From screaming matches in the Big Brother house to iconic impressions on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, reality TV is the gift that keeps on giving and Us Weekly is rounding up some of the most iconic moments to revisit on Paramount+.
1. The Challenge: World Championship: Amber Borzotra’s Exit
The model began feeling sick after a flu-like illness spread through the house during the premiere season of World Championship, which debuted in March 2023. She shocked her fellow cast members when she decided to quit the game so that Kaycee Clark — whose partner Ben Driebergen was medically disqualified after falling severely ill — could remain in the game and compete with her teammate, Troy Cullen.
After self-eliminating, Amber surprised viewers even further when she revealed that she is expecting her first child with boyfriend Chauncey Palmer during a sit-down with Troy.
“That’s the best news ever!” Troy replied.
2. Big Brother: The Cookout’s Secret Mission
During season 23 of the reality competition series — which aired in summer 2021 — Xavier Prather, Derek Frazier, Azah Awasum, Kyland Young, Hannah Chaddha and Tiffany Mitchell formed The Cookout alliance with the goal of ensuring that the show got its first ever Black winner.
The six-personal alliance concealed their allegiance to each other throughout the entire season, enacting Tiffany’s “Mastermind Plan” of each pairing up with someone outside of the alliance to avoid two of them ever being on the block together.
The group’s secret was not revealed until Tiffany told her other closest ally, Claire Rehfuss, the truth before nominating her for eviction. The Cookout ultimately made it to the final six together, achieving their ultimate goal when Xavier was crowned the winner of the season.
3. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: BenDeLaCreme’s Self-Elimination
DeLa shocked viewers, her fellow queens and the panel of judges when she chose to eliminate herself during season 3 rather than select one of her teammates to send home.
“This is the easiest choice that I have had to make this entire season,” she said at the time. “I’m going home.” Prior to her ultimate sacrifice, the Washington native had won five out of six challenges.
“There was this moment where I was like, ‘OK, I’ve really established myself, people do see me as a frontrunner, I’ve broken some records. If I decide I’m not going to play by these rules, no one is going to be able to say that she gave up because she couldn’t do it,’” DeLa said during a July 2021 appearance on “EW’s BINGE” podcast.
4. The Challenge: World Championship: Sarah Lacina Drags Johnny ‘Bananas’ Devenanzio
The reality TV stars had a heated conversation during an April 2023 episode of the Challenge spinoff. The tension began when Johnny joined a conversation Sarah was having with Danny McCray and Tori Deal. As Sarah tried to strategize, Johnny intercepted saying, “You wanna know a mistake I’ve made in the past in this … looking too far forward.”
Danny then stood up for Sarah, declaring that “she would be an idiot” not to plan ahead. Sarah then snapped at Johnny, “You try and make me feel so stupid for everything I say. You’re not gonna talk to me this way.”
Johnny tried to backpedal, saying, “Now it’s touching a nerve because you know what I’m saying,” prompting the police officer to shoot back, “No. You are not gonna talk to me this way, period.”
Sarah reflected on the tense moment during an April appearance on the “Chillin With Dylan” podcast.
“Tori, Danny and I are sitting outside, like, we need to have a meeting without Johnny, and we are actually having a good conversation,” she recalled. “Next thing you know here comes Johnny and what’s the first thing he says? ‘This looks like a conversation I should be a part of.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, no it’s actually the opposite.’ And he sits down … and the second I try to ask a question [and] answer it then he just starts being condescending and I had enough.”
5. Big Brother: Keesha Smith’s Birthday
The season 10 blowup fight began when Jessie Godderz overheard Keesha Smith and Libra Thompson trash-talking their alliance member April Lewis. He then told April what he’d found out, resulting in a screaming match that nearly all the remaining houseguests jumped in on.
Moments after the confrontation, the cast gathered in the kitchen to perform a lackluster rendition of “Happy Birthday” before cutting awkwardly Keesha’s cake.
6. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: Jinkx Moon’s Snatch Game
Jinkx Monsoon proved herself to be a Snatch Game legend during season 5 of Drag Race when she played Grey Gardens icon Edith Bouvier Beale, a.k.a. Little Edie. However, it was her season 7 impression of Judy Garland that cemented her as the reigning champion of the challenge.
The Ginger Snapped musician told E! News in May 2022 that she felt the huge response to her performance proved the LGBTQ+ community still has “a love of the past.”
She continued: “We can still keep certain icons and memories alive. We can keep them in the contemporary world.”
