‘Destination X’ Runner-Up Peter Weber Reveals the Secret Clue From the Finale That Changed Everything

Peter Weber was one of the most seasoned competitors on Destination X, having already been on The Bachelor and The Traitors before stepping onto the bus in the Paris leg of the journey. He was also one of the most well-prepared contestants of all, with his experience as a pilot giving him unique insight into the direction shifts of the bus and some of the finer details about the group’s travel locales. So it was hardly a surprise to see him make it to the final two, especially after successfully keeping his alliance with Rick Szabo a secret until the bitter end. What may have been a shock, though, was that he came up just short in the finale, incorrectly guessing that “Destination X” was the Tower of London instead of Big Ben.

According to Peter, though, there’s a reason he was drawn to that spot instead of the right one — and we didn’t get to see it on screen. TV Insider caught up with Weber to find out more details on his experience on Destination X, so read on to find out everything he had to share about his time on the season… and what might be next for him.

Hi Peter, how are you doing?

Peter Weber: I am doing good. Could be better, but not too shabby. [Laughs]

You came into this show wanting to earn the money to move to Los Angeles. Did you get a chance to do that?

I did. Yeah, that’s a cool question to open up on. Yeah. It was a little bit of foreshadowing from the show. That was filmed back in October, and as fate would have it, in January, I was based out of Newark with United up to that point, and in January, opportunity comes to do a transfer to LAX. So took advantage of that. Moved in April. My little niece was born, Willow, on March 10, and so yeah, two of those things I was really looking forward to happened, and I’m just very grateful for them.

A little Pisces. Great. So how is it being an uncle? How are you enjoying that?

Oh my gosh. Just so much love. I’m obsessed with her. She’s actually coming up. We’re up at the lake right now. Jack, my brother, and Christine are coming up right now, they’ll be here probably in an hour. So can’t wait to hug her and snuggle her like crazy. I am “Funcle Bud” to her, and just looking forward to a lot of incredible years coming up and enjoying her right now as a cute little baby.

Well, thanks for taking the time if you’ve got family things. So after the results when you realized that you didn’t win, obviously you seemed gutted, but you also seemed happy for Rick at the same time. So can you describe how your mind was processing that?

Yeah, that was bad. I remember they transport you with the goggles, and you’re waiting. It’s going to be the reveals, and is there money in there or is there not? And I just kind of had a feeling, a sense of, “I don’t know if that was it.” And I opened it up, and it was just all, everything — I spent three weeks, a month, whatever it was in this show. It’s such an intense environment. And obviously, I’m someone just giving it my all. I don’t know how to turn it off. And you come up that close, and it’s just such a sting that it overtook me, I think, a little bit. It’s tough to process. But then, what I think was cool was having the opportunity to work with Rick and get so close and then hear his story. I was grateful in that moment, it kind of helped me cope, and it just came into my head, and I was like, “Okay, let me think about this for a second,” and started realizing for Rick and probably how ecstatic he was, just what he was gonna be able to do with his family and the story that he had told us — the story that he had told us all. In that moment, I was able to really feel good for him and be grateful for him, and that made me, in turn, feel really good, and kind of soften the blow a little bit and just kind of accept it. And it’s like, “Okay, if anyone else would’ve won besides me, I’m really happy that it was Rick.”

Sean Gleason / NBC

Did any part of you wish you had maybe tried to ally with somebody a little less competitive?

No, no. Well, I think, to be honest, everyone was extremely competitive in the game… I think Mack [Fitzgerald] would have won if I didn’t have a chance to take her out in that moment. She was a huge force to be reckoned with. Biggy [Bailey] is extremely competitive. Really, that’s a testament to all the players, we really were giving it our all. With Rick, I had no qualms about aligning with him, and we were able to really work together well. I think we both helped each other out a bunch throughout the game, and it was reciprocated, and yeah, no issues with that whatsoever.

You mentioned Biggy. Were you surprised at how just befuddled he was by your and Rick’s alliance?

