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Update: The Amazing Race Australia

10 looks to be wrapping reality series early.

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Heads up viewers of The Amazing Race Australia…

Next week 10 screens the series from Sunday 26th – Thursday 29th.

This suggests 10 is looking to wrap the season early, following disappointing numbers.

With The Real Love Boat set for Wednesday October 5, the network is yet to confirm a TARA final for Tuesday October 4th.

I’m keen to hear feedback on why you think this season hasn’t worked -heading off around the world after 2 years of lockdowns should have been a boon.

54 Responses

  1. I love the show and still am watching it. However, I do have issues with the format this year. Like others said, way too many teams. And half of them were in isolation. I think Speed Bump is totally unfair for Kathy and Chance (the favourites for the title) after out of the isolation. And I noticed last night that Stuart and Glennon received a 15-minute penalty and Chelsea and Jamus received only 10 minutes. What’s up with that?!

  2. I’m not a fan of Beau as host. There is too much of him. Particularly in his hotel room when he had Covid. Survivor did well casting JLP ans TARA needs a host more lime Phil.
    The 20 teams idea has not added anything to the format. In fact, it just made it difficult to get to know the teams.
    Finally, the production has been patchy with poor editing and at times, there has been a lack of dramatic music in the background.

  3. Unlike some above, I don’t mind the length of the season; but if you’re going to go with length there should be greater opportunity to get to know teams; to do longer or more challenging tasks; and to show more scenery.

    I agree with some above – too many teams. Could still have done three or four nights a week of episodes with fewer teams but greater focus on challenges. However that would have required better challenges.

    However, I imagine the reason for so many teams was the Covid risk and the chances that some teams would be knocked out for lengthy periods whilst also needing to continue filming. Perhaps this being identified as a risk should have been a signal that maybe the race should have been a race around New Zealand or the Pacific this year?

    I have no view either way on Beau and Scott other than to say that Beau always sounds enthusiastic and Scott is more muted.

  4. Simplify it. No non elimination legs.

    12 Teams, 1 elimination every episode, 9 x 60min episodes.

    If you want the added wow factor, make the prize $1,000,000 and include a USA leg.

    I use to like when teams would battle to get on earlier flights to sneak ahead. Airports hardly rate a mention these days.

  5. Whilst I’m still watching (record and skip ads etc.) and mostly enjoying it, I have to agree with everyone here… there’s too many teams this season. I’ve definitely had moments of going “who are these people?” You just can’t keep track of that many teams, especially when some have had to isolate. The recapping they make the contestants do, explaining the challenge does my head in! A team chose to take a time penalty instead of completing the task, and I was then shocked to discover the time penalty was only a lousy ten minutes.

  6. Twenty teams was already overload but isolating of so many of them makes it even more confusing. There appear to be three front-running teams at the moment but it’s hard to get invested when they could be isolated at any moment. Plus there have been too many physical challenges and not enough intellectual ones.

    The revelation that Scott is 100x better as the host than Beau wasn’t surprising but does make me wonder why Australian TV producers think ex-footy players are talent.

  7. I mean, ultimately the problem was everyone hated last season because it was terrible but Ten wrongly blamed it entirely on the domestic route before doubling down on all the mistakes. There were still too many teams and a huge number of them weren’t interesting, the task design still felt lazy and no-budget, when the tasks did feel like they could have been interesting they weren’t edited well, and the “around the world” promo felt cynical when you realised the entire season is basically three Mediterranean countries and three Central American countries. Plus, like, it was A Choice to use Beau as the hook for the season when he was already demonstrably ratings poison, when I’m a Celeb ruined what was left of his brand, and when he wasn’t even present for a huge chunk of the thing. Any one of these things would kill a show in normal circumstances. This season had them all.

  8. To many 90 min long episodes, far to many teams, to many legs in the same country, it’s to slow paced unlike the fast paced US version. If 10 wants viewership to be higher than it needs to have a season just like the format of the US version, 11 teams, eliminations in nearly every episode & more interesting challenges.

  9. I believe part of the disappointing numbers has to come with a myriad of factors, but I believe the biggest was that the show was simply not competitive enough for 10 to throw up against The Block and Farmer Wants a Wife, both of which are consistently huge ratings successes for 9 and 7.

    If it aired earlier against lesser competition, I could have seen this season perform much better for 10.

  10. The problem with this season is one word: supersize. Too many teams (even though seven teams had to isolate at different stages due to COVID, which was unfortunate) and too many legs. The US version typically has 11 or 12 legs, with a maximum two legs in each country.

