The Amazing Race:

Amazing race is where twelve teams of two race around the world to win money. The franchise is called The Amazing Race around the World. America was the first country to do it and now it has franchised into Australia, Asia, Brazil, Israel, Latin America, Norway, Philippines, Vietnam, and China.

In New Zealand we get the American and Australian episodes. At the  moment America's episode from November - December 2009 which means you can find out who wins by just going on to the American Amazing Race website.

Each show has different types of clues which the contestants find in a marked box and have to follow. These clues can be:

·                     Route information:     

This consists of information of where the teams have to go next and sometime how to get there. if it doesn't tell them how to get there the team has to figure it out themselves.

·                     Detour:           

Makes the team pick between two tasks.  Quite often the tasks have names that rhyme or are a pun and the teams have to often work out what they mean.

·                     Roadblock:     

Is a task that only one team member has to do without help from the other member. they often are introduced with a question and the team picks who is going to do the challenge before they read on.

·                     Roadblock twist:        

Is a road block which has twist for example it could be a intersection roadblock where one team intersects with another while only one member from each team can partake.

·                     Fast Forward: 

The fast is a task that if one team completes it that team can bypass all other activities and go to the pit stop. once one team has completed it no other team can do it.

·                     Yield: 

Is where one team can make another team stop for one turn of an hourglass. When they do this they put a photo of the team they want to yield on the board with a picture of themselves saying courtesy of so that the Yielded team know who yielded them.

·                     U-turn:           

The u-turn replaced the yield during the season 12 and works slightly like the Yield in terms of photo's. It occurs after a detour and the team who are u-turned have to do the detour activity they didn't do.

·                     Intersection:   

An intersection is where two teams have to join together to complete a task

The last clue in each leg tells the contestants where the pit stop (check-in point) is. Most often the last team to check in is eliminated unless it is an non-elimination leg. If a team is not eliminated they have to complete a speed bump (extra task just for them) during the next leg. All these different clues and activities make the race more appealing to its viewers

However for this blog I am going to talk to you about how the producers of the show influence which teams compete in the race. If you want to be in the race you apply and get picked. The teams that are chosen are  picked  so that they appeal to a large audience and different social groups. On the American season showing in New Zealand there is a Lesbian Couple, a father and daughter team, brothers, married couples, newly dating couples, workmates (who happen to be detectives as well). All these contestants appeal to people like themselves; therefore the media use them to appeal to a wide audience.

Each team has its own camera guy and sound guy and they must stay with them. This makes it seem a little unrealistic as at train stations and airports the team must book 4 tickets, then they are re-filmed asking only for two tickets. This is to make the show seem like the contestants are on their own in the world. They never look straight at the camera unless it is an interview after the leg to make it like they do not know the camera is there. The producers use this to make the contestants look like they are on their own and yet we know better.

On clue boxes such the U-turn the team causing another team to be u-turned must state out loud why they pick the team they are picking. This provides the audience with information but it does not let the other teams know why they did it. Therefore the audience sees the situation from point of view of the people who u-turned the people and not the other way around.

All together the show is a strongly media driven show. Just to appeal to a wider audience.