SPOILERS are ahead for the Season 2 premiere of Celebrity Weakest Link, now streaming with a Hulu subscription.
The 2026 TV schedule’s fall slate is really starting to heat up this week, and I decided to try a new show: Celebrity Weakest Link. It’s a FOX quiz show with roots originally on British TV back in the early 2000s. Jane Lynch started a celebrity version last year, and now it’s back for a second season. This week’s episode assembled a bunch of notorious reality TV villains, and y’all… I wasn’t expecting to start cheering on Tom Sandoval. Let’s talk about it.
Celebrity Weakest Link’s Premiere Was All About Reality Villains
The primetime series brought together an impressive lineup of “villains” from a breadth of reality TV. Aside from Sandoval, his fellow The Traitors star Bob the Drag Queen was there along with 90-Day Fiance’s Ed Brown, Real Housewives’ Monica Garcia, Survivor’s Richard Hatch, The Apprentice’s Omarosa, Flavor of Love’s Tiffany Pollard and Selling Sunset’s Christine Quinn.
I hadn’t seen the show before, but the running bit was how the celebrity guests were collectively bad at not breaking the chain of correct answers to questions. The premise is that each round Lynch gives them more possible money to win for their chosen charity, and a new player is voted off every episode. Every round I watched as the reality TV stars flopped on some pretty simple questions, and missed out on so, so much money.
Tom Sandoval Was The Unlikely Contestant I Couldn’t Help But Root For
At the start of the episode, Omarosa was killing it, but then she lost steam and got a ton of easy questions wrong. In the beginning, I was absolutely rooting for Bob the Drag Queen to keep going since he seemed to have some solid focus and a grasp on getting enough questions right. However, when he was voted off somehow, my focus quickly moved to Tom Sandoval. I know! I can hardly believe it myself.
Sandoval famously became a reality TV villain after a massive cheating scandal on Vanderpump Rules. He’s also been on a number of other shows like Special Forces, where he was pushed to the limit and last year’s iconic season of The Traitors. On the Peacock show, he went viral for his 10am pit stains and banishing Boston Rob.
Don’t get me wrong, Sandoval was one of the most entertaining parts of The Traitors, but after watching his gameplay, I just didn’t think he’d be very good at Celebrity Weakest Link. But, during the episode I found myself rooting for his victory because he constantly was getting the answers right and banking the money for the game. He was the most consistent player, and ended up winning a bunch of money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
It was truly a surprise, but hey, that’s why it’s fun to see reality TV stars on different kinds of shows like this. This one wasn’t about social deception or personal dirty laundry – it was all about the facts, and he really knew his stuff!
