As Letterman would say: wake the kids and phone the neighbors. The sixth season of The Amazing Race starts tonight. The travelogue/competition/reality show has had a cult following for years, but finally hit pay dirt in the ratings department with TAR5. From the NY Times: “An audience finally catches up to ‘The Amazing Race’”:
"Sometimes you just get a perfect storm of elements, and that's clearly what happened in Season five," said Kelly Kahl, executive vice president of programming at CBS. His theory? The cumulative effect of a hard-core fan base, years of effusive reviews (a number of which called "The Amazing Race" the best reality show on television in its first season), back-to-back Emmy Awards in 2003 and 2004 for best reality program, and a particularly appealing cast of competitors all came together to bolster the show's ratings, particularly among the younger viewers prized by the networks.And here’s the TV critic for USA Today:
Let's hope this fall's otherwise welcome downturn in interest in reality — prompted by the networks stupidly flooding the market with too many copycats like The Rebel Billionaire — won't keep viewers away from the genre's best series: The Amazing Race (CBS, 9 p.m. ET/PT). Once again, Phil Keoghan shepherds the teams around the world. On your mark, get set, watch.Or, in the case of my family, tape. The race is on too late for my kids so I’ll videotape it and we watch it the next night. Then we track all the pit stops (final destination on each leg of the race) on a big National Geographic wall map. The show is great fun: don't miss it.
Extra: TV Guide’s TAR6 preview & Free Republic’s TAR6 thread.
1 comment:
At least it was an annoying team who got booted. And yes, the show is more fun with the annoying teams still in the race, but there are plenty of them to keep the show entertaining.
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