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The Amazing Race => The Amazing Race Discussion => Topic started by: roninmedia on May 20, 2012, 10:35:43 PM
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I have watched the majority of the English language Amazing races out including all of the US, Asia, China Rush, and Australia. I only recently started watching foreign TAR including Israel and Vietnam (I understand Vietnamese perfectly fine and I have a few Jewish friends who watch here and there with me).
I am surprised how long each season of the Amazing Race Israel is spanning about 10 additional episodes compared to the other versions I have watched. And the prize money with the currency exchange is about 25% of the TAR, so either that translate to less corporated ad dollars than the US or they just simply put more money into set-up for a longer race.
Would a longer season have the same appeal to you as an Amazing Race viewer or is the 12 episode season satisfactory for you? Personally, I think how TAR Israel is done and enjoy the lengthened race broadcast. But a longer season will also mean less seasons overall.
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Welcome to RFF , roninmedia!!
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I don't mind as long as they visit more countries and do more legs than the just usual 10 - 12.
But 20 episodes like TAR Israel, I don't know yet my opinion.
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TAR Israel has the same number of legs as TAR US, same number of countries visited, just over more episodes. For example, by the time Episode 5 of Season 1 began, only two teams had been eliminated. Each leg has more tasks than other versions, but not extra detours or roadblocks.
It may be difficult for CBS to pull originality for a longer race in terms of more tasks per stop because of 20 previous seasons to draw on.
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I don't think an American audience likes to watch more than two consecutive episodes of a reality show without someone getting eliminated (Big Brother notwithstanding), so if a certain leg is an NEL, then that means there would be four episodes between eliminations. That would really start to drag, I think. I think I'd be sick of everyone by the end of the season. :lol:
A 12 leg race may not be perfect, but I think it's a pretty good length. 13 legs can drag on sometimes, as that would essentially mean 4 NELs (assuming an 11-team race), and 11 is too short, in my opinion.
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I would be too long. A 13 leg race with 12 teams with 3 NEL legs and 1 TBC leg is the longest i would want it to go for.
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By the time HaMerotz LaMillion 2 finished, it was getting old. More than 28 episodes is a lot for one season, and they were all a lot longer than a US episode. I mean, there was an entire US length episode (~43 minutes) devoted to teams getting from the last clue to the Pit Stop.
But I don't think it would really work with the US version anyway. The Israeli version has many more tasks in each leg. If I recall correctly, the only leg with only two or three tasks was one of the few single-episode legs.
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12 legs IMO is perfect. Not too long, not too short!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Welcome to RFF , roninmedia!!
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CBS shorted original TAR after TAR 12 because of several factors. First was to reduce filming costs in a period where travel costs were going up rapidly at the time (tied to the cost of jet fuel, and other transportation costs. Keep in mind there's a lot more traveling to film the show than just the teams and Phil. Second was the problem in fitting a 13 episode season into the CBS schedule especially with the dead periods of US television and the special scheduling CBS faces due to certain other programming. A 12 episode season worked better from CBS' point of view.
Third, the lack of popularity among many viewers and teams of the NELs. The schedule in two of the last three seasons to have the first leg as a NEL actually solved a issue in that one complaint has been that viewers didn't get much of a chance to learn about the first few eliminated teams before they were, well, eliminated.
It's pretty clear now that the 12 leg, 11 team model is here to stay, and when it does vary, it is an indication of something different in the game such as a start line elimination, a double-leg, or a double elimination. It's pretty clear that CBS wants the production cost controlled, but with these last couple of seasons, CBS has eased up a little in order to accommodate the show's need to go to new out-of-the-way places, and to design tasks that are not generic.
So while as a fan, I would love longer seasons, with more teams/legs/countries, akin to the early season format, I realize that isn't going to happen. The primary reason why Israel follows its unusual format is to amortize the production cost by using everything they film. Original TAR has a fair number of route markers/tasks that are never aired, but that's more easily built into the production costs (but they do try to avoid unnecessary tasks that can't be used but there are a fair number of route markers that don't cost much to film that end up not being aired as a result of the editing process.
