Techtite's What Went Wrong --- When Entertainment Goes Awry!

It happens all the time. A show wins critical acclaim. A show wins fans. A show gets lots of Emmys. Then the top brass gets cocky, and decides it's time to reinvent the wheel; to make a daring change. How bad can "change" be? Well, if the change led to Amazing Race: Family Edition, I'd say: pretty bad! What Went Wrong?

What Went Right? If you said "nothing," you could be right. Nothing that happened in this season of The Amazing Race was done right. Why? Because the once 99% flawless series did everything differently and ergo, everything totally wrong. So let's cover what the series did right in prior seasons, or specifically, why we like Amazing Race...when it's actually pretty amazing.

The concept here is that teams of two will go on a race around the world. The "amazement" here is that the race knows no bounds. The race can take teams across oceans. It takes teams to different lands with different customs, languages, and challenges. These challenges are not simply interesting because a team could, say, explore the inner tunnels of the Egyptian Pyramids. They're interesting because they involve so many cultures, races, creeds, religions, and lifestyles. Truly; for eight seasons running, when a team won the million dollars, they earned it.

It's this culture clash which is why this underdog has bested Nielsen Rating heavyweights American Idol and Survivor, for so many Best Reality TV Series Emmys. The interest here is the interaction. Contestants aren't singers placed in front of singing critics. They aren't "survivors" asked to be on a deserted beach, with no interference from the "locals." They are average folk, asked to go to a totally different land...and interact with people there. The resulting culture clash can be an eye opener. A team of ladies may find a lot of help from an old-fashioned chivalrous nation, yet in another nation they may find it hard to so much as get a bus ticket, because women don't do "that sort of thing" there. Another team may speak fluent Italian and ace the road block in Rome...yet one step into Egypt, and they begin to get challenged. This is reality TV at its finest.

I guess therein is the best place to start with this season, because in a nutshell, this season wasn't the series at its finest, leading us to:

What Went Wrong? So many mishaps; so little time! Let's chop away at the tip of the iceberg first: no age requirement. Someone felt that this "family edition" would be a cool chance to bring in the kiddies that the parents keep talking about on The Amazing Race. While this family edition could've led to some nice adult teams of mother and daughter, father and son --like it already has in the past-- this season allowed for the occasional little tyke. While this sounds like a cute idea, it was the beginning of the end for The Amazing Race: Family Edition.

For one thing: kids are hard to wrangle. Any parent can relate to that. How could this show guarantee these kids' safety in a crowded foreign street in the middle of the night? That's the rub, isn't it? They could not. Enter mistake number one: the better part of the entire race would only be in the United States, with only short stops in Central America and Canada. This isn't "drive around town and look like you're in a hurry." This is supposed to be: The...Amazing...Race. That means going to a foreign country. No; "Canada" doesn't count. Don't get cutesy with me.

So, "okay," you might say: stay in the U.S. with the kids and "race." that's fine enough. However: what places can they visit? That's just it: they could not. One step into a major park or landmark and the U.S. paparazzi would be there to reveal who was there and what teams were not and possibly spoil the whole ending of the season. In a foreign land this series could visit the Egyptian Pyramids without any consequences. In the U.S., to look at this season, they could only go to places as off-the-map as "The World's Biggest Office Chair." You would think that as soon as someone was about to reserve a visit at the country's largest office chair, someone would've known better than to attempt this season at all. A giant office chair? Come on now. Fans of National Lampoon's Vacation began jesting on message boards, if this season was directed by "The Griswolds," because the ports of call might as well have been "the world's biggest ball of mud."

Optimists may still not be sold on the "worst season ever" complaints. After all: they were in the U.S. with the kids and visited odd places. Surely that would lead to imaginative challenges, right? Well...no. You see; this was still a season filled with kids. Sorry but the truth is: kids can't do as much. Yes, mom; we're very impressed that Timmy can use the computer mouse. Yet this is The Amazing Race, and as such, there's supposed to be big challenges. Tell that to the producers, who in order to appease the kiddies, watered down every single challenge. Where once the teams raced down an Olympic sized ice luge in record time, this season had a ski challenge as simple as "ski down slope...hit water...make big splash." Where once teams had to climb an ice mountain, this season had teams visit a geyser. What was the challenge? Oh, they simply had to wait and watch for the geyser to erupt (yes I'm serious). Then there was the prior season that hid a racing clue in a nesting area for tigers(!). This season had a clue brought to you by a trained bear...which the trainer handed to the teams himself, just in case, you know, something exciting might happen. Sorry but I'm not impressed. In fact, nobody was. The ratings tanked.

This brings us to the typical inquiry as to "why." Well I'm no conspiracy theorist but what was up with all the trips to a BP gas station? Surprise, surprise, surprise; BP was this season's biggest sponsor. You would think that was just a sponsor chosen long after the season had completed filming, and you'd be wrong. Numerous episodes made a big deal about the BP gas stations the teams drove into. In fact one team's teenage daughter even said rather smugly, "My what a pretty gas station." Imagine a teenage girl who had signed on to go on an overseas race, only to be sent to a local gas station and say, right out of the blue, "what a pretty gas station." How likely is that? Don't even get me started with the episode which had the teams waste the whole first part of the episode to fill their gas tanks. You would think the crewmen would've filled the tanks before the episode started...unless, say, there was some reason for them to be filmed going to a gas station...and have it be, coincidentally, a BP gas station. But like I said; I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature, and have no idea "what really happened" here, so I'll leave this as a curiosity, as we all say together, "Hmmmmmm..."

In the end it's all a matter of giving fans what they want. They took away a "race around the world." They took away the perilous challenges. They took away the race around the world. They took away the interesting locations to visit. Did we mention they took away the race around the world? Well they did. Big mistake. Let's hope this mistake isn't repeated.

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What Went Wrong?

An Analysis Column, by Techtite

Amazing Race: Family Edition

What Went Wrong?

A Commentary by Techtite