The Challenge Season 37 ratings and viewer numbers have been a hot topic, as Spies, Lies & Allies has been slumping since its premiere episode.
While viewership was down for the past several weeks, the viewer ratings seemed to hold steady for Episode 4 of the latest season in MTV’s competition series.
The show also moved up amongst the top five cable programs for the Wednesday that Episode 4 aired. That could be promising for The Challenge as there’s a potential ratings boost when Episode 5 arrives.
The Challenge Season 37, Episode 4 ratings hold, viewers down
Based on a report from Showbuzz Daily, the latest ratings for MTV’s The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies held at 0.30 for Episode 4, which aired on Wednesday, September 1. That matched the ratings for Episode 3, which was a drop from the second week.
For the overall breakdown, the rating was 0.34 for the females’ 18-49 demographic, while it had a 0.25 rating for the males’ 18-49 demographic.
Despite it holding its rating from the previous week, it dropped slightly in terms of viewers. The show’s fourth episode had 499,000 overall viewers, down from its 506,000 in the previous week.
The latest Spies, Lies & Allies episode moved up a spot in the top five. It came in fourth amongst cable programs for that Wednesday, trailing Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and TNT’s All Elite Wrestling program.
In the previous week, the debut episode of American Horror Story’s new season was in the top five, coming in third overall. However, it fell to No. 8 this past Wednesday.
Cast members, theme, or strategy to blame?
Fans have pointed to several different factors for why The Challenge Season 37 ratings are down. One of them is that there are too many new cast members, as there were 19 rookies from the start.
They included many individuals that viewers in the United States might not be familiar with as the show’s theme involved international and American agents battling to win big prize money.
The rookie cast included stars from Survivor Romania, Big Brother Nigeria, 12 Dates of Christmas, The Circle, and Love Island.
Others have criticized the veteran cast, feeling it is lacking some of the bigger personalities such as Johnny Bananas, Wes Bergmann, or “Killa” Kam Williams.
There are also fans who may feel the spies theme, complete with movie-style effects, has taken a toll on the latest editions of MTV’s competition series.
However, Season 36, known as Double Agents, showed strong ratings, so that could point to the timing of the release of Spies, Lies & Allies. The Challenge has been going head-to-head against CBS’ Big Brother on Wednesday evenings.
Some fans feel the strategy being used in Season 37 has made the episodes boring to watch. It’s basically featured an alliance formed among veteran cast members as they made a truce to throw rookies into elimination until there are no rookies left.
So far, the strategy has worked effectively. In the first four episodes, seven rookies were eliminated, and the veteran competitors seem in charge of their destiny.
While the ratings have been low, there could be an uptick when Episode 5 rolls around, as the ending of the fourth episode set the stage for several heated confrontations in The Challenge headquarters.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.