I think that after the 3 previous seasons, the show has had some trouble gaining the general interest from viewers to keep up with the show. Especially now that we can compare all the previous seasons and participants and the overall fact that being on the show is known to boost the participants popularity/ makes them more recognizable (either good or bad way). We judge a bit more and have set standards since we compare to past seasons in general.
I really liked that ep 4 ended with a twist where they have to eliminate two of the three new guys. I also already got some player/"only there for popularity" vibes from some participants (ahem ahem Jeong Su).
Overall, it was nice to start the season with 4 episodes straight away, and I hope we have some new dynamics with the newly added participants .