‘The Challenge: War Of The Worlds 2’ Bumps To 90-Minute Episodes

The Challenge Season 34 is making some big changes for War of the Worlds 2, and it looks like fans will be getting more drama than ever before. MTV has officially announced that the upcoming season will be moving to the 90-minute format after a decades worth of 60-minute shows. When The Challenge first debuted, it was in a 30-minute format but quickly changed to 60-minutes after it became one of the most successful franchises on the network.

Fans have been begging for years for a longer format, especially after Season 32 (The Challenge: Final Reckoning) where there were many episodes that would omit an elimination challenge. For the longest time, episodes of The Challenge contained one main competition, followed by an elimination. Once a lot of drama got in the way, sometimes it would take two episodes before anyone would be eliminated from the show, which was starting to peeve fans.

Challenge Mania podcast hosts Derrick Kosinski and Scott Yager have been campaigning for longer episodes for some time now and might have given MTV the push they needed to get the new 90-minute format. With as much grit and drama as The Challenge has been producing over the last several seasons, an hour and a half broadcast is exactly what the show needs.

War of the Worlds 2 is also premiering an hour earlier than normal, starting at 8 p.m. ET instead of 9 p.m. to accommodate its new length. This will pit the competition reality series against one of the other biggest names in the game: Survivor. Survivor has had the 8 p.m. ET time on CBS for years and generally dominates the slot. Thanks to DVRs, fans of both shows don’t have to worry about missing one of their favorite series, but they will have to decide which is more important to watch live.

No matter which show fans choose to watch, it would be imperative to stay off of social media until both programs were watched. Fans of each show are known for airing spoilers on Twitter as they happen in real-time, ruining things for anyone who wasn’t able to watch it live.

War of the Worlds 2 will pit the United States against the United Kingdom with a cast of 32 contestants. The new season will feature just a few rookies, with mostly veterans set to return. The United States team is made entirely of veterans, with big wigs like Laurel Stuckey and Jordan Wiseley returning after several seasons off.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 debuts August 28 at 8:00 p.m. ET on MTV.