‘The Challenge’ 40 Producers Clear Up Derrick and Horacio Elimination

“The Challenge” may not be airing a new episode this week but the drama has carried over.

During the Sept. 4 episode of “Battle of the Eras,” Derrick Kosinski and Horacio Gutiérrez Jr. faced off in the sand in an elimination that ended in major confusion for all parties. Host TJ Lavin announced that Derrick beat Horacio in the competition, which included a battle to place 40 pegs into a wall amid an endurance challenge.

After the episode aired, Horacio claimed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he placed all his pegs into the wall correctly while Derrick had not. He also alleged that production helped Derrick, picking up pegs that fell out of the wall and putting them back. Footage did show that Derrick had an empty hole on his wall, as two pegs were shoved into one. Plus, Horacio said that his ball got stuck while on the platform, causing him to fall behind.

Variety confirms that, after a week of back and forth and claims made by many cast members, producers held a Zoom call with Derrick and Horacio on Tuesday, Sept. 10, where they showed them raw footage of the rules being told to the players and the full competition.

“I think the head producers of Bunim/Murray Productions and the people at MTV made a decision to do something they’ve never done in 40 seasons — because of all of the negative feedback — and that’s show me and Horacio the footage, the rules of how this thing went down,” Derrick said on Wednesday’s episode of the “Challenge Mania” podcast, which he hosts with Scott Yager.

Horacio joined the podcast, saying that producer said, “This is probably the first and last time we’re ever gonna do this to anybody. We’re gonna show you guys the raw footage along with the rules.” The footage revealed around five minutes of rules being told to the competitors, including one that clarified the peg falling error.

“The final rule was once a peg is placed, it counts. We all missed it,” Horacio said, admitting that he clearly wrong. Derrick added, “They did say also, ‘If they fall off the wall — they are going to fall off the wall — let them fall.’… That was my big takeaway.”

This means that production members picking up pegs that Derrick had already placed in the wall and putting them back in wasn’t actually helping him. In fact, it didn’t matter at all; once they were placed in, they counted.

During the Zoom call, they were also shown the raw footage of the elimination, which lasted about five minutes. There were nine different camera angles — four on Derrick, four on Horacio and one on TJ. “Every camera angle possible was shown,” he added. “It was completely unedited.”

The final outcome was that Derrick won by 13 seconds. “For them, picking up my own pegs took about four seconds,” Horacio said. “The ball getting stopped — they said they stopped my time when I came to a complete stop… it was about seven to eight seconds, if I’m not mistaken, leading to Derrick beating me by a second or less than a second. That was their final conclusion. It was one of the tightest eliminations they’d apparently witnessed.”

“The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras” airs on Wednesdays on MTV at 8 p.m. ET.