MTV’s The Challenge Season 41 Players Caught Cheating in Mini-Final

Warning: this story contains spoilers from the Sept. 24 episode of MTV’s The Challenge.

Cheating shouldn’t be tolerated in any sport — and it certainly has no place on MTV’s The Challenge. But that’s exactly what happened in this week’s episode of season 41, Vets and New Threats.

The episode began with the usual amount of drama and strategizing, as the cast had learned that this week’s daily challenge would be a solo mission and their last chance to earn points (by performing well) that would determine the order in which they would choose their partners for the rest of the season.

“Today’s challenge is called Broken Dreams, which is exactly what you’re going to have by the end of this,” host T.J. Lavin revealed after the contestants arrived to the start of the season’s mini-final, which involved multiple checkpoints throughout a six-mile, 7,000-foot climbing race course. Those checkpoints included various puzzles, math, and — a series signature — an eating stop.

Instead of the usual meal of disgusting bugs and animal parts, the “nutrition” on offer was all vegan: raw onions, garlic, ginger and hot peppers. Sounds preferable, right?

The recognizable munchies didn’t stop the cast members from moaning, groaning and throwing up as usual. But what wasn’t typical — at least, as far as viewers know — was what happened as the players faced the eating obstacle.

After a handful of players cleared their plates and headed off to the next checkpoint, Vet Michaela Bradshaw noted as she munched and looked at the ground, “That’s not my onion, by the way.”

“You guys can go back and check the tapes on that one right there,” Vet Derrick Kosinski added as the camera panned to a full onion and full pepper on the ground, followed by another shot of more chunks of onions and garlic. “I can’t believe my eyes right now,” he added in a confessional later.

“F— everybody that threw their f—ing peppers. I f—ing hate every single one of them. F—ing bulls—,” said New Threat Justin Hinsley as he struggled to keep eating.

Pointing to another area on the ground, Vet Aneesa Ferreira added, “There’s a whole f—ing vegetable garden!”

“What a bunch of sorry mother f—ers cheating that bad with a full-size of something,” noted New Threat Leonardo Dionicio. “Now we’re cooked at the bottom [of the leaderboard].”

Aneesa and Jonna Mannion ultimately decided that if they can’t beat ’em, join ’em, and threw what was left of the “nutrition” on the ground.

“Clearly everybody else didn’t eat. If that’s how it’s going to be, I might as well take the same penalty if they get one,” Jonna explained in a confessional. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I only have two points. Dude, even if I get first place, I’m still not going to have enough points to choose my partner.”

Derrick and America Lopez stuck it out and finished every last bite. “I am feeling so defeated,” America said in a confessional. “It would be so easy to just quit, but I feel like I’ve watched the show for years, I’ve seen people do it, and I’ve been like, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ So I cannot let this opportunity go. It’s like such a privilege to be here. My parents are from like the smallest town in Mexico. All my family’s going to be watching. I can’t disappoint them. I don’t want to let anybody down.”

But the cheaters certainly let T.J. down — as well as the fans.

“One thing that you know about me is that I can’t stand quitters,” he said once everyone had crossed the finish line. “Well, the one thing I hate more than quitters are cheaters. And there was a lot of cheating going on. There’s massive amounts of evidence. Does anyone want to confess?”

While no one said anything, footage was shown of New Threat Dee Valladares tossing food behind her as she took a sip of water, Jonna flinging her food, and someone whispering, “Nany [Gonzalez] threw all the onions.”

As a result, no one earned any points from the grueling mini-final, so the leaderboard didn’t change.

Leonardo felt this was a suitable consequence. “I’m very pissed off at the fact that so many people got away with cheating, so when T.J. calls them out and says that the mini-final’s not going to count for nothing, I’m like, ‘This is perfect.'”

More cheating revelations popped up as the episode progressed. Leading female New Threat Sydney Segal — who also shared the correct answer to the math equation with her allies and gave Turbo Çamkıran the answer to a riddle checkpoint to help him win — said in a confessional that she was “still f—ing upset” about how things went down. “I ate 95 percent of that s—.” When a producer asked, “So you did cheat?” she responded, “Barely. I still feel like I won.”

New Threat Cedric Hodges said, “Let me break down the vibe for you guys in the house after this mini-final: The New Threats are upset, like, ‘Cheaters! How could they?!’ And the Vets are like, ‘Yo, if you don’t cheat, you don’t try,’ so I was trying.”

But not all Vets felt that way. Fan-favorite and five-time champion CT Tamburello noted, “It’s one thing to find an angle. It’s one thing to get help. It’s another thing to cheat. To me, if you have to cheat, you don’t think you’re strong enough to win.”

MTV did not have further comment on the show’s handling of the cheating.

The Challenge: Vets and New Threats airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on MTV.