Well only two people finished it, so apparently this one was. Having the entire thing come down to who knows Sudoku rendered everything else pointless.

BTW how does Sarah go from taking forever on a simple honeycomb puzzle (and Tyson is saying she timed-out on that puzzle) to waltzing through the Sudoku? Wouldn't put it past production, who needed a female winner for their retarded war of the worlds, to "guide" her.

I really wasn't wild about a bunch of new faces, but this cast was overall pretty great. The final seemed really hard due to the elements, I can't believe they all quit. I would've liked to have seen how Angela handled it. I think it is bullshit they eliminated her. I think the move she made was the right one. There is no way she would've come in anything but last for that challenge. She would've been up all night doing it alone and would've gotten zero sleep (unless there was a time limit or something). And nobody on production told her if she does this, she's eliminated? All for the drama I guess...

eta: it looks like there wasn't a time limit on the Sudoku puzzle and they were all forced to quit.
So were they just making up rules as they went??? Wow.
Reading some of the challengers social media... sounds like a lot of BS went on.

Devin Simone tweeted that apparently the sign said you had to complete it or work on it all night. It’s complete and utter bs that Angela had to do that checkpoint alone when people with partners got to sleep while the other partner worked on it.

I really hope Angela and Tyson do another season. I wonder if they’ll have them back for the War of the Worlds? Are they really going to do that season with only eight people (two winners from each of the four versions).

I have to give Dom some credit. I didn’t think he would make it as far as he did in the final.

In the episode, Angela said she had less dirt to move than everyone else. Not sure if it was half as much though.

So if the other players had not "quit" and made it to the top of the mountain, how would the winners have been determined? By total score, or just by who made it there first?

By total score. You received double points for making it up the mountain.

Here's Tyson's version of things. Since he's not going forward or coming back, he's very candid.

Tyson Apostol talks The Challenge: USA ending and DQs | EW.com

Call me crazy, but its almost like they tried to make sure Sarah won.

Sounds like a complete shit show. Wow. A shame he won't come back... would've loved to see him compete against the likes of CT, Bananas, and Wes.

How can they not have the rules written down? You can't just say the rules are in my head. If Sarah and Justine timed out, Tyson should have been able to time out of the sudoku puzzle. There's been rumors of Production being shady for years. It sounds like that's true. It sounds like Production helped Sarah win, because she didn't quit. They needed a female winner.

I hate that most of The Challenge USA cast probably won't be back. Tyson could have won multiple seasons and Angela could win the next six seasons if she was on. She could fling almost every female Challenge cast member except in puzzles.

There was always going to be a Female winner and a Male winner, -it was just a matter of "who". I always thought the editing favored Danny, -while Sarah came off as off-putting (and that's putting it mildly), so I was surprised by her win, There was an awful lot of "fishy-ness" about the finale that seems to back what Tyson says.

Seems like they arbitrarily decided which of these things you could time out of. Total BS. No way Angela stops if she thinks they'd eliminate her. How can Sarah time out of that simple honeycomb puzzle but Tyson can't on the way more difficult Sudoku? And we're to believe Sarah, who couldn't finish the simple puzzle, finished the Sudoku with no help? You could tell by her sheepish reaction she knew she didn't deserve it at the end. She won more than Danny! That final was a total crock of shit on so many levels, it really is ridiculous.

Good interview with Tyson covering a lot of the BS.
https://ew.com/tv/the-challenge-usa-...inal-spoilers/

That was a good read. So glad I decided not to watch this now. What a shitshow.

I have no need for this version of The Challenge to exist. Tyson’s comments merely cemented it.

The only positive is that Danny seems like a good dude, so no issues with him winning despite the off screen chicanery of production.

Just really, really dumb it came down to who had done Sudokus before. Seems like production went out of their way to screw Tyson. Would be super easy to hand a win to a specific player knowing what kind of puzzle is their specialty, or just run interference the way they did erroneously claiming an answer was wrong or randomly deciding what puzzle can or can't be timed out of.

This was literally the exact same crew and Production from the MTV Version. If anything Viacom need to replace MTV Production with people who runs shows like Survivor/Ninja Warrior,Amazing Race etc. as those things are all more transparent and put the safety of their contestants as a top priority.

I know no one is excited for another season of The Challenge: USA, but it sounds they're going to start production on season 2 in the near future.

As long as it leads to another World Championship season. Plus, maybe they'll have learned a few lessons.

I just finished this season, the UK, the Australian and skimmed the Argentina version (since I never could get any subtitles to work on it).

I recently subscribed to Parmount + so I decided to catch up on these and the All-Stars shows.

I think I also missed Spies/Lies & Ride Or Dies so will get to them soon.

Was gonna start the World episodes but was wondering if the Ride Or Dies show blended into these at all before I started it since I saw some MTV Challenge regulars on the poster of the World Challenge?

It has been pretty interesting to watch these all back-to-back. Smart of them to film all of these around the same time and save money using many of the same stunts or sets. There have still been slight changes to almost all of the challenges using the same equipment and sets. USA got severely fucked with their final compared to the others, but it was also worth more money.

The varying in rules on these shows drives me nuts though. The producers making up shit as they go along is so unfair. It won't keep me from watching them though. Hell, if that was the case, I would have quit long ago since they seem to have fucked with almost every Challenge since the beginning. It is disappointing.

When they let Tyson and Dom tie at the encampment appeared to be the beginning of obvious tinkering near the end. They seemed to always say who scores the most points first would be the winner. And the already discussed finale was a disaster from the start on how everything was handled once Ben left.

It is funny as I am the exact opposite. I watch the challenges and then fast forward through much of the politics.

Watch Spies, Lies and Allies and Ride or Dies before you watch Worlds.