(Photo: Laura Barisonzi, courtesy of Paramount)
More reality show vets will get another chance for a big cash prize next summer. CBS has renewed The Challenge: USA for a second season. The first season finished airing last September.
A reality competition series, The Challenge: USA TV show is a spin-off of the long-running series The Challenge on MTV. It’s hosted by T. J. Lavin. The players are comprised of veterans from other competition shows like The Amazing Race, Big Brother, Love Island, and Survivor. Upon their arrival, the reality titans are given $1,000 to start their individual challenge accounts. They quickly discover that they must battle to keep and increase their handsome reward. In each episode, an algorithm pairs contestants who will face off to earn money for their accounts by winning challenges or eliminating their opponents. This won’t be an easy task, as they will be paired with a randomly selected competitor every episode — making alliances and strategies more difficult than ever. Players must adapt to survive the game and protect their challenge accounts. With a $500,000 grand prize and the title of Challenge Champion on the line, players are in a constant state of paranoia, unable to trust anyone but themselves.
Airing on Wednesday nights the first season of The Challenge: USA averaged a 0.39 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 2.08 million viewers in the live+same day ratings (including DVR playback through 3:00 AM).
Because of the uncertainty of the ongoing writers strike, it’s not known when the traditional fall season will be able to begin. As a result, CBS has opted to launch its summer shows later than usual so that the network will still have original programming in September.
Season two of The Challenge: USA debuts on Thursday, August 10th.
What do you think? Have you watched The Challenge: USA on CBS? Are you glad this competition series has been renewed for a second season?