The last time Marley Biyendolo was on our screens, he was being crowned the winner of Big Brother Australia in front of a nation of viewers who voted for him. Now? He’s back to compete on The Challenge Australia, Network Ten’s new competition reality series based on the long-running MTV series.
The show pits 22 reality stars, ranging from MasterChef Australia to Married at First Sight and Australian Survivor, against one another in a race to the finish line. Whoever wins The Challenge Australia will then go on to compete on The Challenge: Global Championship, where they’ll go up against the winners of The Challenge: Argentina, The Challenge: USA, and The Challenge: UK in the hopes of becoming the first ever global winner.
Since winning Big Brother Australia last year, Biyendolo’s life has “completely transformed”, and chatting to The Latch over the phone, he was in high spirits.
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“It’s just been amazing, all good things,” he said. “I had gotten to a point, especially in my basketball career, where I could take two avenues — to continue playing basketball, which is obviously a big commitment and one that I’ve been doing for 15 years, or kind of exploring other opportunities that [have been] presenting themselves, and ones that I kind of want to get my foot into and start doing, as well.”
Eventually, Biyendolo chose to “put the brakes” on his basketball career for a bit — “because I’m not just a basketball player” — but the sport remains close to his heart.
“I got an opportunity to do some commentary in NBL media, the professional basketball league in Australia, which was amazing,” he said.
On top of that, he’s also been doing “some modelling work, some fashion stuff” and “kind of just exploring all different types of avenues and opportunities that Big Brother has brought me. So very busy!”
Of course, one of the opportunities that came along was The Challenge Australia, and it was one that Biyendolo couldn’t pass up.
“It’s a very similar show to Big Brother, in the sense that it’s very competitive, physically, and there’s a social game to it, which obviously intrigues me,” he explained. “That’s what I loved about Big Brother, that you have to manoeuvre your way through the game, in a competitive sense, to get to the end.”
On top of the social game, Biyendolo said, he was excited to participate in the physical challenges, noting that they’re “a level up” from the ones he participated in on Big Brother.
Biyendolo values his physical fitness greatly, and prides himself on “staying in the gym every single day”, so when he was offered the opportunity to compete on The Challenge Australia, he couldn’t wait to see how far he could push himself.
“I really got specific on my training and regime two months prior, and I was training four, five times a week,” he said, adding that he would climb “this insane mountain” twice a week at 6am.
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“I was excited with where my body was at, where I was mentally, and the things I did to prepare,” he said.
With two reality shows under his belt now, we had to know if Biyendolo had any more on the bucket list for the future.
“That’s a good question!” he exclaimed. “You know, I’m not opposed to this whole reality TV thing, now!” he laughed.
“Right after Big Brother I got offered the chance to do Dancing With the Stars and I didn’t wanna take it because I was just so overwhelmed with everything that was going on, but I would love to do a fun show like that!” he shared. “I would definitely be interested in doing something like that, or if it’s something competitive and physical like The Challenge.“
“If the show has anything to do with physicality or competitive nature in that aspect, or if it’s a fun-filled show like Dancing With the Stars or something like that, I would definitely be interested, yeah!” he finished.
The Challenge Australia premieres at on Monday, November 14 at 7.30pm, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
Want more The Challenge Australia? Click here to read all our content, and check out the stories below:
- This Is What Brooke Jowett Has Been Up to Since Competing on ‘Australian Survivor: All Stars’
- We Finally Have a Premiere Date for ‘The Challenge Australia’
- Do They Have What it Takes? Meet the Entire Cast of ‘The Challenge Australia’
- Australian Survivor’s Johnny Talks ‘The Challenge’ and Whether He’ll Bring Back the Mullet
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