Most of The Challenge: USA season featured competitors going into daily challenges and eliminations with teammates. That changed in Episode 8 when host TJ Lavin changed up the game.
The Algorithm was no longer necessary as TJ revealed that it would be an individual competition now. That meant players competed individually in daily challenges and eliminations.
With the first individual elimination also came the first physical event of the season, pitting two of the men against one another.
The matchup gave one of the competitors a clear advantage based on size and, according to the losing competitor’s recent interview comments, required that he go to the hospital after the event.
That individual also mentioned that his remarks after the loss during the aired episode came from a completely separate part of the show unrelated to the elimination loss.
This report will contain spoilers up through Episode 8 of The Challenge: USA, including the names of competitors involved in the elimination.
Who went home in Episode 8 of The Challenge: USA?
In The Challenge: USA, Episode 8, it became an individual game, and the competitors had to go at it solo in an event called Having a Blast. It involved jumping from a Zodiac boat onto a soapy runway getting towed behind a tugboat.
Competitors then had to race back and forth down that runway, unlocking keys and retrieving flags to bring to the other end. Whoever transferred four flags the quickest was the winning player. Anyone who fell off the runway got disqualified, and the slowest men’s player automatically went into elimination.
It ended up being a close contest with two competitors extremely close in time. However, Ben Driebergen was named the winner over Leo Temory. Meanwhile, Enzo Palumbo was the slowest men’s player, meaning he was going straight to The Arena.
Ben and the fastest women’s player, Angela Rummans, got to choose a guy to face Enzo in elimination and ultimately chose Leo. Unfortunately for him, the event at The Arena was Hall Brawl, a classic from many seasons of The Challenge.
Enzo was able to run over and through Leo in two-straight rounds, winning the event and becoming qualified for the final. Meanwhile, Leo’s third time in elimination wasn’t a charm, as he was sent home from the competition.
His comments after elimination seemed salty, too, as he called out his castmates for what they did to him.
Competitor reveals he had hospital visit after loss
Following the aired episode, Leo Temory appeared in various exit interviews to speak about his experience on the show. During his interview with US Weekly, he revealed that he wanted to shake host TJ Lavin’s hand after losing in the elimination but never got a chance.
“I have the utmost respect for everybody, especially TJ. I wanted to go out there and shake his hand, but the medics and the stunt team stopped me because they said they wanted to check me out because there was a big collision. They sat me down because I started swaying, and then they brought an ambulance out,” Leo revealed.
“I didn’t get a chance to do my exit interviews or recap my elimination at all because I was in the hospital,” he said.
Leo also revealed that the comments he made after that loss seemed salty, but they were added in via editing from a completely different instance during his time on the show.
“When you see me wearing that black shirt saying ‘They’re all snakes,’ I said that after me and Sarah [Lacina] got blindsided,” Leo said.
So would he do it again? Based on Leo’s other comments, he enjoyed the daily challenges and experience, but there was a lot of “downtime,” which was difficult for him.
“I got all forms of ADD, and I always gotta stay proactive and be productive, so you know, I’ll take Amazing Race over The Challenge all day,” Leo said.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.
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