The Challenge: USA eliminated team slams 'petty, dumb' blindside: 'Cut the crap'

Warning: This article contains spoilers about Wednesday's episode of The Challenge: USA.

All's fair in love, war, and The Challenge... but on The Challenge: USA, a Big Brother winner and Survivor alum can't forgive or forget what they're calling a "petty" and "dumb" blindside that led to their exit.

In this week's episode, Xavier Prather was shocked when his "best friend" Alyssa Lopez and fellow Big Brother alum Kyland Young threw him and his partner Shan Smith into elimination. Lopez, Young, and another Big Brother alum, Derek Xiao, had been secretly planning to get their revenge ever since Prather betrayed them all to win their season of Big Brother. Smith ended up as collateral damage since her fellow Survivor alums didn't trust her and therefore didn't fight to save her, but she was publicly blamed for the move so that Lopez and Young didn't get heat for targeting their Big Brother ally.

Prather and Smith ultimately lost the elimination (against Big Brother's David Alexander and Love Island winner Justine Ndiba), and they left The Challenge: USA with some, well, choice words for everyone who orchestrated their blindside. Below, the eliminated duo elaborates on how they're feeling about what led to their exit and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You both had some strong feelings about your elimination in your final interviews. How are you feeling about it now that you've had some time to process it all?

XAVIER PRATHER: Shan, I feel like we didn't have very strong feelings. I think we were fine.

SHAN SMITH: [Laughs] I don't even remember it.

PRATHER: It's such a blur.

SMITH: Yeah, there's been time since it occurred but watching it again brings everything back to the surface fresh. I will say that I don't think it was smart gameplay on behalf of Kyland and Alyssa. It was short-sighted. They were blinded by their revenge and pettiness for Xavier. Clearly, none of us wanted Xavier to win The Challenge because he'd already won Big Brother, but it felt like too soon to take that kind of shot. I personally did not appreciate being gaslit.

Xavier, you sat down with Alyssa and Kyland earlier in the episode and said you'd understand if they threw you in, but then at the end of the episode, you seemed really angry that they actually went through with it. What happened there?

PRATHER: It wasn't so much that people from my season took a shot at me, I anticipated that before I even went on. But when you take a shot at me, take it at a time where it's going to benefit you long-term in the game. Don't make a move where you're doing someone else's dirty work, where you're playing for somebody else. You guys already did that on BB23. Here's a new chance for you guys to really show what you're made of.

I do think they're all decent game players, and I was hoping they would show more of that, but this move just didn't quite make sense. It didn't feel like it was fueled by anything except how they felt about what happened on BB23. Because on The Challenge, I had never said Kyland's name; I'd never said Alyssa's name. In fact, as you guys saw, I was willing to go to bat for Alyssa. So why would you take out someone who's not coming for you guys and then not even have the decency to try to make it seem like it was all Shan's fault? Because Shan, who were you partnered with before me?

SMITH: Before you was DX [a.k.a. Derek Xiao].

PRATHER: Oh man, so they don't trust Shan, but when she's partnered with DX, that shot's not taken. But it has to do with Shan, doesn't it? Huh.

SMITH: Just grab your balls and just admit that you're trying to make a big move. That's the thing that irritates me. You're not a big player in this game, in this world, if you can't own up to the moves you're trying to make. Just say you're trying to swing for the Big Brother winner. Say you're upset that he held you back and he lied to you for weeks and weeks and weeks, and this was your best friend, like, just cut the crap. Just admit what you were trying to do. It's an insult that Xavier would be that stupid or that I would be that stupid, after thinking about it, that you guys actually thought that I was the bad apple and it had nothing to do with X. You just were so scared of me, with all my muscles!

PRATHER: The red flags came, as you saw in the episode, during that one-on-two session that I had with them. You see me say, "If you guys are throwing me in because of BB23, just do it. And if I come back..." Those are red flags because the questions they were asking me weren't about The Challenge. They were purely like, "We have grievances because of what happened on BB23, and so we're trying to address those." And I'm like, "If you guys are still upset about that, then I feel like I kind of already know where this is going." It would be similar if like Ben and Sarah got in power, and then guess who they're probably going to shoot their shot at? Tyson. It is what it is. All I have to say is we'll see, hopefully they make the final and win because if they don't, I think it's going to be looked at as a very poor game move to take out someone who's never coming for you guys.

When Kyland and Alyssa voted you in instead of Cinco and Shannon, did you have any idea that was coming?

PRATHER: I didn't catch wind of it until literally just before the elimination. The person who actually tipped me off was David — we were sitting in the weight room on the compound, and he's like, "I really would appreciate if this just stayed between us, but your name is being brought up." And when he said that, I was like, if my name is being brought up, and Alyssa is in power, that means her and Kyland are saying my name to people. Because no one in the compound would be stupid enough — they all knew Alyssa and I were like best friends, or at least they all thought that Alyssa and I were best friends, so no one would be dumb enough to go up to Alyssa and say my name and think that it would actually go somewhere without having any other knowledge. At that point, there wasn't even enough time — the trivia challenge and the elimination happened on the same day, so there really was no time to even make something happen. Normally there's about a day in between where you have more time to work your magic. This was basically the equivalent of a Big Brother double elimination.

