With only a few episodes left before TJ Lavin’s final, The Challenge: USA may have lost some of its viewers along the journey.
Based on recent statistics, the CBS spinoff show’s eighth episode experienced a dropoff in terms of its ratings and the overall number of viewers.
In The Challenge: USA, Episode 8, viewers saw the game change as competitors continued to do their best to win daily challenges and strategize their way to the final.
It featured another elimination, with The Challenge host bringing out his all-time favorite for a head-banging event.
However, viewership and rating data suggest a slight dropoff occurred between Episodes 7 and 8 of the CBS spinoff series featuring Big Brother, Amazing Race, Love Island, and Survivor stars.
This report will contain some spoilers through Episode 8 of The Challenge: USA.
The Challenge: USA ratings down for Episode 8
Each week, ratings arrive to tell the story of what viewers were watching during the primetime slots for network and cable television. According to TV Line’s report, on Wednesday, August 24, the overall winner was NBC’s America’s Got Talent, with 5.6 million viewers and a 0.6 rating.
That airs at the 8 p.m. Eastern Time slot, opposite CBS’ Big Brother, which had 4 million viewers and a 0.9 rating. After the latest episode of BB 24 finished airing, The Challenge: USA spinoff presented Episode 8.
According to Showbuzz Daily, it had 2.1 million viewers and a 0.4 rating, both of which were slight drops from the previous week. By comparison, Episode 7 of the spinoff had 2.2 million viewers with a 0.42 rating in the key 18-49 demographic.
The numbers are steady overall, so there’s reason to panic about the popular MTV competition show’s spinoff version just yet.
The popularity of Big Brother airing just ahead of The Challenge: USA also appears to help. The cast for The Challenge spinoff features multiple players from the other CBS competition show’s past seasons, including BB 24’s Xavier Prather, Tiffany Mitchell, Kyland Young, and Alyssa Lopez.
Game changed in Episode 8, classic elimination debuts
With The Challenge: USA, Episode 8, viewers saw host TJ Lavin reveal that The Algorithm, a random computer program used to assign each person a new teammate at the start of the episodes, was no longer in play. Instead, he revealed it would be an individual game moving forward.
That meant everyone competed on their own during the daily challenge, Having a Blast, which involved running down a soapy runway pulled behind a tugboat in the water and trying to transfer flags from one end to the other. Several castmates got to spray fire hoses at the people competing if they chose to.
Ultimately, Ben Driebergen completed the task the quickest for the men, and Angela Rumman was the fastest for the women. That gave them safety from elimination and the power to throw one man into elimination.
Big Brother star Enzo Palumbo was the slowest of the men in the daily challenge, putting him automatically into The Arena. Ben and Angela decided to toss Leo Temory into his third elimination, and it ended up being the debut of Hall Brawl for the spinoff, a Challenge classic.
Enzo had the size advantage against Leo and got past his opponent in two-straight rounds of the elimination event, ousting the Amazing Race star from the game. Enzo also received all the money from Leo’s personal bank account with the win, which qualified Enzo for the final.
Based on a teaser trailer for Episode 9, the competition will become fiercer as the next elimination will be one for the women. Survivor star Sarah Lacina may also be trying to take out her main rival during the spinoff show, Angela Rummans.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.