The Challenge: USA

I have never seen the original "Challenge" but I was drawn to the "Challenge: USA" spin-off mainly because of the participation of several "Survivor" players. The show seems to be a chaotic blend of social, strategic, and physical elements from other game / reality shows such as "Survivor" (duh), "Big Brother", and "Fear Factor". To be honest, strategically it doesn't measure up to "Survivor" and the challenges, although enjoyable, are not as outrageous as those of "Fear Factor", but the show is fun anyway, and because soooooo many factors go into lasting long and ultimately winning, from skills to social play to pre-game bonds to just pure luck, it is very unpredictable. There are also some clever editing tricks. Beware that it does spoil many previous "Challenge" seasons, though, so if you want to get into that show from the beginning, this is not a good starting point by any means; if you are more of a "Survivor" fan looking to expand your horizons, it is. 7/10.

I've watched BB, TAR and Survivor since their inception and I have watched them crash the last couple of seasons due to Wokeness. I have also watched The Challenge for the last 30 seasons and have loved how nobody cares about anything but playing the game. Thank you TJ for saving the CBS reality shows. Would have loved to have seen Bananas and Aneesa and the rest of the Challenge family but that would not have been fair to these newbies. Can you just imagine what Wes would do to these people! Best CBS reality show since Big Brother season 2.

Season one was sort of clear cut and enjoyable to watch, but the finale and it's rules were horrendous. How can one person get to "time out" of a challenge puzzle and then get to move on after 30 minutes, but another person on a different puzzle must solve their puzzle? And to throw a random puzzle that most people don't know how to play into an ATHLETIC challenge was just rigged.

Season 2 is very confusing. I watched about 30 minutes of drama and chat and about 7 minutes of actual "Challenge" type action. The rest was commercials. For some reason just because you were on Big Brother, now makes you a Challenge type athlete. It's hard to watch.

Can a show be more boring. The first episode I did not care who won or how. Seemed all they cared about was socializing. Unbelievably stupid show. And the host is supposed to be a genius? He is a genius at somehow keeping this awful show on TV. Watched because I love Survivor. Take some lessons from that show, please. Will not be watching another episode.

And I am here for it! As a long time survivor, and challenge fan I'm excited for what devilish ideas TJ has up his sleeve. Going to be some great, low stress, and fun content to watch this summer.