With Episode 11 of The Challenge: USA, viewers will see TJ Lavin’s final unfold with intensity. Determined cast members have been trying to survive through the season of complex daily challenges, intense eliminations, and the politics and social game behind the scenes.
The remaining competitors from Survivor, Big Brother, Love Island, and Amazing Race will now battle for bragging rights and other valuable prizes.
Ahead of the spinoff season’s finale, @thechallenge shared a sneak peek at part of the final on social media. In the clip, viewers see one of the tasks or checkpoints that competitors will participate in.
The finalists are operating at nighttime, something much different than they’ve done throughout the season for daily challenges. TJ blows the air horn for the checkpoint shown, and competitors dive into the water for a cold, dark swim.
Once they swim to their destination, they have to use a rope to climb to shore. From there, the main objective is to find color-coded tires worth specific points and accumulate the highest score.
Early on, several finalists opt to locate the pink tires, as they’re worth the most and could result in the highest score. It also keeps them away from their competition.
The sneak peek footage also teases potential injury, as one competitor finds themselves struggling with a part of a climb ahead of locating tires.
When is The Challenge: USA final, and what’s the format?
Viewers can watch The Challenge: USA final live on CBS or live streaming on Paramount Plus, starting at 9/8c, on Wednesday, September 14. Episode 11 is the finale and has a longer runtime of two hours compared to the one-hour episodes fans have seen most of the season.
The footage above indicates that The Challenge: USA final will feature everyone competing independently. It could also have a similar format to The Challenge: All Stars Season 1 final, where competitors accumulated points through various checkpoints.
The All Stars winner(s) ended up being whoever had the highest score(s) after completing the final. That was Yes Duffy, who bested his castmates with the highest score. However, there was some backlash about there being only one winner and no winner crowned for the women.
The Challenge: USA final could also be similar to All Stars 3, where winning a checkpoint gives competitors the advantage in terms of headstarts for their next checkpoint.
Who is competing in TJ’s Challenge: USA final?
Based on the sneak peek footage, five women may compete in the final at the start. The clip above shows Angela Rummans, Alyssa Lopez, Cayla Platt, and Sarah Lacina lined up, with Justine Ndiba possibly there. Justine didn’t appear in other parts of the footage.
For the guys, the footage shows Enzo Palumbo, Tyson Apostol, Danny McCray, Ben Driebergen, and Domenick Abbate competing. Fans saw Episode 10 feature a men’s elimination at The Arena, with Enzo sending David Alexander home ahead of the final.
With five women and five men remaining, there may also be an exciting situation that was teased in a previous trailer. The teaser footage showed Angela competing in a Pole Wrestle, possibly against her Big Brother ally Alyssa.
That could mean an elimination event will arrive during the final to trim down the field to fewer people competing, similar to what happened in The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies and The Challenge: All Stars 3. Both finals featured elimination battles to reduce the overall number of competitors after several checkpoints.
How many winners and what do they win?
As of this report, those details about the number of winners haven’t officially been revealed. A TV Guide synopsis for the episode indicates, “Only one will survive the brutal conditions and host TJ’s twists and turns to win.”
Based on recent seasons of MTV’s The Challenge and Paramount Plus’ All Stars spinoff, one would think this final should follow a similar pattern.
Both shows had one man and one woman as the champions at the end of the final. For The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies, a team of CT Tamburello and Kaycee Clark won. For The Challenge: All Stars 3, Wes Bergmann and Jonna Mannion won individually against the other men and women they competed against.
Based on previous details about the show, the winner(s) will get $500,000 in prize money. The way the footage above is presented, individuals’ bank account totals appear under their names during confessionals, so it seems that maybe the winners will keep that money. It’s unknown if runner-ups also get prize money.
The Challenge: USA winners also move on to The Challenge: World Championships on Paramount Plus. The global tournament will also feature winners or finalists from three other spinoffs: The Challenge: Australia, The Challenge: Argentina, and The Challenge: UK.
The winner of the said tournament ends up crowned as The Challenge World Champion(s), although there may be a few multi-time champs from MTV’s side of things with a bone to pick over that.
The Challenge: USA finale airs on CBS on Wednesday, September 14, at 9/8c.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
The link above is an affiliate link. This means that for any qualifying purchase you make, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.