“Really, everyone took themselves out [of the challenge].”
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Wednesday’s episode ofThe Challenge: USA.
Below, the eliminated team reveals what else viewers didn’t see that led to their exit.
Shannon St. Clair and Derek Xiao on ‘The Challenge: USA’.Jonne Roriz/CBS
Very mad at myself because of my strategy with the stacking.
And then I just felt such a strong competitive drive.
I wasn’t ready to leave that house yet.
I wanted to compete more, and I felt like I hadn’t really shown what I could do.
Can we sign up for a marathon?
Can we go do a Spartan Race?
Maybe I should play competitive poker.
I just want to win.
All I want to do is win right now."
That has since faded a little bit.
SHANNON ST. CLAIR:We both blamed ourselves.
We both just blamed ourselves in different ways.
It really came down to the last few seconds.
XIAO:Which makes it a little bit worse.
But it was close.
ST. CLAIR:Even TJ was rooting for all of us.
Even TJ was screaming and I was like, “What are you screaming for, TJ?
Just blow that horn!”
Shannon, during the challenge you shouted that you pulled a muscle.
How bad was your injury at the time?
ST. CLAIR:It was pretty bad.
It was at a 9 or 10.
We didn’t just do it once.
I was taking Advil, Tylenol, whatever I could to just get myself physically right.
But I mean, running in the sand with a pulled hamstring is absolutely horrid.
But I’m a competitor.
When I’m out there, I’m blacked out.
I don’t care if I have an injury.
It all came back to me how badly I actually hurt it in the elim as well.
She pulled a hamstring and then did a running challenge, in the sand, carrying heavy tires.
ST. CLAIR:It was like worst-case scenario.
But you never quit!
ST. CLAIR:I wanted to!
but I couldn’t do that.
XIAO:Why don’t we all just build a sand castle?
Why is everyone running?
[Laughs] But our castle also would have fallen.
I’d be like, “Why don’t we just build it straight up?
Shannon, this is genius.”
XIAO:Ben and Sarah for sure did it twice.
Angela and Dom definitely did it twice.
I think Cayla and Leo did it twice?
They might have done it once, actually.
ST. CLAIR:No, I think they did it twice.
XIAO:David and Desi did it in one go.
Alyssa and Danny did it in one go, and then Kyland and Cash did it in one go.
So the three of them were the only ones that we thought were in contention to win.
Everyone else just couldn’t complete it.
When David and Desi voted you into elimination, did you have any idea that was coming?
Who did you think they were going to throw in?
ST. CLAIR:We thought they were going to throw in Cayla and Leo.
But then eventually Desi won him over and we ended up going in.
XIAO:Literally when TJ honked the horn and said, “It didn’t go your way.”
ST. CLAIR:[Laughs] We were always in the lead.
XIAO:Yeah, it was on my side, so I saw it.
I thought that we got it, and we fell short.
XIAO AND ST. CLAIR:[At the same time] Literally.
Derek, you got a little teary-eyed saying goodbye to Alyssa.
XIAO:[Laughs] I actually had a whole speech for what I wanted to do.
I was like shouting out every individual player, and they cut all of it out.
I was about to go into like a full-on bawl, and TJ actually cut me off.
I was out here giving a eulogy for my eviction.
At that point, that’s when I really started breaking down and started crying.
And TJ was like, “You’ve got to go.”
Shannon, youtweeted that you had some tea to spill, so what did you want to reveal?
And I know I would have made it to that final.
The Challenge: USAairs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