Yeah. I guess I was a little bit shocked that he was so shocked. I don’t know, maybe because I was going back to when we were on the yacht in Monaco, and I thought we had kind of let the cat out of the bag a little bit with that, [when] we had made some plays to really just help each other. So I didn’t know if maybe that let it out, but I guess it didn’t — maybe he thought we’re just being strategic individually at that point. But yeah, I mean, it was tough to see. You don’t obviously want to see someone that is feeling that pain, and it kind of feels like a betrayal in the moment. It’s never easy to see someone witness that. But listen, honestly, hats off to Biggy for being able to have his back up against — have it be the two of us essentially versus one, and still force a tie breaker. Hats off to him for that.

That was a squeaker. This was your second major reality competition series. So how did your experience on Destination X compare to The Traitors as far as the environment and the gameplay aspects of it?

Traitors will always have a very special place in my heart because it was my first intro to this experience of gaming and this type of show. So that’ll always have a very special place in my heart. But Destination X was the most incredible thing I’ve ever done. It was just so unique in so many ways and so just adventurous and mysterious and just beautiful and challenging and difficult and heartbreaking, and it just had everything. … It was cool, actually. I’ve been saying that for the last couple of weeks, but Jeffrey [Dean Morgan, host] mentioned it on the show, too. To have all of us really sharing this experience, to let go of our phones, let go of social media, fully detach, and just play a game, you don’t get to do that in today’s day and age, and Destination X was the perfect opportunity for that. The coolest game board you could ever imagine, laid out across Europe. Loved it.

Of all the places you went, was there one place that you’re like, “I have to go back there and actually get to see this place”?

Venice. I’d never been to Venice. The initial challenge we had where we got to kayak in that really beautiful river with the base of the Alps in the background, that was one of the wow moments, the biggest wow moments. I remember, I was in the back, and I looked back, Biggy was up front, and I just remember staring. It was the first time I’d seen those Alps, and I’m like, “Where am I? How did I get here? This is so incredible.” And it was a really just beautiful moment to take in. So I’d love to go explore some of that area. And then, it was cool that we got to, in the one episode, have masks off for a majority of the city. So we got to see a lot. But I still feel like there’s so much more I would want to see there and at least spend a couple of days.

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You were obviously allies with JaNa [Craig] and Rick. Are you guys still friends? And is there anyone else that you keep up with from the original cast?

Yeah. I mean, I keep up with the two of them more than anyone else, really. Biggy and I, we stay in touch. Shayne [Cureton] just sent a text last night. Really happy for him, and I’m sure he’s got a lot of great stuff coming his way. So that’s great for him. I would say, yeah. I’d say Rick and JaNa, though, are the two that I’ve talked with the most. We obviously were the closest, and it’s been cool kind of just going through the whole series and just reliving moments and looking forward to what was coming and getting each other excited for that. Yeah, it’s been cool to just relive it the second time.

We talked about your reality competition history. Is there any other one that you’re looking at that you’re like, “I want to be part of that, too”? 

I’ve been asked this a couple times, and I keep saying Survivor, and Survivor would be incredible, but now I’m thinking just Traitors. I would love to do Traitors again. I would love to. That was an incredible experience. I know that there’s some people that have been able to go back twice, so I’d say that. Keep it in the fam.

Yeah, why not? Is there anything we didn’t get to see from you that you wish we had, or anything that we did see that you felt like maybe you need to explain or set the record straight on?

What was tough was, with the clues for the finale, there was actually four that we were given, not three. And the second one — so the first one was Queen Elizabeth — the second one was a picture of British coins. That wasn’t shown ever, and immediately, my thinking is, “Okay, I’m not thinking of a clock. I’m seeing a picture of Queen Elizabeth, British coins.” Then the third one is the hourglass. But in my mind, I’m thinking, “Wait, that might be a red herring. I might have missed one of the riddles because how does the hourglass coincide with money and a queen?” And then I see the $100 bill, but I just connected that with the coins, so my mind was just going away from Big Ben. And so I guess I don’t know if that makes it make more sense of kind of why I went the direction I went, but I guess that would be my answer.