A new “Challenge” season is upon us as “Final Reckonking” premiered this past Tuesday, so I knew it was time to get someone on again from the show, so it was great talking to Jemmye Carroll for Podcast #86. As expected, Jemmye had no filter and had no issue talking about a ton of things going on in the “Challenge” world. There are no spoilers for “Final Reckoning’s” season if any of you are worried about that. Yes, filming is over. Yes, she knows what happened, but I don’t want to know and she can’t publicly share it anyway. But just wanted to give people a heads up who were curious. However she does talk about the ending in general terms and how this season is building up to be one of the craziest ones yet. I can’t wait. We spend a good amount of time discussing what has made the most news from this season already, and that’s the Paulie/Cara Maria situation. We both definitely have our thoughts on how everything is being handled. As always, if you’d like to reply to the interview, please include Jemmye’s Twitter handle (@JustJem24) in your responses. Great time talking to Jemmye, and you know me, I can’t get enough of this franchise. I’ve interviewed now 5 from the show and I expect there to be more going forward (and my apologies to Tori Hall as I forgot to list her in the podcast when talking about former people from this franchise I’ve spoken to). One last thing, Jemmye posed a question to me at the end of the show about who from “Bachelor” world I thought would be good “Challenge” competitors, and I needed more time to think about it. So here’s the short list I came up with when I thought about it more: Kaitlyn, Chad, Josh, Nick, and JoJo. I’m sure there are others who could/would be capable, but those are the ones that jump out to me who I think could actually go far if cast.
You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, RSS, Stitcher, Spotify
Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)
(SPOILERS) Jemmye joins me to talk about getting “eliminated” on the first episode, why Jenna couldn’t find her (6:00), the theme of the season (8:28), Bananas talk (12:42), how crazy the ending is this season – no spoilers (18:18), how she feels about cast from other shows being brought into the Challenge family (20:59), how she first got cast on the show and her season on RW: New Orleans (25:47), her relationship with Knight (30:38), her overall strategy when appearing on these shows (38:38), thoughts on Camila (42:53), we play Word Association (46:21), we discuss the Paulie/Cara Maria scandal this season (1:02:41), and we end with the Final 10 (1:18:14).
Twitter – @JustJem24
Instagram – justjemm_
Dr. Reality Steve
Hello Steve,
Hope this email finds you well. I’ve been a fan since Jason Mesnick season. I have a little issue and I think your advice will help me out since I literally have no one else to turn too. So here is the situation, I will be at my job 5 years in August. I am only supposed to be the receptionist however I turned into the bitch/assistant and am not getting compensated in any way. The lies I have to keep and the favors I have to do are eating away at me and I end up going home at the end of the day snapping out on my poor husband. So this Friday I set up 3 interviews for different jobs and was going to call in sick that day. I come in today to the office to the one boss telling me she will be out tomm and Friday due to her boyfriend’s grandfather passing away as well as another co worker who has the day scheduled off. She is already telling me all the things that I need to take care of on Friday. My question to you is this. Do I still go with my plan and fake sick to go to my interviews or bite the bullet try and reschedule them for another day and come to this he’ll home of an office?? If you can’t reply I totally understand u are a very busy man and from I read I think you are in Chicago. Keep up the great job with the spoilers and may God bless.
Comment: Sorry I didn’t get to this last week. For your sake, I hope you sh** canned the job, or at least made up some excuse as to why you couldn’t be in the office that day so you could get out and go on those other interviews. One thing you can control is your own happiness. Sounds like you’re miserable at your current job. You did the right thing by looking elsewhere so I hope you followed through and went on those interviews. And furthermore, hopefully you landed one of those jobs you went to interview for. Sounds like you’d be much happier if you did. 5 years at your current job is a long enough time to know if it’s somewhere you want to be long term, you’re doing extra work and not getting compensated for it, so yeah, I’d say time to get out. Hope you did.
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Dear Dr. Reality Steve,
I’ve never felt inclined to email in but this situation has gotten out of hand and I honestly am not sure what to do. I’m hoping your words of wisdom and unbiased view will help me out with this. This is going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance.
My boyfriend, let’s call him Josh, and I have been dating for quite a number of years. We’ve had our ups and downs, as every couple, but at the end of the day he matters very much to me. In recent years, we’ve been extremely happy with each other and things have never been better. I know at the end of the day, I can rely on him for anything and vice versa. We have a very communicative and healthy relationship so that’s not the problem.
