Chris ‘CT’ Tamburello Breaks Down His Victorious ‘Traitors’ Season

To viewers of MTV’s The Challenge, it shouldn’t have been a big surprise that Chris “CT” Tamburello won the second season of the U.S. incarnation of Traitors alongside his longtime Challenge co-competitor Trishelle Cannatella. He’s appeared on 19 seasons of The Challenge and won $1,365,000 — more than any other contestant in the history of the show. But things looked bleak for the Challenge crew when Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio was the first Traitors contestant eliminated this season on The Traitors. “Bananas being eliminated so early doesn’t sit well with me,” he said. “I could potentially be next.”

That’s not what happened. Over the remainder of the season, Tamburello flew largely under the radar and became a huge asset to the house when it came to completing their daily missions. He developed friendships with nearly everyone in the cast, including former Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, and the Traitors never seriously discussed murdering him at any point. Things grew tense in the final moments of the last episode when Cannatella briefly lost faith in him and tried to vote him out, but he instead talked her into taking out Shahs of Sunset cast member Mercedes “MJ” Javid in a tie-breaking vote.

We hopped on a Zoom with Tamburello the day after the Traitors finale aired to talk about how it all happened, big moments from the season, what went down at that fire pit of truth, and what the future might hold for him on The Challenge.

How does this win compare to your many wins on The Challenge? It seems bigger to me since this show has a broader audience.
Yeah. That’s a good point. I would say The Challenge and Traitors are two different shows. Traitors takes working “smarter, not harder” to a whole different level. This one is more political-based, I’d say. I’d also say that this is my third wind on reality TV after I took time off to take care of stuff back home. It was very reminiscent of when I came on for [The Challenge:] Invasion [of the Champions in 2017]. I was becoming a new dad. It was like starting a new chapter in my life. It was the same for this. I was stepping back into the world. I really just came on to enjoy myself. I didn’t expect much.

What was your plan going in?
I got to a point where I stopped pre-gaming before The Challenge. I didn’t even find out where we were going to go. I’m 43 now. I’ve come to appreciate a lot of life in general. One of the things I appreciate about The Challenge is you go to the airport, say your final goodbyes, you hand your phone in, and then you are handed your Willy Wonka Golden Ticket. You get plucked out of your little bubble and whisked across the world. You don’t know where you’re going to go or what you’re going to do.

Going into Traitors, people said to me, “Watch the other seasons. Watch the other seasons.” But I didn’t. One of the reasons I’ve had success in the past is that I show up and just try to adapt and pivot and make the best out of it.

I got lucky, but there’s more to it than luck. But I understood early on that the game was designed to keep you in a state of confusion. I feel like when a lot of people don’t know what’s going on, they try and do too much. That gets you in trouble.

I feel like Peter Weber did too much. He was smart, but he played a very hot game. It really angered the Traitors. You played a much cooler game.
I think Peter had the right idea. What Peter was doing wasn’t the first of its kind. I think he maybe picked the wrong horse by acting like a Traitor. The thing is, it’s not just about finding Traitors. It’s about surviving Traitors. If you bang the drum and you do find one, the rest of them are just going to come after you.

Everyone had this whole “Traitor Angel” thing. The thing is, if a Traitor is protecting you, you don’t want them to know that they’re doing it. It’s like you’re talking to the devil. Are you really going to trust the devil? You’d rather play it coy.

Like you did with Phaedra.
The thing with Phaedra is that I had a decent assumption of who the Traitors were just based on the pockets of people that were forming. When the mission happened where Phaedra and Sandra were talking about getting rid of Trishelle, I wanted to plant those seeds because I did think they were true. That was a confirmation for me. I’m glad Trishelle picked up on it too.

You want a reason to vote for somebody, but you’re not going to stick your neck out on the line. It’s better to hide within a group of people. I also wanted to make sure I had something to hold onto. A few of us were pretty confident it was Kate [Chastain]. After we got rid of Phaedra, Kate was left. But now we’re in the end game.

This is when Sandra really entered into your game.
Sandra is great at what she does. Me and her were thinking alike. At this point, when I found out she was planting seeds about me, she was also doing it with Trishelle. Apparently, Sandra had convinced Trishelle that I was her “Angel Traitor.” Trishelle told me that it made sense to her that I didn’t light her torch since I wasn’t going to murder her. When I gave her the shield in the tunnel, she thought it was because I didn’t need it because I was a Traitor. That would have made sense.

