Dusty Harris Explains His Allegiance to the Veterans on 'The Challenge: USA' Season 2
The Challenge: USA season 2 is here! Every week, Parade.com will speak with the CBS reality alumni who were eliminated from the all-star competition.
When The Challenge: USA season 2 opened with six legends from the MTV series arriving into the game, many were understandably devastated. Dusty Harris, on the other hand, was thrilled. The Amazing Race finalist had spent decades watching the show and was delighted at the idea of playing alongside the people he grew up with. That passion not only maintained but even increased during his time in the game, as he developed a particular fondness for Johnny "Bananas" Devanazio, even penning a note to the seven-time vet for his elimination. Dusty's allegiance was most on display during the hot mess of the red team deliberation. Caught between voting for his fellow racer Luis Colon and vet Wes Bergmann, Dusty purposely threw his vote away, guaranteeing Luis' spot in elimination.
Of course, Dusty was no stranger to receiving votes himself. Coming in with some of the fewest connections on the cast and perceived as a "lay-up," he received votes at nearly every opportunity. The vets boasted about the havoc they caused with "Operation Hat Trick," but it seemed to rile their biggest supporter up the most, as he got into it with team member Tiffany Mitchell, accusing her of voting for him. Dusty copped many more votes the next round, part of a plan from nearly the entire house. Wes had gotten revenge from the blue team for going after him last episode, handily sending him into elimination. And people piled votes onto Dusty to guarantee a guy's match. The entire episode had led us to believe this was Wes's slow march down death row, one last lap for the three-time champ. But he went from emotionally breaking down in a pool of murky water to falling to his knees in shock, as he had bested Dusty and stayed his execution.
Now out of the game, Parade.com speaks with Dusty about when and how he fell in so tight with the veterans, his decision to get Luis sent into elimination, and what led him to accuse Tiffany of voting against him.
Related: Everything to Know About The Challenge: USA Season 2
To start, how many knots have you untied since leaving Croatia? [Laughs.]
Jesus, man! Between rocks and knots, it's the bain of my existence.
So to say you were a fan of The Challenge before coming on is an understatement. What was your reaction when you were asked to play on the show you've been such a fan of for so long?
Man, I had to pinch myself when I was approached to do that. So I received a message through Instagram. I literally blew it off, like, "Someone's messing with me, this can't be real." Communication kept coming through, and then I was like, "Okay, I actually have a chance to do this." And so when I realized that I was actually going to be on The Challenge, it was surreal. You hear a lot of the people that were on the cast talking about their dream shows they got to go on. And it's like, "Well, I'm doing mine now."
The Amazing Race, I was brought in because of Ryan, his story. I'm so blessed that I got to do it. And it's one of the best things ever happened to me. But this was the one where I was like, "This is what I want." And so for the chance to represent The Amazing Race, represent myself, and literally put myself to the test that I've watched, basically, the majority of my life, it was a dream come true. I can't put it into perspective.
Then, of all seasons to be on, six Challenge legends show up! The edit painted you as one of the biggest vet supporters among the rookies. Was that truly the case, and what made you decide to get so in league with them?
So the wave runners come in. What a way to bring in legends of The Challenge. I mean, you already have a target on your back, guys. How much bigger can we possibly make it than the wheel you six in on jet skis? [Laughs.] My first immediate thought was, "Oh, [expletive], this is gonna get interesting now. And I felt in my gut, I had a hunch something was coming. I was like, "There's not enough people here, there's gotta be some other twist." But it was never my intention.
My goal was to keep my nose in the ground as long as possible. With only two Amazing Race people coming into the season, I knew I was gonna have my work cut out for me. And when we ran into the house, everyone saw the room that I ended up being put in. So I'm on Team Red, and then I ended up in a room with Josh, Paulie, and Bananas. And so I'm pretty deep into the vet thing now, and I'm just trying to keep my wits about me, learn as much as I can for as long as I can. But eventually, in The Challenge house, the line is drawn. You have to make a decision, or you're gonna get picked off. That's just the nature of the beast.
So I didn't have an intention of running with vets; it just kind of happened. The longer that the process went on, there were two totem poles in my mind: The vet totem pole and the rookie alliance totem pole. I thought the vets had a better chance of doing some damage through the blue team and having the power to make decisions. I would rather be on a smaller totem pole at the bottom of it than a bigger one. Because God forbid, I felt like with Luis and I on the other side, it was just too easy to throw us in. No blood on anyone's hands if it had to happen. And so running into the house and turning right almost kind of made my bed for me, no pun intended. But the dungeon was a very, very interesting experience. But as a fan of the show, what more can you ask for? You walk into a room of these three, and the first thing I'm thinking is, "They're gonna kill each other in the middle of the night." [Laughs.]
