“The Challenge 40” is four episodes in and the latest elimination has seen Horacio Gutiérrez Jr. against Eras 1 competitor Derrick Kosinski.
The elimination, called “Pick It Up,” consists of a large track fashioned out of bamboo in the middle of the arena. Each player has to throw a ball onto the track and gather as many large jacks as they can before they catch the ball before it falls.
They then have to place the jacks onto a board and get all 40 in to be the winner. If at any point the ball drops, the jacks that are in their hands have to be brought over to a further spot. Aneesa Ferreira and Jenny West go first. It’s a super close race but Jenny gets the win.
Next up are Horacio and Derrick. They’re both fast and grab multiple jacks before they get to the ball. It’s so close and in the end, TJ Lavin says that the first male to place all the jack on the board is Derrick.
Horacio looked like the true winner
Derrick was declared the winner but if you look at his board, he’s missing a peg on the far right corner.
Meanwhile, Horacio’s board is full as he places his last jack in.
Horacio’s girlfriend and fellow “Challenge” competitor Nurys Mateo called out the show for their seemingly shady editing. “Not seen… production helping Derrick pick up his fallen pegs EVEN THOUGH the rules clearly stated you needed to pick up your own pegs. CONFIRMED: by minimum of 8 different people that were still there,” she tweeted.
She also shared, “THE F*CKING LIES FROM PRODUCTION!! I’m f*cking lividdddddd. This is no hate to Derrick because I love him but production just didn’t want anymore 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…”
A fan commented on Instagram, “Horn blows and Derrick is missing one, regardless if it fell off before it still should count as 39 cause horn was blown. Horacio’s was full while Derrick had dropped or missed one. They robbed bro. Very disappointing (no hate towards Derrick tho he a legend).”
Another wrote, “Team Horacio.. and this isn’t the first time they screwed him. Another season they were dropping down a rope and he got the lowest but they have the win to someone else.” This wasn’t the first time production stepped in to help and in Horacio’s case, things were stacked up against him.
The Challenge fans are on Horacio’s side
After Horacio’s elimination, fans took to social media to call out the decision. “What the hell
@TheChallenge? That men’s elimination was RIGGED and it’s so blatant. There was an empty hole on Derrick’s board when Horacio put his last jack on. And what’s with the delayed announcement of the winner? We are NOT stupid!” a fan wrote.
“The Challenge” blogger Allan Aguirre mused, “Something is very off about the editing of this elimination/in general. Why was Horacio nonchalantly placing his last peg if it was so close? Why does Derrick’s final board not have a peg hole filled in? We need the full story, ASAP.”
“The editing of the entire season is garbage, I called it from episode 1. Idk if they know what they doing,” a viewer tweeted.
Meanwhile, Emily Schromm is on Derrick’s side and shared on X, “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. See photo of peg on wall. @DerrickMTV won. It was insanely close but don’t let anyone on Era 3 try to con youzzz Ok good night.”
Horacio claims The Challenge production helped Derrick win
Did “The Challenge 40” do Horacio dirty? According to him, they did. “At one point, my ball got stuck while it was going down the platform, so while I’m picking up these pegs, TJ is trying to blow the horn — and TJ’s horn never frickin’ works, which I hated this season,” Horacio told Entertainment Weekly.
“So he’s telling me to stop, Kyland is telling me to stop, and I stopped for a solid five to 10 seconds, which in that type of game, was extremely crucial. Meanwhile, Derrick is still running. They don’t show that.”
Horacio continues to say that Derricks’s pegs kept falling off and production helped him replace them but no one helped him.
“I know that when I finished my 40th peg and when I called for the check, the first thing I do is look over to see where Derrick is at, and I vividly remember he was missing the top right corner [peg].”
Here’s the kicker. Horacio says, “He was missing the top right corner, and so to relive that and see that was something [that happened], I wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t speculating. I called for a check and at one point, TJ actually blowed the horn and says, ‘Horacio wins.'”
When he talked to TJ about it, the answer he got was that Derrick got all of his pegs in first but even Jenny spoke up in favor of Horacio.
In the end, Horacio felt unable to speak out against the decision. “At that point, I’m like, ‘There’s no turning back,'” he said.
Since “The Challenge 40,” Horacio has hinted that he’s done with the franchise but fans are definitely hoping to see him back.
