Fans were stunned when Team Orange defeated Team Gray in the Season 42 finale of “The Challenge.”
The team — consisting of captain Tori Deal and teammates Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, Chris “CT” Tamburello, Michele Fitzgerald and Will Gagnon — collected a cash prize of $550,000, which wound up being distributed more or less equally between the five.
Controversial Finale
However, controversy immediately erupted when fans online began claiming the outcome had been rigged because Team Orange wasn’t penalized when Tamburello sought medical assistance while competing in the extreme heat.
Tamburello was evaluated, with medical personnel permitting him to rejoin his team at a subsequent checkpoint, with no time penalty leveled against Team Orange. When the team of “Challenge” veterans vanquished Team Gray — comprised of Adrienne Naylor, Alexis Lete, Cassidy Clark and Cara Maria Sorbello — fans accused the show of stacking the deck so the team of fan-favorite veterans could beat the team of newer players.
Now, Deal is clapping back at that accusation by dismissing those claims that any favoritism was shown to her team.
‘One of the Hardest Things I’ve Ever Done’
Addressing claims that “The Challenge: Cutthroat” had been “rigged,” Deal was adamant in her response.
“Rigged makes me feel like I didn’t have to actually run 27 miles,” she said in an interview with Page Six.
“I would love it to feel like it was rigged and effortless,” she added. “That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
Deal, 33, said that claims the outcome had been “rigged” in their favor “take away from the amount of work it took to actually cross that finish line.”
That said, Deal also told the outlet that the show’s move from MTV to Paramount+ for this season had left the contestants somewhat unclear about the rules in the final race.
“We don’t really know those things going into the game,” she explained. “We did know for sure that if somebody was medically DQed, that it would not affect the team. So I think that medical evaluation period is kind of like a buffer.”
She elaborated by explaining, “It was like the medical evaluation periods still won’t affect because if it goes into medical DQ, well then that was unfair. But if this person ends up quitting, well then now their team is tanked anyway and they’re done. So I think that medical evaluation piece is what people should be looking at.”
According to Deal, she and the other competitors in the show “don’t get rules explained” before each competition, so they “kind of had to sit with what it was.”
Uncertainty About a ‘Challenge’ Return
In that finale, fans also learned that each team captain was given sole discretion for how the winnings were divvied up, with Deal deciding to split the money equally with her teammates — aside from a $1 “captain’s fee” she playfully took from each of her teammates.
Addressing that rule, Deal told Page Six she “couldn’t have imagined” awarding herself all the cash.
“People are saying to me, Tori, why didn’t you steal the money from Bananas and give it to Sarah?” she said, referring to Devenanzio infamously stealing $275,000 from Sarah Rice on “The Challenge: Rivals III” back in 2016.
“And I’m like, well, I wasn’t there for that situation,” Deal continued. “And you know what, I wish Sarah had the opportunity to get it back for herself, but like I’m not gonna be the deliverer of somebody else’s karma. I’m working within my own.”
In fact, Deal had actually made the decision about how she would handle a win weeks before it happened — but chose to keep that decision to herself, at least at first.
“I just wanted to at least make them shake in their boots a bit,” she said of her teammates. “But they pretty much made me swear on my cat’s life that I wasn’t gonna steal any money from them. And once I did that, I was like, all right, I guess I’m gonna share it with you guys.”
Deal, who first competed in “The Challenge” in 2017, also addressed whether she’d be returning for the next season.
“I have not gotten a call. I think that I’ve heard that a lot of other people haven’t,” she divulged, but added while she was “hopeful” about coming back, “until I get a phone call or I’m on a plane, I’m not.”
Tori Deal Responds to Claims $550K ‘Challenge’ Win Was ‘Rigged’