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The Amazing Race => The Amazing Race Discussion => Topic started by: Traveldude1 on April 30, 2020, 01:48:39 AM
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I'd say it began around when Unfinished Business aired. It was way too soon to have another returnee season imo. This season, like 15, also featured a Start line twist that I didn't like. Say what you want about Amanda and Chris, but I felt bad for them. They got screwed over twice by a Uturn, which I found to be unfair.
I have nothing against any teams, but this was one of the last seasons to feature old/out of shape/ regular people teams that represent people like myself/yourself. Sorry, but most of America is not insanely fit and attractive like many of the teams in newer seasons.
I'm not completely against newer seasons as I did enjoy Season 27(except for J&D) and I loved Season 31(especially Colin and Christie, Rachel and Ellisa and the Afghanimals).
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I feel like this could be a individual opinion.
To me it was definitly in TAR 24.
But i gotta say that it has been picking up for me lately. I enjoyed the last seasons.
I think they have to stop bringing people to race for the 3rd time. I liked all 3rd time teams, but i don't like the concept.
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I think TAR as taken a short decline, ever since TAR24!
However, TAR is still producers some amazing seasons and I’m grateful we’ve had 32 seasons of the show produced! Here’s to show to picking up again and hopefully, we can have many more adventures around the world!
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I actually love when teams race a 3rd time. From a purely entertainment perspective, there's clearly a reason they're being asked back. The fans enjoy seeing them race, which is totally fine by me.
I can see why some wouldn't like racers running a 3rd time or even 2 times, but I personally enjoy it from an entertainment perspective
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I'd say between seasons 24 and 28 the show fell in quality with the exception of S25. But since 29 it's been picking up again even if there are changes I dont like (eg, no more intros to places teams are in).
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Season 24 marked the start of the decline for me. Around the time CBS started pushing for more themed seasons. In the dating season, Phil being forced to ask at each Pit Stop if they felt a spark yet was the cringiest thing I've ever seen on TAR.
Which is why I can't wait for TAR32's promise of going "back to basics"...if it ever gets an airdate by 2027...
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Season 26 is when they started trying to make a 'show' instead of making an 'adventure'.
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One could argue that the decline started back around TAR11/12. But it was very slow and incremental. Perhaps, negligible even. Interestingly, I feel like the transition from SD to HD is when the show's real steady decline started.
From TAR18 to TAR23, you could see the casting and the Leg design was definitely not at the same level as any of the SD seasons before. And the ratings reflected that. While the rest of broadcast primetime was hemorrhaging viewers, TAR had been one of the few consistent shows. They had maintained their ratings, NFL overrun boost or not, even when almost everyone else was declining. But it was around this time when TAR's ratings really fell and not even NFL overruns were enough to pad the numbers.
TAR24 was just the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back for many reasons. And of course that decline led to TAR moving to Fridays. Fridays did not kill TAR. TAR was moved to Fridays in the first place because it no longer was doing as well as it once was on Sundays.
The Friday timeslot certainly helped speed up the ratings and popularity decline. But the "quality" decline was steady and increasingly so from TAR26 to the present. Budget was obviously lower, but shouldn't be too much of a hindrance in terms of Leg design. TARs around the world have far lower budgets, yet can still produce seasons better and more enjoyable than TARUS did during this time. So TARUS had no excuse.
Casting, also one of the most important aspects of the show, continued to be subpar. And the gimmick seasons did not result in good, memorable teams. Nor did they bring in any new viewers either.
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The show was much better in SD , but that's not the point here. Other than 18, you can see the show was declining around Season 16, imo.
Seasons 12 and 14 were fine and 15 was mediocre. But 16, was when you can start to tell it was going downhill
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I just mentioned the transition to HD because that's kind of a clear midpoint for TARUS. If we were to divide TARUS into two Eras, it would be the SD Era vs the HD Era. And the HD Era seasons are definitely inferior to the SD Era seasons.
