Mark Long Said He Was "Cursed from the Beginning" on 'The Challenge 40'

The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras is here! Throughout the season, Parade.com will speak with the challengers who were eliminated from the milestone season of the MTV series.

It wouldn't be exaggerating to call Mark Long one of the most important members of The Challenge 40 cast. The Road Rules veteran was not only the oldest member of the cast, in his early 50s, but also made the earliest Challenge debut out of anyone on the season, appearing on Season 2 back in 1999. Mark competed on six seasons, earning two wins, until his retirement from the show in 2012. But, years later, he helped lead the charge of the online "We Want OGs" campaign, a fan petition to put old-school challengers back on some form of the show. The result: The Challenge All-Stars , which is going on four seasons and helped reintroduce many players from the early days of the show to a modern audience.

So, when The Challenge wanted to do a "battle of the eras" for its 40th season, it only makes sense to call on somebody who represented the first ten seasons of the show at its core. Unfortunately for Mark, his return to the MTV flagship lasted one mere round. He finished last out of the Era 1 men in the daily, leaving up him a lake without a paddle and forced to go against one of his friends. Derrick Kosinski volunteered to go into the arena, and the two men dramatically faced off in "Pole Wrestle." Despite Mark's notable size advantage, Derrick continued to prove why he is synonymous with this particular elimination. The "Godfather" of The Challenge was whacked by one of his closest allies and sent out in the first round.

Following his elimination, Mark talks with Parade.com about his feelings about returning to the MTV series, the choices that led him into elimination, and how he used his mysterious "karma vote" following elimination.

Related: Everything to Know About The Challenge 40

So you formally retired from The Challenge back in 2012 after Battle of the Exes . But you've obviously been a big part of All-Stars , both with the "We Want OGs" campaign, as well as playing on two seasons yourself. So what was your reaction when you were asked to come back to MTV for Season 40?
Well, first of all, I'm so thankful for All-Stars . They've been so such great partners. So shout out to Julie Pizzi and Dan Kiser. They're great. They love the show. They're supportive to the end. But I remember getting the first call, and it was the casting person. And she said, "Hey Mark. Do you know why I'm calling you?" And I was like, " All-Stars ?" And she's like, No, it's actually for Season 40 of the franchise." And I remember, I was outside of a grocery store. I'm like, "Oh, wow. Really? Okay!"

The fact that I did my initial Challenge in 1998 and then getting a call in 2024 to be a part of it. First of all, I'm very grateful. Doing that show in '98 opened up so many opportunities for me, and really put me down a path of a great little entertainment run and career, which I'm still heavily involved in. And you would think I'd be less relevant now, but I feel like I'm even more relevant now than I was back then, which is crazy. But I feel like that's kudos to our fan base, too. So many of our fans have grown up with us. I have so many people that are like, "I watched you on your original Road Rules . Now I watch The Challenge and All-Stars with my daughter or my son." So hearing that, for me, is so special. I love nostalgia, whether it's music, whether it's flashback, pop culture stuff like a Road Rules or a Challenge All-Stars . So I feel what they're saying, and I love it. So the fact that I got called to be a part of it was amazing. And I feel like we should all be lucky to be there. And it's the best show ever. It's the best show on TV. It's got such a great fan base. This definitely isn't my last rodeo. The Godfather is only getting started. Let's just say that, Mike.

Well, that might be due in part to the fact that your return appearance was so short-lived. Let's talk about your elimination. You had to go in against someone you are very close to in Derrick. And, on paper, it seemed like you had a size advantage. But Derrick has clearly proven "Pole Wrestle" in his bread and butter. So give me your reaction going into elimination.
Well, first of all, Derrick is like a brother to me outside of this. And he was like, "Are you mad that I made that decision? Are you upset? I just felt like I owed Darrell." And I was like, "Derrick, you're my brother outside of this. Absolutely not. We're here to make great TV. So no, I'm not mad at you." And going into it and then pulling "Pole Wrestle." The crazy thing is, Johnny pulled me aside and was like, "I think being tall and lanky is not the best shape for this Pole Wrestle. Try to use your weight. Lean on him." We all saw what Derrick did to Joss, who was much bigger than him. And again, I think that is Derrick's elimination. He's like a pit bull that you give a bone to, and it's very hard to get that away from him. And I tried to lay on him. I think I tried to bite his ear once. I don't know what I was doing. But it was bittersweet.

But I will say this. I said, "If one of us won, we both won." And I'm hoping that his win against me gives him the confidence and wind behind his sails to boost him through the season. So I'm anxious to see how far he goes. I am rooting for him. He's my number one pick. And was it bittersweet that I had to leave him, of course. But just being there with Era 1 and how close the boys and the women were, it was amazing. We got to spend a lot of time in the hotel before we even started, which was great. It was like a little summer camp before we started. I mean, on the show, I was only there for the second or third episode. But I felt like I was there for like a month. So it didn't feel like it was soon that I left. So it was amazing. And I think the production came through. The house looks amazing. So, yeah, it was great.

