‘The Challenge: USA’ Debut Boosts CBS Viewership; ‘Big Brother’ Wins Night

The inaugural network broadcast of The Challenge: USA was a boon to CBS on Wednesday in primetime. The spinoff of the successful MTV franchise, together with the 24th season of Big Brother, helped CBS to win the night overall with 2.95 million viewers.

According to Live+Same Day ratings from Nielsen, the network premiere of The Challenge: USA — which featured past players from Survivor, Big Brother, Love Island and The Amazing Race — reached 2.3 million viewers. That’s up 233% from last year’s cable premiere of the franchise (August 11, 2021) and up 18% from last summer’s broadcast season premiere of Love Island on July 7.

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The return of Big Brother from 8-9:30 p.m. won the night with 3.7 million viewers and in the adults 18-49 (0.8), though the show was down double digits in both demos. The Challenge: USA came in second for the night with a 0.4 in the demo. Both reality shows on CBS aired opposite mostly reruns on ABC, NBC and Fox, while CW had originals of Mysteries Decoded (0.0, 520,000 viewers) and Wellington Paranormal (0.0, 280K).

On The Challenge: USA, players are given $1,000 to start their individual challenge accounts and must battle to keep and increase their 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. In addition to the $500,000 cash prize, the cast is competing for a spot on The Challenge: Global Championship that will stream exclusively on Paramount+. T.J. Lavin serves as host.

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