And since I consider TAR17 one of the better seasons of the franchise, I think TAR18 is really the start of a noticeable decline in different aspects of the show (casting, tasks, locations, etc).
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19 was the last time we saw certain kinds of teams, which was disappointing. I believe 19 was the last season to have an older team compete. Haven't seen one since.
Nothing bad about it, but the newer seasons have a lot more younger teams than it ever had pre - season 19.
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I just mentioned the transition to HD because that's kind of a clear midpoint for TARUS. If we were to divide TARUS into two Eras, it would be the SD Era vs the HD Era. And the HD Era seasons are definitely inferior to the SD Era seasons.
And since I consider TAR17 one of the better seasons of the franchise, I think TAR18 is really the start of a noticeable decline in different aspects of the show (casting, tasks, locations, etc).
Mainly it's the editing that has made me feel indifferent about a lot of the HD races. I would bet that if you gave the same fast-paced and sense-of-placement editing as seasons 10-17 in the newer seasons, the show would be somewhat better for a viewing experience for the newer seasons. Someone experimented with this for season 25 (a well-liked season if it matters or not) on YouTube by overhauling a classic foot race tune during the "My ox is broken" Switchback and foot race over the original that aired and it does do wonders by switching out the newer awkwardly-placed sheet music. It's a start though.
"The Amazing Race with Old Music" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfD149P4LTQ
Didn't someone here on RFF do a total re-edit of the season 27 premiere?
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Someone experimented with this for season 25 (a well-liked season if it matters or not) on YouTube by overhauling a classic foot race tune during the "My ox is broken" Switchback and foot race over the original that aired and it does do wonders by switching out the newer awkwardly-placed sheet music. It's a start though.
"The Amazing Race with Old Music" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfD149P4LTQ
Didn't someone here on RFF do a total re-edit of the season 27 premiere?
After watching it I notice one of the difference between the old-style and new-style background music is that the old-style music has more suspense feeling and makes me feel like sitting on the edge of my seat, while the new-style one's just lack that excitement and suspense feeling.
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Someone experimented with this for season 25 (a well-liked season if it matters or not) on YouTube by overhauling a classic foot race tune during the "My ox is broken" Switchback and foot race over the original that aired and it does do wonders by switching out the newer awkwardly-placed sheet music. It's a start though.
"The Amazing Race with Old Music" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfD149P4LTQ
Didn't someone here on RFF do a total re-edit of the season 27 premiere?
After watching it I notice one of the difference between the old-style and new-style background music is that the old-style music has more suspense feeling and makes me feel like sitting on the edge of my seat, while the new-style one's just lack that excitement and suspense feeling.
My thoughts exactly.
Even the moment with the old music when Brooke dropped her bag off in sight of the Pit Stop was like a chef's kiss that wasn't rightfully emphasized with what was originally aired.
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I agree about the editing. That has made Legs and episodes also feel less exciting and interesting.
Certain editing techniques lately have also made the show actually feel dated instead of modern/contemporary. They use, to be frank, very cheap transitions. Definitely nothing cinematic about it. When earlier seasons were able to be just as stunning and visually exciting even without high definition or "cute" editing/transition effects.
Part of the questionable editing can also be blamed on them having to work with less. That is, less exciting and dynamic teams doing less exciting and dynamic tasks.
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I haven't really seen many older seasons of the Amazing Race from 1 to 11, but after recently watching TAR5 and rewatching TAR13 I noticed that the editing towards the end of the leg they really drum of the suspense with the "old-style music" and then show very quick montages of team after team after team completing the penultimate task (with not a lot of dialogue) and it just goes on for what seems to be several minutes. They really build up the suspense right up to the elimination. I don't remember recent seasons doing that.
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I agree about the editing. That has made Legs and episodes also feel less exciting and interesting.
Certain editing techniques lately have also made the show actually feel dated instead of modern/contemporary. They use, to be frank, very cheap transitions. Definitely nothing cinematic about it. When earlier seasons were able to be just as stunning and visually exciting even without high definition or "cute" editing/transition effects.