  12. I’m still watching but I know personally some of the teams I was excited to watch have now been eliminated, which is not really the show’s fault but still is a factor. Again, the issue where some teams have missed legs due to having to isolate has again forced some other teams out. Fair or not fair? That is the question. Some lax enforcing of the rules has enabled some teams to coast through on some occasions.
    Other than that Beau and now Scott have been great as hosts, the teams diverse and, especially the last few eps, the locations very beautiful. Maybe it’s just too much of a good thing too many nights a week? In saying that more Survivor and Hunted please 🙂 And bring on Traitors

  13. Easy answer why it doesn’t work.

    Way too many episodes – so many worthless challenges. There is no real drama or challenge in any of the countries. Doesn’t seem anyone struggles with cultural aspects, with directions.

    22 teams – I have zero connection to any teams, and you can actually tell in episodes who’s going home due to suddenly they give them screen time and backstory. Also if you’re going to have so many teams, why are ther enon-elimination points? Further, for a media landscape that has endless ‘reality’ stars, how can you have so many teams with no personality

    I just put this on as background noise but could not care less who wins.

  14. It’s way too long. The great thing about the US season is its usually around 12 episodes, screened weekly. I watched TARA last year, but decided if it’s was going to be a long series this year, I’ll just watch the last few weeks only.

  15. I think its because of the number of teams….too many to be able to get to ‘know’ them properly and being able to step back in after covid isolation with only a rather weak speed bump to complete. I know its not their fault they had to isolate but if I was one of the teams who kept racing I would be very annoyed if one of the them won not having done all the legs. I am not sure how but I feel this could have been handled better.

  16. Too many teams and episodes way too long. Having to watch every challenge more than 10 times becomes monotonous.
    There were some great personalities & team combos but we have 5 episodes not watched….and unlikely to go back now.
    When will they learn more is not more when it becomes too much. While $$ needs to come into it, surely they see that longer episodes are turning us away. 2 eps a week @ 60 mins each please maximum.

  17. I’ve watched every US series from S1 and love this show but the Australian one misses the mark on the below for me.

    Beau and his shirt off all the time while in isolation is really tacky and his presenting style is not the best. The way he says you’re eliminated is quite harsh Compared to Phil

    90min episodes on Sunday are too drawn out. Wayyyyy drawn out.

    Too many teams this season.

    Too many teams out with Covid-19 (not the shows fault) made the competition uneven and possibly unfair

    I did love how they got around the world to different countries and it was great to see that.

    There is not the cut throat attitude compared to US version

  18. I think as there were so many racers there wasn’t enough time to get to know them so when they were eliminated, I didn’t care as I wasn’t invested in them. I have though enjoyed the stunning locations and am only watching to see them.

  20. The formula for the show was just stretched to breaking point. Instead of the usual 11 or 12 teams the US has, this series had 20, which is far too many people to try connect with. I notice the episode lengths have pulled back a lot now to about 65-70mins in length. However, the first 2 weeks of episodes were all over 90mins long, which took a show that should have been exciting and instead made it mind numbingly boring. I bailed after the 4th or 5th episode.

    Who is ultimately to blame for this show failing? Is it the production company’s fault for producing a show that was boring or is it Ten’s for wanting episodes that stretched till 9:15pm at night so they didn’t have to schedule anything else that evening in prime time? Either way it’s a huge disappointment because I was excited to watch this show before it started.

  22. I chose not to watch it at because of last year’s intruder style twist destroyed the format, so I was hesitant they’d try it again this year.
    There are too many teams this year (20), the the teams were split into two lots of 10 without the them all knowing this. The commercials made them all look like idiots, the destinations were given away at the start, too many episodes per week, episodes are 90-95 min long.. I could come up with more but I’d run out of characters.

  23. At first I thought 20 teams wouldn’t be a problem. But I gotta admit it was actually a bit much. And with the inclusion of 10 shows on Paramount+ without commercials several days after the week’s cycle of episodes, I’ve been waiting until then to catch up. Next time (which it sounds like there won’t be), a back to basics 12 team run would be much better. Shame coz the production has consistently looked and felt fantastic across the seasons and Beau has turned out to be a terrific host.

  24. It should be only 1 or 2 (at tthe most) episodes per week of just an hour. Too much fill to pad out the series. The reason the US version of TAR (& also Survivor) is it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome.

  25. Whilst I haven’t watched the US version for a while I did really like it back in the day. The production of the AU version looks great and the promotion had me intrigued but at the end of the day I’m sick of back to back multi night reality programs and that is the primary reason I haven’t watched I’ve spent many hours watching Survivor and MasterChef and just felt I had nothing left to give to reality TV.

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