Heavy "Dancing With the Stars" champion spoke out.
A “Dancing With the Stars” champion revealed why competing on the ABC ballroom competition was less stressful than filming other reality shows.
Olympic skater Adam Rippon was the winner of the all-athletes season of DWTS with pro partner Jenna Johnson back in 2018. He later told MTV’s “Ridiculousness” that competing for the mirrorball trophy was harder than being in the Olympics because the intense competition was so condensed. “You know one, I trained my entire life for like hours and hours a day, and then one I did for four weeks,” he said. “ So, definitely the one I did for four weeks [was harder]. Because your whole life is so long….but like four weeks is like so long too.”
But in a June 2023 interview, the 33-year-old Olympian revealed his latest reality show was even harder than DWTS – because he was always “on” with his co-stars.
Adam Rippon Said “Stars on Mars” Was Challenging, But It Wasn’t Just Due to the Challenges
In June 2023, Rippon made his debut on the Fox reality show “Stars on Mars.” His co-star included cyclist Lance Armstrong, NFL stars Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman, UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, “Vanderpump Rules” star Tom Schwartz, singer Tinashe, “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Porsha Williams, and actor Natasha Leggero, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Tallulah Willis, and Ariel Winter, per Entertainment Weekly. The reality show features a simulation of Mars, with William Shatner doling out assignments as the group competes to be the last person standing on the faux red planet.
In a June 13, 2023 interview on the “Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef” podcast, Rippon said “Stars on Mars” was harder than he thought it would be, and he pointed to a big difference between the new show and DWTS.
“’Dancing with the Stars’ was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be but there’s a few little things that like, make that experience a little bit more palatable,” he revealed. “I think one of those is that, like, you know, you aren’t being filmed 24 hours a day. You aren’t being put in this living situation with twelve strangers. And that, I mean, that is really, really intense. And I think for a lot of the people that went to Mars, that was the most intense part about it.”
“Yes, it was way more physically demanding than I thought it was going to be, but the biggest component was, like, the emotional component of knowing that you’re being filmed the whole time and you’re with all of these new faces and it’s a lot,” he added. “Like when I finally came home from, we filmed in Australia — sorry to spoil that illusion that I’ve been keeping — but when I came back, I slept for like three days, like, straight, and I was like, okay. My nervous system was shot.”
Adam Rippon Revealed If He Will Do Any More Reality TV
ABC/Eric McCandlessDWTS Juniors Judges Val Chmerkovskiy, Mandy Moore and Adam Rippon
In addition to his “Dancing With the Stars” win, Rippon appeared as a judge on DWTS: Juniors. He was also a judge for an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and he hosted “Messyness,” per IMDb. But as far as reality TV competitions go, Rippon may have won his last trophy.
He told Yontef he has no interest in signing on to other reality competitions. “No,” he said. “’’Survivor.’ I can’t even think, ‘Big Brother’… isn’t ‘Big Brother’ like 60 days? Yeah, I’m not going. Sixty-plus days? ‘Love Island,’ I watched like my first UK season of ‘Love Island’ not too long ago and I was, I can tell you that that’s what I spent 65 hours of my life watching because they were like 60 plus episodes and I was like oh my God, they’re really there for two months. Like, this is everyday, they’re showing every day. And when we were filming this show (‘Stars on Mars’), I was like, ‘Oh my God, like, I could do it physically but I don’t think that I’d ever do it willingly.”
Rippon added that he is happy that so many doors have been opened for him through skating, but that the one thing he would still like to try is comedic acting.
“I love the comedy space,” he told Yontef. “But so far, I’ve just done a lot of things that are, you know, live television or round tables or a reality show. And I think I’d love to do more of that, like comedic work. I love that. I have a lot of really good comedy friends. So I don’t know. I think that’s something that I would love to pursue.”
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