Derrick Kosinski has become a fan favorite from The Challenge due to his memorable moments over many seasons, including a fierce elimination battle against Joss Mooney and three championships.
He recently returned for the Paramount+ spinoff series, The Challenge: All Stars, where he made yet another final but unfortunately came up short in his quest for a title.
That said, most fans would consider him amongst all-time greats when it comes to the show. He was recently asked to name his list of all-time greats for a “Mount Rushmore” of the show’s best cast members, and despite a few easy picks, struggled a bit to finish his answer.
Derrick had two easy choices for his Challenge Mount Rushmore
A popular question for many Challenge OGs to try to answer is, “Who would you put on your Mount Rushmore of Challenge stars?” That’s what Tori Deal asked All Stars cast member Derrick Kosinski during an appearance on MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast.
Derrick, a podcast host for Challenge Mania alongside Scott Yager, has become friends and acquaintances with many cast members over the years, which likely made it tough for him to answer. However, he had two easy first picks for his Mount Rushmore.
“There’s just no way around it like you have to give it to Johnny [Bananas] and CT [Tamburello] for the guys,” Derrick said during the podcast episode.
“It’s just like the time and the years and the entertainment that those two guys have put in to this franchise. It’s a franchise. As much as I want to see them both in eliminations, so I could prove myself against them, I still wouldn’t be the face of the motherf*****g show,” Derrick added.
The two Challenge legends have accounted for 11 championships between them as of this report, with Bananas claiming seven. He has appeared on a total of 20 regular seasons, with CT appearing on 18.
They’re also both around 40 years old, and based on their resumes, are presumably locks to show up during a future season of The Challenge: All Stars spinoff.
Derrick struggled with choosing his other Challenge stars
There have been so many memorable cast members over 36 regular seasons of The Challenge, which makes it difficult to name a Mount Rushmore of the all-time best. That’s probably why the question comes up so often to put Challengers on the spot. Mount Rushmore features four presidents, but Derrick couldn’t really limit his list to four Challenge stars.
After naming Bananas and CT, Derrick said he believed Coral Smith should be on his Mount Rushmore as one of the earliest reality television innovators. As Official Challenge Podcast co-host Aneesa Ferreira mentioned, Coral was like “your original s**t talker.”
“I think it’s sad we don’t get to hear from Coral anymore because I feel like Coral was like, she was easily the female face of the franchise for a little while there. I just feel like she helped make reality TV, helped shape reality TV, as a whole,” Derrick said.
Since Tori had originally asked Derrick to name two men and two women, he added another female who has become an all-time great in his opinion and many fans’ opinions, Cara Maria Sorbello.
“I left the game when I believe Cutthroat was maybe Cara Maria’s second Challenge, and I left for maybe like seven years, 10 seasons…She had no business being on The Challenge, right? She rode a horse, OK? Her skills are riding a horse and she likes Abe, and this relationship here, it’s like I don’t know what’s gonna happen here, but it’s gonna be crazy right? Definitely know it’s gonna be crazy, and it was. And then she kinda like won The Challenge,” Derrick said.
Even after naming Cara amongst his all-time greats, Derrick said he still felt like two other guys were deserving of spots, as he brought up his castmates Mike “The Miz” Mizanin and Darrell Taylor. Both provided plenty of entertainment value for the many seasons they appeared on the show.
The four-time Challenge champ Darrell is still doing so, while The Miz has moved on to professional wrestling with WWE, becoming one of the biggest success stories after appearing on MTV’s The Real World and The Challenge.
It’s clear Derrick struggled to name just four people for his Mount Rushmore, but quite honestly, most fans might have the same struggle due to the many great stars that have appeared on The Challenge. Some fans might even include Derrick, although he humbly declined to do that during his answer on the podcast.
The Challenge: All Stars episodes are currently available on Paramount+.