I was thinking, “Okay, we get rid of Kate. Sandra is going to convince Trishelle to get rid of me. MJ and Sandra are going to get rid of Trishelle,” because they were pretty close on the show. And look, when you’re going through this type of game, the paranoia and the confusion…you just burn out. That’s why I think I wouldn’t have made a good Traitor. It’s a lot. You have to live two lives and remember everything you said to everybody. You can’t slip up.

Anyway, I was thinking, “Okay, I’m going to beat them to the punch.” That’s when I switched from Kate to Sandra. But I should have done a better job and told Trishelle that. Things might have ended differently. But maybe not. She might have thought, “Now you’re protecting a Traitor. You’re definitely a Traitor.” I don’t think that would have even helped.

Where did things go from there?
We got rid of Sandra. We got rid of Kate. Right before we went down to the last fire pit….and I swear this is like clockwork. I don’t know if it’s on every competition show, but it’s the same with The Challenge. In the last five or ten minutes before the vote, all the information comes out. It’s the worst time since you hardly have any time to respond or say anything about it.

We’re at the bar in the castle. Right before we leave for the fire pit, Trishelle makes an announcement. She says that I’m working with Kate and that I’m a Traitor. I’m like, “Great. I’m screwed now.”

At this point, I’m burnt out. I thought, “You know what? If I’m going to put my faith in anybody, I’m going to stick with Trishelle.” What’s funny is the person I was trusting tried to get rid of me. The person that I tried to get rid of was the person I should have trusted. [Laughs] That’s how the game is!

How did you feel when you saw that Trishelle voted for you? That would have been it for you if MJ voted the same way.
I’m really lucky. I still don’t know why MJ picked Trishelle twice. If anything, she should have been mad at me. I guess she is now, but whatever. I don’t think any of us really understood the rules at the end game.

What do you mean?
For one, it’s not like you win once the Traitors are all gone. You have to all decide to share. It was probably safe to say we were all Faithfuls. But hindsight is 20/20. I know everybody else is like, “How can you not see it?” when you’re watching on TV. But you have all the answers in front of you. We’ve been in a cloud of confusion for weeks. We just want it to be over.

I don’t get why Kate voted green. Shereé was just murdered. You learned Sandra was a Faithful. That 100% means there’s a least one Traitor left. Didn’t that just expose her?
People have their own strategy. I get it. She was a good sport about it.

Do you feel bad about MJ and Sandra since they got so close?
Yeah. But you know what? I felt like if it wasn’t going to be them, it was going to be me. In all fairness, I’ve talked to Sandra. I’ve talked to Trishelle. We all thought there were two left. Then you have [host] Alan [Cumming] always stirring the pot. “There can always be someone else. You never know…” You know how he is.

I thought MJ and Sandra were close. But she just voted Sandra in. And you really think Sandra wasn’t going to vote for me? They didn’t show this, but I was with the Paw Patrol early on in the season. Nobody knew about it. But Peter told Trishelle that he thought I was a Traitor. And then all the people I thought I was working with came at me consistently for about three episodes in a row. It was Maks [Maksim Chmerkovskiy], it was Janelle [Pierzina], and then Larsa [Pippen], which I thought came out of nowhere.

I guess it was two people, but these were people I thought I was working with. That’s why I got mad at Trishelle at the torch-lighting ceremony. “You didn’t know they were coming for me? Now I should light your torch?” Maybe I was a little bitter about it. It’s hard not to take things personally. I get it. And I picked John because I thought he was more of an asset. Maybe things would have been different had I communicated about that.

That’s how it is. But I do believe that me and Trishelle were working together the whole time. She was on one side of the house. I was on another. I think we got maybe too comfortable with not having to check in with each other every day when it comes to games. We kind of drifted apart even though nothing changed. It was like, “Why don’t you trust me?” “Because it’s looking real suspect now.” “How was I supposed to tell you? You didn’t tell me.”

