Amazon Prime is getting in on the reality game with its newest series, The GOAT. The new show sees reality TV alumni from The Bachelor, Big Brother, Love is Blind, and more, competing to become the greatest reality star of all time. In advance of the show’s May 9 premiere, PopCulture.com got to chat with several of the show’s stars, who were not afraid to tease the dramatic and competitive new game.
The GOAT sees reality TV alumni competing in a variety of challenges inspired by the reality genre itself. Every week, one contestant earns the title of “The GOAT” and the advantages that come with it, while another is eliminated. For The GOAT, which premieres on Thursday, May 9 on Amazon (the first episode is also available to view on YouTube here), PopCulture.com spoke with Bachelor Nation’s Tayshia Adams and Joe Amabile, RuPaul’s Drag Race star Justin Johnson (Alyssa Edwards), Shahs of Sunset alum Reza Farahan, FBoy Island star CJ Franco, The Circle‘s Joey Sasso, and Love is Blind alum Lauren Speed-Hamilton. Judging by what the cast had to say, fans are in for a wild ride with The GOAT. According to Joey, Lauren, and Tayshia, it’s a wild ride that they may not have been entirely prepared for.
As Tayshia explained, the cast was able to have a “really lighthearted” first day, but things soon shifted when the competition got underway. She said, “I don’t think I was prepared for that. That’s not my wheelhouse in any way, shape, or form. So it was a lot for me to adjust to. In fact, I’m still adjusting.” Lauren felt similarly, saying that she “wasn’t as deep into” the strategic side of the game in comparison to the Big Brother and Survivor alumni, and it was hard to adjust to the competitive nature of The GOAT.
Even though they were thrown into the deep end when it comes to the strategy side of things, Tayshia, Lauren, and Joey, who took part in The GOAT‘s press day together, were able to form a tight bond. Joey shared that unlike some of their fellow competitors, they went into the show “wanting to just have fun.” He continued, “And it’s no shade to anyone else, but that was not everyone else. A lot of people did come in with, ‘I got to win.’ All of us were just like, yo, what’s good? Let’s have some fun. Let’s chop it up. Let’s be competitive.”
The trio of Lauren, Tayshia, and Joey may have gotten along, but that wasn’t necessarily the case for others. As Justin (aka Alyssa Edwards) explained, it was a big shift going from RuPaul’s Drag Race to The GOAT. While he came onto the show ready to make connections and have a great time, others were more focused on the competition, which he quickly realized.
“When you are living with people, you are sleeping on a twin size, a half of a twin size bed, day in and day out. You’re having to mesh with different personalities, walks of life, and people, there are some that have been on serious competition shows like Big Brother and Survivor, so they have a full notebook of brackets and strategies,” Justin said. “And I think for someone like me, I was just very eager to be there. I felt like I was going away to a summer camp. I brought everybody little glasses and bandanas and fun stuff. And then I realized, whoa, there’s $200,000 up for grabs.”
Grappling with some of the show’s more serious competitors was something that Reza could also relate to. The Shahs of Sunset alum noted that he couldn’t connect with competitors like Da’Vonne Rogers, whom he said had “weird, like she needs this money energy.” But, the former Big Brother star wasn’t the only individual that Reza had tension with. Despite both coming from the Bravo universe, Reza and Real Housewives of New York alum Jill Zarin didn’t necessarily see eye-to-eye.
“Jill made me feel like I was back in a bazaar in Iran. She kept trying to hawk her wares and do Passover and act like GOAT Manor was her house,” Reza said. “Literally, she was acting like she acted on Below Deck, which was a huge turnoff to me, how she was treating the crew and production. So, although she and I had a relationship outside of the house and we were cool coming into the house, watching how she was treating the people that were making great TV for us and helping us be reality stars was no bueno. I literally was like, ‘Ooh, she’s Fugazi. I can’t mess with that.'”
There’s more drama where that came from when The GOAT premieres on Thursday, May 9 with three episodes on Amazon Prime and Freevee. To see more from our interview with the stars of The GOAT, check out PopCulture.com’s official YouTube channel.