Tyson Apostol breaks down The Challenge: USA ending and all those DQs
Warning: This article contains spoilers about Wednesday's season finale of The Challenge: USA.
After competing four times on Survivor — and winning once — Tyson Apostol dominated all season long on The Challenge: USA. Going into the final, he knew he was the favorite to win, but after he quit in the last checkpoint of the race because he couldn't solve the Sudoku along with Domenick Abbate and Justine Ndiba, Apostol wants fans to know what really happened that wasn't shown in the episode.
"I've been on a roller coaster just knowing what happens but also knowing how it happened and how questionable all of it was," he tells EW the morning after the finale. "I was definitely bothered. It's a job where you're not the boss, you're not making the rules, you're not in charge of what you're doing. And you can sign contracts and talk to people and get an explanation of what it is and it can be something completely different. All we needed was one guy to call me beforehand to be like, 'Hey bro, this is what it is,' and I'd be like, 'Ooh, I should skip that.'"
But Apostol doesn't completely regret going on The Challenge: USA, and he concedes that "there's worse things that can happen, if we're being real legit," than going out in the final the way he did. "This is just a TV show, and for less money than we thought," he adds. "We were told it was $500,000 to the winner until the last day. And then they were like, 'By the way, it's only half, and then everybody's bonuses are coming out of that as well.' But they kept assuring us that it was $500,000 to the winner. We all didn't know. And then I asked them after, I was like, that was kind of a dirty move to mislead us like that, and they're like, 'Yeah, we thought a lot of you wouldn't come for $250.' I was like, 'I for sure wouldn't be here.'"
Below, Apostol tells EW what really happened to cause him to quit so close to the finish line, if this experience means he'll never return to The Challenge, and so much more.
Jonne Roriz/CBS Tyson Apostol breaks down 'The Challenge: USA' ending
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I'm shocked at all those DQs, so what happened during that sudoku checkpoint?
TYSON APOSTOL: I know the basic gist of Sudoku but I've never played it. My understanding was they were not letting me time out of that. I had a good 20-30 minutes there by myself before Danny even showed up and then at least that amount of time while everybody else came through. I was like, "I'll try this, I've never done it." But I also understand that if you don't understand it and your only instructions are "finish the pattern" it's very difficult. Dom showed up, he's never played sudoku, didn't even know anything about it, so there's nothing he could do, Justine the same.
And there was really no communication from production as to like what the next steps were. We were just looking at it, and they were like, "You have to finish that." We're like, "We can't! Tell us how, we don't know." And then at that point, I just was like, I know I'm not finishing this sudoku puzzle because I don't fully know how to do it, I've never done one before. My only option is to just drop out.
Did the fact that Danny had passed you already factor into your decision?
Yeah, I was assuming that the finish line was pretty close. I was like, I'll let an amount of time go by where he's probably on his way, and all I can do is try on the sudoku. But it wouldn't have mattered — [production] was not letting me time out. After the show, production was like, "Sarah timed out of the first puzzle faster, in a quicker amount of time than you spent at Sudoku."
Wait, she got to time out on a puzzle but you weren't allowed to time out on the Sudoku?
Correct. She timed out of the first puzzle. I don't know if she timed out of Sudoku, nobody was there to see her do it and they didn't show her doing it on camera.
So how did you feel knowing there were timeouts on earlier checkpoints but you weren't given that same option during the Sudoku?
It was very weird. How did you feel about it?
If I was in your position, I would be very upset because that's not consistent, and especially since it affects the outcome —
Like stealing, almost, maybe?
I mean, I wouldn't use that word, but it's definitely suspicious.
Yeah, that's how I felt. A lot of people on production came and apologized to me some of them through tears, and were like, "We're sorry. We know that that was bad." So I honestly don't know what to say. It was insane and it was crazy. Angela's was the same way. Nobody finished that digging. Production came to us and said, "We've been awake almost as long as you have and we want to get to bed so we're just going to finish in the order of how much progress you've made." If I would have just gone and woken Angela up in that moment and got her out standing in that field for three minutes, she probably would have been fine.
That was also incredibly suspicious that no one on production warned her that if she didn't even attempt it then she'd be out. Usually there's at least some kind of warning before a DQ happens.
And she let her motives be very known to everyone. It wasn't like she just snuck off and quit the challenge, she was like, "I'm going to bed because I'm not going to be able to even beat anybody in this." Basically the challenge was you had to move that pile of gravel across the field and then you were supposed to move it all the way back. And it started raining, so as we were moving it, all the dirt and stuff got heavier and heavier. I think Sarah and Dom actually finished, they both stayed up all night, they didn't take any rest until it was done. But nobody else was even close.
