Episode Numbers

A big focus of the blog so far this season has been the fact that with multiple eliminations in the first two episodes that we are on pace for a troubling small number of episodes.

A look at the last few seasons reveals that there have really only been 10 episodes the last few years.   Right now we are on pace for 9.   Not that huge of a deal.   And if they split the final elimination into a 2 parter, we could easily be at that magical number of 10.

But for me 10 episodes just isn't enough.   Can you believe that after tonight we'll be 2/5's done with this season?  Battle of the Exes we barely knew ye.

So I thought it might be a fun talking point to discuss possible ways to increase that number using unconventional methods.

Obviously - we could just have more groups of competitors.  It could cause some chaos, but I wouldn't be totally against it.

1) Scouting Combine - If you've been reading the blog long enough, I think everyone knows how I feel about the scouting combine.  Its gold.  Have a scouting combine before every season, who isn't watching that?

2) Last Chance Kitchen - Top Chef has used it this season with great success.   Why can't we have each eliminated competitor face off in a challenge against the team that was sent off the episode before.   Bringing back a couple means one extra episode.  Yes please.

3) Challenge split - I was never a fan of it when they did it during earlier seasons, but there is an argument that could be made that they could split up the actual challenge activity and the elimination challenge into 2 separate episodes.   Its less exciting, but does allow for us to focus more on the house.

4) Parallel Competition - I know the Challenge has never gone down this road, but it could be exciting to have 4 parallel competitions.   It would essentially quadruple the amount of episodes we could have.   Have 4 groups of 5 teams and each week we'd eliminate one of the teams from one of the groups.   The last team standing from each group would face off in a final challenge.

We have a creative group out there - can anyone else think of some good ideas for expanding the amount of episodes?  I think Last Chance Kitchen is extremely viable, creates another internet platform (or we could move to a 2nd half hour episode each week) and would be massively successful.