Part of the questionable editing can also be blamed on them having to work with less. That is, less exciting and dynamic teams doing less exciting and dynamic tasks.
This part I don't agree with. I've seen a lot of helpful, and even at times more important, scenes being left for CBS extras that would've brought much-needed character to those teams like Dessie & Kayla's intense search for parking that ultimately sent them home, London & Logan's funny and minor tiffs that would've elevated their presence on the show, and I don't even remember a thing about Burnie & Ashley from the social media season despite them getting to final 4 but I'd think Burnie would at least be interesting since he did say he is a comedian. The editors didn't even fabricate a storyline for any of these teams unlike in the pre-18 seasons where everyone, even the boring teams who didn't having a good performance showing like Marisa & Brooke, Anthony & Stephanie, and Garrett & Jessica, had a particular storyline and character to them.
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That can be true. Last season, they left out a scene of Rachel & Elissa jumping out of their taxi to direct traffic in Uganda. It was a great scene and would've added to the tension and excitement since they were fighting for last. Great character moment for them as well, but instead they left it out. Partly because the Head to Head negates pretty much everything else in the Leg, but that's a whole other story.
Still, I stand by the idea that casting and Leg design has been absolutely lacking as the years go by. And they can't blame the budget for poor tasks and stuff like that when other TARs around the world can still be fresh and creative. And they have a fraction of TARUS' budget.
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Firstly I’ll say that The Race will always be my favorite show and every season is amazing.
With that said, I do wish the show would go back to some of the things they did in earlier seasons. Like I liked when Fast Forwards were on every leg, I like the strategy of teams trying to decide the best time to go for it.
I also liked in earlier seasons when the teams mingled at the Pit Stop, I felt like it built better relationships (and drama) between the teams.
And the last thing I’ll say is that I feel like a lot of the earlier seasons just had much more difficult tasks which I appreciated too. I feel like a lot of international versions do well at making very difficult tasks (like the most recent season of Amazing Race Australia I thought did really well with having quite difficult tasks).
I will always love the Race in any form we can get it, but I’d like to see some of those earlier things reincorporated into the Race again.
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A lot of the detours in earlier seasons took much longer. Tasks often took hours - Most new seasons the tasks can be done relatively quickly. The legs were also much longer but this was mainly due to a lot more self driving and inta bus and train trips. Nowdays teams rarely travel more than an hour or so from the closest major airport. It means that we don't see more rural locations anymore - And when they do use a rural location it is usually just the outskirts of the city.
I feel that the race started to decline after (and possibly even during) season 11 (all stars). It was a slow decline and did not happen quickly but it is easy to see. The tasks became quicker, the travel less and casting began to suffer from mactoritis (not that mactors were not cast before - I mean look at season 6 - but there used to be more 'normal' teams mixed in than there is now. Now they are all in their 20's and fit. We don't get older or unfit teams anymore.
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A lot of the detours in earlier seasons took much longer. Tasks often took hours - Most new seasons the tasks can be done relatively quickly. The legs were also much longer but this was mainly due to a lot more self driving and inta bus and train trips. Nowdays teams rarely travel more than an hour or so from the closest major airport. It means that we don't see more rural locations anymore - And when they do use a rural location it is usually just the outskirts of the city.
I feel that the race started to decline after (and possibly even during) season 11 (all stars). It was a slow decline and did not happen quickly but it is easy to see. The tasks became quicker, the travel less and casting began to suffer from mactoritis (not that mactors were not cast before - I mean look at season 6 - but there used to be more 'normal' teams mixed in than there is now. Now they are all in their 20's and fit. We don't get older or unfit teams anymore.
The initial All-Stars was bad. None of the teams lived up to themselves and the Final 4 was bad. Amazing Race seasons 12 and 14 were good but I do agree with the show going downhill after 11
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A lot of the detours in earlier seasons took much longer. Tasks often took hours - Most new seasons the tasks can be done relatively quickly. The legs were also much longer but this was mainly due to a lot more self driving and inta bus and train trips. Nowdays teams rarely travel more than an hour or so from the closest major airport. It means that we don't see more rural locations anymore - And when they do use a rural location it is usually just the outskirts of the city.
