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Will The Amazing Race Australia take flight again?

Seven has called for Auditions but so far hasn't approved a third season for the Emmy-nominated Amazing Race Australia.

The future for The Amazing Race Australia is unclear following Seven’s 2013 Programming launch in Sydney on Tuesday.

The show didn’t rate a mention in Seven’s Press Release despite the fact it has attracted a solid fanbase in just two seasons.

Sources tell TV Tonight that whilst Seven called for Auditions for a third series in August, so far it hasn’t locked onto a third season.

That’s despite solid reviews and a nomination for an International Emmy Award. The first season also attracted strong ratings, but the second suffered from multiple timeslots and a hiatus during the Olympics.

Applications close on October 30 with filming usually taking place in November / December.

The activeTV series, hosted by Grant Bowler, is every bit as good as the US version, so fingers crossed it wins a third season.

Seven did not respond to enquiries.

17 Responses

  1. I hope they make another series. As anyone who reads my comments will know, I think virtually all Australian TV is crap but The Amazing Race Australia is actually better than the original and the current US series is suffering by comparison.
    Having said that I’m sure it’s an expensive program to make and if it doesn’t get the ratings I guess that’s it. What I’d really like to see is an international Amazing Race where representatives from all countries who do the format go head to head. Anyone here know whether this has ever been considered? I suspect one reason why not is that the clueless Americans discovering that there are places that aren’t the USA we see (which after all is part of the fun for us, presumably not so much for US audiences) would be absolutely slaughtered.

  2. if 7 does axe it i think foxtel should pick it up, 7 goes for shows with mass appeal, TAR has more of a cult audience, which is more appropriate for pay tv.

  3. Yes, David – fatigue! Two seasons of US version per year and then the Aus version on top – 3 seasons per year. Years ago I used to remember who was who in the US series now all the contestants seem to blend from season to season as casting is too similar. And also they seem to spend longer in each country now.

  4. i’d be quite sure it’s axed. 7 had a very full schedule this year, now they’ve greenlit another 3 reality shows, something needs to take the fall. and TARA would seem to have a very bad production cost vs. ratings balance.

    re: timeslot changes, TARA is an example of erratic scheduling going very right. when it was in its initial Wed slot getting 700k there was zero chance of renewal. the change to monday increased it to over 1mil, which still isn’t enough to ensure a renewal for such an expensive show, but atleast if it does go it went out on top, possibly leaving the door open for a revival in a few years.

  5. I know what you mean David. I’m also a big fan, but sometimes the contestants in the US version are just “too American” (if that makes sense). The number of times they say “you got this” when encouraging each other can almost be too much.

  6. My opinion is this.
    No 90 minute episodes, the pacing is off and they drag, it needs to be tight and to the point. Schedule it in a decent timeslot – this show needs a 7.30 timeslot its family friendly entertainment.

    Seven kinda screwed around with both season of TARA IMO and its a fantastic show – the best Seven have been involved in, in a very long time IMO.

    I hope it returns.

  7. The 1st season was good, the 2nd season however, just had so many poorly designed or blatantly pointless legs.

    Examples would be spending an entire episode in Paris only to have the pitstop in Cuba and the Taran & Ross leg where they had to finish 1st or accumulate a 30min penalty that by design removed any drama whatsoever from the episode by not bunching the teams up and putting an intersection after the only challenge where teams could gain any time whatsoever on another. Which almost guaranteed the finishing order would be exactly the same as the last leg thus rendering the stipulation pointless.

  8. I actually thought TARA was much better than the US version which has really gotten stale. Still, ratings are king and they’d probably get as good ratings if not something better from something else.

  9. I hope they do another season. I didn’t watch Season 1, but really enjoyed Season 2, and even followed the different timeslots.

    I hope that The Mole isn’t coming back at the cost of losing TARA, even though I do love The Mole.

  10. Wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t renewed. The ratings weren’t amazing and they burned off the final three episodes of this show in one week.

    I enjoyed the first season but didn’t bother with the second. With this show, when you’ve seen one episode, you’ve seen them all. It’s the same thing every week.

  11. This tears Aus TAR was the first I had ever seen of any version. I actually really enjoyed it, and now I am watching the current US series and thinking it too is good but I prefer to see Australians in the race.

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