A lot of fans just naturally presumed that when you went down to the fire pit at the end, you and Trishelle planned it all out so you two would win the whole thing. That doesn’t sound true from what you’re saying.
No. You know what it’s like? I’ve seen this in The Challenge. When your home team loses, you’re upset about it. You complain about it. I get it. Look, I’ve won a lot of money on these shows. And I’ve given away more money than I’ve won. I’m super grateful. But it’s not that different splitting it two ways or three ways. However, people aren’t going to take accountability for their actions.

There was a lot more going on you didn’t see. You didn’t know Sandra was trying to get me? And look, it’s a competition show. I wasn’t like, “Let’s get rid of her. I want an extra $25,000,” or whatever it was. It was more like, “I want to win. I’m burnt out. I don’t trust her.”

Even Trishelle had her own suspicions of me. You don’t know what everyone else is thinking. If people think Trishelle and I were like, [evil voice] “Let’s get rid of everybody and keep all the money for ourselves,” that’s not true. I just wanted to win.

At that point in the game, everybody had doubts. It wasn’t like me and MJ said, “We’ve been so good together. We’ve done everything we’ve ever said. We’ve had no suspicions of you at all.”

MJ played a great game. And again, we all thought there was more than one Traitor left. I don’t think one person said her name at the round table the entire time. Maybe I’m wrong. She was never in the hot seat. She was always well-insulated. At first, everyone in Paw Patrol got chewed up and spit out. And now everyone else on the other side of the house is getting chewed up and spit out. You can’t think, “Well, which one of us is the ringleader?”

I’ll wrap in a second here, but the eternal debate among Challenge fans is whether you’re the GOAT or Bananas is the GOAT. Nobody else is in serious competition. He’s won the most seasons. You’ve won the most money. Do you think winning this other show is an argument in your favor?
I think any sort of GOAT debate is more of a preference thing. People can think what they want. I always say I compete with myself. I don’t have to go out and try and convince myself how good I am. I almost feel like what’s great about me and him is that you can’t have one without the other. I’ll say this too. If I didn’t get that shield in the first episode, I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have been sent home first.

Final question. We know Challenge 40 starts filming very soon. Are you on it?
I don’t know. Wait and see. Wait and see. I’ll tell you what. I took a little break, and I’ve missed this stuff. Coming out of retirement again and doing Traitors…I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to transition back into the world. Doing it as long I have, you start to miss it when you’re not doing it, you know? [Big smile].

To viewers of MTV’s The Challenge, it shouldn’t have been a big surprise that Chris “CT” Tamburello won the second season of the U.S. incarnation of Traitors alongside his longtime Challenge co-competitor Trishelle Cannatella. He’s appeared on 19 seasons of The Challenge and won $1,365,000 — more than any other contestant in the history of the show. But things looked bleak for the Challenge crew when Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio was the first Traitors contestant eliminated this season on The Traitors. “Bananas being eliminated so early doesn’t sit well with me,” he said. “I could potentially be next.”

That’s not what happened. Over the remainder of the season, Tamburello flew largely under the radar and became a huge asset to the house when it came to completing their daily missions. He developed friendships with nearly everyone in the cast, including former Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, and the Traitors never seriously discussed murdering him at any point. Things grew tense in the final moments of the last episode when Cannatella briefly lost faith in him and tried to vote him out, but he instead talked her into taking out Shahs of Sunset cast member Mercedes “MJ” Javid in a tie-breaking vote.

We hopped on a Zoom with Tamburello the day after the Traitors finale aired to talk about how it all happened, big moments from the season, what went down at that fire pit of truth, and what the future might hold for him on The Challenge.

How does this win compare to your many wins on The Challenge? It seems bigger to me since this show has a broader audience.
Yeah. That’s a good point. I would say The Challenge and Traitors are two different shows. Traitors takes working “smarter, not harder” to a whole different level. This one is more political-based, I’d say. I’d also say that this is my third wind on reality TV after I took time off to take care of stuff back home. It was very reminiscent of when I came on for [The Challenge:] Invasion [of the Champions in 2017]. I was becoming a new dad. It was like starting a new chapter in my life. It was the same for this. I was stepping back into the world. I really just came on to enjoy myself. I didn’t expect much.

What was your plan going in?
I got to a point where I stopped pre-gaming before The Challenge. I didn’t even find out where we were going to go. I’m 43 now. I’ve come to appreciate a lot of life in general. One of the things I appreciate about The Challenge is you go to the airport, say your final goodbyes, you hand your phone in, and then you are handed your Willy Wonka Golden Ticket. You get plucked out of your little bubble and whisked across the world. You don’t know where you’re going to go or what you’re going to do.

