The Amazing Race Asia

The Amazing Race Asia
Format	Reality Game show
Created by	Elsie Donganieri and Bertram van Munster
Directed by	Michael McKay
Presented by	Allan Wu 吴振天 (previously known as 吴振宇)
Theme music composer	John M. Keane
Country of origin	Asia
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	48
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael McKay
Producer(s)	Serena Lau, Ariel White
Editor(s)	Tim Goldby
Location(s)	See below
Running time	60-90 minutes
Production company(s)	ActiveTV, SPE Networks
Broadcast
Original channel	AXN Asia
Original run	November 9, 2006 (2006-11-09) – December 9, 2010 (2010-12-09)
Chronology
Related shows	See The Amazing Race -> International Versions

The Amazing Race Asia is a reality game show based on the American series, The Amazing Race.

On 17 October 2005, CBS gave other countries the chance to franchise The Amazing Race. The Asian cable TV network AXN Asia was among the first to acquire the rights to produce a version for its territories. The show is produced by Australian television production company ActiveTV, for AXN, in association with Buena Vista International Television-Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP). The host for the show is Singapore based Chinese-American actor Allan Wu.

The ultimate prize is US$100,000, whilst the American show gives away US$1 million. The general manager of SPE Networks-Asia which runs AXN, Ricky Ow explained the smaller prize, saying, "It is not really about the money but the adventure and opportunity to be in one of the world's greatest reality shows".

The Race

The Amazing Race Asia is a reality television competition between ten teams of two, in a race around the world.The race is divided into a number of legs wherein teams travel and complete various tasks to obtain clues to help them progress to a Pit Stop, where teams are given a chance to rest and recover before starting the next leg twelve hours later. The first team to arrive at a Pit Stop is often awarded a prize, while the last team is normally eliminated from the race (except in non-elimination legs, where the last team to arrive may be penalized in the following leg). The final leg of each race is run by the last three remaining teams, and the first to arrive at the final destination wins the US$100,000 cash prize.

Teams

Main article: List of The Amazing Race Asia contestants

Each team is composed of two individuals who have some type of relationship to each other. A total of 80 participants have joined The Amazing Race Asia, a majority of which have been local celebrities.

The participants are all required to be able to communicate in English, despite various languages around Asia. The contestants chosen to appear are from various Asian countries and not limited to one country of origin. Participating countries include all citizens of the continent of Asia except the Middle East as well as non-Asian workers who are living in Asia for a long period of time. From Season 2 onwards, Japanese residents are able to participate, having been ineligible for Season 1.

Route Markers

Route Markers are yellow and red flags that mark the places where teams must go. Most Route Markers are attached to the boxes that contain clue envelopes, but some may mark the place where the teams must go in order to complete tasks, or may be used to line a course that the teams must follow. Route markers were, however, colored yellow and white in the second leg of Season 3 to avoid confusion with the flag of South Vietnam.

Clues

All route information and clues are adopted from the original American version.

• Route Info: A general clue that may include a task to be completed by the team before they can receive their next clue.
• Detour: A choice of two tasks. Teams are free to choose either task or swap tasks if they find one option too difficult. There is generally one Detour present on each leg of the race.
• Roadblock: A task only one team member can complete. Teams must choose which member will complete the task based on a brief clue about the task before fully revealing the details of the task. Most races limit the number of Roadblocks one team member can perform. There is generally one Roadblock present on each leg of the race.
• Fast Forward: A task that only one team may complete, allowing that team to skip all remaining tasks and head directly for the next Pit Stop. Teams may only claim one Fast Forward during the entire race.
• Intersection: Two teams team up with each other.
• Yield: A station where a team can force another trailing team to wait a pre-determined amount of time before continuing the race.
• U-Turn: A station, located after a Detour, where a team can force another trailing team to return and complete the other option of the Detour they did not select.

Season 2 introduced the Intersection. Season 3 introduced the U-Turn marker.

