Some 99 To Beat Fans Think There Was Cheating Going On, But Not So Fast

99 To Beat dropped its Season One finale earlier this week, and it gave us one of the craziest endings in the history of reality competitions. Days later, I’m still shook about how the last thirty seconds went down, and I’m definitely not the only one. Fans have been hitting up social media to talk about what happened, and some have been accusing one of the contestants of cheating during the finale. Let’s talk about it.

Before we do though, I’ll hit you with a spoiler warning. We’re going to talk very directly about what happened during the last episode. So, if you haven’t watched yet, bail out of this article, go watch the finale and then come back.

Now, fans accusing a reality television contestant of cheating isn’t exactly new territory. If you look closely enough on social media, someone is always accusing someone else of cheating at something. It’s much rarer to get a larger group of people (or producers) making a seemingly credible allegation people get behind, but that’s exactly what happened here.

During the last competition, fans noticed a block on the ground during the domino challenge that Peter The Priest did not use. Leandra, who finished seconds after Peter, used all of her blocks, which led many to believe she followed the rules and he did not. A Reddit post outlined the whole cheating allegation, and many fans were initially supportive. Not so fast though.

Several 99 To Beat contestants post regularly on the 99 To Beat SubReddit. Fan favorite Professor Seth, who moderates the SubReddit, was not on set for the final competition, but he said every competition he was a part of was proceeded by extensive explanations of the rules, down to the smallest details. He said contestants were given time to ask unlimited questions and then would be recorded acknowledging that they fully understood the rules. He said there were cameras everywhere and every competition was video reviewed before someone was officially eliminated.

All of that structure heavily implies the judges would have known he didn’t use every block and did not consider that a rules violation. Miranda, who made the finals but was eliminated a few challenges prior to the one in question, also posted on Reddit and said the rules did not say you needed to use every block. Leandra also doesn’t seem to have made any protest; so, this doesn’t seem to be an issue with anyone connected to the show, only fans.

FOX hasn’t made a Season 2 decision on 99 To Beat, but I really hope the show comes back. I’d like to see some changes made, but in general, I think the spirit really works. The contestants clearly invested in the format (one even had to be pulled by medical), and you could feel how much it mattered to them to not finish last, no matter how stupid or ridiculous the challenge they were competing in was. Fingers crossed it serves as a companion to hit gameshow The Floor for years to come.