The reality TV powers-that-be have crowned a new “America’s Ultimate Supervillain,” and it might not be the person you thought it would be. Yes, though The Challenge star Wes Bergmann pulled out his usual bag of manipulative tricks to try and control and cajole his fellow villains all the way to the end of House of Villains Season 2, his Machiavellian gameplay didn’t end up securing him the throne. Rather, Love & Hip Hop‘s Safaree Samuels was crowned victorious overall, taking home that coveted title and the big $200,000 cash prize.
To many within the lair—as well as Bergmann himself—the second season of House of Villains was Wes’s to lose, and he acted accordingly, striking up strategic alliances with Samuels, Jessie Godderz (Big Brother) and, secretly, Tiffany “New York” Pollard (The Flavor of Love); crafting a fake advantage to fool then-Supervillain of the Week Kandy Muse (RuPaul’s Drag Race); and even resorting to dropping to his knees to beg during the final banishment ceremony. In the end, his ruthlessness against even his closest allies became the kiss of death for Bergmann, with Jessie voting to break the tie between Wes and Safaree in the latter’s favor.
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Parade‘s Christina Izzo—who has been bringing you interviews with the banished villains all season long—sat down with Wes to discuss House of Villains Season 2, which of his fellow villains he actually admired and why he considers himself a “mercenary” for creating great reality television.
Art Streiber/E! Entertainment
Interview with Wes Bergmann from House of Villains Season 2
Christina Izzo: Let’s take it to the beginning of your time in the house—when you saw who you would be competing against, did you immediately think you had it in the bag? Were you intimidated by anyone?
Wes Bergmann: I wouldn’t say intimidated. But I wasn’t in the house for 30 seconds before I heard the word “threat.” I walked into a situation where either you knew exactly who I was, the number one person to win, and therefore I’ve started two steps back, or you’re going to find out quickly. I knew that I was in for an uphill battle.
It was a pretty stacked cast: you had Richard Hatch, you had Tiffany Pollard. Was there anybody that you were like, ‘Oh, that person is competition.’
(Scoffs) No.
Related: ‘Survivor’ Winner Richard Hatch Says Host Jeff Probst ‘Has Lost Sight’ But ‘House of Villains’ Emcee Joel McHale Is ‘Perfect’ (Exclusive)
Take me through your overall strategy. As Jessie criticized in the last episode, you largely chose not to prove yourself in the challenges themselves and to instead let your alliances and gameplay do the dirty work. Why didn’t you want to compete? You’re clearly good at competitions—you’ve won The Challenge several times.
The Supervillain situation is a catch-22 because you’re safe for that cycle and you get to enforce your will on the game by choosing people, but then it also means you have to make three enemies. And so winning is a dumb thing to do, especially early on. Maybe at the end, there’s arguments for doing it because you have no other choice, but at the beginning, you don’t want to.
Think back to the very first episode—we go and play the game in the fake prison, and I help my team win by saying, “Oh, it’s on the floor in black light.” I showcased on the very first night that I am the alpha competitor, so that was already done. My team was like, “Do you want to be Supervillain?” and I was like, “No, give it to Safaree.”
Almost every single time we showed up for the [challenges], the idea was, I’m throwing it, I’m doing as poorly as I can, I’m trying to melt into the middle. Because that power backfires on people and I want others to have it. If you want it, I’m going to help you get it.
Related: ‘Big Brother’ Star Jessie Godderz Shares the Reality TV Show He Is ‘Embarrassed, Ashamed and Disappointed’ He Wasn’t Cast On (Exclusive)
Let’s talk about that infamous fake advantage, the secret immunity card that you made. When did you decide to make it and when did you decide you were going to use it against Kandy?
I did this on the charity version of The Challenge almost a decade ago. I did it as a prank—it was not meant to get me an advantage as much as it was to humiliate someone who was being mean to me, and it did exactly that. To this day I get a chuckle out of it. They edited it out though, which meant, in my back pocket, I was like, “‘m gonna do this again one day.” So when I got the call for House of Villains, the idea came to me very, very quickly. I again was going to use it as a prank: I was going to find someone who was my adversary and I was going to put it in a place where they would find it and they would use it—potentially wait until they got in trouble, not politick, use it and it would kick them out of the game. But at the very least humiliate them, and they would have deserved it because they were being mean to me.
But then two things happened. One, no one was being mean to me. Everybody was really cool, so I didn’t really feel the need to humiliate anybody. And then also when the [Knockblocker] thing got used, I looked at it and it’s like, my thing that I made was better written, better designed, had more expensive jewelry. So, it was evident that I wasn’t just holding some sort of a prank, I was holding something that I could use for myself. And I actually used it on everyone that won, that’s why so many people knew about it. They only showed the Kandy one because it was the most provable one where that saved me. If I hadn’t used it, I would have been gone. Kandy would have put me up as a guaranteed thing. I probably would have been able to finagle a vote or two, but the reality is everyone was drooling to get rid of me because I’m the threat.
Trae Patton/E! Entertainment
Do you think you overplayed that hand, so to speak? Was it too villainous a move?
There are going to be pundits on the internet who wonder whether I overplayed my hand, and what I would say is, one, if I didn’t use it, I would have been gone, so there was no alternative. There’s no rationalizing with Kandy because Kandy was right; she should have put me up.
The second thing is, in 10 years, people are going to look back on this show and you want to know what they’re gonna talk about at that happy hour? They’re gonna talk about me. When you are trying to engineer your way out of 15 minutes of fame and into 15-plus years, you have to make decisions that disrespect the balance of what is entertaining versus what is good for your game. I try to strike a balance. But when I’m torn about what’s good for my game versus what is entertaining, I err on the side of what is entertaining, because I am a television star before I’m a gamer. Gamers—there’s tons of them on Survivor and Big Brother, and we’ll never see them on other shows. They’re not memorable, and I’m not one of them. I’m on another level and I do things that go viral, because I’ve been brought there as a mercenary from the casting directors and the producers to make their shows, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.
In the final voting, Richard Hatch said you were the only one who understood how the game was meant to be played. Do you agree with that? Was everyone else just not being villainous enough?
There was some good gameplay here and there. I want to compliment a few people. Kandy was doing something that is as much cheating as making a fake immunity idol. We have our phones, so Kandy was texting the people who had lost and meeting up with them, securing what she called ‘her little juries,’ which was brilliant. If I wasn’t so busy being the star of the show, I should have done that. But then her dumbass told us she did that! She couldn’t just keep her mouth shut. She’s funny and smart, there’s so many things to compliment about her in those regards.
Also, I don’t think that it came across as well as it should have, but Safaree is one of the best social game players I’ve met in my entire life. He’s so freaking likable right from the jump. He got $200,000 to make himself feel better about what I’m going to say—but I stole the last half of the show. I’m going to be the most memorable character, and there’s no denying that. I went in there with that being my mission number one and I accomplished that mission. That said, I think that there could have been more props given to Safaree. He would do very good on Big Brother, Survivor, The Challenge because you want him around, you like him. All that said, I am the people’s champion of Season 2 of House of Villains.
Related: Kandy Muse Snuck Away During Filming ‘House of Villains’ to Party in WeHo (Exclusive
So what’s next for Wes? Are there any other reality TV competitions you’d like to bring your brand of villainy to?
I am going to be on Worst Cooks in America that airs [on January 5] and it is Heroes vs. Villains. I will let you figure out what side I am on. It was a fantastic experience, and I may or may not have been sabotaging people’s dishes the entirety of the time I was there.
We would expect nothing less!
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
Past episodes of E!’s House of Villains Season 2 are available to stream on Peacock.
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