The format of this season got you to interact with a lot of the newer cast members who played after your time. And I know you've been able to meet a good amount of them through "Challenge Mania" live events. But what was it like to get to meet some of the newer crop outside of just watching them on your screen?
Well, what's great about the newer cast members, which I noticed, is they really treat me with like the utmost respect. They know I've been there since the beginning and kind of laid the framework for what the show is, which I'm always so grateful for that. Because I feel that with Kyland or Nurys or Horacio has given me praise. Or even the Toris of the world, or Devin. So it's nice to have that respect. But at the end of the day, I'm still going to put Era 1 first always. But it's nice to be in that house.

Now, I've hosted so many of these "Challenge Mania Live"s and met them, and have had great relationships with them before going into that house. But it was nice to see them in that atmosphere of, "Okay, we're in The Challenge house. The lines are drawn four eras." Of course, you want your era to be the best, and it's going to be fun to see how this plays out. I loved the episode of the eliminations. I thought from start to finish, it was one of the greatest episodes ever. So action packed. There were rivals that needed to settle it in the sand that we got to see, and it couldn't have been a more perfect episode. Editing-wise, it was phenomenal. So hats off to Bunim-Murray and MTV, because it was great. Many people have watched and said that was a great, great episode. So I'm glad that you guys liked it as much as us.

Let's talk about what got you into that epic night of eliminations. You return from retirement from the MTV show, and finish in last among the Era 1 guys in the first daily. Talk to me about what happened there.
I knew I was cursed from the beginning, and I'm going to tell you why. So TJ is like, "You guys are going to run down here and you're going to build this 3D number 40." Well, first of all, I'm a very visual guy. I like to see what I'm building. "This is what we're building. It looks like this." We didn't get that. So I made the mistake of running down there. Brad was ahead of me, but Brad ran past our checkpoint. So he was gone and he had to come back. So I got to our area first, and I made the mistake of getting the first table. So I was basically just facing production. So I had no one to look at, like, "What are people doing? What is this thing?"

You were sitting at the front of the class, so you couldn't copy off of anybody.
I had no one to copy off of it. I'm looking like, "What do I do?" I don't know if it's a square with the 40 cut out. I don't know what I'm building. So I just start moving blocks around. And I remember I turned to Derrick at one point. I'm like, "Derrick, if you finish before me, you better not knock that puzzle down. You leave that bastard up, because I need some help." So he was gracious enough to leave his puzzle up. But that was my first error in this thing.

Then I get in the boat, and I feel like my boat was, not that it was taking on water. But it already had water in it when I got the boat. And then we're supposed to take these light things and put them in this bag they gave us. So I start filling the bag then. Then once I pick up the bag, the bag has a hole, and all the lights fall out onto the boat. Half of the lights go off because it was water. So right off the bat, I'm like, "This just might not be my time. This is not going well." And I will say this, though. I finished before every other era's last boy. So I was not the last one. I will say that. Rachel goes, "Just so you know, you beat all the other eras' last place people." That's a win for me!

I actually on All-Stars 3 beat Jordan in a puzzle. So puzzles, to me are, I either get it right away and I know what I'm doing. Or it's like I'm doing Chinese arithmetic. And that particular night, which was very late at night, I was like, "I don't know what I'm building. I have no idea. I'm gonna start throwing these blocks into the water." Me and Aneesa are like, "What are we doing?"

Well you at least get sent off in style when you and the other eliminated players are given "karma points" to rate the remaining competitors. Can you give me any highlights or lowlights from your ratings?
Well, obviously Era 1 all got fives. I remember I gave Johnny, I think, our points because he's one of my guys. I feel like, as the eras went, I feel like they got less and less. I kind of am a sucker for the old school. So Era 1 and even Era 2 I gave a little bit more. But it's fun that we get to kind of impact the game. We'll see how that plays out. When he first held us there, we all thought there was a Redemption House. We're like, "Are we going to Redemption House?" And I remember, Amanda covers her face, and she's like, "Oh no!" thinking she was going to go in there. But luckily for her, we didn't go in there. But the karma points were great. And it's going to be amazing to see how they play out in this game.

Finally, in honor of the infamous "Shit They Should Have Shown" episode of the old-school days of The Challenge , what's one moment from your time on the show that you wish you had made the edit?
I just had this conversation with Johnny and Derrick. One afternoon, I think was after the first competition, the rooms were split up. So it was [Eras] 1 and 2 on this side of the house, and 3 and 4, and a huge space in between. Era 3 threw over an M&M, and it hit on our side. And we looked over there, all laughing and whatnot. I shit you not. Mike. Within 90 seconds, we had built a professional rocket launcher with Derrick's workout band, and we started firing fruit, toilet paper rolls dipped in water We were destroying their house, and enough that they came over and said, "Guys, white flag. We're done."

So the fact that Era 1 was clever enough, [that] within 90 seconds to come back with a full on rocket launcher and just destroy them, just shows the ingenuity of Era 1. So I hope they show that one of the clips on their "dot coms" or their Instagrams. I was like, Johnny, how do they not show the boomerang fight? He's like, I have no idea. So if you're watching MTV, put that up on The Challenge Instagram, because that was epic. Jordan coming over, going, "We give up! Please stop ruining our room". I mean, we were shooting full-on whole toilet paper rolls dipped in water just, I think, 100 miles an hour across, just splattering in the room. It was amazing. You know what? It was very Era 1, very old-school.

Next, check out our Challenge 40 interview with Kaycee Clark and Devin Walker .