Ratings: ‘The Amazing Race 24’ has woeful start against Olympic Closing Ceremony

Amazing Race -Are we nearing the end as we know it for “The Amazing Race“? The show has had a pretty incredible run of 24 seasons on the air, but the declining ratings for Sunday night’s All-Stars premiere suggest that the show really could be hitting the end of the road sooner rather than later.

Just how low are we talking about here? Think along the lines of a 1.6 in the 18-49 demographic, which is the worst start that the series has had on CBS ever. There are still a pair of extraneous factors here that need to be considered, at least to a certain degree.

1. The Olympics – The closing ceremony was held last night and Sochi, and the ratings for that were of course through the roof.

2. Golf – CBS had to delay the start of the show again thanks to sports, and that was something that many DVR users may not have been prepared for. This also pushed the show into competing against “The Walking Dead,” and that is always bad news.

The problem here is that things are not exactly going to be any better next week, as “The Amazing Race” will be forced to compete head-to-head against the Academy Awards. Given that this show routinely draws big ratings, and we expect it to beat out even the Olympic Closing Ceremony, this show could be in trouble.

Even if the show is sent packing for now, we really don’t look at it necessarily as something that needs to be canceled. Instead, we could see it more being retired for a couple of years, and then brought back later as some sort of limited event. Think of it almost along the lines of what NBC is doing now with “Heroes,” which doesn’t have anywhere near the same sort of excitement around it.

Click here if you want to read our full review of last night’s “Amazing Race,” and we of course want to hear your thoughts about the ratings below. For more news via our CarterMatt Newsletter, just be sure to visit the link here.

Photo: CBS

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