There may not be a new episode of The Challenge this week, but the drama continues.
During the September 4 episode of Battle of the Ages, Derrick Kosinski and Horacio Gutierrez Jr. faced each other on the sand in an elimination match that ended in great confusion for all involved. Host TJ Lavin announced that Derrick had defeated Horacio in the competition, which included a battle to place 40 pegs in a wall amidst an endurance challenge.
After the episode aired, Horacio claimed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he had put all of his pegs in the wall correctly while Derek had not. He also claimed that production Help Derek picks up the pegs that fell from the wall and puts them back in place. The footage showed that Derek had an empty hole in the wall, with two pegs pushed into one. Additionally, Horacio said that the ball got stuck while he was on the platform, causing it to fall behind him.
diverse He confirms that after a week of back-and-forth and allegations made by several cast members, producers held a Zoom call with Derek and Horacio on Tuesday, September 10, where they showed them raw footage of the rules the players were told and the entire competition.
“I think the main producers at Bunim/Murray Productions and the people at MTV made a decision to do something they had never done in 40 seasons — because of all the negative feedback — and that was to show me and Horatio the footage and the rules of how this thing would happen,” Derek said on Wednesday’s episode of the “Challenge Mania” podcast, which he hosts with Scott Yaeger.
Horacio joined the podcast, saying the producer said, “This is probably the first and last time we're going to do this to anyone. We're going to show you the raw footage along with the rules.” The footage revealed about five minutes of the rules the contestants were told, including one explaining the peg fall error.
“The ultimate rule was that once you put a stake in, it counted,” Horacio said, admitting he was clearly wrong. “We all made mistakes.” “They also said, ‘If they fall off the wall—they’ll fall off the wall—let them fall.’ … That was the big conclusion I came to.”
This meant that the production members lifting the pegs that Derek had already put in the wall and putting them back in place was not actually of any use to him. In fact, it didn't matter at all; once they were in the wall, they became valuable.
During the Zoom call, they were also shown raw footage of the elimination, which took about five minutes. There were nine different camera angles — four on Derek, four on Horacio and one on TJ. “Every possible camera angle was shown, and it was not edited at all,” he added.
The final result was Derek winning by 13 seconds. “For them to pick up my pegs took about four seconds,” Horacio said. “The ball stopped – they said they stopped my time when I stopped completely… It was about seven or eight seconds, if I'm not mistaken, which resulted in Derek beating me by a second or less than a second. That was their final conclusion. It was one of the hardest eliminations they've ever seen, apparently.”
“The Challenge 40: Battle of the Ages” airs Wednesdays on MTV at 8 p.m. ET.
