The Three CTs: Part 1
In honor of CT Tamburello’s 38th birthday, this is part one of a three-part series about the Real World and Challenge star.
Click here to read part two, and here for part three.
Most people don’t get to see themselves change.
It’s a slow, gradual process that happens over time without you ever really noticing.
But what if your entire adult life was televised? Not in a Truman Show, every single day fashion, but for a couple of months almost every year.
For 15 years, on 19 different shows that comprise 167 episodes and 157.5 hours, we’ve seen the development of Chris Tamburello’s adult life.
It’s been a growth arc that even the best fiction writers couldn’t script. CT doesn’t just have the greatest character development in the history of The Challenge, or on reality television.
It’s one of the best character developments to ever be on television, period.
CT 1.0: The Tootsie Pop
We first met CT in 2003 as a 22-year-old kid out of Boston, taking a break from school at UMass Amherst to go on Real World: Paris.
CT was the obvious star of Paris, and also the obvious house pariah.
From the first episode of Paris, CT was presented to us as the most complex, three-dimensional character on the show. In a season where people like Simon, Christina and Mallory received basically no character development, CT had the clearest arc of anyone.
At the beginning of the season, CT described himself as a tootsie pop — hard on the outside but soft on the inside. It took nearly the entire season for his roommates to find his chocolatey center.
By episode four, CT’s roommates already had enough of him.
Leah got pissed at him for taking all the hot water in the shower, and Simon called him a pig for being messy.
After an early flirtation, CT offended Christina by jokingly throwing money at her when she was dancing at the club like she was a stripper. She got even more pissed off back at the house when she realized he ate her peanut butter.
Basically the entire season goes on like this: CT does something to piss the girls off, he lashes out at them in defense of himself, then isolates himself from the rest of the house. Rinse, recycle, repeat.
Leah and (especially) Christina basically existed on this season to fill the role of CT’s disapproving mothers, constantly on his case for his sloppy manners and bad behavior.
When flowers arrived at the house on Valentine’s Day for Christina and Leah with cards that said “From Christopher,” CT took credit for them even though he had no recollection of sending them. It blew up in his face when Leah found out that her friend from back in the States, also named Christopher, was actually the one who sent the flowers.
Whenever CT would find himself in the doghouse with the girls, he would make a gesture to try to win them back, but the girls would usually see right through it. One time he tried to make amends by buying them flowers that were, you know, actually from him. But it was too little, too late, and CT remained at odds with the girls for most of the rest of the season.
CT wasn’t the only one who would annoy the girls. Ace had his fair share of incidents that pissed off the girls, most notably when he and CT stayed up all night playing pool loudly. But Ace was always quick to apologize to the girls.
CT…not so much.
Instead of admitting his faults, CT would always get defensive and fight back against the girls. This led to the cycle of isolation that he found himself in for most of the season.
While CT was more sullen and reserved than in his darker, head smashing days that came later, there were signs of what was to come. After cold-cocking a guy who had his hands behind his back outside of a bar, CT called out Adam for not having his back.
Adam was already starting to turn on CT before their fight. After the incident outside the bar, their relationship was strained for the rest of the season, and it bled into their future appearances on The Challenge together.
Out of anyone on Real World: Paris, it seemed like CT had the worst time. He felt like an outsider from his roommates so much that on their final night together, he stayed back at the house by himself while everyone else got dinner.
But it wasn’t all bad for him. As the season went on, CT and Leah made amends and got closer. He eventually opened up to his roommates and told him about his family issues, including his brother Vinnie (who was murdered years later) leaving his family for nearly a decade.
In Paris, CT fluctuated between being the rugged, borderline scary guy to be around, and a secretly sweet dude who desperately wanted to be liked by his roommates. It carried over to most of his Challenge career.
Despite making the finals on The Inferno and The Inferno II, CT had a relatively quiet (by his standards) first two seasons on The Challenge. On The Inferno, he was a part of the Real World team that threw a mission to get his Paris castmate Leah out, and he got into it with her in the middle of her elimination.
CT also had a bromance with teammate David Burns on The Inferno, selflessly stepping into elimination, where he conquered Shane in a contest of eating cookies and milk (yes, eliminations have changed drastically over the years).
On Inferno II he got into tiffs with Karamo and Dan, as he perceived them both as weak players and wanted off of the Bad Asses team.
But overall it was another somewhat quiet season by his standards, as the season’s drama mostly was caused by the girls. The bickering Bad Asses lost to the Good Guys in the finals, and CT once again fell short in getting a victory.
CT was the life shield king of first two Inferno seasons, racking up 10 saves. In his first two seasons, he was known more for being a beast competitor than a beloved character on the stature of The Miz or Mark Long. But it was on his third season where he blossomed into one of the stars of the franchise.
This is, of course, where he met Diem and launched the greatest showmance in the history of The Challenge.
The CT/Diem relationship was like a real life beauty and the beast. The scariest man to ever be on The Challenge finding love with the most beautiful soul to ever be on the show…it was as if it was taken out of a Disney movie. Diem was extremely vulnerable after her first bout with cancer, and CT was there to make her feel better about herself.
You couldn’t find more polar opposites on the show, but for some reason it seemed to work.
On The Duel, Diem was able to tame the beast, making CT work his ass off just to get a kiss from her.
When Diem was eliminated, it was clear the impact CT had on her experience — the connection was real for both of them.
Of course, some didn’t think CT’s intentions were as pure as he made them out to be. After a controversial loss to Brad cost him a chance at his first win, CT exploded and got into it with Wes. Wes accused CT of “fake dating” Diem to go far in the game.
Despite his fiery exit, it seemed like things were on the upswing for CT. He was in a relationship with Diem, his hotheaded ways seemed to be behind him (other than his blowup against Wes) and it seemed like only a matter of time before he won a season.
But that all changed on The Inferno III.
This piece is called The Three CTs, but there could easily be four CTs (what can I say, The Three CTs just has a better ring to it). Because on The Inferno III, The Gauntlet III and The Duel II, CT fully went to the dark side.
There’s really nothing redeemable about CT on any of these seasons, he’s pretty much just a bully and a scumbag. He had always been on the edge, but in that time span he was a ticking time bomb waiting to detonate.
At the beginning of Inferno III, he attempted what many girls on the show probably wanted to do at some point — choke Kenny to death.
But CT wasn’t done that night, as he cold-cocked Davis of all people and got kicked off for the first time. CT’s flashes of bullying reared its ugly head on Inferno III, and he wasn’t much better on Gauntlet III.
Everyone remembers that CT hit Davis on Inferno III and tried to murdered Adam on Duel II, but CT was arguably at his ugliest on Gauntlet III, and not just because of his awful hair.
His relationship with Diem started to falter on Gauntlet III, and his blow up with Adam foreshadowed what was to come.
CT came on The Duel II with his life falling apart. His relationship with Diem was over and his brother had just been murdered.
He was looking to fight anyone. The night before he fought Adam, he got into it with Isaac.
After CT hooked up with Shauvon, he believed that Adam told Diem about it. Years of frustration between the Real World roommates came to a head, and it resulted in the most gruesome fight in the history of The Challenge.
Many castmembers said CT should never be allowed back on the show after the Adam fight.
And if it were a lesser character, he probably never would have been given another chance.
After getting in two fights in three seasons, and generally acting like a deranged, coked up lunatic for three straight appearances, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if he was never brought back.
But it wasn’t just another character.
It was CT.