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I think 12 legs is a good amount with 13 legs working well too. I agree that 11 legs is too short. The one thing I would love to see is a return of the 1.5-2 hour episodes that features 1 leg and not like the recent combination of 2 legs together. The last time this happened was Season 17: Leg 1. CBS has been doing a better job in the recent seasons of trying to give each team a decent amount of airtime to really get to know them but there always seems to be 1 or two teams which are under-edited and pretty invisible up until their elimination. If CBS had room in their schedule for a 1.5-2 hour premiere, viewers could grow more attached to the teams.
On another note, if CBS could air a 1.5-2 hour episode and had the funding to really go all out on just one single leg with more route info tasks, rather than the linear detour-roadblock-pitstop/ roadblock-detour-pitstop, the race would be more interesting. As a viewer, I really want to see more out of the countries the race visits each season, especially for places that are first time visits.
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I'd love the first episodes to be somehow longer. 10-11 teams are way too much, and that means having to put few tasks OR having to avoid broadcasting some scenes.
I remember in previous seasons, not seeing how some teams in the middle of the pack performed tasks and such. They were shown in the Pitstop and not much more. The first place and last place drama was the most important part, and that was it.
12 legs is great, but I'd love 60-minute episodes with more scenes in the first legs, and more tasks in the final legs (or Leg 06 onwards). Please, more FF! :lol3:
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I would like a longer season with more teams because I hate getting bored in the summer and winter when there is no TAR. I also thing longer episodes would be good because you could see the actions of the tasks and it would slow the episode down.
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Well we have TAR aus 2 airing soon so that will keep you happy! And then there are spoilers...
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I haven't invested my time into international versions yet. :(
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Then you are missing a lot of fun!
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I've only been hooked for a year and a half. I still need to watch Seasons 1-7 and 9-11. :lol:
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The Australian season was good, I'm not too sure about the Asian one yet.
I think two shows a week would make it more of a reality show format, though it would still be without that live element (it's not the same speculating months before something is shown).
And I quite liked watching Elimination Station for season 17, hopefully more of those can be found for past seasons. It's good to have more footage of mingling and comments on the race. Alternatively you could have a show that features the eliminated people getting asked questions from an audience and doing quizes or tasks, pretty much like they do on British spinoffs from the main Big Brother show.
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I've only been hooked for a year and a half. I still need to watch Seasons 1-7 and 9-11. :lol:
I've been hooked for just a few months and I've looked through most of it already. :D
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The way they've been running it is fine by me! 12 legs, 8 elimination points, 3 non-elimination points and the Finish Line. If it's not broke, don't fix it!
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Actually I will still prefer it to be 10 teams. Just more time for me to know the teams and perhaps four non-elimination, with one once every 3 legs and not all always at the F4, F5 or F6.
10 teams, 12 legs, 7 eliminations, 4 NEL/TBC/Keep racing. More time for teams dynamics development too.
But whatever it is, as long as the show continues! :jam: :wohoo:
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I don't mind longer but in a maximum of 15 episodes maybe. There are seasons where there are around 1-3 like able teams and most of them are eliminated early. and with that I've seen a lot quitting to watch TAR and wait for the next season. 20 episodes for a very sucky season is not good.
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Being an Australian and watching TAR Aus, all that TAR needs to do is lengthen their legs. In TAR Aus 1 there were about 5 legs in which the producers decided where too long for an hour timeslot, and just lengthened to 90 mins. TAR needs to do this, as more challenges/drama can be fitted it
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After watching Season 11 again, I realized that shortening the race was a smart move, 4 NELs is way too much since they'll end up happening in a predictable order. The three consecutive legs with the final four felt like filler. I think 11 legs, 2 NELs and one KRL area good model, as long as one of them happens early on.
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The more TAR I watch, the better! :lol: I prefer the original 13-leg format, particularly with 12 teams. I don't even mind a 14-leg race, as long as there are 12 teams. :)
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me, I don't really care, anything works for me. I actually like NELs and don't mind them.
What I would like to see though would be more TBC/double legs, those are very interesting to me.