Season Nine was supposed to be the season that brought The Amazing Race back into the black — regain it some exotic respectability — after a tumultuously panned escapade last fall called
The Amazing Race: Family Edition. That bygone Race had actual
children onboard (families of four, to the chagrin of many) — and wound its bumpy route mainly through, as some would have you believe, the dreadfully boring United States.
By David W. Taylor (
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Reality Reel Media
05.24.06
<img src=http://image.realityreel.com/2006/05/24/1.jpg align=left> Mainstream critical opinion huffed its weighty disapproval and dismissed
Family Edition out of hand and longed for the day when more mature teams of two could once again Race around the world. It seemed not to matter that ratings for
Family Edition remained steady and reasonably high at around 11 million households weekly; and that many people were throughly enjoying following the exploits of, say, the indestructible, prayerful Weavers or the loving and entirely cute Gaghan family.
CBS also jumped on the anti-
Family Edition bandwagon when it was all over and done with, and basically admitted that it had all been a horrible mistake.
The Amazing Race 9 was heaped onto our plates soon thereafter as the glorious return to Race roots. The teaser ads that preceded its premier promised us "Your favorite show is back!" (wink, wink). Apparently, for all concerned,
Family Edition had been a hellish detour indeed.
So it was ironic that after a premier that came close to matching the regular numbers for
Family Edition,
The Amazing Race 9 soon began to stumble in the ratings and has never fully recovered. Average households watching have hovered around 9 million. Even the Season Finale barely pulled in higher numbers — surprisingly, the second hour, normally the kicker, roundly tanked.
And this all came after complaints about a late Tuesday night time slot at 10:00PM and the eventual switch to 8:00PM on Wednesdays; after Russia and Thailand and plenty of opportunities for teams to be raw and titillating to supposedly draw in all those nagging stiffs who avoided Season Eight like it was the Black Death. Surely there are plenty of people who are now scratching their heads wondering what happened. The highly anticipated Amazing Race Reality triumph never materialized.
