Who won The Challenge season 39? Details explored

After 19 episodes, The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion season 39, which started in October, has finally ended. The finale episode, titled Only One Gets The Crown, aired on February 21 and saw five finalists competing for the coveted title.

Emanuel Neagu from Survivor Romania season 1 beat Nurys Mateo and Colleen Schneider to win the $250,000 prize. Nurys finished after Emanuel and took home $60,000, while Colleen finished third and bagged $30,000. Expressing his joy, Emanuel said,

"I became a Challenge champion and I’m hooking up my family. My life and my family’s life has changed from now on."

Corey Lay and Berna Canbeldek secured fourth and fifth places, respectively, but went home empty-handed. In the grueling two-part finale episode, fans believe Emanuel held his high since the beginning in an almost predictable win.

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How did Emanuel Neagu win season 39 of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion?

The first part and the night before the second part of The Challenge finale

In the first part of the finale, titled The Beginning Of The End, the 27-year-old Emanuel nominated a strong contender Nurys, 29, to go into the elimination round. Nurys went up against Moriah Jadea, 27, who she chose in a random selection- "The Draw," which she gallantly won.

After Moriah's elimination, the contestants were narrowed down to the Top 5, ready to compete on the big day. Just when they thought they had finished the first half of the finals, they were taken off-guard and asked to do an overnight task to gain comfort items that would help them with their final tasks.

They were given the tedious task of removing tiles from a narrow cage, in the dark of the night. After grinding the whole night, the contestants were unflinching and ready to take on day two.

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The second part of the finale of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion

The final tasks started with a swim, followed by a run to their very first checkpoint. From there, the contenders had to grapple down a mountain fast enough to run to the puzzle before their competitors.

The puzzle was a test of swimming and memory skills because the contestants had to swim in to study a diagram of The Challenge contestants, then come back and recreate it on land. Emanuel continued to be on top throughout the entirety of this task.

The next round had players complete tasks at five different stations, before running to the final station and finishing the race. Nurys was familiar with the challenge because she had recently gone through a similar one during the elimination.

The Challenge indeed proved easier for Nurys, as it was a Sudoku puzzle, and fans saw Emanuel lag for the first time, leading them to believe Nurys, the queen of puzzles, would once again prove her prowess.

However, to the dismay of fans, she lagged at a station that required balance and strength, pushing Emanuel to the lead again. He went on to become the first one to reach the finish line, with Nurys making it 10 minutes later, according to Emanuel's interview with EW.

Talking about what he thought was the hardest portion of the contest, Emanuel said,

"The night portion where we had to stay awake. That was the hardest because you'd want to lay down. It started raining at one point and we said, "Let's get all these panels that we'd been playing the tile thing and build a fort," and that kept us awake a little bit. "

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The Challenge: All-Stars season 4 has been announced on Paramount's official Instagram handle and is expected to release sometime in 2024.