New Jersey man gets another shot at reality TV fame

CBS has put together a new reality show that brings back contestants from previous CBS reality shows to battle for a $500,000 prize, and a New Jersey man is one of the competitors.

The show is called “Challenge: USA” and features 28 players who competed on shows like "Survivor," "Big Brother," "The Amazing Race" and "Love Island."

In the show, the contestants are given $1,000 to start their individual challenge accounts, and they quickly discover they must battle to keep and increase their handsome reward.

In each episode, an algorithm pairs contestants who will face off to earn money for their accounts by winning challenges or eliminating their opponents.

The point of using the algorithm to match up the contestants is that will mean random pairings so alliances will be harder to establish; alliances are a key to most of the other reality shows like "Survivor" and "Big Brother" (and maybe on "Love Island," but I don’t know, I’ve never seen it).

The New Jersey connection to "Challenge: USA" is contestant Enzo Palumbo of Bayonne who appeared on Big Brother 12 and Big Brother 22; he didn’t win either time.

Enzo is an insurance adjuster and I love his quote from BB 12 (it’s totally North Jersey):” I'm Italian and I already think I'm a celebrity.” His nickname is the Meow Meow.

Enzo Palumbo

His quote from the trailer of the Challenge: USA, “there’s no back door in; you get thrown in, you gotta win.”

The show will have a 90-minute premiere on July 6 on CBS before moving to its home on MTV for the rest of the run.

In addition to the $500,000 grand prize, the winner will also then go on to compete on the Challenge: Global Championship.

If you’re a fan of reality tv, you might recognize some of these contestants:

Tyson Apostol…four time Survivor player, winner of Season 27

Ben Driebergen….Survivor winner of Season 35

Sarah Lacina…winner of Survivor Season 34

Xavier Prather….Big Brother Season 23 winner

James Wallington….the Amazing Race Season 32 winner

Justine Ndiba….Love Island Season 2 winner

Like Enzo, the other Challenge contestants didn’t win the show they were on, but either did well enough or were popular enough to bring back.

The show’s trailer promises “extraordinary athleticism…..high octane drama…..”

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

You can now listen to Deminski & Doyle — On Demand! Hear New Jersey’s favorite afternoon radio show any day of the week. Download the Deminski & Doyle show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen right now.

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