“I absolutely smoked it and crushed everyone,” [SPOILER] tells EW.
Warning: This article contains spoilers forThe Challenge: USAseason 2 finale.
Desi Williams and Chris Underwood earned so much more than $250,000 eachwhen they wonThe Challenge: USAseason 2.
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And for Chris, it provedhisSurvivor: Edge of Extinctionwinwasn’t a fluke.
“It was a total validation,” Chris agrees.
That was what I had to deal with.
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So having the adversity that I experienced onThe Challengeand then overcoming it has been awesome."
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How do you feel about the way your seasons went now that you’ve watched it on TV?
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Were you close to Chris?"
CHRIS UNDERWOOD:[Laughs] You were.
“What’s Chris going to do?”
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“Is he going to win or not?”
It was so much more fun.
Take me back to the moment you won how did that feel?
CHRIS:I felt like I was walking on the moon for the first time.
I threw my helmet like 50 feet in the air.
I was yelling into the valley.
And then to see Desi coming up, it was just perfect.
We got to celebrate that together as twoSurvivors and people who played the game together for the entire season.
DESI:I think Chris won by way more than a mile.
That was my own fault, I never refilled my water pack.
But it was confirmation that I was in the right place at the right time.
And I was really proud to be there with Chris.
How did this happen?"
Chris, how far ahead did you finish before Cory?
CHRIS:Maybe half an hour.
I just was cranking.
Desi, how much time passed after you won before Chanelle finished?
DESI:Maybe 20 minutes.
My perception of time in that moment is so warped.
Chris, do you remember?
And then Chanelle was probably 10 minutes behind you.
What do you think was your winning move to solidify such a lead?
DESI:That’s a really easy answer.
It was that trial that Michaela thought she could run instead of taking the ATVs.
She’s probably beating herself up because that was a $250,000 mistake.
We were literally neck-and-neck, she paused and was like, “What do we do?”
And I was like, “You don’t know what we do?
I know what we do at this trial.”
So I just started doing it and she decided to run on foot instead of taking the ATV.
Other than that, I think we would’ve been neck-and-neck to the end.
CHRIS:For me, a lot of it came to the ax throwing.
And I was throwing them kind of carelessly, but I hit the fourth one.
DESI:Yeah, and Bananas messed up that second trial and that screwed it for him.
CHRIS:Those risk stations were make or break, and the winners had to perform perfectly.
Looking back on it, why do you think you were you sent down into the most eliminations?
Playing the middle is risky.
And then the tides turned and I was just like, “You know what?
This is just me against the world at this point.”
DESI:Long story short, he had too many promises to too many people, and it imploded.
But it made for a very entertaining season, if nothing else.
Let me play the middle.
Let me get a little risky here.
DESI:[Laughs] My eye was on the prize.
What’s the path of least resistance to the end where I can just win the final?
But different strokes for different folks.
It worked out for both of us.
And then I’m going to bet on me in the end.
Were there any checkpoints you did in the final that we didn’t see on TV?
DESI:[Laughs] Yes.
It probably would’ve been really boring to watch, but there was an overnight challenge.
If it was less than an hour, you had to do it again.
If it was more than an hour and five minutes, you had to do it again.
We did that three times.
CHRIS:Three hours' worth of standing on the pedestals.
DESI:I think that’s why so many people were dehydrated day two.
After that, we just wanted to go to bed.
Then we woke up and ran 10 miles uphill.
CHRIS:Our butts were pretty sore.
DESI:My whole body was broken.
I physically couldn’t run at certain points because my muscles were spasming.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
