Worst Cooks in America Season 30 Cast Revealed: Reality Stars Swap Drama for Dinner Disasters
- Je-Ree
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Get ready to cringe, cheer, and maybe even choke a little because Worst Cooks in America is back with a brand-new Season 30, and the guest list is pure reality-TV chaos. This time around, no home cooks. No semi-pros. Just a gaggle of celebs, athletes, and infamous personalities who can probably deliver a zinger on camera but maybe not a decent plate of pasta.
Premiering January 4, 2026 under the cheeky subtitle “Reality Check,” Season 30 hits the gas with a roster designed to entertain even before the cooking begins. The cast includes Lisa Barlow (Real Housewives of Salt Lake City), Downtown Julie Brown (MTV VJ), Val Chmerkovskiy (Dancing With the Stars pro), Reza Farahan (Shahs of Sunset), Amara La Negra (Love & Hip Hop: Miami), Ryan Lochte (Olympic swimmer), Manila Luzon (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Romeo Miller (rapper/actor), Beverley Mitchell (7th Heaven), and CT Tamburello (The Challenge) all entering the culinary boot camp with roughly the same cooking pedigree: none.
Guiding this band of would-be chefs are familiar faces turned mentors: Jeff Mauro and Tiffany Derry, each with prior experience on the show. Their task? Whip this motley crew into kitchen shape with themed challenges, blind cook-offs, and the ultimate prize: $25,000 and the right to claim they’re no longer among America’s worst cooks.
Season 30 doesn’t just reuse old challenges it's serving a full-on reboot of the show’s tone. The premiere kicks off with a baseline challenge: these celebs attempt to cook a “red-carpet-worthy” dish, giving veteran chefs (and viewers) a first taste of just how bad or surprisingly not terrible their skills are. Then comes a spicy main-dish challenge: piri-piri chicken, of all things. As the season unfolds, the challenges only get wilder, from movie-genre cooking showdowns to relay-race kitchen chaos and scavenger-hunt ingredient missions. The bottom performers face blind elimination cook-offs so expect tears, sabotage, and some seriously questionable plating.
With longtime mentor Anne Burrell gone following her tragic death in 2025, this season marks a significant shift for the series. Bringing back Mauro and Derry preserves the show’s heart, but the tone leans more toward chaos, drama, and reality-TV antics than gourmet transformation.
Season 30 could be the most hilarious yet. Casting for chaos is guaranteed with names like Val Chmerkovskiy and Ryan Lochte folks famous for athleticism, dance, or drama, not culinary skill. The high stakes are more about ego than technique, and the fresh energy post-Anne may make the show unpredictable, unpolished, and infinitely more entertaining.
Season 30 of Worst Cooks in America promises disaster, dramatics, and hopefully a few edible meals. Whether you’re rooting for redemption or just popcorn-ready train wrecks, this cast delivers on both. The “Reality Check” reboot brings believable cooking incompetence, reality-TV egos, and fresh mentorship to the table making it one of the most volatile and entertaining seasons yet.