The Challenge USA’s Dusty Harris put up a good fight when facing off against veteran player Wes Bergmann in the elimination arena, but it was another fight with Tiffany Mitchell that helped seal his fate in the game.
At the beginning of the Sunday, August 27, episode of the CBS reality series, Dusty, 39, picked a fight with fellow Red Team member Tiffany, 47. After receiving four votes during the previous elimination round, Dusty felt certain that Tiffany had cast one of them along with her fellow Big Brother alums Alyssa Lopez and Alyssa Snider.
“I know what you’re up to,” Dusty yelled at Tiffany as she tried to tell him that she’d voted for Sebastian Noel. “I don’t give a f—k,” Dusty replied. “I don’t trust you for s—t.”
He continued yelling: “I’ve done everything to help you, your game is over.” Tiffany tried to tell him, “You’re so wrong,” but Dusty remained convinced. “I’m not wrong,” he said. “Get away from me. … You are my number one objective to get rid of.”
Dusty, who was eliminated during Sunday’s episode after losing the “Crank Shafted” challenge to Wes, 38, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, August 28, that he regrets blowing up at Tiffany.
“Not one of my proudest moments,” the Amazing Race alum said of the confrontation, adding that he later “profusely” apologized to Tiffany. “There’s better ways to communicate with people, even though you are pissed off in a crazy situation.”
Dusty was ultimately wrong about Tiffany — the four votes against him came from Desi Williams, Michele Fitzgerald, Chanelle Howell and Cassidy Clark — but he told Us that in the moment, there was no convincing him of her innocence.
“I just saw red,” he said. “There was nothing that she was going to be able to say to change my opinion at that moment. And that’s just something that I need to work on. … I’m my own Achilles heel in this business and if I can get that in check, I can be a deadly player in this game.”
The Missouri native added that the “one thing I told myself to do” going into the season was to “walk away” if he felt himself getting angry. However, when he saw “Tiffany [come] walking down the hallway,” he “just could not control [his] temper.”
The morning after the tense moment, Dusty realized he’d gone too far and apologized to Tiffany.
“I approached her and just told her — and at this point I’m still convinced that she voted for me — but I just had to let her know that, ‘You’re a mother of a child at home. A man shouldn’t be yelling at you that way. And I need to do better on my communication skills. It’s something that I need to work on,’” Dusty told Us. “I don’t know how receptive [she] was, but I felt that I had to do it just for my own sanity.”
Although Tiffany hadn’t been targeting Dusty prior to his blowup, the fight left a bad taste in her mouth and she voted against him during Sunday’s episode. “Go to hell, Dusty,” she said in a confessional interview during Sunday’s episode. Dusty was selected by the Hopper to compete against Wes. It seemed like he’d pulled out a victory until Challenge host T.J. Lavin revealed that Wes had won by just 37 seconds.
Dusty told Us that he “thought he had done enough” to win, but lost some of his confidence when he learned how close he and Wes’ times were. “I didn’t think it was that close. I mean, I thought I’d won by minutes,” he said.
Although Dusty’s time on The Challenge: USA has come to an end, he’s glad he “lost to a legend” of the game. “And if I’m only 37 seconds off, I’ll get his ass next time. I’m gonna get you, Wes,” he said.
The Challenge: USA airs on CBS Thursdays and Sundays at 10 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET, respectively.
