VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Justin Johnson, CJ Franco & Joe Amabile Reflect On Eating Cockroaches & Surviving Reality Series ‘The GOAT’

Reality TV stars Justin Johnson, CJ Franco and Joe Amabile reminisced about their time on the Prime Video reality series The GOAT.

The GOAT is a new competition reality show, hosted by Daniel Tosh, in which 14 reality TV celebrities compete in a series of mental, physical and social challenges in order to win the “greatest of all time” title.

The three contestants reflected on what they felt was the greatest challenge they faced while on the show.

Amabile, known for his time on The Bachelor, told uInterview founder Erik Meers, “Stepping out of your comfort zone in front of new people you’re just meeting, for me that was one of the toughest things I had to do.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Johnson observed, “We moved into a house with complete strangers, and yes, we’ve seen this on Real World. Yes, we’re sleeping in a twin bed, but the one thing I was not prepared for the most was the social aspect — because I think I was uninvited to the Big Brother house.”

“Wow throwing shade now. There’s a lot of undertone in this delivery,” Amabile joked.  

Franco, who appeared on FBoy Island, revealed, “It was like when you’re in high school and everyone gets sent to detention — they cast us and put us all in a house together, unsupervised, except sometimes we had Tosh, which is worse!”

When asked which challenge was most physically intimidating, Amabile quickly replied, “We had a spin a wheel of roasts things that was tough because, of course, I’m the one eating cockroaches out of a box of cockroaches.”

Franco laughed, “That was my favorite!”

She continued on her own experience, “Having to trust other people to lead you blind who are also trying to eliminate you putting your trust in the people that are also in charge of your fate was hard.”

Johnson added to Franco’s point, “To me, the challenges were just a formality. This was more of a social game than anything. It’s just like, weather changes day by day, so do friendships, so do allies.”

The three contestants reflected on what they felt they had learned about themselves or others from the show. 

Amabile continued, “I feel like I went in there pretty headstrong and left pretty headstrong. I didn’t learn anything from this show, I learned that I’m a great competitor.” He laughed, but added on a more reflective note, “I think at the end of the day it’s very important to not get caught up in a game…”

Johnson followed Amabile’s response, “And some people were better at navigating that, they could separate the person from the player a lot easier especially the people that came from competitions shows, they were there to play the game.”

Franco affirmed flatly, “Especially the mean people, they were great.”

Interestingly, when asked this question, multiple contestants on The GOAT have had a similar response Amabile’s that they do not feel they learned much from the show. All contestants who have been able to share a lesson from their experience have come to the same conclusion that not everyone is to be trusted.

Episodes of The GOAT can be streamed now on Amazon Prime.