I feel that the race started to decline after (and possibly even during) season 11 (all stars). It was a slow decline and did not happen quickly but it is easy to see. The tasks became quicker, the travel less and casting began to suffer from mactoritis (not that mactors were not cast before - I mean look at season 6 - but there used to be more 'normal' teams mixed in than there is now. Now they are all in their 20's and fit. We don't get older or unfit teams anymore.
The initial All-Stars was bad. None of the teams lived up to themselves and the Final 4 was bad. Amazing Race seasons 12 and 14 were good but I do agree with the show going downhill after 11
Why did you find the final 4 bad? With the exception of Eric & Danielle all the teams were not only brilliant TV but great racers too.
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A lot of the detours in earlier seasons took much longer. Tasks often took hours - Most new seasons the tasks can be done relatively quickly. The legs were also much longer but this was mainly due to a lot more self driving and inta bus and train trips. Nowdays teams rarely travel more than an hour or so from the closest major airport. It means that we don't see more rural locations anymore - And when they do use a rural location it is usually just the outskirts of the city.
I feel that the race started to decline after (and possibly even during) season 11 (all stars). It was a slow decline and did not happen quickly but it is easy to see. The tasks became quicker, the travel less and casting began to suffer from mactoritis (not that mactors were not cast before - I mean look at season 6 - but there used to be more 'normal' teams mixed in than there is now. Now they are all in their 20's and fit. We don't get older or unfit teams anymore.
The initial All-Stars was bad. None of the teams lived up to themselves and the Final 4 was bad. Amazing Race seasons 12 and 14 were good but I do agree with the show going downhill after 11
Why did you find the final 4 bad? With the exception of Eric & Danielle all the teams were not only brilliant TV but great racers too.
They didn't appeal to me, at least from a Character perspective. Didn't like any of them.
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I can't believe the amount of differing thoughts here, but I guess that's the luxury of opinions. Lol. Someone said further up that 18 - 24 was the decline, for me these seasons had probably the best casts up until that point, it was just the boot orders that ended up being rubbish.
Honestly, Season 27 is where I started losing interest. I hated that entire season, and though 28 picked up again for me, since 29 I haven't felt as connected to the show as I once did. I LOVED the show before 29, now I just watch it because I'm a fan.
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I can't believe the amount of differing thoughts here, but I guess that's the luxury of opinions. Lol. Someone said further up that 18 - 24 was the decline, for me these seasons had probably the best casts up until that point, it was just the boot orders that ended up being rubbish.
Honestly, Season 27 is where I started losing interest. I hated that entire season, and though 28 picked up again for me, since 29 I haven't felt as connected to the show as I once did. I LOVED the show before 29, now I just watch it because I'm a fan.
I thought season 27 had the most "Normal" cast of the recent seasons. Everyone was fine, but I can understand why some didn't like it. Season 28 was not that good and I thought I was going to hate 29, but I'll admit that it is good
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I can't believe the amount of differing thoughts here, but I guess that's the luxury of opinions. Lol. Someone said further up that 18 - 24 was the decline, for me these seasons had probably the best casts up until that point, it was just the boot orders that ended up being rubbish.
Honestly, Season 27 is where I started losing interest. I hated that entire season, and though 28 picked up again for me, since 29 I haven't felt as connected to the show as I once did. I LOVED the show before 29, now I just watch it because I'm a fan.
I thought season 27 had the most "Normal" cast of the recent seasons. Everyone was fine, but I can understand why some didn't like it. Season 28 was not that good and I thought I was going to hate 29, but I'll admit that it is good
For some reason I had a total mind blank and got 28 and 29 mixed up. I really enjoyed 29, and wasn't a fan of 28.
