Jenny West is officially a Challenge champion! The Challenge: Total Madness was just her second season on the show, but she became the female winner after absolutely dominating the final challenge. A longtime veteran competitor, Johnny Bananas, was the male winner. However, Jenny finished first overall in the final — even beating Johnny and the THREE other guys who were left in the competition.
“I just can’t stop when it’s a competition,” Jenny admitted to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “I remember my heartbeat was near my max, but even though it was right at the max, I can’t stop or slow down. I knew I would be alright.” The final challenge required the contestants to ski and hike through the snow and freezing cold temperatures. Nine players started in the final, but three went home halfway through (Rogan was eliminated by Bananas, while Melissa and Bayleigh opted to quit). This meant that Kaycee was Jenny’s only other female competitor left by the second leg.
“When I crossed the finish line, I think Johnny was only a couple of minutes behind me,” Jenny recalled. “I saw him coming up the hill and I was shouting to him, ‘It’s the end, Johnny! You won!’ I could see the surprise on his face. Kaycee came in about 25 minutes after me, so I’d gotten a really good head start.” More from our interview with Jenny here:
On why she’s positive that Melissa didn’t know she was pregnant during the show: “She absolutely 100 percent did not know. She had no clue. She would’ve told me. We were really close by the end of it. And you could see the confusion on her face — she didn’t understand why she was finding it so difficult. On the hike to the house for the night [during the final], it was about a three hour hike, and she was the one slowing the whole thing down. It was a welcome rest for us, but she kept saying, ‘I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Usually my fitness is good.’ She must’ve said that ten times.
She even said that before the final that she was finding things harder than usual and she was more tired than usual. But she had no clue whatsoever. No one in their right mind would go on The Challenge while pregnant, so it’s disappointing to see those rumors out there. It’s really insensitive. She absolutely did not know she was pregnant.”
On why she felt so betrayed by Dee before eventually eliminating her: I really respect Dee as a competitor. Last season, I admired how loyal she was to her alliance. She’s beyond loyal and I thought she was someone I could trust. So we agreed that us strong girls should stick together this season. We were friends and we hung out the whole time in the bunker, and I really, really appreciated that friendship. So when I found out from Rogan hat she was thinking about putting me in, it was a massive shock. I was really surprised. She made me happy in there, which sounds really cheesy, but I remember having that feeling of making a friend for life.
But once I knew she was trying to get rid of me, I didn’t want to hang out with somebody like that. Even when she knew I found out, she tried to say she didn’t say it and that her actions speak louder than words. I couldn’t trust her and knew she’d try to target me again, and I didn’t think she deserved a chance to go to the final. So when I got picked as the house vote to go into elimination, and two of my closest friends, Kyle and Bananas, were in the tribunal, I knew they’d give me who I wanted [Dee].
So I don’t know why Dee was so happy for the house vote to go my way, knowing full well I would pick her. I never, ever went into an elimination excited, but I just knew there was only going to be one outcome. I’ve never felt so sure of anything in my life. It was all meant to work out the way it did because a lot of people didn’t want her in the final. A lot of people felt she didn’t deserve to be there.”
On what we didn’t see in the final: “At one point, Johnny and Fessy were in the lead of the whole pack. I was on my own and I could see them up ahead. As I got closer, Johnny got ahead of Fessy, and I eventually reached Fessy, but I couldn’t overtake him because the snow was only packed on one route. So if I went around him, I would go through six feet of snow. He was going slower than I wanted, but at the same time, it was a nice break. Eventually, Fessy was like, ‘Jenny I’m just gointg to move out of the way, I can feel you on my heels.’ I think the cardio got him, and the altitude is so thin, it made the breathing harder.”
On why fans shouldn’t downplay her win: “It doesn’t really matter how many people were there — as long as there’s one person to compete against, you’ve still got competition. Even if all the girls competed in the final, I still would’ve had to work as hard as I did. I didn’t work any less hard.”
On what really went down with Cory when he called her out for making empty promises: I pulled Cory into the tribunal on the first day, so he owed me a favor. When I needed to go into elimination the following week, he put me into elimination, so we were even. Then, when Dee was campaigning to get me into elimination, Cory was in power and I asked him to not put me in, and he didn’t. Even if he had, it wouldn’t have happened, because no one was saying my name, but he still didn’t and I recognize that. So there, I owe him a favor. So it was one favor that I owed him.
Then, when we had a losers elimination for the guys and it came to Cory and Kyle, Kyle was my friend, who was essentially my alliance, even though I hate that word. It was a difficult situation because I owed Cory a favor, but didn’t want to throw in my friend. I still knew Cory had the vote, and Kyle knew that Cory had a landslide. There was no way Kyle was going to get it. I even talked to Cory and said it’s a weird position to be in since Kyle’s my friend, and Cory actually said to me, ‘Jenny, it’s absolutely fine, I know I have the vote, say Kyle’s name if you don’t want to piss him off.’ So I said Kyle’s name.
In the edit, it looks like Cory was really annoyed at me for not saying his name, but he knew he had the vote anyway! If I said his name, we’d be even, so it’d be a waste of a favor [for him], since he already had the vote. It made it look like I threw him under the bus, but it really would’ve been a waste of a favor and he KNEW it. He wanted me to use [the favor] in times when it didn’t even count. It was absolutely blown completely out of proportion.”
On why she REALLY wanted to get her red skull right away and it having nothing to do with going against the ‘easiest’ girl: “As soon as TJ announced the red skull situation, all the girls were talking about how they were never going to let me go into an elimination. So I was like, they’re never going to pick me, and at that point, I had no idea I’d be in so many tribunals. It was only three days in and I knew most people wouldn’t risk going home three days in, so I knew if I had an opportunity of getting into an elimination, it was going to be the very first one. I just didn’t know if I’d get another shot. So, it happened to be against the ‘easiest’ girl, but it was scary!