The Amazing Race: Not so Amazing Anymore

Premiering in 2001 on CBS, The Amazing Race was a perfect companion reality show for breakout hit Survivor.  The premise of 11 teams of 2 racing around the world appealed to me instantly.  I love travel, and I love competition reality shows even more.  The show lived up to my expectations and then some.  The challenges, which related to each episode's destination, were fun and interesting.  Rolling wheels of cheese down a hill in Switzerland, riding camels in Egypt, running through a castle in Germany, WOW!  The contestants were diverse and interesting to watch too.  There were coal miners, a deaf man and his mother, and even Harlem Globetrotters.  My all-time favorite team, however, was Gretchen and Meredith, a retired couple that appeared on season 7.  In one episode, Gretchen took a nasty fall in a cave, but she soldiered on for many more episodes wearing a giant bandage wrapped around her head, and the couple made it all the way to the semi-finals despite much younger and faster competition.  Fan favorite teams like this couple made viewers invested in the outcome of each episode and gave them players to really root for.  Finally, the race itself was usually nail-biting and chaotic in the best way.  Teams would get lost, incur penalties for not following directions, and purposely mislead their competition.  This led to more than one heart-pounding photo finish.  Host Phil Keoghan was never the strongest part of the show, but he did a perfectly fine job of introducing the challenges and welcoming the teams at their "pit stop" at the end of each episode.

In the last couple of years, however, The Amazing Race has lost much of its luster.  There are an endless number of interesting places to travel around the world, but the show has repeated many destinations multiple times in its 30 seasons.  Why can't we get more of Asia, Africa, or South America instead of the same European cities over and over?  The challenges have become more and more ludicrous and boring too.  This season saw a challenge featuring over 30 minutes of head-to-head races between teams wearing french fry costumes and pushing carts filled with sacks of potatoes.  The show related the challenge to the episode's destination of Antwerp, Belgium by telling the viewers that french fries were invented in Belgium.  I'm still rolling my eyes over this one.  The contestants themselves are also not as interesting as they once were.  This season there are far too many teams of interchangeable young couples, athletes, and best friends.  Why can't we have more teams of older people, as well as more racially diverse contestants?  At this point even Phil looks almost as bored as me.  Survivor has managed to remain fresh over 35 seasons with new twists and compelling players, but The Amazing Race hasn't tried as hard to mix things up and remain a must-see show.  The current season is already halfway over, but I've contemplated giving up on it entirely.  CBS has reduced the show from 2 seasons to only 1 per year, and I'm thinking that it could be reduced to 0 very soon, unless the producers can manage to turn things around and make me want to watch again.

The Amazing Race airs Wednesdays on CBS, moving from 8pm to 9pm EST next week to make room for Big Brother: Celebrity Edition (which I'll be posting about soon).