| The Amazing Race Australia | |
|---|---|
| Format | Reality Game show |
| Created by | Michael Mckay |
| Presented by | Grant Bowler |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60-90 minutes |
| Production company(s) | ActiveTV |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Seven Network |
| Original run | 16 May 2011 – Present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | See The Amazing Race -> International Versions |
The Amazing Race Australia is an Australian reality game show based on the American series, The Amazing Race.
On 19 July 2010, Seven Network has purchased the format rights to produce the Australian series.[1] The show is produced by Active TV, in distribution with Disney Media Distribution Asia Pacific.[2] The host for the show is New Zealander-born actor Grant Bowler.
It is the second Asia-Pacific version of the franchise after The Amazing Race Asia (also produced by ActiveTV), making the first Oceanian franchise to do so.
The grand prize for the winning team is A$250,000.
Contents |
Each of eleven teams on The Amazing Race Australia is composed of two individuals who have some type of relationship to each other. Only a total of 22 participants joined as of now in every The Amazing Race Australia season.
As usual, at the beginning of each leg of the race, each team receives an allowance of cash with their first clue (exception for those who were penalised due to being last in a non-elimination leg), with the cash usually in Australian dollars. The show's route markers are also colored yellow and red with the exception in the second leg of Season 1, when the route markers were colored yellow and green to avoid confusion with the flag of South Vietnam, similar to US's Season 10 and Season 15. It was also the route markers for A Corrida Milionária, the Brazilian version of the race.
All route information and clues in The Amazing Race Australia are adopted from the original American version. Season 1 introduces the U-Turn, Yield and Intersection markers (the U-Turn replaced the Yield in the twelfth season of the US version). However, the Yield was not offered in season 1.[3] Generally, both formats are similar, but a few differences still can be seen in the race.
Like in the Roadblock, teams can generally perform the task without a time limit; however, if the tasks require the teams to form a queue, generally the clues will state that teams must perform within a predefined amount of time. If a team fails to do the task within the time limit, that team will lose their turn and will be required to let the next team try.
For Season 1, the Express Pass (the Express Pass was introduced in the seventeenth season of the US version) was given to the first team to arrive on the first leg of the race. With the Express Pass, one team can skip a task of their election.
Basically the structure of the race is similar in both versions of the show. As the teams travel to different locations by following the route information, performing some various tasks, and checking in at the Pit Stop.
Teams normally complete all tasks and check in at the Pit Stop before they are eliminated. Occasionally, on an elimination leg, if all other teams have checked in and the last team is very far behind, Route Markers may instruct them to go directly to the Pit Stop without completing the rest of the leg.
In some legs, the first teams to arrive win prizes, usually from the show's sponsors.
This show also has one leg known as a "superleg," where the clues tell teams to "Grant Bowler Awaits." This kind of clue showed up in Season 1, but Bowler erroneously referred to his location as a "Pit Stop."
Also, 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.
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.
For Season 1, only one non-elimination penalty was in use. Supposedly, the last team to arrive will incur a 30-minute time penalty for the next leg unless they arrive first at the next Pit Stop, also known as being marked for elimination, similar to the rules in Season 10 and All-Stars of the US version.
Most of the rules and penalties are adopted directly from the American edition; but in some of cases, the Australian version has been seen to have a unique set of additional rules.
The show first aired in 2011 with the first season premiere airing in May 2011 and ending in August of that year. Season two has announced in July 2011.[4]
| # | Start line date | Finish line date | Winners | Teams | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 November 2010 | 29 November 2010 | Tyler Atkins & Nathan Jolliffe |
11 of 2 | |
| 2 | 18 November 2011 | 13 December 2011 | TBA | ? of 2 |
As of 2011, The Amazing Race Australia has visited 11 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.
| Oceania | Asia | Europe | Africa |
|---|---|---|---|
^Note a : Only Hong Kong and Macau.
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