Competition Shows This Week (Sept. 8–14, 2026): The Challenge Is the Only New Episode — and Every Fall Premiere Date

Quick answer — Between Sept. 8 and Sept. 14, 2026, the only new competition-show episode is The Challenge S42E7 on Wednesday, Sept. 9 (Paramount+). The fall wave opens Tuesday, Sept. 15 with Dancing with the Stars season 35 on ABC, then runs through Sept. 30. Below: what the week holds, what competitors typically wear when a season like this starts filming, and what the closest buyable version of that kit costs at three price levels.

What competition shows are actually new this week?

One episode. That is the whole list, and it is worth saying plainly rather than padding a calendar with reruns.

American Ninja Warrior finished its 18th season on Aug. 31 with the fourth National Finals night, so Mondays on NBC are quiet until The Voice returns. If you want the wider reality picture for the same seven days, our sister site keeps a full grid: Reality TV This Week, Sept. 7–13.

Why does the second week of September look this empty?

Broadcast networks still hang their season openings on the middle of September, and this year the cluster is unusually tight. Summer competition series wrapped in late August. Fall series have not started. That gap is real, it happens every year, and it is the last week where a training-wear purchase arrives before the shows you would buy it for are on air.

What does a competition-show training kit actually consist of?

Watch any physical-competition series without the sound on and the wardrobe reads as three items, repeated in different colors.

• A high-rise legging or a compression short. Full length when the show films at night or on rope obstacles; a 5-to-8-inch short when it films in heat.
• A high-support bra, usually a racerback or a crossback, because a strap that slips during a hang cannot be fixed on camera.
• A fitted tank or a cropped tee, tucked or half-tucked, so nothing catches on a harness clip.

Nobody on these shows is wearing anything loose above the waist. That is not a style choice so much as a safety one, and it is why the on-air look translates so cleanly to an ordinary gym.

Two cautions before the shopping table. Production wardrobe departments rarely confirm a label, and a garment that looks like a familiar brand on camera is often a plain sample with the tags cut out. Nothing below claims a cast member wore a specific product. These are close matches in cut and fabric, chosen so you can buy the style, not a rumor.

What should you check before buying leggings you plan to sweat in?

Four things separate a legging that survives a circuit from one that becomes loungewear after a month.

1. Fabric weight. Anything under roughly 200 gsm goes sheer under a deep squat. Brands rarely publish the number, so the practical test is the one you do in a fitting room mirror.
2. Waistband height and width. A band narrower than about two inches rolls. High-rise with a wide band is the reason the on-air versions stay put through an obstacle.
3. A gusset. A diamond panel at the crotch means fewer seams meeting at the one point that fails first.
4. Flatlock seams. Raised overlock stitching is what chafes on a long session, and you can feel the difference with a thumb before you buy.

Pockets matter more than they sound like they should. Side pockets that hold a phone change what a legging is for, and they are now the single most common upgrade between a brand's entry model and the one above it.

What does that kit cost at three price levels?

Prices below were checked on each brand's own site on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, at about 11:50 p.m. ET. Availability and color assortment shift daily, so treat these as the price at that moment rather than a promise.

Alo Yoga sits above all three — its 7/8 High-Waist Airlift was $134.00 at the same check, and the Superstar was $148.00 — which is useful mainly as a ceiling. Between $70 and $110 is where the meaningful jump in fabric happens.

Is a $16 legging really comparable to a $108 one?

No, and pretending otherwise would be silly. Compression, recovery of shape after a hundred washes, and seam durability are exactly what the extra money buys.

What a $16 pair does well is answer a narrower question: you want a second black legging so laundry day is not a crisis, or you are starting a program and do not yet know whether you will still be doing it in November. For that, an inner pocket and a wide band at sixteen dollars is a reasonable trade. Buy the cheap one to find out what you actually need, then spend once on the pair you wear three times a week.

What about the sports bra?

Support is the part you should not economize on, and the price spread here is narrower than it is for leggings.

Racerback or crossback for anything with hanging, jumping or rope work. A straight-strap bra is fine for a treadmill and a poor idea on a warped wall.

When does every fall competition show premiere?

Dates confirmed against network listings as of Sept. 7. Times are ET.

Two of those matter most for wardrobe. Survivor puts everyone in the same issued kit for weeks, which makes the buff and the fabric behavior in salt water the interesting part. Special Forces runs closer to genuine field training, so the layers are technical rather than decorative. Our kitchen sister site has the fuller Hell's Kitchen season 25 guide, and if you are tracking how these arrive on streaming, weekly versus all-at-once for fall 2026 covers the drop pattern.

What changes when a show films outdoors?

Heat pushes the wardrobe toward a short and a light woven layer over the bra. Cold and night shoots push it toward a full-length legging with a half-zip. Both extremes share a rule: cotton is gone by the second day, because a cotton tee that gets wet at 6 a.m. is still wet at noon and weighs twice what it did.

Salt water is its own category. Elastane degrades in it, so anything worn in the ocean day after day loses its snap far sooner than the same garment worn in a gym. That is a small argument for the cheap pair being the right pair to take on a beach vacation.

How do you find the exact piece a cast member wore?

Usually you cannot, and the sites that claim to have found it are guessing from a blurry frame. Wardrobe credits are almost never published for competition series, unlike scripted shows where a costume designer will happily name a label. When a brand actually outfits a season, it announces the deal, because that is the whole point of paying for it. No such announcement covers the shows premiering this month.

So the honest version of the question is the one this site tries to answer: what kind of garment is that, and where can you buy the closest thing? More of those breakdowns live under Shop the Look, and the background explainers sit in Guides.

TL;DR

• One new competition episode this week: The Challenge S42E7, Wednesday, Sept. 9, Paramount+.
• Six premieres follow between Sept. 15 and Sept. 30, starting with DWTS season 35.
• The on-air kit is a high-rise legging or compression short, a high-support racerback bra, and a fitted top.
• Buyable versions of that legging: $16 (Bubblelime), $70 (POPFLEX), $108 (Girlfriend Collective), checked Sept. 7 at 11:50 p.m. ET.
• No competition show this fall has announced a wardrobe sponsor, so nobody can tell you the exact product. Buy the cut, not the rumor.

Sources

• TVmaze episode and premiere listings for Survivor, The Challenge, Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, The Amazing Race, Special Forces and Hell's Kitchen, retrieved Sept. 7, 2026.
• US network schedule listings for Sept. 7–8, 2026 (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, MTV, Paramount+).
• Brand-listed prices from bubblelime.com, popflexactive.com, girlfriend.com and aloyoga.com, checked Sept. 7, 2026, 11:50 p.m. ET.