Exit Interview: Nurys Mateo on Her Allies, Bringing Her Best Self, and Standing Her Ground on The Challenge: Cutthroat

Nurys Mateo has become one of The Challenge’s most memorable competitors by talking the talk and backing it up. She brings intelligence, strength, and an unapologetic sense of self to a game that tests all three. Whether she’s piecing together a puzzle, thinking several moves ahead, or telling someone exactly where they stand, Nurys remains authentically herself. That combination has made her a fan favorite and someone audiences can always count on to speak her mind.

On <The Challenge: Cutthroat, Nurys arrived determined to bring her best self to the competition. But navigating a team where her place was far from secure put both her strategy and her relationships to the test. While being sent into elimination changed her approach to the game, it also revealed which allies would stand by her when it mattered most.

Pop Culturalist caught up with Nurys to discuss the strategy, the friendships that helped her navigate the season, and why she refuses to accept the “weakest link” label. She also opened up about the difference between watching The Challenge and living it, the disappointment behind her fallout with Chris Underwood, and how she would have played had she returned from elimination.

PC: I know you’re big on giving people their flowers, and I wanted to do the same for you. You’re the person I was most excited to see on this year’s cast and one of my all-time favorite competitors because you’re so authentically yourself and such a genuine fan of this game. Now, having actually lived it, how did the reality of competing on The Challenge compare to the expectations you had coming in? And was there anybody whose game you wanted to model yours after?
Nurys: I don’t think there was anyone I wanted to model my game after. When I first came into the game, there was someone I watched, and I wanted people to think about me the same way they thought about her. I wanted them to think I’m smart and strong. I wanted them to be like, “Wow, she came from a dating show, but I never knew she was capable of this.” Kam [Williams] was that for me. She’s so badass. Coming from the same show as me, people underestimated her. They didn’t know she was capable of orchestrating the things she orchestrated. I loved watching her.

Watching it on TV, I felt the same way everyone does. When you watch it, you’re like, “That’s easy. I could do that. I can’t believe they fell. I would have gotten that trivia question right.” I was that exact same person. Then I came on The Challenge, and I realized this is nothing like what you think. Even the rules that are told to audiences are so different from the extra rules we’re told behind the scenes. Those little rules make a big difference. You don’t realize the craziness of what you’re doing until you’re there. I feel that every single time, every season. Every time I go to do a building challenge or a heights-over-water challenge, I get there and I’m like, “I really signed up for this for fun? This is crazy. Who does this?” I would pay to do this, but I would be terrified. [laughs]

PC: When you were captain, you wanted to force Sydney [Segal]’s hand. But there are so many variables you can’t account for, and that move ended up hurting you in the long run. What was the big-picture hope there? Did this season teach you anything about balancing long-term strategy with playing the week ahead of you?
Nurys: I actually think I had a great strategy. It’s so crazy how everything played out and how I wasn’t able to execute it. What I knew going into this fourth challenge was that I was absolutely not safe. What they didn’t show was that Cassidy [Clark] was the outlier. She was the person who, if at any point we needed a female to go into elimination from our team, it was going to be her. But she was captain this last week. So now it’s between me, Adrienne [Naylor], and Sydney. That was the worst-case scenario because we were the most protected, and so were the [Challenge] 41 girls. So it was hard because I was like, “The only way this makes sense for me is if we lose. If we lose, Cassidy is automatically on the chopping block, and she’s the one going into elimination.”

I got to that challenge wholeheartedly ready to throw it. Once we got there and I saw that it was a swimming challenge, I knew we weren’t getting first place. If you’re not getting first place, it doesn’t make sense to get second. It makes the most sense to get third. But what I did not expect was that both Nelson [Thomas] and Cara [Maria Sorbello] were not going to be able to do it.

What they don’t show you is that they said for each person who doesn’t make it across, you have a 30-minute time penalty on top of your total time. If I didn’t get across, that would only add an extra 30 minutes. But Cara and Nelson not getting across added an extra hour.

So even if I had swum under the bells, no matter what I would have done, we were never getting third place. I was working with Cara and Nelson. I told them beforehand, I was like, “Listen, I need you guys to get second place. If you guys are helping me in any way, shape, or form, I need you to get second place.” They were both like, “We’re going to try our hardest.” They were going to try their hardest because they also knew, as my friends and allies, how things were going to work out. They knew that if we got second place, I was automatically going in. My whole alliance knew that from the week prior. So we were trying to lose.

I was trying to stay on that platform for as long as possible, hoping that Nelson could make it through, hoping that Cara could make it through. We were there for a lot longer than is shown on the show. That was when I was finally like, “I just have to swim across.” There was even a point where I was like, “If I let Chris [Underwood] go, I can just stay here, and maybe I’ll get last place.” But with that extra hour from Nelson and Cara, I knew we were going to get second. That’s what sucked. If it had been any other challenge that I was able to throw, I would have thrown it, fully, 100%. I would have been safe. Cassidy would have gone into elimination.

PC: You’re always thinking ahead.
Nurys: This is from the second girls’ challenge in the second week. It was orchestrated since then. I had known this forever. I just didn’t expect it to be a swimming challenge.

