‘The Amazing Race 27’: Three things to consider for just-renewed CBS series
Tonight, “The Amazing Race 26” comes to an end with a leg in Dallas that is somewhat up in the air. We do still feel like Hayley & Blair are the favorites to win (we’d never say that a month ago), but everyone at least has a chance. We’re not ruling out underdogs Mike & Rochelle, either, given that we’ve seen in recent years many underdogs pull off a victory.
For the span of this article, what we want to focus on specifically is a simple subject: What is it that the CBS show needs to do in order to have fans of the show really talking and saying great things about it again? Maybe it will never be a ratings smash again, but you can at least please your loyal fans after an uneven season by implementing some of the ideas below again.
1. Fewer gimmicks – This is a show that has done three All-Star seasons, a Family Edition, and now a Blind Date season. The interesting thing about this is that we wouldn’t say that any of these seasons is anywhere close to being in the top 10, though admittedly the dating twist has not been the complete disaster we thought it was going to be going in.
The heart and soul of this show was watching teams with preexisting relationships of all kinds try to work together to win a million bucks. If your casting is good enough, you don’t need any more twists and turns to a format that works.
2. Compelling and equal challenges – This season has had some decent tasks, but it’s also been a disaster as far as the Detour goes. More than half of the episodes this season have had one task that appeared to be significantly easier than the other. Remember the days when they were “each with their own pros and cons”? It feels like forever since we’ve seen anything like that.
3. Keep the Pit Stops a part of the story – One thing we do actually want to keep from this season is the race again realizing that there is value in seeing the teams in between legs hanging out, sleeping, and preparing for what is next. We’ve missed that in recent years, since it isolates the teams and takes away some of the camaraderie. Having teams who care about each other still be cutthroat makes for compelling storytelling versus people that barely interact outside of the airports because of sequesters.
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