USA’s Tyson Apostol Explains Quitting the Final

What you didn’t see. Tyson Apostol is opening up about his time on The Challenge: USA and why he decided to quit during the final alongside some of his other competitors after a Sudoku puzzle with no instructions tripped them up.

The Survivor: Blood vs. Water winner spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about what was going through his head during that time and what conversations he was having with the production team.

“When it comes to Sudoku, they’re not letting us time out,” Tyson tells Us. “And so, I just have to quit. I’ll try to do this Sudoku. I’ve never played it before. I know the premise and I’m gonna try one time. It’s taken me a while. I didn’t get it. They’re like, ‘That’s incorrect.’ I was like, ‘OK, well I don’t know what else to do.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, we can’t do the puzzle for you.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not asking you to do the puzzle for me.’ I’m just saying I can’t do it because I don’t know how to do this. They were like shoulder shrug and then I quit.”

He adds, “And apparently, there were some arguments about whether or not they were gonna let me time out. And I had a lot of people immediately after that from production sobbing to come in and tell me sorry. Like, ‘We’re sorry that happened to you.’”

There seemed to be several inconsistencies about whether you could time out of the tasks, as some people did but then others weren’t allowed.

“You’d ask about the rules and somebody would be like, ‘Yeah, that is the rules.’ And then you’d be like, ‘Show them to me’ and they’d be like, ‘They’re in my head,’” Tyson explains. “And you’d be like, ‘OK, well, and there’s not a lot in there so I’m assuming they’re easy to find.’ But yeah, it was definitely … it was weird. It was definitely weird. It was a weird vibe. After that happened, I told a lot of people, I was like, ‘That was the worst couple days of my life,’ and not because it was miserable.

As for whether fans will see Tyson return for this much-talked-about “World Championship” season on Paramount+, the Utah native tells Us, “They’ve already called me for both and I’ve already passed them both up. Multiple times. Many, many times. Easily 10 phone calls.”

Scroll down to read our full interview with Tyson Apostol.

Us Weekly: I don’t even know where to start. Let’s start with the Sudoku puzzle because that’s where you and Dom [Abbate], Justine [Ndiba] and Cayla [Platt] all ended up quitting. How long were you doing it and what were the instructions that you guys were given?

Tyson Apostol: The instructions were what you saw on the screen. It said “finish the pattern.” And at this point, I’m looking, like, “Is this a joke?” They must have been instructed to not talk us at all in this moment. So I’m like, “OK, well I know the premise of Sudoku, but I never played Sudoku.” I know that there’s the nine cube and the cross and the down, but I’ve never played. I think I was at that puzzle 20 to 30 minutes before Danny even showed up.

Then I was there at least that amount of time…