Why Syrus Called Out Alton

Warning: This story contains spoilers from the Thursday, April 29, episode of The Challenge: All Stars.

The other side of the story. During the latest episode, Syrus Yarbrough lost the daily challenge after Alton Williams had trouble physically, which meant he was headed straight to The Arena. Before deliberation, Syrus, 49, revealed to many cast members that he wanted to go against Alton, 41.

When Alton found out, he wasn’t happy. In fact, he was so angry that when Syrus tried to shake his hand, Alton wanted none of it.

So, why did he really call him out? Derrick Kosinski joined this week’s “Watch With Us: Challenge Edition” podcast to break down exactly what viewers didn’t see that led to their feud — stemming back to the first week.

“I’ll speak for Syrus because at some point, he actually told me, ‘If this situation comes up, you need to explain.’ And I said, ‘OK, for sure.’ Because I didn’t know that I didn’t know the reason either,” the Road Rules vet, 37, explained. “On the first challenge, when we had to vote, Ace [Amerson] or Syrus were the ones that were really on the chopping block. … It wasn’t just Ace that was on the table to go in, it was Syrus and Ace. And the reason we went with Ace is because he’s the one that put in the least effort during the swimming challenge.”

During the season premiere, the group had to swim out and attempt to obtain blocks that were deep into the water.

“I don’t even know if Ace got his hair wet during that competition. We don’t even know if he put his head in the water to look,” Derrick said. “At that point, I believe that Alton had lobbied for Syrus to go and not Ace, because they were friends. … Not that many of us saw that.”

While the idea was kept quiet, “Syrus caught wind and that was his validation,” he explained. “Alton didn’t want to vote his good friend to go in. So he probably put out a feeler, got to Syrus and that was all Syrus needed for his ammunition to go after Alton.”

During the podcast, Derrick also detailed who gave him “chills” during the elimination round and teased how the house reacted to TJ Lavin‘s major twist. At the end of the episode, the host, 44, praised Aneesa Ferreira’s performance and counted out her many elimination rounds.

“TJ’s like, ‘Yo, you’ve done 22 eliminations. That’s an all-time record.’ This is the moment where I started thinking in my imaginary stat books in my head, like, ‘This is a real challenge,’” the three-time champ said. “TJ is counting this as a real challenge. It’s not like the spinoff show, Champs vs. Stars. Like, you got some of the league’s top masterminds playing the game and we’re going to count it. The prize is $500,000 and these eliminations count!”
For more, listen to the “Watch With Us: Challenge Edition” podcast above and subscribe for more exclusive news and interviews.

New episodes of The Challenge: All Stars drop on Paramount+ every Thursday.