So I guess for me TAR has only had one good season since 27, and that was 29. It's a huge shame, especially as the older Seasons I could rewatch over and over but I cant see myself ever wanting to rewatch 27, 28, 30 or 31. Just hoping 32 really does "bring it back to basics" as Phil said.
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I can't believe the amount of differing thoughts here, but I guess that's the luxury of opinions. Lol. Someone said further up that 18 - 24 was the decline, for me these seasons had probably the best casts up until that point, it was just the boot orders that ended up being rubbish.
Honestly, Season 27 is where I started losing interest. I hated that entire season, and though 28 picked up again for me, since 29 I haven't felt as connected to the show as I once did. I LOVED the show before 29, now I just watch it because I'm a fan.
I thought season 27 had the most "Normal" cast of the recent seasons. Everyone was fine, but I can understand why some didn't like it. Season 28 was not that good and I thought I was going to hate 29, but I'll admit that it is good
For some reason I had a total mind blank and got 28 and 29 mixed up. I really enjoyed 29, and wasn't a fan of 28.
So I guess for me TAR has only had one good season since 27, and that was 29. It's a huge shame, especially as the older Seasons I could rewatch over and over but I cant see myself ever wanting to rewatch 27, 28, 30 or 31. Just hoping 32 really does "bring it back to basics" as Phil said.
Season 31 is really strong imo. The most likeable cast of recent seasons(except for R&/A&JJ)
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14 will always be the definitive point for me.
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100%....they're some great seasons after this (S17 & 29) but most have been frankly terrible or mediocre at best. The show began to take itself too seriously in S14 and saw itself more as a game than a show.
14 will always be the definitive point for me.
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There have been a few rough spots, but I would not say it has declined and stayed that way...
TAR 13 is one of the worst seasons in my opinion. The cast is mostly weak and the locations were underwhelming besides New Zealand and some of the other early countries (maybe Bolivia?)
TAR 16 is an awful season with another bad cast, and the worst team in my opinion being Carol & Brandy. The tasks and locations were also weak in my opinion, and not even Jet & Cord could redeem this trainwreck.
TAR 19 was a huge let down when it aired and I still say it was the start of a few below average seasons (20, 23 and 24).
The task design was a shambles, both Thailand legs sucked as well as Belgium and I was not keen on the winners. It was a mess from start to finish.
TAR 24 was terrible - we all know it so why bother explaining.
TAR 27 was a huge borefest. I just couldn't get into this season and gave up after Zambia.
Lastly, TAR 28 also felt like it was not planned out well. The back half of the season was very uninteresting and then you have legs like the Columbia>Switzerland-France which made no sense. It was not a well thought out season but at least we saw Columbia, Armenia and Georgia for the first time.
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* TAR15 & TAR16 is the dark ages of TAR, very dry, bland, lack of spiciness, terrible booting orders and very uninspired for me, but luckily TAR17 salvage everything and revitalized the TAR into greatness...
* TAR24, TAR8 and TAR26, worst in terms of gimmick seasons, TAR24 from castings, booting orders, task design and destinations very terrible for me while TAR8 and TAR6 very promising concepts but epic FAIL in terms implementations or executions...
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I feel like the editing has declined since TAR 25 or so.
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I feel like the editing has declined since TAR 25 or so.
Me too. I think the Golden Years of TAR were between seasons 12-21.
There was drama pretty much every leg. Flight searching, epic song entrances when a team won a leg.
Those seasons got me emotional.
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TAR25 is season since when it all started go downhill...
It indroduced us:
- bad editing (not showing departures, not showing Phil announing placements, annoying zooming during confessionals...)
- hashtags
- random twist that will not work out (Save, F4 racing finale leg, later Head to Head, Team Switch, Extreme Roadblock, Mega leg)
- cringey Phil trying to be funny
- RTV couple in the cast being new norm (Keith & Whitney, later Cody & Jessica, TAR31 cast, Will & James, certain TAR33 team)
- public line open for public (it kill all fun for us who are enjoying following spoilers)
- low ratings and constant changes in schedule
Then TAR26 came and era of gimmick seasons with almost fully recruited casts could start.
