Nick Jonas has compared the popular Disney Channel Games to being like Love Island “on crack.”
In June 2006, Disney Channel introduced an all-star sporting event called the Disney Channel Games.
This annual competition featured international actors, including Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, and Zac Efron, who competed against each other to raise funds for various charities.
In 2008, the Jonas brothers—Kevin, Joe, and Nick—all participated, with Nick’s Infernos ultimately winning the Disney Channel Games Cup.
Nearly 16 years later, Nick, now 31, shared his experiences of the month-long games on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
During the chat’s opening moments, the Camp Rock actor mentioned he had skipped the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony to speak with Fallon.
After hearing Nick discuss his love for the summer games, Fallon humorously noted, “You never competed in the Olympics of course but you did however compete in the Disney [Channel] Games.”
To jog the singer’s memory of his past sporting accomplishments, Fallon, a New York native, displayed a picture from the 2008 DC Games.
In the photograph, Nick is shown wearing his red Inferno uniform alongside his older brothers Kevin and Joe, who represented the Comets and the Cyclones, respectively.
Laughing at the nostalgic image, Nick went on to describe the event’s concept.
“For those that don’t know, the Disney Channel Games were basically the Olympics, but where they would bring in a hundred-ish Disney Channel stars from all over the world and make us compete in silly games.”
“But what it really was, was like Love Island on crack.”
“They would put a bunch of teenagers in the Disney park after hours and just say: ‘Let’s see what happens,’” he elaborated.
Nick was alluding to the dating game show Love Island, which features single participants living in isolation while trying to find their perfect match.
Every Islander is under constant video surveillance and can win a significant cash prize if they make it to the final days.
In 2019, the U.S. got its own version of the British show, initially airing on CBS for three seasons before being picked up by Peacock in 2022.
Previous hosts of Love Island have included Arielle Vandenberg, Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland, and most recently Ariana Madix.
The sixth season of the show is currently in progress in Fiji and is scheduled to conclude on August 19.