Season 2 of The Challenge: USA lost its first Survivor veteran in a devastating elimination last night (September 14): the one and only Sebastian Noel.
The Florida native began his reality TV career on Survivor: Ghost Island back in 2018, where he was depicted as a laid-back beach boy with little to no strategy.
Falling for runner-up Domenick Abbate’s fake hidden immunity idol, Sebastian fell into a false sense of safety, causing him to refrain from using his extra vote at tribal council (which he had earned during a trip to Ghost Island) to take out Domenick. Because of this, the 22-year-old was blindsided at the final six, leaving with his advantage in his pocket —how heartbreaking!
After taking a few years to dwell on his past mistakes, Sebastian came into The Challenge: USA ready to do things differently. In a video titled “Meet The Cast: Survivor” on The Challenge’s official YouTube channel, Sebastian reflected on his Survivor journey prior to leaving for Croatia:
“I have a bunch of regrets. You have time in between shows, and you have the time to think about what you did wrong and mentally prepare yourself for the next time you make a TV appearance, which is right now, and I can’t wait to express those through action… I know I came off as this kind of like beach boy that just was hanging around the beach on Survivor, and that’s okay, because I want people to think that, because I do have a lot of strategy and I do have a lot more coming. I promise you that.”
Unfortunately, Sebastian’s strategy began to crumble as soon as eight-time The Challenge competitor, Tori Deal, captured his heart. Sebastian gushed about this unexpected connection in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly:
“I didn’t want anything to do with a girl, but just immediately my eyes were like, ‘Oh my God, she’s beautiful’… We would flirt every day, and then it [got] to this point where we couldn’t separate [from] each other. Like, we were magnets… Obviously I realized working with her was definitely beneficial, but that wasn’t my goal. It wasn’t my intention to fall in love with a vet like that just for gameplay. I definitely liked her and she liked me back.”
While the two lovebirds continuously flirted with one another throughout season two of The Challenge: USA, fans of the beloved competition series were left with just one question after Sebastian’s unfortunate elimination last night: are Sebastian and Tori still together?
Keep scrolling to find out everything we know about Sebastian and Tori’s relationship beyond the game…
Are Sebastian Noel and Tori Deal of The Challenge: USA still together?
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, just hours after his elimination aired on CBS, Sebastian gushed about the status of his relationship with Tori, revealing that they are not dating.
“I waited in Croatia for her to leave the game [either by getting eliminated or through the end of filming]. I wanted to see her, and I didn’t want to go home without a final goodbye. We had some fun there. When she got done with the game, we got a sailboat with a couple other people, and we cruised around Croatia. It was just the most amazing time, and we got to spend some quality time together.”
After “spend[ing] some quality time together” after their respective journeys on The Challenge: USA came to a close, the duo began to hang out with one another back in the United States.
“She’s actually my neighbor in Miami. We’ve been hanging out for the last three months. We’re not dating, we’re not a relationship. We don’t want to date. I just got out of a five-year relationship, and so did she, so it was kind of like, we don’t need this. We like each other, but we don’t need to date, but we’ve been really good friends ever since and continued. We just hung out a couple of days ago, so it’s been awesome. We’ll be together for a while.”
Funny enough, the five-year relationship that Sebastian mentioned was yet another showmance!
Sebastian was in a relationship with his fellow castaway from Survivor: Ghost Island, Jenna Bowman, that seemed to have wedding bells on the horizon, however, it ended just last year, ultimately shocking Survivor fans across the country.
In addition to this, Tori was engaged to a fellow The Challenge veteran up until 2020. During The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2, Tori got engaged to Jordan Wisely, which ended prior to competing on The Challenge: World Championship together — how wild is that?
Given that both individuals just got out of serious relationships, it makes sense why they are not rushing into anything. It looks like the duo is simply enjoying each other’s company right now, and we are soooo here for it.
While Sebastian and Tori’s to-die-for relationship will be greatly missed on our television screens, be sure to catch new episodes of The Challenge: USA every Thursday at 10pm ET/PT on CBS — with the finale quickly approaching, things are starting to heat up!
