Jay Starrett reached his first final in Season 39 of The Challenge thanks to a well-orchestrated alliance run chiefly by him and his ride-or-die Michele Fitzgerald.
However, his appearance in that first-ever final was short-lived, as he met his fate after the first phase of the event.
The Control phase featured the seven finalists working as a team to complete a task. Unfortunately, it wasn’t completed in time, and they lost another $16,000 of their final prize money.
Host TJ Lavin also revealed the first elimination of the final, with the majority of finalists voting Corey Lay into it due to his mistake in the Control task.
Corey then called out Jay for the elimination, indicating he saw him as a threat and someone who made sneaky, shady, or snaky moves to get there.
He then defeated the former Survivor competitor in an event involving racing to dig up small bags of puzzle blocks from the sand, then racing back to a start spot and stacking those blocks on a table balanced only by the competitor’s legs.
Jay was disappointed in the result but wished his castmates farewell and even told Nurys Mateo she better win it now. He later took to Instagram to comment on the season, but fans weren’t done calling him out.
Jay reacts to his Season 39 and exit from the final
Jay shared a carousel of photos from his season on The Challenge, including a shot of him running ahead of castmate Corey and another standing beside ally Berna Canbeldek. A final slide included an image from Jim Carrey’s movie The Truman Show and a quote.
“In case I don’t see ya Good afternoon, Good evening, Good night,” the quote read with Carrey’s character beside it.
“Finally made it to a final! What a long and EPIC ride… until next time… Au revoir 😘! #thechallenge #mtv #stayloco ……What are you gonna watch now ;)” Jay wrote in his IG post’s caption.
Jay appeared in three seasons of The Challenge before Battle For a New Champion. However, this was his first without stepping foot into a final. He came close in an episode where the cast reached a stalemate, and multi-time champion Chris “CT” Tamburello could call anyone out.
However, CT called out and eliminated Jay’s friend, Asaf Goren, causing some teary moments. More tears arrived during the final eliminations of the Conquest phase when Jay didn’t save Nurys, and she was upset at being sent into elimination against her showmance Horacio Gutierrez and friend Kyland Young.
Recently, Nurys revealed she’s no longer friends with Jay following what she witnessed during his Season 39 performance.
Fans blast Challenger after Season 39 moves
Jay was one of several castmates who received backlash during Season 39, which continued on his recent exit post from the show.
Fans took to the comments of his Instagram post, with several calling him out for his moves and performance on The Challenge 39.
“We don’t care. You did not make us all proud,” one individual commented.
Another blasted Jay for how he treated his “friends,” calling it “not cool.”
“In the end, karma won. I think if you had gone into elimination any time during the season, you would have gone home way earlier,” the fan wrote.
“To quote TJ ‘what kind of Champ do you wanna be?’ You wouldn’t have looked back at this been proud in a few years, maybe next time bro, got a little too power drunk this time,” a commenter told Jay.
Another indicated Jay had “the heat” on him during the season and did a “Great job being the villain” before wishing him good luck for future seasons of the show.
Some might suggest, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” but Jay is embracing the hate and attention just fine, as it likely means a callback to the show for future seasons.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
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Jay was fun to watch. Someone has to be the villain. A lot of hate but remember this is a game. Nice work Jay. Enjoy watching you. Bummed you had to leave before the final really started. Till next time!!