Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for ‘The Challenge: Cutthroat.’
This week’s episode of ‘The Challenge’ really put the “cut” in “Cutthroat” after incidents that led to the disqualification of three competitors were cut from the episode, much to the dismay of fans and some of the cast.
As viewers know, last week’s episode ended on a cliffhanger with host TJ Lavin unexpectedly dropping by ‘The Challenge’ house to deliver some news. At the beginning of Wednesday’s episode, fans quickly learned that TJ was there to tell the remaining Season 42 cast members that Leo Dionicio, Nelson Thomas and Josh Goldstein had been disqualified and booted from the competition.
“You know it’s never good when I show up to the house,” TJ told the group. “Leo, Nelson and Josh all broke the code of conduct here on ‘The Challenge,’ so they’re all gone.”
While TJ went on to tell the Blue Team and Gray Team that they needed to select new captains as theirs had been eliminated, he offered no explanation– even to viewers– as to what the three cast members did to break the show’s “code of conduct.” Additionally, there was no footage included in the episode that showed any sort of altercation involving the three disqualified cast members.
Despite the lack of footage and explanation behind the triple DQ, many fans of ‘The Challenge’ were made aware of the Season 42 incident months before the season premiered due to spoilers that had been circulating on social media. Back in April, @pinkrosevev posted an explanation behind Leo, Nelson and Josh’s exits, which they doubled down on following Wednesday’s episode.
“This is what allegedly happened during filming: Josh was DQ’d for saying the N-word, Leo was also sent home for saying it despite being Black, and Nelson was sent home after reacting by breaking things in the kitchen … ,” they wrote.
Some Season 42 cast members have also acknowledged the incidents involving the three men, including Nurys Mateo. Hours before the controversial episode aired, Nurys told fans on Twitter that she was staying up to watch “THAT new episode … in hopes they air exactly what they should.” She went on to tell followers that, unlike “most” of her cast mates, she would be addressing the actions of “that disgusting boy”– aka Josh.
“I already know MOST castmates are going to stay quiet about this situation,” she wrote. “1. Because they’re cowards with no back bones 2. Because they lowkey share the same feelings as that disgusting boy 3. They don’t stand for anything, not for racism or even when innocent lives are taken so I don’t have hope for most but ME? Oh I’ll be talking my sh*t.”
Izzy Fairthorne was also asked the incident during a recent interview with Sydney Bucksbaum, where she confirmed that she and the rest of the cast were shocked by TJ’s announcement. Izzy added that while she only knows one side of the story, it’s “a sensitive topic” that should be addressed first by those directly involved.
“But obviously I’ve been told from one side about what’s happened, which isn’t great,” she said. “But I will say, especially because it hasn’t been spoken about yet, it should come from the horse’s mouth, because it’s a sensitive topic. It shouldn’t come from me … it should come from someone that, you know, was actually there.”
Izzy did go on to say that she was “very shocked that all three [cast members] were sent home,” though she reiterated that at the time, she and others in the house didn’t know exactly what had occurred.
Leo, Nelson nor Josh have commented on the events that aired– or rather didn’t air– on this week’s episode; however, Nelson told fans last month on Instagram that he would address the situation “when the time comes.”
Meanwhile, fans of ‘The Challenge’ are taking their frustrations to the comment section of the show’s social media page, with some calling the situation “wildly disappointing,” and many others pleading for the show to address the elephant in the room.
“Wildly disappointing no context to the breach of code of conduct,” one fan wrote, with another adding, “Y’all gonna talk about the triple DQ or…?”
“Is this a ‘reality’ show??” another viewer commented. “For real? The viewers want to see what happened.”
“Yikes looks like that wasn’t a great decision to make on [your] already dying series,” one person pointed out. “Literally why even try to hide what happened knowing damn well fans knew already??? This [season] will go down as one of the worst now.”
There were also a number of viewers who called out the show particularly for its decision to seemingly protect Josh by not revealing what he did to earn his DQ.
“So y’all protecting the racists now???” a viewer commented on Instagram. “Cool cool cool.”
Others on social media noted that MTV/‘The Challenge’ took swift action against cast member Dee Nguyen in 2020 after Dee posted offensive tweets about the Black Lives Matter movement. In response to Dee’s actions, MTV announced on social media that it had “severed ties” with Dee “out of respect for our Challengers.” While the current season of ‘The Challenge’ continuing airing, Dee was edited out of future episodes.
In the wake of this week’s episode, many fans also brought up the fact that, during a 2017 episode, Camila Nakagawa went on a racist tirade against cast member Leroy Garrett, who is Black. While Camila wasn’t fired or banned from the show as a result of this incident, it did air on TV. (Camila went on to get herself banned from ‘The Challenge’ later that year for an unrelated incident.)
As longtime fans of ‘The Challenge’ may remember, cast member Georgia Harrison also caught heat for a race-related controversy years ago after posting a photo of herself to social media while in blackface. Emily Schromm also came under fire for a similar incident during 2012’s ‘Battle of the Exes’ when she smeared Nutella on her face to “jokingly” depict her ex-boyfriend, Ty Ruff, who is Black.
New episodes of ‘The Challenge: Cutthroat’ stream Wednesdays on Paramount+.
RELATED STORY: Cory Wharton Apologizes for Trying to Have Sex with Izzy Fairthorne on ‘The Challenge’; Taylor Selfridge Reacts (Updated)
(Photos: Paramount+; MTV; Twitter; Instagram)
