The Amazing Race > Racers Corner

Comments and Questions for the Racers

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theschnauzers:
In response to the whether legs can be changed to NELs or not, the one word, two sentence answer is this:
No. Like other game shows produced in the US, TAR has to have to have game rules that cannot be changed during filming in compliance with regulations of the US Federal Communications Commission. These rules date back to the 1950s, when one such show was found to have been fixed.
(This was the basis for the movie Quiz Show (1994).

georgiapeach:
Although I do understand that there are different rules for "reality" shows than "game" shows, I remember reading discussions about this somewhere after airplanegate.  I think this may be a grey area that we may never know the exact answer to, thank goodness.

autowil:
I do think the NEL is fixed but changed due to some situation and not change to save the team.. I dun think the producer is so Biased towards the team and make it NEL... People will complain..

Whatever is it.. We are just the audience and so we respect what the producer doing.. There is nothing we can do about it.. Ok is a bit Off.. Let get back to the normal schedule, and give this thread for the racer to answer the question.. :)

theschnauzers:
Not all reality shows are subject to the FCC game show rules, just those that offer winners (of a leg, or a race) a prize with monetary value.

The way I understand the rules' application, the designation of a leg as "non-elimination" is done before filming even begins, and cannot be changed. The location of a whole leg or of the tasks can be changed to meet unexpected circumstances; i.e., several hurricanes affected filming of TAR Family Edition (2005, which had 28 named storms in the Atlantic basin which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico); a task in Rio in TAR 2 had to be moved when the original location became generally known and a new location had to be set up in short notice (it was the task that directed teams to a nightclub to retrieve a clue from one of the dancers), as well as the sandstorm that disrupted the Sahara pitstop during the Tunisia leg of TAR 1.) But none of those involved a change in which legs were NEL.

fixed typo

Slowhatch:
After the Harris Commission took up the quiz show scandals, the laws that were passed addressed a "bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge or intellectual skill" (see here); reality tv as we know it wasn't even on the horizon. The law hasn't changed much over the years. This document, an FOIA request about game show cheating, includes an interesting reply:

--- Quote ---Section 73.1216 of the Commission's rules governs the broadcast of licensee-conducted contests, Le.,  a contest conducted by an
FCC-licensed station in  which a prize is offered 'to members of the public.'  Since the show 'Big Brother' is  conducted by a network
programmer (vs. an  FCC-licensed station) and does not offer a prize to members of the public, it is not regulated  by the FCC.
A "game show" in which 'selected contestants' (vs. 'members of the public') participate is governed by Section 509 of Title 47 of the
United States Code (USC), and  regulated  by the Department of Justice.  However 'Big Brother' does not appear to  meet the
definition of a "game show."  Rather,  it is  a 'for entertainment only' program, somewhat similar to professional wrestling in that it is a
pseudo-contest in which the outcome is fully, or in some measure, predetermined.
--- End quote ---
And in fact, when it was discovered that the show Manhunt was rigged (RNO has some articles about it), the producers and Paramount suffered only embarrassment.
To keep it on-topic, ask a racer at the next tarcon if they ever saw any Fed overseers.

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