‘The Challenge’ Season 40 Exit Interview: Aneesa Ferreira

Welp. Era 1 is officially on life support, and the events of Wednesday’s (September 4) episode of The Challenge didn’t help matters.

You might think that the eldest (and thus most experienced) Challenge veterans might be more apt to succeed at T.J. Lavin‘s favorite seasonal game, trivia. But despite a Herculean effort by Aneesa Ferreira, who was the last person standing — er, sitting — for her team, Era 1 finished third. Then, Era 2’s Laurel Stucky carried her team to victory (with a potential assist from ostensible Era 3 opponent Jordan Wiseley, who may or may not have let her win depending on who you believe).

Since Laurel and Johnny Bananas were the winning team’s representatives, they got to decide whether to send Ferreira and Derrick Kosinski back into elimination or take a shot at Jordan and Nia Moore instead to face the challenge’s last-place finishers, Era 4’s Jenny West and Horacio Gutierrez Jr. Despite some heavy pressure from their own teammates, some of whom wanted to put repeat champ Jordan in danger of elimination while they had a chance, Bananas wasn’t willing to risk a stalemate by standing up to Laurel, so Aneesa and Derrick were sent in.

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Both elimination bouts were neck and neck, as they raced to pick up giant jacks in the sand before their balls dropped. And in the end, it was just one missed catch that cost Aneesa her 14th elimination win.

TV Insider caught up with Aneesa to talk about her reaction to being sent into the arena again, how she felt about that ultra-tight elimination, and whether she is looking for the finish line of her Challenge career anytime soon.

(Also be sure to check out our Season 40 exit interviews with Mark Long, Paulie Calafiore and Nurys Mateo, Jodi Weatherton, and Tony Raines.)

In a confessional, you said that you wanted to beat or tie Cara Maria Sorbello’s record for the most elimination wins. Are you happy that you accomplished that this season?

Aneesa Ferreira: So, it actually started before that. We had Cara on the podcast and she said, “And you can quote me here, Aneesa, that if they put you in elimination, I will take you out and go in so that I can have more eliminations than you.” And it just so happened that I beat her to it — or at least we’re tied. I don’t know which one it was, but we didn’t know we were tied, and she was just like, “I’m gonna beat you.” I’m like, “That’s fine. Totally go in for me. I don’t care.” But unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to do that.

So, what do you think of Tina Barta’s nickname for you, “Elimineesa”? 

Well, it’s not Tina’s nickname. It was Derrick’s nickname because we kept making everything like an “eesa” word, and we were standing there, and I’m like down there in the sand like, “Oh my God, Derrick, here we go. We have a new name for me.” So that’s how it all started. He still calls me that.

You were pretty miffed about Rachel Robinson letting CT Tamburello make the decision the first time of who went in. Did you guys resolve that later on?

I gave her hell the whole entire day. I was just over the top, just guilting her, and she was like, “I owe you this and I’ll do this and if you come back, you’re gonna win, it’s gonna be fine.” I’m like, “Sure.” I mean, I was mad for a few hours and didn’t want to speak to her and then I calmed down, processed, and then I watched it back and I got mad all over again. So I don’t know if she knows that, but she texted me today and I said, “Hm, that’s great.”

Did you and the other winners from the first elimination ever form that Misfit alliance that you guys talked about?

No, we didn’t know how we were gonna be playing the game. So it kind of changed when we figured out that we were going against our — we were working as a team. So, yeah. No, we didn’t get to work on a Misfit alliance, but we may be able to in the future.

Why did Darrell Taylor pick you as the target instead of someone else?

Listen, I’m still trying to figure it out. I guess he owed Tina something from All Stars, and I was like, “Darrell, we’ve done a bunch of shows together over the years.” It just didn’t make sense to me, but it is what it is. I was pissed.

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You also looked disappointed when Jordan got the sudden death trivia round wrong against Laurel. Did you buy into the rumors that he was conspiring with her?

I wanna call him and ask. I wouldn’t be surprised if him and Johnny just shook hands and were like, “Hey, you know, we gotta get Era 4 out of here and Era 1 is whatever. So why don’t we work together for a few weeks or just this challenge?” I mean, deals are struck all the time. So I wouldn’t be surprised. Nor would I be offended. I would have done the same thing in their position.

Did you at the time have any faith that Johnny would try to keep you out of elimination?

Johnny? No, for one second… I’m like, “No, he’s not gonna stalemate for us, and it’s totally understandable.”

You and Jenny seemed to form a pretty good bond and she gave you a really nice pep talk. What did it mean to you to have to go against somebody that you were getting along with so well?

Well, we got along before then, and Jenny and I were definitely talking a lot before the season. I love Jenny. It’s just, you know, I’ve said it before. There’s something to say about going against somebody you love and respect. It’s hard but win or lose, you still respect them. There’s not like that bitter rivalry thing where you’re worse, your enemy beats you and then you feel like s**t about yourself. It was a really hard elimination, and I think we both put up the best fight that we could. It was too close for comfort, and after the first month home, then I began to sleep again. So that was good.

Do you think if you had gotten that last ball … is that the one part that did it? 

If I would have caught that last ball, I would have won. Yeah, it absolutely was that close. She threw up her last ball when I was going to catch that one. So that would have been it.

If you had won, who would you have given the targets?

I would have given CT one, and I would have given Tina one, just because Rachel and I were friends, and I’m such a forgiving person. Now, I think about it, I may have given Rachel the target but whatever. As far as the other eras, I didn’t mean I didn’t even get that far. I’m not mad at them for anything. I think it would have been harder to give targets to other eras.

So they showed some of what’s going on with the karma points, but did you get to do those afterward, and can you tease what you did?

I mean, I went with the friendships that I had, and then people that I wanted to see do well if this comes back later on in the game, which I feel like it will. My best friend [Tori Deal] clearly gets a five. Certain people who I’ve been on the outs with and then got to know better this season and actually, we enjoyed each other, they got better points than they would have if we hadn’t had this season together. So we’ll see. We’ll see if they ever show what I did.

I hope they do. There are some people who have retired in at least name only. Will that ever be you or you’re just gonna keep going?

I’ve tried to retire, and I don’t think it’s working — for production or myself. I’m like, “I gotta go at some point!” And they were like, “Don’t leave yet.” And I’m like, “I get it guys but like, I just don’t know how much more…” I mean, my body can do it. Mentally, it’s a lot of stress.

And how do I wanna leave the legacy? A win would have been amazing. This is probably the hardest that I had trained. I was in a good headspace as far as my abilities and knowing who I am and my friendships — or so I thought — and I felt really good about this one, but it just wasn’t in the cards. And I’m totally okay with that, but it does make you wanna go back. So we’ll see.

The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras, Wednesdays, 8/7c, MTV

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