The Challenge: USA continues to draw in several million viewers every week as it airs directly after CBS’ popular reality TV competition show, Big Brother.
Episode 10 of The Challenge: USA showed an increase in ratings compared to the prior installment, suggesting many more viewers could also be watching the upcoming season finale.
The penultimate episode featured a daily challenge that only one competitor could complete and yet another difficult elimination discussion between the daily event’s winning players.
Later, there was a fierce showdown at The Arena in an elimination event featuring two friends who were also former castmates.
A teaser also had host TJ Lavin revealing that his final was around the corner, meaning fans have just one “supersized” episode of the CBS spinoff show left.
This report will contain some spoilers through Episode 10 of The Challenge: USA.
The Challenge: USA’s ratings and viewers increased with Episode 10
According to Showbuzz Daily stats, Episode 10 of The Challenge: USA had a 0.40 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, which was up 0.07 compared to Episode 9’s rating.
The latest episode, the spinoff show’s second-to-last, also drew in over 2.1 million viewers. Episode 9 had 1.93 million viewers watching the spinoff.
The Challenge: USA, which airs at the 9 p.m. Eastern Time slot on CBS, finished ahead of reruns of NBC’s Chicago Fire (0.32 rating) and ABC’s Abbott Elementary (0.22 rating).
Each of the spinoff show’s first eight episodes drew in over 2 million viewers, with Episode 9 the only one drawing less than that.
By comparison, MTV’s recent season of The Challenge, called Spies, Lies & Allies, never drew in more than 720,000 viewers for any episode, with the final getting the most viewers.
The spinoff benefits from airing directly after the popular Big Brother show on CBS. The Challenge: USA features former cast members from Big Brother, as well as Amazing Race, Love Island, and Survivor.
Episode 11 is The Challenge: USA’s grand finale
In Episode 10 of The Challenge: USA, viewers saw a daily challenge called Code Crossing where competitors were in harnesses hanging on the side of large moving trucks.
They had to stick pegs into slots on the side of the truck to build themselves a bridge across. Their objective was to move across the side from the back of the truck to the front so they could climb on top and pull a cord before time expired.
None of the cast members could complete the task, except for standout competitor Angela Rummans, who devised a smart strategy with the early placement of her pegs. She won the event, as did Ben Driebergen, as he made it the farthest amongst the men’s competitors.
The worst-performing men’s competitor was Big Brother star David Alexander, which automatically put him into the elimination. As the daily challenge winners, Ben and Angela decided to send David’s friend and former Big Brother castmate, Enzo Palumbo, into the elimination against him.
They competed in Balls In, a classic Challenge elimination where competitors alternate playing offense and defense in a game at The Arena. In each round, the offensive player tries to score a ball into the basket in the center of the ring while their opponent attempts to knock the ball out of the ring.
The competitor who scores the most points in five rounds is declared the winner. In The Challenge: USA, Episode 10, the winner was Enzo, who broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth round to take the game against his friend. That sent David home for the season.
With the victory, Enzo became the richest competitor in the cast and survived to participate in TJ Lavin’s final. During a teaser trailer at the end of Episode 10, TJ revealed that the next installment would be a “supersized” episode featuring his final.
Footage showed competitors dealing with rather cold conditions and also featured sound bites with some individuals seeming ready to quit, suggesting this will be another intense Challenge final. The grand finale airs on CBS on Wednesday, September 14.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.