PC: Paramount needs to bring you back for future seasons. You’re made for this. In a game where there’s so much backstabbing and lying, it’s also so refreshing to see how genuine your friendships are with Michele [Fitzgerald], Tori [Deal], Nelson, and Cory [Wharton]. Nelson was actively rooting for you against his team member. Cory refused to say your name, even though it was obvious you were going in. What does it mean to have friendships like that in a game where it’s difficult to know who you can trust?
Nurys: For the first time ever. [laughs] I was like, “Thank goodness.” [laughs] I don’t really count Season 40 because I was there for about 2.2 seconds. But coming from 39, where my so-called friends all betrayed me, I’ve gone into every season not really trusting people. Sure, I’ll tell people that I trust them, but the entire time, I’m waiting for a moment for them to prove their loyalty or disprove it. I’m constantly in this place of waiting to see what’s going to happen.

Thank goodness this season was a good one. My friends who I went in saying, “I’ve got your back,” to were the exact same people who had my back the whole time. They didn’t show it, but Cara and Justin [Hinsley] were also people who were absolutely amazing for me. Cara was not cheering for Anna Leigh [Wilson] at all. Cara was cheering for me. If you watched the episode, I had my small little group of friends, and that meant the world to me. I was like, “I don’t care if the whole house is cheering for me. I don’t need you to cheer for me. My real friends are sitting there and actually helping me out. That’s love.”

That’s not calculated love. That’s not someone cheering me on because they’re scared to see me back. Those are actual people who want me back, not because of the game, but because they love me.

PC: I also love how you ate your team up after they threw you in. I was secretly hoping you were going down the line. Like you were saying earlier, there’s only so much they can show on television. Did you have any choice words for Chris that we didn’t get to see?
Nurys: So after I had cried to the girls the night prior and told them everything, I actually pulled Chris aside right afterward. They don’t show it, but I pulled him aside and told him that I was really disappointed in him, not only as an alliance member, but as a friend. Aside from the people I went in with, Chris was the person I got so close to this season, like an actual friend. They don’t really show those things, but he taught me how to swim. There were so many different moments where Chris and I were there for each other. I actually felt like he was a true friend.

He was telling me that he had my back the whole time, aside from Sydney, who was his number one. I knew that, and that didn’t bother me. I knew he was going to have to protect his number one over me. That didn’t bother me. What bothered me was that I’m on the chopping block, and it’s a whole 24 hours of everyone knowing that I’m on the chopping block, and they’re being weird, acting like I have the plague. Why is it that people are so weird that they can’t even talk to you? They isolate you. Normally, everyone is talking to me. Normally, I have friends. Because you guys know I’m going into an elimination now, you can’t talk to me? There are no conversations. No one is checking in on me to see if my mental is good. None of that.

I was like, “All right.” I think that’s why I was so disappointed and hurt by Chris. It wasn’t even because of the game. It was because I’ve been his friend the whole time, and he can’t even check in to see if I’m okay. I was like, “You’re fake.” In that moment, I told him everything I felt about him to his face. So in the deliberation, I didn’t have much else to say because I had already said it to him.

Same thing with Adrienne. I never went off on Adrienne, but before we went in there, I told her the same thing. I was like, “I want to let you know I’m reading Sydney to filth because I don’t like her. I’m going to skip you, so don’t worry.” I had to tell her that because I didn’t want her to jump in or feel like I was attacking her. My attack would never be on her; it would be on Sydney. So I had to let her know ahead of time.

Then Keanu [Soto] had to be the next one to get it from me. I couldn’t stand that man from day one. He and I did not get along. He’s very messy, and not in a good way. I was tired of him.

PC: That’s why audiences love you. You’re so real. Outside of Cory, your team felt very hypocritical. They were quick to paint you as the “weakest link,” but then they were genuinely worried about you winning that elimination and coming back. That’s got to be a great feeling, knowing how scared they were of you. Had you won that elimination, what would you have done differently, and how would your game have changed?
Nurys: I go into every season hoping and praying that I win, but I went into this season wanting to be the best version of myself. I wanted to have that escape. The moment I got thrown into elimination, everything changed. I said, “You know what? I don’t even care about winning. I’m going to sabotage and make everyone’s life hell. If you guys want to play with me, I’m going to make your lives hell.”

It was funny watching it back. No offense to Cassidy, but our entire team knew that we would have thrown in Cassidy. I’m not the weakest link. If I can’t swim, cool, but aside from that, I carry my weight. I’m also very smart. In the third challenge, out of eight people, I was the only person who figured out that puzzle. The only person out of eight people.

Don’t tell me I’m the weakest person on the team when you claim to be so smart, but you didn’t know how to do that puzzle. You also let Michele outrow you on a boat, so if you want to claim that you’re strong, you couldn’t even beat Michele. You want to claim that you’re smart, but you couldn’t even figure out the puzzle. You can run. But how does that make me weak? You can run a five-minute mile, and mine’s eight minutes. I’m going to assume that interview was after I read her to filth, so she had to say something.

To keep up with Nurys, follow him on Instagram. The Challenge 42: Cutthroat is streaming now on Paramount+.