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TAR25 is season since when it all started go downhill...
It indroduced us:
- bad editing (not showing departures, not showing Phil announing placements, annoying zooming during confessionals...)
- hashtags
- random twist that will not work out (Save, F4 racing finale leg, later Head to Head, Team Switch, Extreme Roadblock, Mega leg)
- cringey Phil trying to be funny
- RTV couple in the cast being new norm (Keith & Whitney, later Cody & Jessica, TAR31 cast, Will & James, certain TAR33 team)
- public line open for public (it kill all fun for us who are enjoying following spoilers)
- low ratings and constant changes in schedule
Then TAR26 came and era of gimmick seasons with almost fully recruited casts could start.
It started with S.25 with the reasons above.
It was just a shame, because I loved S.25's cast.
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Nah, the golden age years of TAR were S1-13 (except 6 & 8 ).
I feel like the editing has declined since TAR 25 or so.
Me too. I think the Golden Years of TAR were between seasons 12-21.
There was drama pretty much every leg. Flight searching, epic song entrances when a team won a leg.
Those seasons got me emotional.
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TAR 32 became the first season completely edited out of airport drama from the starting line.
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In terms of rating: season 24
In terms of quality: season 30
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One aspect also that we don't talk enough that changed the race a lot is new technology.
Watching old season, nobody had phones with internet where you could just google something or a place to find. Racers were so much more disconnected of the real world that they had to rely on a bit of luck and lots of skills. Now anyone can go to the airport and print some info, or stop in the street and ask if anyone as a smart phone.
I think Casting is also very important, and a bit lacking in some of the new seasons... I still think there was a shift in the 20's where the only casted 1 or 2 normal team, and the rest were mactors/wannabe celebrity/etc. That's not really what people want to see. we want real people, a team that could be my neighbours or somebody I know
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I feel like the editing has declined since TAR 25 or so.
Me too. I think the Golden Years of TAR were between seasons 12-21.
There was drama pretty much every leg. Flight searching, epic song entrances when a team won a leg.
Those seasons got me emotional.
I think The Amazing Race hit its peak during the early teen years and it lasted until the early 20s. With the exceptions of Seasons 20 and 13 (not as bad as I remember it being, but still not great), this was the best run of seasons the show has seen. The intro was fantastic and the tense music during tasks and traveling really made for a great watch. Seasons 1-11 were much more hit or miss
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Here is what I think personally.
The first seven seasons were the show's best years.
TAR 8 was an abomination.
Seasons 9-18 were mostly above average, if not disappointing in some areas (13 and 16 being real duds).
19 to 25 have been a combination of average or above average, so again another hit to the series (though leg design really started to go downhill from this point).
I personally enjoy TAR26 but it was really from this point on where things start to go downhill due to casting. 27 and 28 are both pretty underwhelming, again due to casting and leg structure.
29 and 30 are two gems amongst the poor quality - I really like both of these seasons.
31 could have been better and 32 was awful.
Bottom line, its not really about the show being terrible from a certain point on - but a significant drop in quality overall over time.
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The downhill of the show began in TAR14 when it became a RTV show instead of just staying as an "unscripted drama" that focused on the characters.
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Editing changed from Season 9. For me, that’s when the show declined.
But for the overall production, it started declining when they had their hashtag 12shows21days production schedule. Phil has tweeted this a lot. The race is now produced with a tighter budget and controlled to make sure their filming time doesn’t run over. This has resulted in less airport drama as productions pre-book some flights to 1) keep every team not too far apart so they can all move on to the next leg; 2) Lower airfare from last minute reservations.
