TiVo Community Forums Archives - How to Improve The Amazing Race

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How to Improve The Amazing Race
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Posted by: IJustLikeTivo

In tandem with the current TAR 3 & 4 thread, here is a question. How would you improve the show?

ADent complained in the other thread about how all the team get bunched up. I think most people agree that this is the biggest problem with the contest. It does not really allow them to use as much ingenuity to get from A to B as it might. How could they fix this problem?

Normally the issue comes down to planes. They need all the teams to hit a specific checkpoint and that checkpoint is sufficient far that only a plane can get you there. The low number of possible routes make the groups bunch up. How might that be fixed? If they could improve this, the problem would be much better.

What other improvements could they make.

IJLT

Posted by: LSweet

I believe that the bunching up is on purpose. If during an early episode one team pulled a day or two ahead, you would lose suspense.

Example:
He we are at checkpoint 10. Bob and Sally have a two day lead over Claude and Bruno. Three days behind them and Betty and Sue and in last place is Greg and Wendy a full 13 days out of the lead.

The last episode of Amazing Race 1 lost some suspense because team Guido was so far behind the other two teams.

I thought that Amazing Race 1 did a bit better job of spreading the teams out than Amazing Race 2. On Amazing Race 2 there were two many times when everyone was running within minutes of each other. I would like to see them a little spread out but with realistic chances to catch up.

My biggest complaint is that there is to much emphasis on physicality. The Gutsy Grannys never really stood a chance. Both AR1 & AR2 were won by 20 something athetic male teams. They need to provide more areas where intellect and strategy can play a part. I do not feel that on AR1 & AR2 that all teams and a fair chance of winning. I would like to see the game balanced a bit.

Posted by: tube013

one thought is to have the clue for the next destination (requiring a plane to get there) located at a location pretty much equidistant from 2 or more airports. This will only work in some places (US and Europe) but it is one step they could use to spread things out a bit.

Posted by: TivoDaddy

I agree, when they bunch up it also allows the less ingenious teams to copy what other teams are doing. That may not always work to their advantage. Teams like "cha-cha-cha" were very clever sometimes in making travel arrangements.

The only problem with traveling long distances by air is that many countries may only a limited amount of flights leaving to other destinations. But this could be avoided by better planning by the producers. Using more trains and buses would allow greater separation of teams.

Posted by: jradosh

At airports, they could clock ticket-purchase-times and enforce a similar delay time at the destination (much like they do at the pit stops). If Team A gets their ticket 50 minutes after Team B, then Team B gets a 50 minute head start at the destination.

J :rolleyes:

Posted by: IJustLikeTivo

quote:
Originally posted by jradosh
At airports, they could clock ticket-purchase-times and enforce a similar delay time at the destination (much like they do at the pit stops). If Team A gets their ticket 50 minutes after Team B, then Team B gets a 50 minute head start at the destination.

J :rolleyes:

Good idea. That would allow the team that got to the airport to maintain the lead they had going in.

I agree that there is too much emphasis on the physical aspects of the game. They need to get more thinking involved.

Team Cha-Cha-cha did do a great job of trip planning. I laughed outload when they went shopping while the concierge and the travel agents mapped out their trip. Then they got the LIMO to the airport. ROFLMAO.

I like the idea of using a clue near more than one airport. They need to go in/out of SF or Chicago or Wash DC where there are more than one good airport to choose from. At least it would give the teams the opportunity to take different routes.

Part of the problem is production and the use of ONE host at the checkpoints. If the host did not have to be at the next checkpoint before all the teams, they could allow them to spread out more. Of course, partly this is a production issue with the need for maybe two crews and two hosts to allow the two sets to leapfrog each other and then the teams could spread out more.

Some good ideas here, fun discussion.

IJLT

Posted by: jradosh

Another suggestion that was made the last time this topic came up is still a good one. They should make the race more like the "EcoChallenge" in that teams should not be required to take 12 hour rests at pit stops. If a team wants to go straight on to the next challenge, then they should go for it! If lack of sleep makes them crash-n-burn the next time around, so much the better for the viewers :)

And, as mentioned, the challenges should be more challenging mentally. No more of this "go to point A, point B and point C collecting flags" stuff. Give them a puzzle to solve that requires brain power! :rolleyes:

J