Instagram/MTV TJ Lavin
After a few months of intense challenges and eliminations, The Challenge: Double Agents‘ final has started, with four teams competing in Iceland for a chance to win the grand prize and the title of Challenge champion.
The first part of the two-part finale aired on Wednesday, April 14, and it saw competitors running several miles in harsh weather conditions and complete two checkpoints. After the episode aired, longtime host of the show TJ Lavin joined Aneesa Ferreira and Tori Deal on MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast to discuss the season, final challenges and his thoughts on the show in general.
During this appearance, TJ revealed that he sometimes runs the final challenges himself and will also test out some checkpoints or daily challenges throughout each season.
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TJ Revealed That He Will Sometimes Run the Final Challenge & Ran Some Entire Final Challenges
On the podcast, Tori asked TJ where he goes during the finals in between the checkpoints as the contestants are running the final and the show’s host said, “Sometimes I’m running the challenge with you behind the scenes. Sometimes you don’t even know where I’m at and what I’m doing but one time I ran the whole entire final before all of you guys.” He said, “I would run everything before you.”
As an example, TJ revealed that he just ran the whole final for the All Stars season that’s currently airing on Paramount Plus. “The whole thing, everything,” he said. He explained that he would occasionally go do speaking segments or return to the hotel but he did every part of the final, including swimming and running. He also explained:
A couple of times I had to meet you guys on top of a mountain, like in Namibia I ran up the sand mountain and like I was racing whoever was racing. You guys were racing for money, I’m racing just to make it there, you know…
They’re like, ‘TJ you gotta get up there’, I was like ‘alright cool.’ And I ran up that thing and by the time I got there I was out of breath dying and everybody just met me there it was perfect. It was crazy.
He said in his opinion, the hardest final they’ve put on was the one in Namibia, where the War of the Worlds season took place. That final was won by Turabi “Turbo” Çamkıran and saw several contestants medically disqualified.
He Said He Got 3rd-Degree Burns on the Soles of His Feet While Testing a Portion of the ‘Final Reckoning’ Final
TJ also told Tori and Aneesa that he sometimes provides input on the finals if he thinks something is impossible, but he’s ultimately not in charge of what happens on the show. He said for example, in South Africa where the Final Reckoning final took place, they needed to work on the hot stones checkpoint.
He said, “I walked across the hot stones before everybody got there and it was blistering hot. And I know that because I got third-degree burns on my bottom of my feet. And so then I put my socks back on and I just suffered in silence.” He said he told the guy in charge of the checkpoint that it wasn’t possible to do it without burning your feet, and the person in charge told him that it’s possible if you walk slowly enough to tamp out to heat.
TJ told the cohosts that he then walked across it again, burning his feet, and the producers asked him, “TJ, what are you doing?” And he replied, “I’m trying it, cause I can’t have these dudes do it if my feet aren’t burned. And I did the whole thing, feet burned… And I go, ‘dude this is impossible. And my feet are burned right now.’ They were hurting like hell, and he goes, ‘oh I don’t know what happened.'”
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