As we inch closer to The Challenge: USA Season 2’s finale, another competitor met their end inside the Arena during episode 11 on Sept. 28.
Last week’s show marked the second double elimination of the season, and this week it switched back to a single, loser-go-home battle. In the end, it was two-time Big Brother alum Tyler Crispen who was served his walking papers courtesy of Survivor: Edge of Extinction winner and certified elimination threat Chris Underwood.
So, what happened?
The daily challenge was coined “Slippery Business,” and the rules were simple. Each sex competed in an oiled-up Royal Rumble-esque wrestling match, and the last man and woman standing in their heats were the winners. After Chris and Tyler were ganged up on by the Challenge vet alliance, John “Johnny Bananas” Devenanzio and Josh Martinez were taken out of the ring, which set up a mano-a-mano duel between Faysal Shafaat and Cory Wharton.
And surprisingly, it was Cory who pushed the much larger former football player out. By doing so, he earned his first individual win of The Challenge: USA.
The women were up next. Once again, the power alliance — in this case, “The Secret Garden” featuring Desi Williams, Michaela Bradshaw, and Chanelle Howell — teamed up and eliminated the three other women, Tori Deal, Cassidy Clark, and Michele Fitzgerald.
After the dust settled, an epic one-on-one match played out between Chanelle and Michaela, and it was the latter who emerged triumphant.
With their respective victories came safety and power. As usual, the winners were charged with selecting one woman and one man to face possible elimination. Michaela made it clear to her alliance that she wanted to swing big and nominate Tori, the last female Challenge star and arguably the biggest threat to win on the female side.
However, when it came down to it, Cory shut down Michaela’s proposal. He went into the deliberation knowing he wanted to protect Tori and Johnny Bananas, and he didn’t budge. After some more back and forth, they settled on Tyler and Cassidy to stand beside host TJ Lavin on the elimination grounds.
Chris was sent into his fourth Arena this season and once again, he took care of business
After Cory and Michaela’s meeting finished, the longtime Challenge star revealed to Tori, Bananas, and the rest of his alliance that Michaela was angling for a female elimination day, and had Tori firmly in her crosshairs. The three challengers as well as Faysal, Michele, and Josh, combated Michaela’s plan by throwing all of their Hopper votes onto Chris.
So, when the cast arrived at the Arena, TJ shared that Chris had the most balls in the Hopper while Tori and Chanelle received votes as well.
The Hopper was then turned on and spat out Chris’ name. The former “Sole Survivor” made his way into the sand for the fourth time in 11 episodes. He was already charged with ending the games of The Amazing Race 34 alum Luis Colon, Survivor: Ghost Island castaway Sebastian Noel, and MTV’s The Challenge legend Wes Bergmann.
But, Tyler had experience in the Arena as well. He faced off against Big Brother 24 houseguest and alliance member Monte Taylor three episodes before and came out on top.
Chris and Tyler competed in “Barrel Tag,” and how it worked is exactly how it sounds.
It was a good old-fashioned game of tag. The elimination was played in two rounds with each of them having a turn being “it” with the victor being determined by who tagged the other the fastest. Here was the kicker: they had to utilize barrels to get around the zone.
Both men competed well. They tagged their opponent less than two minutes into their rounds. But, it was Chris who tagged Tyler around 30 seconds quicker. The performance notched him his third consecutive elimination win while Tyler’s Challenge run was derailed.
Even though his time on the show is over, we may still see him back competing in the franchise one day. “I feel like I would give it another try,” Tyler said about returning to The Challenge during a post-game interview with Parade. “It was the experience of a lifetime. And it took me a while to get my footing and to understand the game because I hadn’t really watched it too much. But now that I’ve been through it, now that I kind of understand it, now that I maybe have some other solid relationships from the show. I feel like I could give it another go if they asked me back.
With Tyler leaving, only five men and six women remain. Considering 10 people made it to the final challenge during Season 1, there may only be one more Arena before the USA 2 champions are crowned.
You can catch The Challenge: USA Season 2 Thursdays on CBS at 10 p.m. ET.