‘The Amazing Race 29’: What CBS should do in planning the premiere
Season 29 of “The Amazing Race” filmed on CBS some time ago, and as a result of that, the craving is obviously there to see it in action! Even when this show does gimmicky themes, we do still find it to be far and away better than most other television content.
Unfortunately, there still is no end in site to what remains a rather-depressing hiatus brought on by CBS making the decision to replace the competition with “MacGyver” on Friday nights. We’re certainly biased towards the Race (and want news just as much as Phil Keoghan does — see the tweet below), but the reality remains that to date, the network may have made the right decision in putting “MacGyver” on Fridays. The show spent its first two weeks in the #1 spot on the night in the key 18-49 demographic, and also is working to improve the performance of the shows after it in “Hawaii Five-0” and “Blue Bloods.”
From our own personal vantage point, CBS has failed for many years at finding the ideal spot for the Race to air. For our money, it would fare perhaps best as a midseason show starting in January. Place another show or two on hiatus, and then run the show with a two-hour premiere and finale from January until early March. You miss the main glut of fall / spring competition, and you can more than likely find a night for the show where it can attract more of a family crowd than Fridays. Too many people in its demo are doing some other things on the night, and even back when it was on Sundays, the Race was in a frustrating spot in that NFL football would often push it back to odd times of the night.
The best comparison we can think of right now for what the Race should be is “The Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC. It airs from January until late February, replaces “The Voice” for a couple of months, and drives some solid ratings against lesser competition. If we were programming CBS, this would be the move.
Unfortunately, we’re not a network executive, and we’re going to be at the mercy of the schedulers for what they will do next. Our feeling is that an official premiere date and plan will come later in the year. (Photo: CBS.)
Martin Pal
October 18, 2016 @ 9:54 pm
According to CBS’s own site, they are preparing to film Amazing Race 30.
The thing that bothers me about this more than anything is just CBS screwing around with the Amazing Race fans. Are they just screwing around with it so that another network won’t pick it up or something?
Matt Carter
October 19, 2016 @ 2:16 am
I do think they believe in the show, but at the same time they’ve got a little “grass is greener” philosophy going on where they think other shows will get higher ratings. That may be true, but my understanding’s that the Race is fairly cheap to make versus a scripted show.
Martin Pal
October 19, 2016 @ 8:34 pm
Thanks for your reporting on the show, Matt, since it’s in limbo. Other sites have fans that keep asking about it, but you’re the only one I’ve seen write any news at all. Even if it’s conjecture, it’s appreciated! I don’t like the “limbo” aspect. I can’t imagine Phil Keoghan does, either, since fans keep asking him.
About the cost, I thought in the early seasons when CBS seemed not to be sure to renew it or not that one of the considerations was that it was expensive to produce. (Maybe in relation to other reality shows?) But I looked up some info on wikipedia (that has article sources) that says: (can I post this?)
“Though The Amazing Race involves significant amounts of travel across the world for around a hundred people, Doganieri estimates that their production costs are in line if not less than other reality television shows, in part that most of the production staff have been with the show for a long period and work efficiently to help move the competition. The cost of the show has also been subsidized by its sponsors, who provide trips and other prizes to teams that arrive first on certain legs, or have their products featured as a task. For example, more recent seasons have been sponsored by Travelocity, and typically one leg per season will involve a task that includes the Travelocity “Roaming Gnome”; trip prizes for first-place finishes on many legs are funded by Travelocity and the local hotel at the trip destination. Ford Motor Company is also a major sponsor in later seasons of the show, and typically teams will be given Ford vehicles to drive for various legs and as prizes for finishing first on a leg. In another example, a tea-themed leg in the 18th season was sponsored by Snapple who had developed a new limited edition flavor for the show. The Amazing Race has been considered to be a show that incorporates a large number of product placements as tracked by ACNeilsen, often being one of the top shows for product placement each year.”
Glad you like the show, too.
Matt Carter
October 19, 2016 @ 8:43 pm
Thanks for that, Martin. Watched the show from the beginning + international versions so it’s frustrating to not have it all! Also thanks for the budgetary info; my impression was always that it was cheaper versus scripted, and they do heavily sponsor it to lessen costs. It’s why I think even with this frustrating situation at present it could last for a while.
Joyce Davis
October 13, 2016 @ 8:46 pm
TAR- My favorite show, What is wrong with CBS, it has one of the highest ratings. So you put something new with same old pitch. Shoot up and blow them up shows. It is nice having a show that families can watch together.
Why don’t you fill it in with sex and bad language, That is why this country is in this shameful state.
1LOSTFan
October 8, 2016 @ 2:28 am
Sundays were the best timeslot after moving around so much, but like all aging shows its audience moved on to more exciting shows. It really had little choice but go to Fridays and it failed to reinvent itself.
If people want it back earlier, then it will go on Saturdays. It will likely be burned off quickly in late December 2016 / early January 2017.
Matt Carter
October 8, 2016 @ 6:16 am
I think that’s true for now. The real question comes with more series hitting TV this fall and one on midseason. I could see them waiting ’til summer to premiere it over Saturdays.
1LOSTFan
October 9, 2016 @ 4:23 pm
Summer is definitely a possibility as too, but I think that it’s time for TAR to go away for a while. It will help production re-group and just maybe think about why the size of audience has declined. It needs to find ways to obtain those old-school fans that have left disappointingly. The show doesn’t celebrate its history and pretends TAR started in 2009 (with TAR 14) and not in 2001.
Matt Carter
October 9, 2016 @ 8:05 pm
I’ve found TAR Canada and Australia to be superior shows over the years — too much filler these days on TAR US, and too many casting gimmicks leading to unrelatable characters in my mind.
1LOSTFan
October 11, 2016 @ 7:10 am
Concur 150%. TAR has forgotten what makes it special.