He is two years older, so when we were in college we did long distance for my last two years. During that time, I did everything with my best friend and roommate *Brooke. My personality is very “go with the flow”, so whenever we went out for food or anything, Brooke normally called the shots because I genuinely didn’t care all too much. On the negative side, Brooke can be a little demanding and very sensitive when things don’t go her way. She has her own internal struggles and has never been in a serious relationship before. She can be a little abrasive and petty at times but it has never been directed at me. I know I’m listing some negatives but she has been a great friend to me and I care very much about her. She made my college experience an amazing time, in addition to helping me a gain a much needed backbone.
The problem is that Brooke has always been off about Josh and I never knew why. Keep in mind that we had already been dating before I even met Brooke. You see, Josh is one of those guys who is genuinely the nicest person and goes out of his way for anyone. He goes the extra mile for all my friends, which admittedly goes unnoticed by most of them, especially Brooke.
Last weekend, Josh was nice enough to let a couple of my friends stay with us at his beach condo. During this visit Brooke lost an e-cigarette. She claimed she put it on the kitchen counter before we went out that night. When we came back, it was gone. We looked all over the apartment but couldn’t find it. Josh spent about half an hour looking before he gave up and wanted to enjoy the weekend at the beach (as we both work full time jobs and want to enjoy the weekend). All weekend Brooke accused Josh and his friend of knowing where it was. No proof, no evidence, just that there was no possible way she misplaced it or accidentally thrown it out, so “all evidence pointed to them”. We don’t smoke and I know Josh would never take it but it was accusation after accusation. It was brought up in every conversation. No exaggeration, like at least 20 times.
After the weekend, Brooke continued on about how she had zero respect for Josh and how she can’t believe someone would steal her property. If it was that important to her, maybe she should have put it somewhere in her bag and not out in the kitchen? Regardless, it was constant accusation about how he didn’t try hard enough to find it and how he should care more. Let me put it in perspective, this is an e-cigarette. Josh spent half an hour looking and after hearing every 5 minutes about it, he wanted to enjoy the weekend.
Fast forward to this weekend and guess what I found inside the sofa? The e-cigarette. Turns out Josh didn’t take it and it was misplaced. Instead of saying thanks and apologizing for all the false accusations, she simply said someone moved it and is still yet upset with Josh.
The next day Brooke actually invited herself to enjoy the beach at Josh’s place. I said she could but only if she apologized to Josh for the accusations. She said no, accused me of making him a victim, how she felt betrayed, sent me paragraphs of texts about being blindsided, how she wanted to have a third party friend to schedule to pick it up, and much more borderline nasty texts. In the end, I told her it’s best she didn’t come over being it’s not my apartment but Josh’s, who felt incredibly hurt. She continued on asking me if it was worth ending a friendship (…over an e-cigarette).
My honest question to you, am I wrong for sticking up for Josh for the false accusations (because I don’t think I was)? Or should I have been more sympathetic to my friend? Because I’m sorry if someone misplaced it but it wasn’t stolen and after a week of accusations, it turns out Josh didn’t take it. Is an apology too much to ask for? That’s all we wanted.
Brooke has now blocked Josh on every social media platform (he hasn’t said a word to her about anything) and I don’t know what to do. She wants to talk to me to explain it in person (I’ve received numerous texts about it so I’m not sure I really want to) but how can I continue a friendship with someone who treats my significant other like this? Is she threatened because now I’m not “go with the flow” as I used to be when I was doing distance with Josh? Or am I in the wrong? Any advice would help!
Comment: The short answer is Brooke needs to take chill pill. Holy sh**.
I mean, you kinda said it yourself. This is over an e-cigarette. Something easily replaceable. No, you haven’t done anything wrong in this situation. She made a mountain out of a mole hill, and when the e-cig was found, obviously not stolen like she claimed, the fact she can’t apologize says way more about her than it does you. This one is very simple. Talk to her. Explain to her how she’s acting over a simple e-cigarette, all the accusations she made became moot once it was found in the couch, she’s being completely irrational by carrying on and on and on about this, all you asked for was an apology to how she treated Josh who spent 30 minutes looking for something so stupid at his own party, and she didn’t appreciate that. If she still gives you flak back, you just have to step away from her. Whether that’s for a week, for a month, forever – whatever. That shouldn’t be your concern. She’s not thinking she’s done anything wrong, and until she does, you can pretty much expect this type of behavior in the future if you remain friends. The fact she went to the classic “you’re gonna end a friendship over this” just shows how completely lost she is in all this. Can’t accept responsibility or take blame, which makes sense, because you described her as someone who’s always gotten her way. She needs to be more understanding about things, and if she isn’t, then just start hanging out with her less and less. Sounds like a pretty toxic person.
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Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is “RealitySteve,” or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you next week.
