How Will the Era of One Work?

Following Derrick’s departure, the Era 1 team has been reduced to a single player: Rachel.

Her perseverance is impressive, but it also complicates season 40’s existing flow. So far, every challenge had two targets per era: one male and one female. Now that Rachel is the sole survivor on her team, Era 1 doesn’t have a male target and Rachel will need to be the default female target.

Many people thought the format would change at this point, becoming an individual game. Rachel expressed frustration with this while picking the new team targets, and production must know that the teams can’t last forever. We lose two people per episode and each era only had four males and four females. One team was bound to dissolve sooner than later.

It’s very likely the format will change eventually, but until then, how is the game going to play out?

Option 1: An Era of One

At the end of episode 8, it was implied Rachel would continue to represent Era 1 by herself. This would make daily challenges unbalanced. In some cases, it would make it impossible for Era 1 to win, but it could also be a severe advantage in other scenarios.

The biggest issue would be at The Arena. If Era 1 is thrown into elimination, we’d be missing the second male competitor. We saw something similar at the end of The Ruins when the final Ruins only featured Susie vs. Casey and there wasn’t a male elimination. But we’re only at the midway point of season 40, and this could create a significant imbalance in the number of male and female players.

Option 2: Era 1 Is Absorbed

With the numbers dwindling, Rachel could be given the option to join another era. This would give her a fighting chance to continue in the game, though it wouldn’t make a lot of sense given the “Battle of the Eras” title — though it’s not exactly unusual for The Challenge to make questionable formatting choices.

If this were to happen, it would likely change the dynamic of the game because one team would win the daily challenge, but immunity would be the only prize. The representative from the other two teams would need to duke it out in the Arena by default.

Option 3: Fewer Eliminations

Over the past six episodes, the show has lost 12 players. At this rate, there will be very few people remaining at the end of the season if the format doesn’t change. So, we might be reaching a natural turning point we each episode has either a male or female elimination rather than both.

So long as Rachel remains in the game, the current format wouldn’t need to change on female elimination days, but it would need to change on male elimination days. So, this option doesn’t make a lot of sense. But again, The Challenge doesn’t always follow a logical format.

There has been a bit of a spoiler/ Easter egg released. Episode 10 is titled “A New Era.” It wouldn’t be a shock if this meant the season’s format will be shaken up after episode 9. And, if Rachel manages to evade elimination on episode 9, all of these hypothetical formatting modifications won’t matter.