The Traitors’ Trishelle Cannatella Explains Her Return to Reality 10 Years After Step Back from The Challenge

Trishelle Cannatella is back in the mix thanks to Traitors.

After a break of more than 10 years from Challenge (except for two episodes All stars 2021), ex Real World: Las Vegas star sailed through the Peacock competition.

“For me, the challenges at one point became too much for me just physically,” Cannatella, 44, tells PEOPLE of why she quit the MTV show. “I hit a plateau and then I just wasn’t good anymore. But for this [The Traitors], it’s completely different. I can still carry my weight in this game.”

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Her Challenge teammates also played a role in why Cannatella stopped competing.

“I stopped caring because I didn’t like people,” she says. “There are better people on this show, but this is more of a game of mental and emotional toughness. And I always felt like I was super mentally and emotionally strong. And this, for me, I was like, ah, this is the perfect game for me because I can actually just thrive and survive.”

Trishelle Cannatella (left) on ‘The Challenge: All-Stars’ with Kendal Sheppard.

Juan Cruz Rabaglia/PARAMOUNT+/MTV

Challengers Chris “CT” Tamburello and Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio joined her in Season 2 Traitorsbut Cannatella didn’t automatically trust them just because of their shared history.

“You can’t trust anyone in the Challenge house,” she says. “You really can’t. You might trust your alliance to a point, but that’s about it. I think we can accept ‘trust no one’ here, but meeting people is easier here than in Challenge.”

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The traitors actually helped her repair her relationship with Tamburella.

“CT and I did our last show like it was 14 years ago, but I just didn’t like him,” Cannatella admits. “He has changed so much. I said, ‘Oh my God, we’re like adults now!'”

“They’re like brothers to me now,” Cannatella says of Devenanzio, 41, and Tamburella, 43.

Trishelle Cannatella and Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio.

Jesse Grant/Peacock

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All Challenge the veterans ended up as faithful in season 2, and the traitors killed Devenanzio first. Cannatella and Tamburello made it further in the game, but not without their names being thrown around as possible traitors. Cannatella participated in an early ejection of Peppermint, only for RuPaul’s Drag Race alum, 44, to be announced as Faithful.

“I didn’t have a game plan at all, but I saw all the seasons and I knew it was going to be a lot different because they were all reality TV people,” Cannatella says, referring to Season 1, including the lay contestants. “I was actually hoping for non-television people.”

Cannatella considers the difference between Traitors and Challenge “are night and day.”

“The show is completely different,” says Cannatella. “I thought, wow, I can get used to this!”

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New episodes Traitors drop Thursdays at 9pm ET on Peacock.

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Source: HIS Education