The Truth About The Challenge Feud Between Johnny Bananas And Sarah Rice
When it comes to a cutthroat game like "The Challenge," sometimes you need to be sneaky in order to win. With 20 seasons and seven wins under his belt, Johnny Bananas has racked up plenty of enemies in his time on the show (via Us Weekly). The OG's biggest enemy of all might just be Sarah Rice, who was partnered with the star on "The Challenge: Rivals III." The two worked together all season long and eventually made their way to the finals, arm-in-arm. But when the time came, there was only one winner — Bananas.
Despite competing the entire season with Rice, Johnny Bananas decided to "take the money and run" at the end of his season (via The Ringer). It instantly became an iconic line on the show and made Johnny Bananas the first person to steal that much money from a partner. The move solidified him as a "bad boy" of the show and also made him the biggest winner with $682,793 in his pocket, per Rolling Stone.
The power move also means that he's made some enemies, Rice being at the very top of that list. In fact, Bananas taking the money hurt Rice so badly that she never returned to the show again. Needless to say, these two competitors have a rivalry that is just as big on-screen as it was off.
Johnny Bananas stole $275,000 from Sarah Rice
Here's a breakdown of why stealing the money hurt Sarah Rice so badly. In Season 28 of "The Challenge," Rice and Johnny Bananas were paired up because of their, well, rivalry against each other. The two managed to put aside their bad blood and work together extremely well all throughout the season (via MTV). Like always, there was a twist when it came to the finale. Not only were the pairs there to compete against each other, but the people in the pairs would be competing as well. The fastest person of the winning pair would get to choose whether they kept all the money for themselves or split it equally with their teammate.
Johnny Bananas ended up being the quickest between the two and kept all of the money for himself. In case you're not very good at math, that left Johnny Bananas with $275,000 and Rice with $0 (via Fox Sports). At that time, Rice was the first winner of "The Challenge" to go home with nothing. Four years later, Ashley Mitchell ended up also stealing the entire money pot from her partner, Hunter Bartfield (via Cheatsheet). Mitchell walked away with $1 million, while her partner got nothing. She might not have had the idea in her mind if Bananas hadn't paved the way a few years earlier.
Sarah Rice never came back to "The Challenge"
When it comes down to it, "The Challenge: Rivals III" was much more than just a loss for Sarah Rice. After walking away with nothing, she decided to walk away from the MTV show altogether. At the time of publication, Rice has yet to appear on another season of "The Challenge." She did, however, go on an episode of The Challenge Mania Podcast in August 2002 (via Cheatsheet). It's clear from the podcast that Rice is not friends with Johnny Bananas and won't be anytime soon.
Rice even mentions in the podcast that she should have thrown the finale so that neither of them could win. "But in that moment, I remember thinking, 'Sarah, you fool,'" she said on The Challenge Mania Podcast. "'You knew this was going to happen. Why didn't you just sit down right before the finish line?' That's like, I should've known."
No one can turn back time, but Johnny Bananas better hope that Rice doesn't return for another season of "The Challenge: Rivals."