It was considered a photo finish on Wednesday’s (September 4) elimination on The Challenge, and now, some cast members of the show are openly disputing the results of the arena battle between Horacio Gutierrez Jr. and Derrick Kosinski.
Though the latter won in the episode, the results weren’t immediately clear to certain members of the crowd or the contestants themselves.
The arena elimination, titled “Pick It Up,” required the two competitors — after Aneesa Ferreira and Jenny West’s turn, of course — to throw balls into a chute and collect jacks before catching the balls on the other end and filling the board with all 40 jacks. In the last moments, Derrick had to collect three more jacks, while Horacio needed just one.
Ultimately, host T.J. Lavin announced, “The one player out of the gentlemen that placed all 40 of their jacks on the board first was Derrick.”
Devin Walker took to social media after the episode to call the decision “horsesh**.” In a series of Instagram Stories videos, he reviewed footage of the final moments of the elimination and pointed a moment when, after the horn was blown, there was an empty peg on Derrick’s board. Then, when the camera returned to the same place, the missing jack was in its place.
“Casual, Horacio’s casual. Puts it in. Horn blows. Pause it right there. What’s that? What’s Derrick stopping, dropping his ball? What’s that? …. Then all of a sudden, where the f*** did this peg come from?’” he said. “Horsesh**… Horacio won.”
His analysis was Gutierrez’s girlfriend and fellow competitor Nurys Mateo, who was already eliminated by the time the episode took place but wrote on social media, “THE F***ING LIES FROM PRODUCTION!! I’m f**ing lividdddddd. This is not hate to Derrick because I love him but production just didn’t want any more era 1 people to go home which is why they lied and said he got it first. You CLEARLY see he’s missing a peg…” Then she added, “AND THE RULES WERE YOU NEEDED TO HAVE ALL PEGS BEFORE CALLING CHECK.”
Kosinski responded directly to that tweet by writing, “Could it be that, that board was so fukt up, that it needed a ref & it ACTUALLY ALSO fell out when we went to dab up?? Bc all 40 were in when we were done.” But Mateo continued to insist his board wasn’t complete when the elimination battle ended.
This is your board before the dab up so no it didn’t fall out when you did that. If you were getting your pegs picked up, so should’ve Horacio. I know they don’t show it but his would fall and he was in charge of picking his up but you got help? Make it make sense. https://t.co/p6dOjaw8ai pic.twitter.com/QUXaS6F3s4— NURYS MATEO (@NurysKMateo) September 5, 2024
The hubbub has caused several other players to weigh in as well, with Rachel Robinson insisting it was clear Kosinski was the rightful winner: “They had to fix Aneesa’s multiple times too,” she wrote. “Not cause she did anything, the wall wasn’t keeping them in place… @DerrickMTV won this without any question. I saw it myself.”
Related‘The Challenge’ Season 40 Exit Interview: Aneesa Ferreira
It wasn’t just fellow Era 1-ers taking Kosinski’s side on the matter, either. Era 2’s Emily Schromm also weighed in on the matter, offering a new photo of the wall in question, which had all 40 pegs, although one was leaning on two others instead of resting in its intended hole. She wrote, “People are losing their minds haha. Just an fyi TJ said rules were ‘first to put all pegs on the wall”. Not ‘in the hole’. ON THE WALL. See photo of peg on wall. @DerrickMTV won. It was insanely close but don’t let anyone on Era 3 try to con youzzz.”
People are losing their minds hahaJust an fyi TJ said rules were “first to put all pegs on the wall”. Not “in the hole”. ON THE WALL.See photo of peg on wall. @DerrickMTV won. It was insanely close but don’t let anyone on Era 3 try to con youzzzOk good night pic.twitter.com/yBqokBZNRo— Emily Schromm (@emilynschromm) September 5, 2024
Who’s right here? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below!
The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras, Wednesdays, 8/7c, MTV
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