Generally the clues are similar to those seen in the American version, but a few differences can be seen, unique to this version:

For Season 1, the first Fast Forward was available in the second leg, not the usual middle of the race. Only one Fast Forward was offered during Seasons 2 and 3, while not included as part of an Intersection marker. Also the Yield was an option on two consecutive legs in Season 1.

In Seasons 3 and 4, both the Yield and the U-Turn were seen in separate legs (the U-Turn replaced the Yield in the 12th season of the American version) and since a team can use each once during the Race, it is therefore possible for a single team to use their U-Turn power even if they have already used their Yield power in a prior leg (Geoff and Tisha, Season 3).

Legs

Each team receives an allowance of cash with their first clue at the beginning of a leg, with the cash usually in U.S. dollars, to cover expenses during the race, except for the purchase of airline tickets. Any money left over after a leg of the race can be used on subsequent legs. Penalised teams due to being last in certain non-elimination legs must surrender all of their money and will not receive any cash on the next leg. Teams then have to follow Route Markers and clues that will lead them to the various destinations and tasks they will face. Modes of travel between these destinations include commercial and chartered airplanes, boats, trains, taxis, buses, and rented vehicles provided by the show, or the teams may simply travel by foot. Each leg ends with a twelve hour pit stop where teams that arrive last are eliminated, progressively, from the race, until only three teams remain. It is at the Pit Stop where teams rest.

Teams do not  immediately depart from starting city. Instead, they remain in the starting city during the first leg entirely (Season 1) or in part (Seasons 2 and 3). For the second season, teams needed to perform an additional task within the vicinity of the starting location. There are no pre-arranged flights for leaving the Starting country;  teams can book any flights they wish. (except in Season 1, where all teams were required to take, race-sponsored, AirAsia flights)

In some legs, the first teams to arrive win prizes, usually from the show's sponsors. Season 3 was the first season to award prizes in every leg of the Race.

The clue which directs a team to the Finish Line mentions it not as such but as a "Final Pit Stop." Instead of having an elevated red carpet with The Amazing Race logo enlarged on it as is used in the American edition, the Finish Line consists only of a regular check-in mat for the final three teams.

Non-elimination Legs

Each race has a number of predetermined non-elimination legs, in which the last team to arrive at the Pit Stop is not eliminated and is allowed to continue on the race. In Season 1, the clues directing teams to Pit Stops sometimes replace the 'may' in the traditional clue phrasing "the last team to arrive may be eliminated" with "the last team to arrive will be eliminated," pointing to a certain elimination point. In Season 2, all clues directing teams to a Pit Stop other than in the penultimate leg have always used may be. In later seasons of the American version, clues directing to a Pit Stop other than in the first leg always used may be.

In all seasons so far except the third, the first leg was a non-elimination leg. By comparison, the fifteenth season of the American version was the first season to have the first leg being a non-elimination one, although there was an elimination at the start of that season's Race. Before this, the first leg had always been an elimination one. The first season that has a non-elimination leg in the of the American one that has no one being eliminated at first is Season 18.

In Season 1, teams arriving last on a non-elimination leg had their money confiscated and did not receive any money prior to the start of the next leg.

In Seasons 2-4, two non-elimination penalties were in use. Teams were either marked for elimination (wherein they are required to arrive first in the next leg or face a 30 minute time penalty), or were required to surrender all of their money and will not receive any in the next leg.

Double-length Legs

In Season 2, there exists a leg known as a "superleg", wherein clues instruct teams to "Find Allan Wu" and are handed their next clues.

Virtual Pit Stops

A virtual Pit Stop is unique from the American race. It is similar to a super leg or a double-length leg but it is counted as a pit stop where teams do not rest, beginning the next leg immediately without receiving the usual money or prizes (hence, virtual).

Rules and penalties

Most of the rules and penalties are adopted directly from the American edition; but in some of cases, the Asian version has been seen to have a unique set of additional rules.

