LI 'Survivor' star Domenick Abbate joins 'The Challenge: USA'

Nesconset's Domenick Abbate, who soared to second place in 2018's "Survivor: Ghost Island," has now taken up "The Challenge: USA," a new CBS series premiering July 6 in which reality-show fan-favorites compete in mental and physical faceoffs. The network announced the new addition to the "Challenge" franchise Wednesday.

" 'Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!' " Abbate, 43, wrote on Instagram, quoting the famous line spoken by Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in "The Godfather Part III" (1990). "Come check out your boy in this season of #TheChallengeUSA where I’ll be competing against fellow @survivorcbs @bigbrothercbs @theamazingrace @loveislandusa contestants for a shot at a big prize," he continued.

Some of his "Challenge: USA" cast mates, including "Big Brother" veterans Alyssa Lopez, Tiffany Mitchell, Enzo Palumbo and Xavier Prather, "Survivor" alumna Desi Williams, and Shannon St. Clair and Justine Ndiba from "Love Island," all posted supportive comments, as did Long Beach's Tommy Sheehan, who won "Survivor" season 39 in 2019 and later competed on MTV's "The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies."

Abbate's post was geotagged Argentina, where some past seasons of various shows in the "Challenge" franchise have filmed. CBS has not announced where the new show was shot.

In a variation on past editions' gameplay, each competitor on "The Challenge: USA" is given $1,000 to start individual accounts. Then, "In each episode, an algorithm pairs contestants who will face off to earn money for their accounts by winning challenges or eliminating their opponents," the network's announcement described. "This will not be an easy task, as they will be paired with a randomly selected competitor every episode, making alliances and strategies more difficult than ever."

In addition to a $500,000 grand prize, the players also compete for a spot in another upcoming brand expansion with the working title "The Challenge: Global Championship.”

Competing on "Survivor: Ghost Island" with fellow Long Islander Jacob Derwin, a music instructor from Merrick whom he had never met previously, Abbate missed winning by a hair, following an unprecedented tie vote in the finale and a second vote that gave cast mate Wendell Holland the win.

A construction supervisor at his uncle's North Massapequa-based Tri-Messine Construction Company, Abbate has three children with wife Kristin. "I can't tell you the overwhelming amount of support I got from Long Islanders" during his "Survivor" season, Abbate told Newsday in 2018. "I'll walk into a supermarket two towns away and I got people coming up to me and telling me what great a game they think I'm playing," adding that, "Even as I watch it, I look at myself like it's a character. 'Oh! That's funny what he said!' "