Destination X'smost recently eliminated contestant, Ally Bross, shared more about the strategies that made her such a dominant threat in the game, and left some clues about her recently announced relationship with fellowDestination Xseason 1 star Mack Fitzgerald. Ally, a 27 year old travel influencer who's been to all 7 continents, was one of the strongest in the game throughout the season.
While Ally was quick to make it clear she was playing down her intelligence in the game, it was obvious she knew what she was doing when it came to travel. Keeping her career as a travel influencer quiet, Ally quickly connected witha fellowDestination Xcast member, Shayne Cureton. Falling into a dangerous showmance,Ally's dominance in the game kept them strong.
While Ally's showmance was a major part of her time onDestination X,the experience she gained along the way with her fellow castmates may have been the best part of her time on the show. Despite her clashes in the gamewith players like Peter Weber, Ally's relationships with others like Tai Lowry and Mack were a net positive.
Although the endgame ofDestination Xhas come into focus without Ally,she spoke to Screen Rant about her time on the showand who she thinks is playing the best game.
Screen Rant: Ally, I was so sad to see you go this week.
Ally Bross: Ugh, the worst. Thank you, I was sad too, obviously.
Screen Rant: What drew you to Destination X? Obviously, throughout the season, we've kind of seen you talk about your background. What made you interested in the show?
Ally: So, right before someone reached out to me about the show, I had finished traveling to all seven continents. I was kind of riding that high, and I felt like I had fallen into kind of a low. I was like, I achieved this awesome goal of mine that I've had since I was a kid. And I was feeling, I don't know, not empty. Empty is the wrong word, but I was craving another adventure. And when I heard about Destination X, I was like, holy s**t, this might be the thing that can like fill my adventurous cup, right?
Screen Rant: That's awesome. I think you've mentioned that in the show that you've traveled to all continents, but that's...
Ally: They put me in the beginning saying that I've been to all seven continents, but then in one of the episodes, I don't know if it's a soundbite or if they took a word out, but they have me saying, I've been to all seven continents, but none of Europe. So I received a lot of comments about that. People are like, she's an idiot. [laughs] I'm pretty sure I said, but like none of Europe, but I think it was better to say, but none of Europe for TV.
Ally's Newly Revealed Relationship With Mack Fitzgerald Started On Screen
She Shared How Close She & Mack Were Before The Reveal
WhenAllyspoke to Screen Rant, prior to revealing her relationship with Mack online, she shared how close they were after the way their relationship had started on sceren.
Screen Rant: Going back to the beginning of the competition, I actually want your take on this, Mack really targeted you right at the beginning. Mack was like, she's dumb. I'm going to align with her. Seeing that back, did you get that feeling while you were in it or did you not know until later?
Ally: So when Mac is seen saying that, she actually had never met me before. It was clipped together to be like, I'm going to work with the person in the room. But reality, if her plan to combine our tags were to work, she would want to work with someone who is going to get tags. Otherwise combined tags with the dumbest person in the room, you're just going to end up with no tags. Right. But I did think it was hilarious.
Mack and I are super close...we're super close. So we laughed about it together. We watched the premiere together and I was like, that's hilarious. I actually think one of the producers called Mack and warned her and they were like, Hey, by the way, it's going to look like you were talking. But yeah, Mack and I are super close, so I was fine with that.
Screen Rant: Moving into the show itself, you go into this competition and you meet Shayne. Showmances are always so complicated. Did you kind of understand going into the competition that it was going to put a target on your back? How did you feel about it?
Ally: I think that I did have an understanding that there would be a target on my back for being in a showmance. But Shayne and I from the very beginning said, Hey, we're not going to let this mess up our game. I'm going to work with Tai. You're going to stay aligned with Biggy [Bailey] and we can co-mingle somewhere in the middle. So and I thought that would work long term, but when Tai ended up leaving, I was like, Oh, wait, now Shayne has Biggy and me and I have Shayne. So it was kind of like, s**t, my girl's gone. That was my link. I promised everything to her. I was like, it'll be me and you in the end.
I loved Tai from the very beginning. So, yeah, I didn't really think that it would be a super big problem, especially because of our mutual understanding of, hey, we're playing a game, and if we're meant to be together, we have to be able to respect that. I didn't necessarily go into it thinking that I would take any showmance seriously.
It was surprising to me that Shayne and I got along so well and that we had a lot in common and that he was so down to earth. I did make the joke about every guy I tend to think is my husband, which historically has been true. But I didn't think that I was going to connect with anyone. So when he was there and we were bonding over classified CIA documents, I was like, oh, my God, this guy's great.
Screen Rant: I've been saying this in almost every interview, but you guys need a little reunion.
