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The Amazing Race - UK
PunksNotDead
Posts: 21,309 Forum Member
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Just curious to know why this hasn't been attempted over here? Its very popular in the US and on its 26th series. I could see it getting good ratings on ITV if they treated it well by having no celebrity editions and an unknown presenter that could grow into the role rather than the usual ITV faces. What does everyone else think?
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http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1739115
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=542569
I did a search after I made the thread and saw all those other threads!
I'm suprised ITV haven't trialled the idea.
Didn't Lost air in the US at about the same time as the original Amazing Race? (before 9/11 happened, which probably didn't help its chances of coming back)
The US version is very popular in all the countries that made their own local version, which is a huge strike against it getting made over here. That and the fact all the imitators (Drop Zone, The Race, The Quest) all flopped, so it's too high-budget to risk failing. I guess we have Coach Trip?
I would like to see more reality/gameshows with a set cast you get to know over the weeks rather than just new people every episode - it's part of what makes the Apprentice/Bake Off etc. work so well as you actually care when people get eliminated (or stay around too long to annoy you)
Coach trip isn't a race is it? As far as I know it's more like Big Brother on a coach, fine as that but it isn't a race. The imitations I've seen where terribly and cheaply done, with the ubiquitous and pointless ever present presenter that you get in our programs. Lost seemed a bit more competitive with a full focus on the characters actually taking part (teams of 2 I think). I always get tired of this attitude that the British audience will only accept what they are used to. They have had no choice but to accept what they are used to. In the digital internet age they can start looking elsewhere for their entertainment so channels had better start to take notice. I've no doubt we don't need cheaply done non-competitive shows with nannying presenters. And if the American version is popular that has hardly stopped local versions being made (sometimes superior to what the US version has become these days. If channels show both then they fill more airtime and make more money from it.
Yeh and singing shows are simply variety shows like the old Opportunity Knocks. And celebrity stuff isn't the true stuff of reality TV either. Reality TV is about getting to know people you haven't seen before.
As for quiz shows I preferred Family Fortunes to Pointless, that was the original (and widely syndicated) idea. And The Chase feels overracted, get real drama with the myriad themes of reality game shows which most of the British audience are oblivious about.
I meant more that the fact that the US version is a hit, there's much less risk in them commissioning their own local versions. As the UK audiences hasn't taken to it as an import, there's not much evidence they would care about a UK version - especially given the expense that would be involved.
I agree about UK reality being very unimaginative. The trouble with Survivor flopping is that UK audiences are so used to all reality shows being either old-school documentaries (things like The Island) or where success is determined by judges/public, not individual performance.
Unlike Big Brother and Survivor very few local TAR editions have actually been made and some have been regional, also the international versions have often been more limited, Brazil's only series didn't leave South America, Canada's version only visited 2 countries outside Canada. The pan-Latin American version has been the only one to really run consistently for a number of years, although once again it does leave Latin America.
So none of this would exactly endear it to British TV channels. Although I'd love a version.
Peter Andre's Amazing Race
Phillip Schofield's Amazing Race
Keith Lemon's Amazing Race
Mark Wright's ...........
Well you get the picture.
Maybe not ITV.