Members of The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras cast are speaking out after Horacio Gutiérrez Jr. was sent home in Episode 4 after losing in an elimination against Derrick Kosinski.
In the “Pick It Up” elimination, the two competitors had to roll a ball down a large track and pick up large jacks made out of bamboo before the ball made its way to the end of the track. The competitors then had to catch the ball without it falling to the ground and place their jacks on a large pegged wall. The first competitor to get 40 jacks on their wall wins.
While the elimination competition appeared super close, TJ Lavin ultimately announced Derrick as the winner. However, eagle-eyed fans (and cast members) pointed out on social media that Derrick’s wall was missing a jack when TJ declared him the winner.
“How did Derrick win,” a fan asked on X. “When they rang the [buzzer] and Derrick dropped his ball he was missing a peg. When Derrick and Horacio shook hands after the whistle blew that same peg was still missing??”
In response, Horacio’s girlfriend and fellow ‘Challenge’ competitor Nurys Mateo took to X, claiming many of the viewers were correct.
“THE F**KING LIES FROM PRODUCTION!! I’m f**king lividdddddd,” Nurys wrote. “This is no hate to Derrick because I love him but production just don’t want [anyone] from Era 1 people to go home which is why they lied and said he got first! You CLEARLY see he’s missing a peg…”
Nurys–- who was eliminated from ‘Battle of the Eras’ before Episode 4–- also accused production of helping Derrick off-camera.
“Not seen… production helping Derrick pick up his fallen pegs EVEN THOUGH the rules clearly stated you needed to pick up your own pegs,” she wrote. “CONFIRMED: by minimum of 8 different people that were still there.”
Scott Yager, host of the Challenge Mania podcast, also weighed in on the controversial elimination.
“Guys…I was confused as you are. HERE IS the missing peg. It was on the board stuck,” Scott wrote on X. “The (off-camera) ref who was re-placing pegs that fell out missed this one. And D was done before he, Horacio or anyone thought he was. Hence their vibe & this shot.”
Despite Scott’s claims, Nurys told fans that Aneesa Ferreira and Jenny West, who competed in the arena prior to the men, picked up their own pegs and were not helped by a ref.
“Also, why can the off-camera ref pick up Derrick’s but not Horacio’s?!” Nurys wondered. “It’s still cheating. Rules are rules.”
Like Nurys, Jenny was on Horacio’s side, claiming in an Instagram Story that she “called out production for screwing Horacio over in his elimination.”
“They help with Derrick’s pegs yes,” Jenny added. “It’s frustrating and I felt bad for him!”
Meanwhile, ‘Battle of the Eras’ cast member Emily Schromm took production’s side, noting the rules TJ explained before the elimination began.
“People are losing their minds haha,” she wrote. “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.”
Nurys responded to Emily’s tweet, insisting that those were not the rules and that Horacio, Aneesa and Jenny agreed; however, Emily doubled down on her comments.
In response to a fan who pointed out that Derrick had his last peg in, ‘Battle of the Eras’ cast member Rachel Robinson agreed, claiming that production “had to fix Aeneas’s [board] multiple times, too” due to the wall not keeping the jacks in place. Rachel tweeted that Derrick won the elimination competition “without any question,” adding that she saw it herself.
Horacio also shared his perspective in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, revealing that, during the elimination, his ball got stuck on the track and was stopped for a few seconds while Derrick kept going.
“They don’t show that,” Horacio stated, also confirming Nurys’ comments about production helping Derrick pick up his fallen pegs off-camera. “That’s not me seeing that, that was the entire cast seeing that. Nobody came in to help me when my pegs would fall– I would have to take my time and put them back in.
“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],” he continued.
When he asked for a check, TJ allegedly blew his horn and announced Horacio as the winner, which is not what viewers saw during the episode. After watching the tapes back, production declared Derrick the winner because he had put in all 40 of his pegs first; however, according to Horacio, Derrick never asked for a check.
“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t fight and maybe I should have,” Horacio said. “At that point, I’m like, ‘There’s no turning back.’”
Amid all the drama from Episode 4, ’Battle of the Eras’ cast member Theo Campbell told fans there’s more to come this season.
“If you think Derrick’s and Horacio’s elimination is controversial…boooi,” he tweeted. “There’s more to come that’s a fact.”
Watch the two elimination challenges of Episode 4 below.
New episodes of ‘The Challenge’ air Wednesdays on MTV.
RELATED STORY: Cory Wharton Claims He’s the Best Competitor on ‘The Challenge’ Who Has Never Won: “Everyone Wants Me to Get That Win!”
(Photos: MTV; X; Instagram)
5 Responses
2 people aren’t “the whole entire cast”. Nurys and Horacio can go home. I hope they never get invited back. She’s dramatic as hell and he just does whatever she says because he has a single digit IQ.
Okay but why would production, who’s been pushing Horacio as the new face of the The Challenge, rig the elimination for Derrick to win?!
Derrick is 40+ years old, a married father. Maybe 20 years ago he was bringing the drama & entertainment but he’s definitely not being the messy drunk hookup guy that he once was.
Horacio is 28, conventionally attractive, extremely athletic and he’s dating Nurys, aka someone who brings major drama whenever she’s there and finished 2nd last season. They’re the new “power couple” of the franchise.
Why would production want to intentionally p*ss off the 2 people they’ve been pushing as the new faces of the challenge??
I don’t know what happened. But why would they make the new face of the challenge lose? So he can be a phoenix rising from the ashes next season; to keep people watching. Not complicated.
Well if that’s the case then it backfired big time. He said he’s done with the challenge.