Ally: I agree. And I think that we all expected it to be a lot more socially heavy in the final edit. But I think because we do compete in two large challenges and we only have a 42 minute episode, it's really hard to show how close we all got. I mean, we were really like family. So when watching it back and seeing certain things portrayed, like I feel like all of a sudden Mac, Biggy, Shayne and I are besties and I'm like, dang, it didn't really even show that kind of building. But I imagine it's so tough with just the travel elements.
Like it's so hard to fit all that in. I think that there's just not enough time in an episode to fit in absolutely everything. But yeah, I everyone was so close. And I do wish that that was a little a little bit more in the episodes. I think it would have given the show a little more depth just with all of our personalities being allowed to shine more. And I think it would have made the exits harder because we really were all so close. Anytime someone left, it wasn't like, yay. It was always sad.
Screen Rant: Going into that final challenge, how were you feeling? Were you high stress? Like you seem a little bit calm, cool and collected, but I was wondering if there were any nerves underneath there.
Ally: I had known that Peter and Rick [Szabo] were working together and it's not shown, but you can kind of deduce that when they have me saying, Pete, you're dumb. If you want to go up against Rick, you shouldn't be alliancing with him. He's very smart. So knowing that they were working together, I think I was kind of accepting my defeat in a way. I knew I was about to be going into a challenge. I didn't really know what that challenge was going to be. I knew it was going to be two versus one. So I guess I was kind of hoping, you know, maybe it'll be something where we're all individually against each other. But the way that that challenge was set up, I mean, the moment I was explained the rules, I was like, oh, I'm out. Peter's going to go against Rick.
Rick's not going to go to Peter, which I do think was strange gameplay from both of them, because they at this point are the ones who know left in the game the most about, I would say, European geography. So to want to keep each other in the game, but not me because I'm in a showmance with the other guy who doesn't know a lot about European geography. It didn't make a lot of strategic sense. I think you want to go to the end with someone you can beat. So I felt it was weird that neither of them flipped and got one of them out rather than me. But yeah, I was pretty calm about it. It was just a game at the end of the day.
Screen Rant: In terms of Peter, now they've mentioned in the episode so many times that nobody knows we're working together. So you guys all knew? Was it super obvious?
Ally: Not all of us, and that's the issue. Mack and I knew. Shayne knew. But Biggy did not believe it. Shayne, Mac, and I were very persistent with telling Biggy, hey, you can't trust Rick. Rick is working with Peter. And Biggy would be like, no, he's a good guy. He's been through so much. He wouldn't lie to me. And Biggy and Rick were bunked next to each other. So they really got close every night, so who knows what lies Rick was spinning.
It was impossible to get Biggy to kind of believe us. There's actually a cutout scene of Shayne pleading to Rick, not to Rick, Shayne pleading to Peter to save me. I'm sitting at the table with Rick and Biggy talking about how the OGs need to win. I didn't believe Rick for s**t. Shayne was like, Peter, if you're smart, you should keep Ally and I in, we're not European geography threats. He didn't take the bait.
But yeah, Shayne and I definitely knew. I think Mack, well, I know Mac 1000% knew. But at this point, she was gone. So it was like it was Shayne and I saying Rick was working with Peter against Rick saying he wasn't.
Screen Rant: My last question for you: who do you think out of the four who are left is playing the best game? Obviously, I think up until now, you were playing the best game, but with you gone, who now?
Ally: I think that it really depends on what game attributes you see as the most intelligent, right? Because you can say they're all playing a good game in their own way. You could say that Peter and Shayne are riding the coattails of Rick and Biggy. But if you look really closely, you can see that Peter and Biggy and Shayne didn't always know where they were.
They were kind of using outside alliances to figure out what they were, where they were, what they were up to what they were going to put in the map room. So I think that yeah, Shayne played a good social game in terms of he had Biggy and I to help him continue. So in that sense, that was a great social game. Peter played a good social game by being there for Rick when Rick was the odd one out. Biggy played an okay social game by also being cool with Rick, but I that will come back to bite him.
So I think Rick has to be playing the best game. I think that Rick is being conniving. I think that he's lying a lot and I think that he's also doing a very good job of playing the entire field. Even though it's not necessarily the game that I would have played, I think it's a really good game and I think it's very successful. And watching it back, I think it makes the rest of the boys who are still in the game look a little foolish. Besides Shayne, he knew about Rick and Peter. There was nothing he could do about it. But unfortunately, and I love Biggy, I'm going to see him in Chattanooga next week. Unfortunately, I think it makes Biggy look a little silly that he didn't realize what was happening right in front of him. Rick's playing a really good game.
Destination Xairs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EDT on NBC.
Source:Ally Bross/Instagram
Destination X
- Release Date
- May 27, 2025
- Network
- NBC
Cast
Self - Host
Allyson “Ally” Bross