Rules

• Each team will sign a confidential agreement preventing themselves from revealing the details of the Race before airing. Teams will be fined with five million U.S. dollars if the contract is breached.
• If a team member is injured during the race, he/she has to pass medical evaluation to ensure they are fit to continue the race. In the American edition, if the injury is not serious or life-threatening, the team may choose to continue or quit the race. This occurred to Marshall & Lance during Season 5. Margie suffered heatstroke at the end Leg 7 in Season 14 and their team was allowed to continue.
• Teams must follow local road laws and regulations and be responsible to pay any fines and demerits they incur during the race.

Penalties

• If teams violate speeding laws, the number of minutes for the time penalty is the amount of speed in kilometers per hour that the team traveled minus the legal speed limit then multiplied by two minutes. However, this penalty is only served at the beginning of the next leg of the race, and causes criticisms from among the teams (see criticisms). While speeding is also against the rules in the American version (as shown in Season 2 and Season 13), the penalty is not given in a measurement of time additional miles per hour over the speed limit but rather of time gained plus an additional 30 minutes.
• In the American edition, the teams who quit a Roadblock must serve a four-hour penalty assessed starting from when the next team arrives at the task site, whereas in the Asian edition, this four-hour penalty applies at the Pit Stop prior to checking in and not at the Roadblock itself.
• Hitchhiking (travelling in privately owned vehicles) is prohibited; if a team violates this rule, they incur a one hour penalty. In the American version, a hitchhiking team generally does not incur a time penalty. But if the clue says that the team must take an appropriate form of transportation, they are asked to go back and take it as directed (Nathan & Jennifer, Season 12). Note that Nathan & Jennifer committed this mistake on their way to the Pit Stop and had been possible to correct the mistake whereas Sahil & Prashant (Season 1) committed their mistake for one of the earlier tasks in the leg and may not be corrected before receiving their next clue.

Seasons

The show first aired in 2006 with the first season premiere airing in November 2006 and ending in February 2007. The first three seasons were aired yearly, but Season 4 was delayed for a year, returned to the TV schedule in 2010.

Season	Year	Air Date	Winners	Country	Viewers (in millions)
1	2006–2007	November 9, 2006 - February 1, 2007	Zabrina Fernandez & Joe Jer Tee	Malaysia	15 million
2	2007–2008	November 22, 2007 - February 14, 2008	Adrian Yap & Collin Low	Singapore	17.5 million
3	2008	September 11, 2008 - November 20, 2008	Vince Chung & Sam Wu	Hong Kong	18.8 million
4	2010	September 23, 2010 - December 9, 2010	Richard Hardin & Richard Herrera	Philippines	--

Rankings

Country	Season 1	Season 2	Season 3	Season 4
Hong Kong	Runner-up	10th	Winner	9th
India	8th		7th / 10th	6th / 8th
Indonesia	4th	9th		Third-place / 10th
Japan		7th
Korea Republic			9th
Malaysia	Winner / Third-place	Runner-up / 4th	Third-place / 5th	5th / 7th
Philippines	9th / 10th	Third-place / 6th	Runner-up	Winner / 4th
Singapore	7th	Winner	4th	Runner-up
Sri Lanka	6th
Thailand	5th	5th	6th / 8th

     indicates the winning country.

     indicates the runner-up country.

     indicates the third-place country.

     indicates the country did not participate.

Notes:

^ Malaysia is also the third-place in this season.

Country	Winner	Runner-up	Third-place	Total
Hong Kong	1	1	0	2
India	0	0	0	0
Indonesia	0	0	1	1
Japan	0	0	0	0
Korea Republic	0	0	0	0
Malaysia	1	1	2	4
Philippines	1	1	1	3
Singapore	1	1	0	2
Sri Lanka	0	0	0	0
Thailand	0	0	0	0

Countries and locales visited

As of October 7, 2010, The Amazing Race Asia has visited 20 countries and has visited 4 continents but not the Americas. Countries in bold have not been visited in the original US edition as of time of filming. In addition, bold and italicised purple indicates that the country was visited by the American version after first being featured here.