Going into Traitors, people said to me, “Watch the other seasons. Watch the other seasons.” But I didn’t. One of the reasons I’ve had success in the past is that I show up and just try to adapt and pivot and make the best out of it.

I got lucky, but there’s more to it than luck. But I understood early on that the game was designed to keep you in a state of confusion. I feel like when a lot of people don’t know what’s going on, they try and do too much. That gets you in trouble.

I feel like Peter Weber did too much. He was smart, but he played a very hot game. It really angered the Traitors. You played a much cooler game.
I think Peter had the right idea. What Peter was doing wasn’t the first of its kind. I think he maybe picked the wrong horse by acting like a Traitor. The thing is, it’s not just about finding Traitors. It’s about surviving Traitors. If you bang the drum and you do find one, the rest of them are just going to come after you.

Everyone had this whole “Traitor Angel” thing. The thing is, if a Traitor is protecting you, you don’t want them to know that they’re doing it. It’s like you’re talking to the devil. Are you really going to trust the devil? You’d rather play it coy.

Like you did with Phaedra.
The thing with Phaedra is that I had a decent assumption of who the Traitors were just based on the pockets of people that were forming. When the mission happened where Phaedra and Sandra were talking about getting rid of Trishelle, I wanted to plant those seeds because I did think they were true. That was a confirmation for me. I’m glad Trishelle picked up on it too.

You want a reason to vote for somebody, but you’re not going to stick your neck out on the line. It’s better to hide within a group of people. I also wanted to make sure I had something to hold onto. A few of us were pretty confident it was Kate [Chastain]. After we got rid of Phaedra, Kate was left. But now we’re in the end game.

This is when Sandra really entered into your game.
Sandra is great at what she does. Me and her were thinking alike. At this point, when I found out she was planting seeds about me, she was also doing it with Trishelle. Apparently, Sandra had convinced Trishelle that I was her “Angel Traitor.” Trishelle told me that it made sense to her that I didn’t light her torch since I wasn’t going to murder her. When I gave her the shield in the tunnel, she thought it was because I didn’t need it because I was a Traitor. That would have made sense.

I was thinking, “Okay, we get rid of Kate. Sandra is going to convince Trishelle to get rid of me. MJ and Sandra are going to get rid of Trishelle,” because they were pretty close on the show. And look, when you’re going through this type of game, the paranoia and the confusion…you just burn out. That’s why I think I wouldn’t have made a good Traitor. It’s a lot. You have to live two lives and remember everything you said to everybody. You can’t slip up.

Anyway, I was thinking, “Okay, I’m going to beat them to the punch.” That’s when I switched from Kate to Sandra. But I should have done a better job and told Trishelle that. Things might have ended differently. But maybe not. She might have thought, “Now you’re protecting a Traitor. You’re definitely a Traitor.” I don’t think that would have even helped.

Where did things go from there?
We got rid of Sandra. We got rid of Kate. Right before we went down to the last fire pit….and I swear this is like clockwork. I don’t know if it’s on every competition show, but it’s the same with The Challenge. In the last five or ten minutes before the vote, all the information comes out. It’s the worst time since you hardly have any time to respond or say anything about it.

We’re at the bar in the castle. Right before we leave for the fire pit, Trishelle makes an announcement. She says that I’m working with Kate and that I’m a Traitor. I’m like, “Great. I’m screwed now.”

At this point, I’m burnt out. I thought, “You know what? If I’m going to put my faith in anybody, I’m going to stick with Trishelle.” What’s funny is the person I was trusting tried to get rid of me. The person that I tried to get rid of was the person I should have trusted. [Laughs] That’s how the game is!

How did you feel when you saw that Trishelle voted for you? That would have been it for you if MJ voted the same way.
I’m really lucky. I still don’t know why MJ picked Trishelle twice. If anything, she should have been mad at me. I guess she is now, but whatever. I don’t think any of us really understood the rules at the end game.

What do you mean?
For one, it’s not like you win once the Traitors are all gone. You have to all decide to share. It was probably safe to say we were all Faithfuls. But hindsight is 20/20. I know everybody else is like, “How can you not see it?” when you’re watching on TV. But you have all the answers in front of you. We’ve been in a cloud of confusion for weeks. We just want it to be over.

