On The Air

Watch out everyone, there’s a new Phil in town! Actually, his name isn’t Phil, it’s Allan Wu. And he’s not taking over for everyone’s favorite eyebrow-popping Kiwi, he’s actually the host of the Amazing Race’s first franchised international version: The Amazing Race Asia.

This new show debuted on the AXN Asia network last week, the same channel that airs our Amazing Race over there. Last year CBS franchised out the Amazing Race format to other markets that were interested in producing their own international versions. AXN was the first to take them up on the offer, since TAR is almost as popular in places like Singapore and Maylasia as it is in the U.S.

The show follows the format of our Amazing Race pretty closely, with Detours, Roadblocks, Pit Stops, and all that. There are just a few big differences. First, obviously, there’s a different host. Allan Wu is supposedly a “hunk”, according to his bio, but in reality he comes off as a poor man’s Phil Keoghan. And it’s not just that it seems wrong to see phrases like “pros and cons” coming out of someone else’s mouth. Allan lacks the natural ease and charisma that Phil brings to the role, and most of the time he sounds like he’s reading off of cue cards. And he does that thing…where he puts a pause…after every few…words. Sure, Phil is well-known for his pauses, but he knows when to use them and when to hold back. Phil wields his pauses like a surgeon delicately holding a scalpel. Allan Wu’s pauses are like a chainsaw in a movie theater. They’re all over the place, and the result isn’t pretty.

The next big difference is that there are only 10 teams of two in the race, unlike the 11 or 12 our race always has. The only time the American race had 10 teams was during the Family Edition, but each team had 4 people, so we had an unwieldy 40 people to contend with that season. This paring down to 20 people makes the race a lot easier to deal with. Especially since all Asians look alike. (Joking! Don’t write me!)

And the last big difference is the final prize. Instead of the cool million the winners split in the US edition, the grand prize for The Amazing Race Asia is only US $100,000. I’m sure the reason they’ve done this is because this is a much lower budget production than the one CBS puts on. But the official reason is, “It is not really about the money but the adventure and opportunity to be in one of the world’s greatest reality shows.” So, it’s not the money, it’s the adventure. A line that has been said by so many losing teams over the history of the race.

But once the race beings, you get sucked into the action just as much as with any other season of TAR. It has the same pumping music, the same cramped cabs, the same close camera angles. And the same yellow and red flags. There’s also no lack of thrilling tasks; the very first task teams were given after leaving the starting line was to rappel down eight floors of an indoor shopping mall. But then they switched things up, and the Detour was a choice between painting flowers or making a clay pot. So it’s the same show, just without our Phil.

The race started in Kuala Lumpur, Maylaysia, and according to the opening credits it will be traveling to Australia, Japan, Turkey, and even Los Angeles. So it doesn’t seem to be a “racearoundtheworld”, even though Allan calls it that at the beginning. He also says they’re only covering 39,000 kilometers, or 24,000 miles. That’s barely enough to go around the world in a straight line, much less zig zag all over like the Amazing Race does. So it’s more of a “racearoundthepacificrim”, which doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same. I guess we’ll just have to let it play out.

All the stereotypical teams are here too. You’ve got the alpha male team, two models from India (you have got to see their intro video, where they do this hilarious “oh, we’re wrestling, we’re wrestling, oh wait, now we’re jumping in the pool” move that simply cannot be described). You’ve got the dating couple, the chubby brothers, the gay guys, the husband-and-wife. And not everyone is Asian, either, at least not natively. There are a few British racers who are living in Asia, like Laura and Andy. We’ve also got one of the funniest names to ever be on the race, Joe Jer. I can’t put my finger on why, but that’s right up there with “John Vito” and “Bolo” in my book.

This first episode also had a couple of firsts for an Amazing Race premiere episode. For one thing, they never left the starting city. One thing the race usually does is get you out of the starting city right away, and your first clue is to get on a plane and fly somewhere else. Even in the Family Edition, teams got out of New York City pretty quickly, and had a Pit Stop in a field in Pennsylvania. But in this show, they stayed in Kuala Lumpur for the entire episode. and ended up with a Pit Stop on top of the Menara Kuala Lumpur tower. And the high-altitude Pit Stop brought us another Amazing Race first, something that folks in the forums have actually been clamoring for the US edition to do for a while now: The first leg of the race was a non-elimination leg! So instead of getting rid of someone right away (or two someones, like they did in TAR10), all teams lived to race another day.

So I think if you’re a true Amazing Race fan, you’ll find yourself getting into this show every bit as much as you do the American edition. And, since it’s just starting now, it will give us all a TAR fix during those dark winter months where there is no good reality TV. Now, to keep Rob and RFF from getting into any kind of legal trouble, I’m not going to tell you here how you can watch The Amazing Race Asia in the US. It’s not exactly kosher. But if you really want to know, hop over to my site, and I’ll take on the liability of telling you there.

And, in even more exciting news, coming next year we have The Amazing Race: Central Europe. Da, comrade!