Reality AF: Why The Challenge: USA Is the Best Version of the Franchise + What to Watch This Week

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our new column, Reality AF. Every Monday, Terry Terrones will check in and talk about the state of reality TV, plus provide a Top 5 list of what’s coming up this week that you should not miss.

Sorry Major League Soccer, but we all know that The Challenge is America’s fifth major sport. It’s a title bestowed upon the series by former ESPN writer and current founder of The Ringer, Bill Simmons, years ago and it’s a surprisingly apt descriptor for a reality show.

At first glance, The Challenge has the DNA of a typical reality series. Contestants live together and compete in challenges. When not competing, players form and break alliances, drink to excess, and sometimes even date as they gradually eliminate each other from the competition for a cash prize.

The Challenge has elements of Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Love Island, so it’s no surprise that contestants from those three series are in this new version. But what makes The Challenge so brutal are the ridiculously over-the-top challenges and eliminations that are physically and mentally draining.

Jumping out of a plane and landing on a bullseye with different point values, having your hands and feet tied while holding a weight that forces you underwater, and throwing your competition off a semi-truck while it’s moving at 50 mph are par for the course. The eliminations are even crazier, and the premiere episode of The Challenge: USA provided great examples of both.

In the “Down to Do the Math” challenge last week, players had to repel down a 22-story building while solving a series of math problems. To be fair, this was the level of math a typical fifth grader can handle, but contestants on this show aren’t known for their intellect. During trivia challenges held in previous seasons, players didn’t know what continent the USA is on, what language is spoken in Australia, and thought Muhammed Ali’s real name was Mahatma Gandhi.

Last week’s elimination game, “Knot So Fast,” had teams take 250 ft. of rope and weave it through a structure for 20 minutes. Then teams switched positions, and the first team to unravel the rope won, sending the losing team home. It’s a brutal challenge that requires brains and brawn.

Every season of The Challenge is a blast but The Challenge: USA has improved the series. Here’s three reasons why this new iteration is the best in franchise history.

Love Island and Big Brother players bring new energy.
Love Island alum Shannon went from saying, “My body is sore and I didn’t even start the game yet!” early in the episode and being an obvious vote out to performing well and convincing challenge winners Angela and Tyson to vote a different team into elimination. Big Brother teams also showed up, with Kyland and Azah getting an elimination win even with the latter’s eyelashes falling off and sliding onto her cheeks. Players from both these series bring a playful yet stealthy energy to the series.

Survivor and The Amazing Race players ramp up the strategy.
While Love Island and Big Brother contestants have clearly come to play (despite host TJ Lavin saying Big Brother players, “lay around the house and don’t do much” in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview) it’s the players from Survivor and The Amazing Race driving the strategic gameplay. Survivor fans watch Shan pretend to be friends with everyone, see Sarah sizing up her competition, and witness Tyson’s tireless scheming. Meanwhile The Amazing Race alums are sneakily manipulating things behind the scenes. With only three people from the franchise, they’re content helping the other groups take each other out.