This has completely changed the show. It went from a more continuous race to 12 separate episodes of an on-location task solving game. Gone is the airport travel from one country to another which made up a lot of airtime before. Right now, it’s more emphasized on the “tasks” even though I don’t think it’s what made TAR successful in the first place. They could really just do these tasks anywhere, heck, even in a studio. What’s the point of these tasks unless they’re climbing the Alps that can’t be replicated. I understand it’s easier to produce the show logistically when they can group everyone in to one country, do two tasks, and then move on to another country to do two more tasks. We don’t get to see much in between these days. They make traveling between countries a lot easier. Even for the tasks themselves, there weren’t a lot of ridiculous costumes involved and dramatic make up on in the early season.
I watched an interview in early 2021 of Phil and some of the past contestants. Rob from Season 1 also notices the change. Phil says it’s harder to book international flights as more people are traveling these days than when they started 20 years ago. I remember there’s an interview of Bertram and Elise. Bertram acknowledged the show changed in terms of editing around the time Season 11 or 12 was aired.
In my mind, it was TV genius that TAR started the show when they made teams say they need to buy two tickets at airport or bus stations just for TV. Now they don’t air that anymore. Whoever came up with that idea really knows how to make a successful TV show. They make the race part more real as if they were traveling alone and the audience doesn’t think much about how the whole thing is produced much. Now you hear all sorts of things in the program. I remember when the Goth team broke a rule in Japan, they said and it was aired “we don’t know what (production) is gonna do.” They never would air anything like that in early seasons. Production was completely out of the final edit. In later seasons, they don’t even bother with editing out cameramens out of shots anymore. Remember in Season 4 and 9, they would blur the appearances of cameramen if they have to use that shot. That really made a difference in quality TV.
Also speaking of editing, there’re no more establishing shots when they transition from one team to another team at a different location. There were great transitions in Season 2-8 with music added in. Also, if anyone paid attention, in early seasons like Season 6, at the finish line they would show teams waiting for the winning team in the order they were eliminated. Those are the great details in editing that are long lost when they got sloppy. They have a bland editing formula for tasks where they’ll play the audio of post-leg interviews of teams recounting how they did the tasks and lay it on the videos of them doing those tasks. In early seasons, it was constructed with yelling / conversations between team/members to tell a story. They also did great work in an overall story arch. Watching earlier seasons, there were so many instances that the editors put soundbites out of texts to better tell a story (when they would show a yellow subtitle). Those take a great effort to comb through the footage and construct an arch for an entire season. You also see they break the fourth wall with teams directly talking into the camera, or to the camera person behind the camera as they were answering their questions. In early seasons, not that they didn’t use shots of teams talking to producers behind camera, but they would edit those in as if the teams were talking amongst themselves. They did a lot more to make the audience forget there’re crews there.
Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Jonathan & Victoria from season 6:
Victoria also blames the network, noting that because a camera was visible in the shoving shot, “It shows this decision had to go way up the line.”
https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2005/01/the-amazing-race-6-jonathan_victoria_interview/
This shows CBS used to take this seriously with cameras out of final edit.
Bertram and Elise, if you’re reading this: Please bring back the old quality.
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Really thoughtful reply, appreciate it!
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I'm thinking this Season might slowly turn the script around again.
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I think it declined starting on the time that they filmed Season 27 because that's when they began to film only 1 season per year. But now that they already filmed 2 seasons this year, they might start filming seasons faster again.
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The Amazing Race's decline can be traced to S14 with a very gradual decline in quality since then. Many aspects of the original race format were tampered and messed with and were forever altered from this point forward (intro, messing with the pit start times, semi-celebrities, wacky tasks). The editing shifted from this point forward to focus more on tasks, which is why we don't have quite as many memorable teams from the newer seasons.
The final nail in the coffin, though was S24 where everything wrong with the show up until that point, combined to make one of the worst editions of the show. The tasks were lazy/uninspired, you had an awful cast, the route was awful all around, and a terrible finale. The producers got complacent and didn't want to change anything and it ended up with one of the very worst seasons to date
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Given that the last addition to the top-tier was 25, anything from Blind Date Edition onwards - with exceptions such as Reality Clash/Showdown and 34 proving the rule.
(Strangers' Edition is quite possibly the most overrated season of all time.)