It is no secret that I am an Amazing Race fan. I have written about it here and have dedicated a number of posts to this reality show. In fact, I am currently chronicling the current season of the Asian edition, The Amazing Race Asia 3, through a weekly post recap of the different episodes. As for the original Amazing Race, which is currently airing its 13th season, I haven't had much time to watch it, until this morning. I saw a rerun of the its fifth episode of the season and I must say I was a bit disappointed. Why? Because the tasks seemed too lame for an Amazing Race. What I witnessed was just a series of easy-to-complete assignments that provided no thrill to its viewers. Maybe this is the reason why ratings of the show are reportedly on the decline this season.

Consider this. The seven remaining tandem were told to fly to Cambodia from their last pit stop in New Zealand. Upon arrival at their destination, they were asked to choose a rickety truck for
transport to their nest clue, but not before filling it up with gas first using a manual pump. They then proceed to Asia biggest fresh water lake, choose a boat and ask the boatman to take them to a floating restaurant somewhere in the middle of the lake. A race among boats ensue but thrilling it was not. Detour - a choice between Village Work and Village Life. In Village Work, teams had to go into retrieve two full baskets of fish and return them to the harbor. In Village Life, teams had to retrieve a set of toy teeth from a dentist, a doll from a tailor, and a basketball from a floating basketball court all on the lake. Also, each team member had to score a basket each before returning all the items they had collected. This was no-sweat too as the teams had the luxury of using motorized boats (with drivers) throughout. They just sat back and waited to get to the next destination. The Roadblock that followed involved looking for the echo chamber in historic Angkor Wat and retrieving a clue before proceeding to the pit stop.

Now, compare that to last week's Amazing Race Asia 3 episode wherein racers had to climb seventeen (17) storeys of the Macau Tower using a steel ladder, climb another ladder at the top to get the clue, paddle their way to the middle of a lake and back, and learn how to do the Lion Dance. And this was one of the easier episodes! I remember a leg they did in Vietnam wherein racers had to carry two baskets of live chicken on their backs and walk several kilometers with that load. Or how about another episode where they had to empty a big cart of coal to get a token at the bottom? There are other difficult challenges at this year's Amazing Race Asia 3 from the previous legs and even more are predicted before the race ends in four weeks.

Having said all that, has Amazing Race (the original) become too easy? Has it become a clue-finding running game? Have they run out of ideas to make the show as thrilling as its previous installments? This I find hard to believe considering that the same think tanks are behind both races, and it's the same team that has provided us with the best reality show on TV (five straight Emmys?) the past 12 seasons. Were the more difficult tasks in the episodes I missed, or are they yet to be shown? Or is it just that the Asian edition has been made much more challenging this year?

It is difficult for an Amazing Race fan like me to accept that one of his favorite reality-competition shows is getting boring. I should watch the succeeding episodes before passing my final judgment on this. Who knows, things may improve in the succeeding legs. If not, then the Amazing Race has a lot to learn from its Asian edition, which has been providing its viewers with one exciting episode after another.

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