Johnny Bananas Was ‘Not Surprised’ to Be Murdered First on ‘The Traitors’: ‘My Reputation Preceded Me’ (Exclusive)

Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio is one of the busiest people in reality competition television right now, but his time on the second season of Peacock's The Traitors was cut unseasonably short.

On the second episode, titled "Welcome to the Dark Side," The Challenge alum was chosen by the two original Traitors, Phaedra Parks and Dan Gheesling, to be their first "murder" victim.

"I think he's someone who has the ability to catch us," Gheesling said after suggesting Bananas for elimination. "He is a wild horse," Parks agreed.

For Bananas, who made it all the way to the final two in E!'s House of Villains, the fact that he was targeted first was no surprise.

"My reputation preceded me this time," he told The Messenger. "What took me out, I mean, I think it's obvious that the powers that be and the Traitors and the people that had power obviously deemed me as a threat to not just their existence in the game, but I think just their existence on television in general."

Bananas, who was a Faithful, went on to clarify that the reason his presence in the Scottish castle posed such a problem for the Traitors was that he "brought entertainment" that they could not and therefore "was a big threat."

Despite being less than shocked by his instant elimination, he did think the Traitors erred in taking him out since he could be such a lightning rod, which would help them hide out more.

"Just from a strategic standpoint, I just don't think that that was the best way to go that early on," he said. "I think, if anything, it just exposed their game even more. You leave someone like me around, people already assume I was a Traitor. You keep someone like me around as a shiny object to keep the attention off of you."

And although he didn't get to stay long, Bananas appreciated the chance to shake things up with fellow Challenge all-timer Chris "C.T." Tamburello.

"Every time I've ever been on a TV screen with C.T., we've always been at each other's throats," he said. "I was excited to be on a show where finally we could put our differences aside and actually be able to compete alongside each other and fight for something bigger than just the win at the end, and that's that we're representing The Challenge and our franchise."

The first three episodes of The Traitors Season 2 are now available to stream on Peacock. New episodes premiere Thursdays at 9/8c through March 8.