In the wise words of Hannah Montana, “Life’s what you make it.” And apparently, so are the Disney Channel Games.
Nearly a year after Nick Jonas looked back on the Olympics-esque competition — which pitted early-aughts Disney stars against one another in a series of absurd challenges — and compared the experience to “Love Island on crack,” several Disney alums are voicing their disagreement.
Hannah Montana alum Jason Earles kicked off the commentary by setting the record straight during his Wednesday visit to the Night School podcast.
“I think it depends who you are,” said Earles, who was among the eldest Disney stars after being cast as Miley Cyrus’ onscreen brother at 28. He joked, “If you’re Nick Jonas, isn’t the world a big sweaty sex buffet? And if you’re like me or a Sprouse twin, back in the day, we’re sweaty and we’re playing games.”
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Disney Channel Games 2007 opening ceremony
He added that the games were ultimately “whatever you wanted to make of it,” and in his case, that meant eliminating the competition: “I’m so embarrassed at how much pride I took in just f––ing wrecking these kids at these games,” he said.
Earles’ comments prompted a response from a couple of his fellow Disney alums, who chimed in with their own memories on Instagram.
“Yeah, it was mostly just sweating and riding the rock n roller coaster for me dawg,” said Hannah Montana‘s Emily Osment.
“All I remember was that it was so hot,” High School Musical star Lucas Grabeel wrote. “And that I wanted to be one of the adults commentating on the games instead of competing.”
He added, “It WAS fun though. We should do it again! I’ll be a field reporter this time.”
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Jonas recalled the competition series during a July 2024 visit to The Tonight Show.
“For those that don’t know, the Disney Channel Games were basically the Olympics, but where they would bring in a hundred-ish Disney Channel stars from all over the world and make us compete in silly games,” Jonas explained to host Jimmy Fallon. “But what it really was, was like Love Island on crack.”
While he didn’t elaborate much further on what the experience had in common with the reality dating series, he noted, “They would put a bunch of teenagers in the Disney park after hours and just say, ‘Let’s see what happens!'”
Disney/Mark Von Holden; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic; Vivien Killilea/Getty
Jason Earles; Emily Osment; Dylan Sprouse
A couple of weeks later, Jonas’ comments got some pushback from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody star and fellow Disney Channel Games survivor, Dylan Sprouse.
“That’s a really weird take, honestly,” Sprouse said on the Chicks in the Office podcast. “The DC Games were nothing like that. You can’t compare any situation where it’s like 90 percent 14-year-olds to a show like Love Island. That’s not even close to comparable.”
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Joking that the show was “intentionally devoid of sexuality,” he shared that it was usually filmed in sweltering Orlando, Fl., in August.
“So it was just the sweatiest, swamp-ass time,” Sprouse recalled. “There was no Love Island in that heat.”
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