That culminating moment to show your loyalty to the vets comes during that intense red deliberation, where you vote for Monte to avoid forcing a deadlock and sending Luis in. Luis certainly had some words about his thoughts on your decision when I spoke with him. What's your perspective?
So our deliberation; it's Team Red Flags' first win. I'm excited for all of two seconds, because immediately after we step off the podium when we're announced the winners, all hell breaks loose. And then it dawned on me, "Oh my god, now we have to put our names out there to put people up on this wall. [Expletive]'s getting real. This is it." So winning is not good. I hated it. To be honest. It was awful.
With deliberation, I don't want to get into too much [into] what doesn't happen. But Luis had told people on my team that he had made votes on them prior to this. And so, Josh, as you see, starting deliberation is on one. Basically, the words that you saw were the only words that I got out of the whole deliberation because it was chaos. We were willing to go into a draw with it. They didn't show [it], but I was willing. I was like, "At this point, we may as well just put ourselves in. Let's do a stalemate. And if we have to go, we have to go in."
And by this time, I had already said Monte, and I wasn't going to say another name. Because I could start seeing that the Survivor girls had something cooking. And I'm starting to think in the back of my mind, "I'm starting to get targeted by these guys." I think I'm too little too late at this point, but I was going to stick with what I had said. Doing it just made no sense to me whatsoever. I had already said Desi and already said Monte. There was no way I was gonna say another name to her so that could go back in the house and be brought against me as well. No one was changing their votes. They were steadfast that Luis was going, and there was no switching it. That bed was made. And I did what I could. And that deliberation was chaos. That was probably the worst experience of the whole thing. Man, it was nuts.
Speaking of votes, we have to get into what happened at the beginning of last episode. You're trying to figure out the four votes against you, and the people you accuse are all wrong (including Alyssa S., someone who couldn't even vote). It culminated in this argument with Tiffany. Talk me through what happened there.
Okay, so first, let me just say I apologized to Tiffany the next morning. It was not aired. But I did apologize to her. And I actually called her after everything wrapped up. I said, "First of all, Tiffany, at this moment, I definitely thought that they were out to get me, and I was heated, as you guys can see. But there is a certain way that you should communicate with people. And I do apologize for how I communicate with you, Tiffany, because yelling at you like that is not a good look." My temper is my Achilles heel. And it was my number one thing I wrote in my journal: If things get bad, walk away from the situation. I was actually trying to go outside to work out, and Tiffany came down the hallway. There was nowhere to go. And so I couldn't keep my mouth shut.
Prior to this, I had a conversation with Alyssa Lopez, where she was like, "Listen, if you don't vote for me, I'll keep three balls off of you." And in my mind. I'm thinking, "Okay, there's the Big Brother crew there. Tiffany's lumped into that. And so when the elimination happened, I thought I was catching a ball from Desi just because I had voted for her. We had a conversation like, "Fire it back. You got to do what you got to do." And so my thought was maybe one to two. But then, when I saw four balls, my first thought was, "Oh my god, the three balls that she said actually came and got me." At this point, Tiffany is on my team. And it's just it made me so mad. I have a good relationship with her at this time. We've worked well together in every competition; we've kind of been partnered together. And I just felt so betrayed. I've done everything to help you swimming, help you in the challenges. Then you go against me,
I just didn't give myself time to sit and think and analyze it. I took a swing, and I completely and utterly missed. I looked like a moron. It was a complete and utter buffoon move, and watching it, it's just eating crow. That's what I get for having such a temper and losing my cool. When you blow up in The Challenge house, you're gonna go in the sand. I was prepared for it. This is something that it's just a life lesson for me. It's something I need to grow from. And it's something I have to get better at. If I'm ever going to actually win one of these damn things, it's my temper, and I've got to do better.
On that note, T.J. did give you his textbook, "Hope to see you again in the future. To what you just said, would you like to eventually make the transition to the MTV version?
100%. My goal is to get back on and finish what I've started. I know that I can win The Challenge. I 100% believe that. I know I can physically. I know that I can play the social game as well. The wave hit me as a rookie. I turned right when I should have turned left. I've learned a bunch; I got to learn from the best in the business. I'm going to take that with me into the next one, and I'm ready to bust people's asses 100.