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The premiere episode of The Challenge: USA began with a bang on Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 10.00 pm ET on CBS. The show welcomed 29 contestants who don't really need an introduction. They were no strangers to reality television and brought their experience from shows like The Amazing Race, Survivor, Love Island, and Big Brother to the series.
In the premiere episode, the contestants were made aware of the fact that four members of the Cookout alliance from Big Brother were present in the competition. The contestants were told that these members, Xavier, Tiffany, Kyland and Azah will be hard to beat. Their alliance was formed during Season 23 of Big Brother and was established as one of the strongest groups to have ever been formed on the show.
The Challenge: USA host T.J. Lavin took charge of the “most unpredictable and cutthroat game." It is a game where contestants will undertake difficult challenges and will need to succeed in order to move forward in the competition. This will go on until only one male and one female member are crowned the champions of the season.
What was The Cookout Alliance and why was it created?
The Cookout was the most dominant alliance in Season 23 of Big Brother. The alliance consisted of Azah Awasum, Derek Frazier, Kyland Young, Hannah Chaddha, Tiffany Mitchell, and Xavier Prather.
It was created to have the first ever Black winner on the show. To keep the alliance going strong, the members formed connections with other contestants who weren't a part of The Cookout Alliance. Pairing up kept them safe as there was never a situation where two members went on the block.
The Cookout alliance even had enough members to keep them safe in case one of them was nominated to be evicted from the show. The group was one of the strongest alliances in Big Brother history and won 9 HoH competitions. It even influenced every elimination and nomination, eventually evicting non-members.
They managed to get all six members of the alliance into the final, establishing them as one of the strongest alliances. Out of the six, Xavier Panther won the Big Brother season.
On The Challenge: USA, four of the members brought in their Big Brother experience. This made the other contestants wary of the strength of the bond between the former alliance members.
However, Alyssa Lopez and Derek Xiao felt that they were used as pawns during the cookout alliance. So, they decided to take revenge on the members on The Challenge: USA.
Kyland and Azah were among the people at risk of being eliminated and that's when fellow Big Brother castmate Angela came to the rescue along with Tyson Apostol. Survivor winner Apostol even managed to win the first challenge.
At this point, it wasn't the Cookout Alliance that saved them but the winner of a whole other show and a Big Brother alum who did.
Fans react to the Cookout Alliance being a part of The Challenge: USA
Fans who watched the premiere obviously had a number of thoughts about the episode and didn't shy away from voicing them on Twitter. Some said that they were excited about the Cookout Alliance being a part of the new show.
Here are some of the fan reactions to the episode:
Meanwhile, others said that they already knew that things weren't in favor of the Cookout Alliance on CBS' new show. Some even said "people already gunning for the cookout" on day one of The Challenge: USA "didn't sit right" with them.
T.J. Lavin hosts The Challenge: USA that is filmed in Buenos Aires. The winning male and female contestants will go on to compete in the upcoming Paramount+ tournament, The Challenge: Global Championship.
Tune in to The Challenge: USA next week on CBS.
