CT Tamburello Reveals He and Trishelle Tried To Split the Money With MJ in ‘The Traitors’ Finale (Exclusive) originally appeared on Parade.
Back on the Season 2 finale of The Traitors, with Kate Chastain outed as a Traitor, the final three contestants, Chris “CT” Tamburello, Trishelle Cannatella and Mercedes “MJ” Javid have a choice to make. They can either vote to end the game and split the $208,100 prize pot evenly. Or,f they think that a Traitor is still in their midst, they can make the choice to banish one more player. Given that all three seem to understand that only Faithfuls remain, it’s surprising that both CT and Trishelle vote to banish again. MJ (and many viewers) are confused.
During the first round of re-voting, Trishelle votes for CT, CT votes for MJ and MJ votes for Trishelle. On the revote, Trishelle and CT, both alumni of The Challenge and The Real World, vote out MJ, leaving the pair as the Season 2 winners. Following the finale, fans were suspicious and accused Trishelle and CT of working in secret to nab MJ’s third of the prize money.
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While that’s what viewers watched on their TV screens, CT, in a recent sit-down with Parade, says that’s not exactly how it happened in real life.
“It’s funny,” the five-time Challenge champ says. “I always thought it was weird how people think that me and Trishelle had every plan on taking the money from MJ. I think it came down to an extra 30 grand a piece. When it’s like, I just went to The Challenge, and gave away 200 grand.”
CT is referencing a moment during the finale of The Challenge 37 in which he and Kaycee Clark parted with $200,000 so that the other finalists could also receive prize money.
“What people didn’t know,” he continues, “Is that when we threw the bags into the fire, like the red or the green, after the initial vote, and then we draw. We all were like, ‘Okay, now what do we do?’ Everybody has one vote. We couldn’t re-throw in now. [The producers said,] ‘No, you guys said you wanted to vote somebody out. Now you’re going to vote somebody out.’ And we go, ‘No, no, no, no. What if we just switch it up, and we all want to share the money?’ [The producers said,] ‘No, it’s too late now,’ but they didn’t show that. Instead, it was just, ‘No, now you have to vote.’ And that made it seem like we tried to snake MJ for 30 grand, which I thought was kind of disappointing. I felt like my character along with The Challenge plays, would have given me the benefit of the doubt on that one, but whatever, it’s part of the game.”
Related: Meet the Full Cast of ‘The Traitors’ Season 4
Despite the game not ending quite how he wanted it to, CT loved his time on The Traitors. When asked if he’d come back to play again, he says, “I love Traitors. Traitors was such a blessing for me because it was the first show I had come on after I’d taken a hiatus. The Challenge 39 I came in as a mercenary, but this was the first one I really stepped out and had done a full show. I love that. I love the dynamic of it.”
Unlike The Challenge, The Traitors is a lot easier on his body as well. “Maybe it’s because we’re getting older,” he says, “But I love how it was more heavy on the politics, and the games we would do were fun mind [games]. I enjoyed the games. And what I really liked was that everybody, one way or another, always had a fair shot of winning. There was always a little bit of luck, a little bit of strategy. But you didn’t have to train for the Olympics. The political game was much stronger. I mean, we’re dealing with people from the type of shows that we were dealing with, and they’re just people with strong personalities, with a lot of life experience. To me, I was really proud of that one, just because of the way I played it.”
While there don’t seem to be any legends from The Challenge on the upcoming season of The Traitors (although who knows what twists may await), CT names Aneesa Ferreira as the next MTV alum he’d like to see in Scotland.
“I really think Aneesa would thrive in that environment,” he says. When reminded of her fiery arguments from old seasons of The Challenge, he pushes back on the idea she would be overly volatile at the Round Table. “She’s way smoother than that. If you go in there loud and start fighting, you’re not gonna last very long. I think she’d do very well on Traitors.”
Related: ‘The Traitors’ Is Coming Back for Season 4: Everything to Know
CT Tamburello Reveals He and Trishelle Tried To Split the Money With MJ in ‘The Traitors’ Finale (Exclusive) first appeared on Parade on Jul 31, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