SMITH: I heard rumblings but thinking strategically, it just didn't make sense for them to take a shot yet. It's like they weren't thinking. They're eating their own. They still have Survivor to contend with. That's what the thinking was, just good insurance, right? If a Survivor player's partnered with a Big Brother player, we're fine because we're going to look out for each other because we want us to be there in the end. These other shows, we can just burn them out. That's the thinking, so while I had heard rumblings, I didn't even take them seriously.

Believe it or not, when we were standing on that stage, it just all of a sudden hit me that I think they are going to throw us in. And then they said, "Shan and Xavier," and "Shan and" sounds like Shannon. I'm thinking Xavier heard Shannon and thought they messed up the name. I looked at X, and I said, "No, they're putting us in." And X was like, "Well, we're going in." It was a total blindside, but it just was a dumb blindside. If this lands them in the winning top two, then okay, but if not, then yeah, I think you might want to look to this particular move that was taken too soon because Xavier would have been a meat shield for them going forward. He's a bigger threat, so it makes sense just to hold on to your numbers, and that's why it's petty gameplay. It's revenge gameplay, but it's not smart gameplay.

PRATHER: Strategically, it was upsetting the most because it just didn't make sense. You guys still could have made a big move by getting out Cinco, who was literally the biggest and strongest man on the compound. And it wouldn't have gotten any blood on your hands; you could live to take me out another day and have me do some of your dirty work for you and then take that shot later. Have me take out Tyson, have me take out Danny, have me take out Sarah, have me take out all these people who pose threats to you guys, and then take me out so then you're in the best position to win. That's what I did on Big Brother! Why would you not do that same thing? So it's not that they took the shot at me; it's just that you guys took it at a time where it feels like you guys are being pawns in someone else's game again. They're better than that! Don't do that again. Why would you do that again?

SMITH: Xavier was a threat; he was a target on everybody's mind. It's not like anyone was going to let Xavier slip by; he just won $750,000! Y'all didn't have to do that work. Your revenge would have come, and you would have looked better in the eyes of the people had you just let anyone else take the shot!

PRATHER: Let Survivor take the shot at me!

SMITH: She wanted her moment so bad. She wanted her moment, and here it is. She better own it. It's all she's going to get.

Xavier, you and Alyssa spoke often about how you're best friends, but now you've both betrayed each other on reality TV. What is your relationship like now?

PRATHER: Personally, I don't wish any ill on Alyssa. I don't think she's a bad person. I disagree with the game move. I will never talk poorly about her as a person. Our relationship moving forward, I don't think I could let someone get that close to me again. With the people who I was friends with on the show, I kind of view them more as coworkers now. No bad blood, we show up to work, we punch in, we do what we got to do together, we clock out, and we go on about our lives. I'm not going to give you the opportunity to get that close to me to where in a game, you might be able to use that relationship to manipulate me. Because there were some conversations that she and I had prior to the season at a time where I really wasn't trying to be gamed, I just needed a friend, and I was getting gamed, and that was because we were so close. Moving forward, we can't be as close as we once were, just to protect my energy and my peace. It doesn't mean that she isn't lovely. It's just that's what I feel like I have to do.

Shan, you also recently got into some Twitter beef with Alyssa. What's your relationship with her like now?

SMITH: Honestly, I don't know why Alyssa tried me. It came out of left field. A bunch of people sent it to me, and I was like, "Why did she come looking for smoke? Why did she come looking for fire?" It didn't make any sense. I was minding my own business and drinking water when I got a rush of text messages from Tiffany and a bunch of people on the show, so then I was like, "Oh no." And then my fingers just started going, and my boyfriend was like "Shan... Shan... " and I was like, "No, no, I need to say this because this chick came out of nowhere for no reason." Yeah, I just let her have it.

And then I sat on Twitter waiting for her to clap back for a couple days, and then she didn't, and then I was like, "Man, Twitter is toxic," because I'm here waiting for a clap back because I already had my gun loaded to clap back after the clap back! And I was like, "This is small; Twitter is not a real thing; it's not a real place. Let me get off of this." I got off of Twitter. But I don't know why she did it. I think a lot of us are confused as to why she did it. I did have choice words back for her because I think she's a capitalist. I think that she benefited from proximity to the Cookout and pretended to be understanding of it all but really didn't get it and then made it this whole personal thing on The Challenge. I just think it was messy. I don't have a lot of respect for her as a person. I don't wish her anything bad in life, but I don't really like her.

After what happened this season, is there a chance we'll see you back on The Challenge or on your original shows, Big Brother or Survivor?

PRATHER: You'll never catch me on Survivor. My ass will not be on an island.

SMITH: You can expect to see me on Big Brother! No, I'm just joking. [Laughs] Never. Never!

PRATHER: If you see me on an island, I'm on vacation.

SMITH: No, you've got to play Survivor. It's the best game!

PRATHER: Oh my gosh, you're so wrong!

The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.

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