The Challenge: USA continues to move full speed ahead towards TJ Lavin’s final, where the winners will receive their share of significant prize money.
While the particulars for the final are still unknown, it’s become clear that CBS has given The Challenge spinoff a much larger audience than MTV’s show.
Based on ratings reports, the show has many more people watching when new episodes arrive each week compared to the main show on MTV.
Episode 7 brought several exciting storylines, including a cast member ready to leave the show due to issues back home and a pair of in-game rivals forced to work together as teammates.
It also brought another close elimination matchup, with two more winners having to exit the show, as two other cast members survived for another week.
This report will contain some spoilers through Episode 7 of The Challenge: USA spinoff.
The Challenge: USA, Episode 7 ratings arrive
According to a Showbuzz Daily report, this past Wednesday’s episode of The Challenge: USA held steady with a 0.42 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That edged out NBC’s Password, a special episode airing at 9:01 p.m. Eastern Time.
The Challenge spinoff also had 2.187 million viewers tuning in to watch as competitors from Amazing Race, Big Brother, Survivor, and Love Island competed in a daily challenge featuring bumper cars.
The Challenge spinoff on CBS has the advantage of airing after new episodes of Big Brother Season 24. Based on Showbuzz Daily’s rating information, the latest BB 24 episode had a stellar 0.85 rating and over four million viewers.
Compared with The Challenge on MTV, the CBS spinoff show has been getting many more viewers. Having it feature popular cast members from the various CBS reality TV shows has helped.
Episode 7 featured cast member ready to quit
In The Challenge: USA, Episode 7, viewers saw Amazing Race star Leo Temory engaged in a call back home with his girlfriend, who was stressing over having to keep his business going. Leo realized he was needed back home and packed up his stuff so he could leave.
However, he had a teammate, Alyssa Lopez, and she was concerned about what might happen if he quit. Ultimately, Leo decided to remain in the game for her sake and the possibility of winning $500,000, which could help fix things back home.
Also, during the episode, Survivor allies-turned-rivals Tyson Apostol and Sarah Lacina got teamed up by The Algorithm, just a few episodes after Tyson threw Sarah into elimination with Leo.
Sarah and Tyson discussed things and decided to put aside their differences so they could move forward in the game. Some trust issues were still present, based on comments they made in confessional interviews.
While Leo stayed in the game, he and Alyssa lost in the daily challenge, a hard-hitting event involving bumper cars.
That meant they went straight into elimination. The winning team, Domenick Abbate and Cayla Platt chose to send Kyland Young and Kyra Green against them.
Leo and Alyssa persevered in a tough event featuring trivia questions with number answers and corresponding medicine balls they had to place on top of a wall. Despite the heavy weight of the numbered balls, Alyssa and Leo got it done correctly first, ousting Kyland and Kyra from the game.
Moments after their victory, host TJ Lavin revealed it was time to change things regarding the teammate situation, meaning a twist is on the way for Episode 7. With that in mind, just 14 competitors remain, indicating that TJ’s final could be coming soon.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
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