I don’t get why Kate voted green. Shereé was just murdered. You learned Sandra was a Faithful. That 100% means there’s a least one Traitor left. Didn’t that just expose her?
People have their own strategy. I get it. She was a good sport about it.

Do you feel bad about MJ and Sandra since they got so close?
Yeah. But you know what? I felt like if it wasn’t going to be them, it was going to be me. In all fairness, I’ve talked to Sandra. I’ve talked to Trishelle. We all thought there were two left. Then you have [host] Alan [Cumming] always stirring the pot. “There can always be someone else. You never know…” You know how he is.

I thought MJ and Sandra were close. But she just voted Sandra in. And you really think Sandra wasn’t going to vote for me? They didn’t show this, but I was with the Paw Patrol early on in the season. Nobody knew about it. But Peter told Trishelle that he thought I was a Traitor. And then all the people I thought I was working with came at me consistently for about three episodes in a row. It was Maks [Maksim Chmerkovskiy], it was Janelle [Pierzina], and then Larsa [Pippen], which I thought came out of nowhere.

I guess it was two people, but these were people I thought I was working with. That’s why I got mad at Trishelle at the torch-lighting ceremony. “You didn’t know they were coming for me? Now I should light your torch?” Maybe I was a little bitter about it. It’s hard not to take things personally. I get it. And I picked John because I thought he was more of an asset. Maybe things would have been different had I communicated about that.

That’s how it is. But I do believe that me and Trishelle were working together the whole time. She was on one side of the house. I was on another. I think we got maybe too comfortable with not having to check in with each other every day when it comes to games. We kind of drifted apart even though nothing changed. It was like, “Why don’t you trust me?” “Because it’s looking real suspect now.” “How was I supposed to tell you? You didn’t tell me.”

A lot of fans just naturally presumed that when you went down to the fire pit at the end, you and Trishelle planned it all out so you two would win the whole thing. That doesn’t sound true from what you’re saying.
No. You know what it’s like? I’ve seen this in The Challenge. When your home team loses, you’re upset about it. You complain about it. I get it. Look, I’ve won a lot of money on these shows. And I’ve given away more money than I’ve won. I’m super grateful. But it’s not that different splitting it two ways or three ways. However, people aren’t going to take accountability for their actions.

There was a lot more going on you didn’t see. You didn’t know Sandra was trying to get me? And look, it’s a competition show. I wasn’t like, “Let’s get rid of her. I want an extra $25,000,” or whatever it was. It was more like, “I want to win. I’m burnt out. I don’t trust her.”

Even Trishelle had her own suspicions of me. You don’t know what everyone else is thinking. If people think Trishelle and I were like, [evil voice] “Let’s get rid of everybody and keep all the money for ourselves,” that’s not true. I just wanted to win.

At that point in the game, everybody had doubts. It wasn’t like me and MJ said, “We’ve been so good together. We’ve done everything we’ve ever said. We’ve had no suspicions of you at all.”

MJ played a great game. And again, we all thought there was more than one Traitor left. I don’t think one person said her name at the round table the entire time. Maybe I’m wrong. She was never in the hot seat. She was always well-insulated. At first, everyone in Paw Patrol got chewed up and spit out. And now everyone else on the other side of the house is getting chewed up and spit out. You can’t think, “Well, which one of us is the ringleader?”

I’ll wrap in a second here, but the eternal debate among Challenge fans is whether you’re the GOAT or Bananas is the GOAT. Nobody else is in serious competition. He’s won the most seasons. You’ve won the most money. Do you think winning this other show is an argument in your favor?
I think any sort of GOAT debate is more of a preference thing. People can think what they want. I always say I compete with myself. I don’t have to go out and try and convince myself how good I am. I almost feel like what’s great about me and him is that you can’t have one without the other. I’ll say this too. If I didn’t get that shield in the first episode, I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have been sent home first.

Final question. We know Challenge 40 starts filming very soon. Are you on it?
I don’t know. Wait and see. Wait and see. I’ll tell you what. I took a little break, and I’ve missed this stuff. Coming out of retirement again and doing Traitors…I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to transition back into the world. Doing it as long I have, you start to miss it when you’re not doing it, you know? [Big smile].