For Angela, they told her she had to move two-thirds of a regular pile. But if you do the math, there's two people moving one pile and she has to move two-thirds of an entire pile by herself, that's more than every individual is expected to move. Plus they get breaks because their partner's there. At that point, she's thinking there's no way I can beat any of the pairings here, so I may as well just take the time out because they gave Justine one. They let her skate through after when we came down and did the decoder stuff, she forgot to bring the decoder thing to the finish line, and rather than make her run back to the start to get it or wherever to the midpoint, they were just like, "You just timed out of this part. You're last place on this leg."
Jonne Roriz/CBS
Hmm.
Yeah. There were some times where I was like, "Can I do this?" And they were like, "No, it's in the rules." I was like, "Where's the rules?" And the guy was like, "In my head." I was like " [laughs] … okay." And then that decoder one too, one of the craziest things I've ever had happen to me on these shows, is when Angela and I were paired, we get down with the decoder, and we had to add the sum of all 10 of your numbers that you've memorized. So I do the math, and the showrunner was like, "No that's wrong." I was like, "Angela, what are your numbers?" And I did it again. I got the same number again, and they're like, "No, that's wrong."
I do it one more time and I was like, "Angela, are you sure your numbers are right?" She's like, "Yeah." I'm like, "I'm sure mine are right, too." And they're like, "No, you have to go to the start and get your numbers because you got it wrong." And I was like, "Here's the 10 numbers that we have memorized." And they're like, "Those numbers are right." I was like, "Then my math is right! You guys are wrong. This is insane!" The showrunner is telling me to calm down, but I could see everybody gaining on us as I'm having this argument over basic mathematics and I'm correct and they're not and they should have that answer like written on the palm of their hand or something for when we come in, or have double-checked it, or something!
So I'm arguing with them and finally they're like, "Oh, yeah, you are right." And I was like, "Yeah!" So now I'm like, can I trust these guys to either not make mistakes or are they doing this on purpose? And in thinking back on it, if a weaker person than me who wasn't as confident in being right as I was, they would have just ran back and nobody would have ever known that that had ever happened. I mean, what parts of it hadn't changed that we never even knew because somebody went back to the start when they didn't have to.
As someone who's watched The Challenge since the start, you almost have to expect the inconsistency as the most consistent part of the show.
[Laughs] I noticed that! Survivor is like the finest oiled machine. If one thing is incorrect or fails, [host] Jeff [Probst] is immediately there, making sure it's fixed. This doesn't have any of that. This is like the machine that's never been oiled. I thought this was like an institution. And it could be, and it should be. But I think what it's lacking is a guy like Jeff Probst, not as a host, but a guy who is willing and cares about this product to make sure that everybody has a similar experience and that there's consistency throughout so people know what to expect. If Jeff were working on this show, every single day he would have been screaming, somebody was getting fired. And I've only seen him do that two or three times on Survivor in four seasons.
So it was like this throughout the whole season, not just the final?
Yeah, somebody from production was stealing our clothes. If you had something expensive or unique, it went missing when we submitted it for laundry. I still have missing clothes. Justine has missing clothes. Anybody who brought anything nice, it's gone. And then we were like, "Can you get those back?" They were just going to write down all the things we were missing and that was somehow going to get them back to us. Never got them back. Nobody did. I shouldn't have brought such a cool wardrobe out there. One of my really nice sweatshirts is gone and one of my favorite pair of sweatpants.
Sacrificed forever to the Challenge gods.
[Laughs] Or demons, I don't know.
After your experience this season, would you ever return for another season of The Challenge?
This was it. I definitely had different expectations of what this was. And I'm glad I did it so I got to see it and so that I have these stories. I've told the entire story on my podcast, you can go listen to it in detail, through my lens those last couple of days. And I don't feel like I have to prove myself to anybody. I have two little kids at home and no part of this experience really is a draw for me to leave my kids for that amount of time.
On Survivor, I love the beach, I love the ocean, and there's some element to surviving and dealing with the elements that makes me feel accomplished. Here it's like, we ate bad food and then somebody yelled at me because they weren't getting their way. And believe it or not, that was never a goal in my life to be like, I really want to challenge myself by eating a whole raw onion like an apple. It felt dehumanizing having 40 people there watching you throw up. And then, Sydney, I tried to pull the trigger and throw up on purpose and they told me that was against the rules! I asked them if I can see that rule and they said it was in their head.
We have seen people make themselves throw up many times on The Challenge before.
[Laughs] They stopped me from doing that. They're like, "You have to do it naturally."
How are they going to judge what's natural and what's intentional when you're puking up your guts?
[Laughs] That's the thing, I don't know! I was like, I could throw up unnaturally probably if I was mentally strong enough to do it. It was definitely an experience that I'm hoping in like a year or two, I can just look back and laugh and laugh and I have all these great stories. At least there's that. And I think that if anybody from the MTV Challenge were to go on Survivor, they would immediately stop going on The Challenge. That's the truth, bro.
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