Destination X is coming out of the gates hot with its surprise twists including the first round ousting of Big Brother 19 winner Josh Martinez. The gregarious competition reality star has also participated in multiple seasons of The Challenge and a season of Los 50, but ultimately a bus load of reality show newbies and his own failure to listen to his gut instincts cast Martinez out onto the Via di S. Gregorio all by his lonesome.
The brand-new competition reality series puts 12 contestants inside a blacked-out bus that travels across Europe. With challenges and clues, they have to guess where they are for the chance at a $250,000 prize.
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As a self professed “adrenaline junkie,” Josh told NBC Insider that his love of adventure and travel led him to sign up for the inaugural season of Destination X.
“It just sounded so exciting, so different. It really did scare me at first because I had no idea what I’m getting myself into,” he laughed. “I was like, just jump in head first and just give it a go and see how it plays out.”
What’s tougher to survive: the Big Brother house or the Destination X bus?
Martinez said even though he only made it through a few days of Destination X production before he was out of the game, he knew that the confinement in the bus was going to be its own outsized challenge unique to this competition.
“Big Brother is one of the hardest games out there. You’re confined in a house for 100 plus days so I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna do great.’ But no. The bus was way harder,” he assessed. “You have nowhere to run. You can’t go get some fresh air. You can’t escape. You’re in there, trapped.”
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Josh said the saving grace during those first few days was getting to know his fellow contestants. But he realized that he had some claustrophobia issues the longer he was inside the bus.
“I think my biggest struggle, and what was hard for me, was the reality that I’m trapped on this bus and I’m really not getting off so that started to play with my mind,” he explained. “I thought I would be good at it, but I realized that I am a little bit claustrophobic and I don’t do well with confined spaces or being controlled.”
He confirmed that the only place to get some personal space was inside their individual sleeping spaces.
“That is truly your only escape from everybody, when you go to bed. When you go lay down and you close your curtains, that is your only break from everyone. There is no other time. On paper, it sounded easy. But once that road trip started and we were on the road for nine hours, and I saw this is real. So my respect to all my castmates and production because it was really hard.”
Even for challenges, Josh said he only got to exit the bus two times.
“I was there for three, four days and I think we stepped off two times. And when you step off, you’re blindfolded, you have headphones. And when I got out, I was in a well,” he laughed.
Bonding on the Destination X bus
A great social game can keep you in any competition reality show longer but Josh said he had two big adversaries in Mack Fitzgerald and Rick Szabo.
“I got the vibe from Rick that…I just felt distant from him,” he explained about their animosity. “He wasn’t opening up to me, so I felt a disconnect. I was like, ‘All right, he probably either thinks I’m a threat or he just doesn’t vibe with me, and that’s OK.’”
And Mack selected Josh to go to the Map Room which meant she saw him as a threat. Josh agreed.
“There’s only so much they can show, but Mack calls me out,” he said of a scene that didn’t make it to broadcast. “She says something to me and I kind of went off on her knowing if I come back in here, I’m going after you.”
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He said it was a gloves off moment and his recognition of her ruthless game play.
“Me and Mack on the game level never connected either, so she’s another person that I was like, ‘All right, I’m gonna gun for her.’”
Unfortunately, Josh said he sandbagged his own game by not trusting his prior visits to Italy and Rome, and picking the wrong area of the map which sent him home.
“What hurt me was my own self, not trusting my instincts and my gut and not playing as aggressively as I play,” he said. “For instance, like with the Biggy situation, him going upstairs and going outside, I should have been like, ‘Nope, I’m doing it.’ And that’s normally how I play these games. So I think that that not playing how I play was the hard hit for me.”
Who does Josh think could win Destination X?
Asked who he thinks could go all the way to the end of the game, Josh picked two players Ally Bross and Biggy Bailey. “I think Ally is so underestimated. You see this gorgeous, beautiful girl, very bubbly and all this stuff. But the way that she attacked competition, she’s there to play, so she’s definitely somebody to keep an eye on,” he pointed out.
“Then I would say, Biggie,” he continued. “Biggy is just somebody that surprised me. He was somebody that was very observant. Instantly, I connected with him so he’s somebody that I’m rooting for. I would love to see Biggie win. He has all the attributes, he has all the physicality…everything. He’s like the full package.”
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And what happened after Josh walked off that bus with Jeffrey Dean Morgan by his side? Did they get a drink together in Rome?
Josh said contestants are sent home but he decided to stay in Europe on his own dime and travel. “I never like to go right away home,” he said about his post show habits. “Right after we wrapped that and I did my exit, I traveled for a little bit and and just kind of disconnected and then I went home.”
“It was a hard hit,” he said of his disappointment. “I really high hopes. I wanted to play the game and that’s what was hard. I really didn’t get the chance to compete so now I’m more hungry than ever to just get in and play a game. I don’t know what game it’s gonna be, but the next time you see me on any of these game shows and I come out aggressive, just know it’s because of the loss I took on Destination X!”
Watch Destination X Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Episodes are available to stream next day on Peacock.