Countries that The Amazing Race Asia has visited are shown in color.

Asia	Oceania	Europe	Africa
Chinaa India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Oman Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka South Korea Taiwan Thailand United Arab Emirates Vietnam	Australia New Zealand	Czech Republic Germany Hungary	South Africa

^Note a : Only Hong Kong and Macau.

Number of times visited

Rank	Country	Flag	Season Visited	Number of Pitstops
1	New Zealand		1, 2, 4	5
1	Singapore		1, 2, 4	2
3	Malaysia		1, 4	4
3	Australia		1, 4	2
3	China		2, 3	2
3	India		1, 3	3
3	Indonesia		1, 4	3
3	Philippines		2, 4	3
3	South Korea		2, 4	3
3	Thailand		1, 3	4
11	Czech Republic		2	2
11	Germany		2	0
11	Hungary		2	2
11	Japan		2	0
11	Oman		3	1
11	South Africa		2	1
11	Sri Lanka		4	2
11	Taiwan		3	2
11	United Arab Emirates		1	2
11	Vietnam		3	2

1. ^^{a b c} Includes 4 finish lines

Reception

The premiere episode of Season 1 was highly successful and was the No. 1 show in its timeslot in Singapore and Malaysia and No. 2 in the Philippines, as well as No.1 in its timeslot for Adults 18-39 in New Zealand. The ratings for the finale of its second season increased over that of Season 1 in Malaysia and Singapore. In Season 3 the show reached 18.8 million viewers in selected countries, and in its first three seasons it reached over 34 million viewers across Asia. It was the highest rated program of its timeslot among all international channels in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Hong Kong. The fourth season of The Amazing Race Asia, where the Philippines team Richard & Richard won, has seen a 71% increase in average ratings over the previous season in the Philippines.

The show has won consecutive Asian Television Awards for "Best Adaptation of an Existing Format" in 2008 and 2009. Its third season was nominated for an International Emmy in 2009.

Criticisms

Time penalties

Season 1 has seen a greater use of time penalties. While time penalties were generally served prior to the team being allowed to check in to the Pit Stop (therefore possibly pushing them down the ranking lists and opening them to a possible last place finish and certain elimination, as was the case with Sahil & Prashant in Leg 5, Season 1), controversy has arisen over the fact that some time penalties are served at the beginning of the next leg.

This was the case with Andy & Laura, who departed the Chard Farm Winery Pit Stop in Queenstown at the start of Leg 7 with a 92-minute time penalty as a result of Andy's speeding in Leg 6. Had this 92-minute penalty been applied prior to Andy & Laura being allowed to check into the Pit Stop at the end of Leg 6, it would have pushed them into last place and certain elimination. Melody & Sharon, who were eliminated in that leg of the Race revealed in a press interview that they were really shocked that this 'speeding rule' did not apply at the Pit Stop, despite having learnt how the rules could be applied.

Miscellaneous criticism

Despite the success of the first season, many fans criticised that teams did not always "self-drive" to their next destination. Fans also criticised the fact that teams were always clumped in the same flight. This was according to an interview with Wu. The second season promised to tackle these issues. Others have criticized the show for blatant commercialism of their sponsors on the show. This is most prevalent in tasks that involve the use of high definition cameras as well as the prizes of leg races that are usually technological gadgets supplied by sponsors, rather than vacations and trips like the show's American counterpart (which is sponsored by Travelocity). The executive producer and co-creator of The Amazing Race, Bertram van Munster, conceded that there were more product placement, but said that they had much less money to work with for The Amazing Race Asia, that he was "not too crazy about blatant product placement, but the bill has to be paid."

External links

• Official Site
• The Amazing Race Format makes a pit stop in Asia Pacific
• The Amazing Race Asia at the Internet Movie Database
• The Amazing Race Asia at TV.com
• The Amazing Race Asia on The Amazing Race Wiki, an external wiki