oh, go do All Stars. This is the easy version.’ Those are just as hard!” he remarked, emphasizing that the rigorous demands of the show continue regardless of the format.
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