1 of 7 | Justin Johnson and CJ Franco live together on “The GOAT.” Photo courtesy of Amazon Freevee
LOS ANGELES, May 8 (UPI) — The GOAT, premiering Thursday on Prime Video and Freevee, pits stars of reality series Shahs of Sunset, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Survivor, Big Brother and more against each other in physical challenges to determine the greatest reality star of of all time.
Drag Race Season 5 and All Stars Season 2 contestant Justin Johnson said Drag Race is emotional for drag queens who are pursuing their dream, while The GOAT celebrates the process of producing reality TV.
“It shows the camera crew,” Johnson told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. “They’re not trying to hide all that. It’s a celebration of all reality shows mashed up into one.”
The GOAT also allowed Johnson to show more of himself. While Drag Race was about becoming his drag persona, Alyssa Edwards, Johnson said he wanted to see how the real Johnson fared in a reality competition.
“[I wanted to] challenge that little Justin still inside me that didn’t make the baseball team,” Johnson said. “Then I realized, wait a minute, I think some of this is just based off of luck and social skills.”
Daniel Tosh hosts The GOAT and instructs cast members on physical challenges and eliminations. The GOAT also mocks Tosh’s attempts to give on-camera confessionals like contestants on Survivor or The Bachelor.
Such shenanigans make The GOAT a far cry from Bravo’s Shahs of Sunset, Shahs star Reza Farahan said. On Shahs, Bravo cameras followed his real estate career and marriage to Adam Neely, and feuds with other cast members.
The GOAT has Farahan standing on one foot, balancing a coconut and crawling through the mud in physical challenges.
“Bravo likes to get at your most vulnerable and pick at your scabs and wounds,” Farahan said. “The GOAT was slapstick.”
The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise star Joe Amabile said such dating shows are inherently more serious because contestants are hoping to find a spouse through the process. The GOAT has a $200,000 cash prize at the end, but no stakes for contestants’ future after the series.
“The show, I think, had a very light undertone,” Amabile said. “It was meant to be comedic, and I think it was.”
On The GOAT, CJ Franco has a sense of humor about her dating show experience on FBoy Island. Even acknowledging that FBoy Island is a salacious wink at dating shows, Franco said The GOAT felt like an extension of Tosh’s talk show, Tosh.0.
“To me, it seems like Tosh.0 just took over a house of reality stars and they let him do whatever he wanted,” Franco said. “It’s like we had the best babysitter in the world.”
The Circle competition winner Joey Sasso said television has gotten too serious. adding that the world needs “dumb” comedy like The GOAT.
“Let’s be able to laugh at ourselves,” Sasso said. “You’re going to sit on the couch watching it, having a great time and laughing at a lot of dumb humor, and that’s what we absolutely need right now.”
Holiday Baking Championship competitor and Best Baker in America judge Jason Smith said he likes to run his real kitchens with a sense of humor. However, he said the intensity of cooking competitions tend to negate such humor.
“There’s not a lot of laughing going on when you’re around the fire because you’re afraid you’ll lose your hair,” Smith said. “This one brings the humor. Honey, listen, it is more laughter than two skunks rolling around in a corn patch kissing.”
The GOAT also forces the men and the women to live together in GOAT Manor. 90 Day Fiance star Paola Mayfield said the crowded living quarters inhibited her comfort level.
“I like to be able to walk naked in the house if I can,” Mayfield said. “There are so many people and cameras are rolling everywhere, so you’ve got to be careful what you do.”
Love Is Blind contestant Lauren Speed-Hamilton did not try to walk around GOAT Manor in the buff. However, she said a room full of reality TV stars could crowd each other, especially in the bathroom.
“That’s a lot of estrogen,” Speed-Hamilton said. “That’s a lot of ‘Excuse me, my hair products.’ It was a lot.”
The GOAT can get more serious when it comes to the competition. A challenge in the first episode caused Farahan to call out another team for violating the rules.
Looking back, Farahan said he realized he could have waited for the producers to rule that the other team had violated the challenge instructions.
“Something about injustice just gets under my skin,” Farahan said. “I just couldn’t take it.”
Most of the GOAT challenges are silly. A preview for upcoming episodes shows Mayfield on all fours wearing udders while a teammate milks her.
“That was my most embarrassing moment,” Mayfield said. “Everybody’s just going with the flow, so might as well let’s just go and do something and make myself look ridiculous.”
Speed-Hamilton added some context about the milking challenge. Speed-Hamilton said the milking was a specific challenge for Mayfield, and Mayfield got into playing a cow.
“You have to watch because that’s impossible to explain,” Speed-Hamilton said. “Paola got milked. She was chewing grass, as well. She was a full-on cow.”
The GOAT also spoofs social reality show veterans, like Sasso’s flirtatious nature. However, he clarified that he was not single when filming The GOAT and is still with his girlfriend, whom he is keeping private.
“I think sometimes people take me as flirting, but I’m just being me,” Sasso said. “I have done my best to let the world know that I am with someone very happily and just keeping that for myself.”
Mayfield married Russ Mayfield on 90 Day Fiance. Since the show, there have been rumors they are breaking up, but Mayfield said they are trying to stay together. And, Mayfield said she wants to keep her marriage private now that her season of 90 Day Fiance is over.
“I’ve been trying to keep my relationship a little bit hidden from social media because every time I do something, it’s just a backlash and people hating and saying things,” Mayfield said. “I’m just going to keep it quiet and let them talk and assume whatever they want to assume.”
New episodes of The GOAT premiere Thursdays on Prime Video and Freevee.
