Treasure Hunters vs. Amazing Race

I'm not only a Dad, but I'm a bit of a reality TV geek. I got into The Amazing Race towards the end of season 7, but thanks to GSN and OLN, I've been able to catch many of the older seasons.

This summer I've been watching a show that at first glance seems to be comparable to The Amazing Race, Treasure Hunters. As Treasure Hunters gears up for its season (and most likely, series) finale, I decided to make a few notes of comparison between the two. For those of you who haven't seen either of these, you may not get any of this, but with the internet as big as it is, perhaps someone will appreciate this analysis.

1) Phil Keoghan vs Laird MacIntosh: TAR's host is known for being somewhat stiff when announcing the tasks and when greeting the teams at the end of each leg, but he can communicate so much emotion with just one raised eyebrow. He's even been seen to dance at times. TH's "host" only communicates with the teams via "Motorola messages", video clips on their shamelessly plugged Motorola RAZRs. He is a complete robot who shows absolutely no emotion or charisma. This week he mentioned that if it weren't for historical American shipping magnate, Stephen Girard, "we would have lost the War of 1812 and I would be speaking to you with an... ... English accent". I'm sure it wouldn't take much to adjust his programming to give him an English accent, I think it would suit him better anyway.

2) Competition: On TAR, the teams are in a RACE. They compete against each other to solve clues, find places, complete tasks, and get where they need to be as fast as possible. Occasionally two teams will share information or a cab - but only so far as it benefits them. TH teams seem to be more interested in helping each other than in winning. They complain about the few teams who had been playing to win. I don't understand how you can play a game for a tie.

3. Rules: TH seems to be making up the rules as they go along. In an early episode, one team had to drop out because a member hurt her leg - the producers brought back the team who had previously been eliminated. One week later a member of that resurrected team hurt his leg and the producers allowed the team to continue the race without him. I'm not one to believe in conspiracies, but it really seems like they change the rules to benefit the teams they like. On TAR, the rules seem to be consistent and are explained up front.

4. Evil Christians: 0n TAR: Family Edition, there was a team who constantly flaunted their Christianity by praying loudly and declaring themselves superior. They mocked other teams, lied and did what they could to win. The other teams couldn't stand them or wait foir them to lose. On TH we have the Fogal family, a pastor, his wife and grown daughter. They stole, lied, sent other teams on a wld goose chase. The other teams were fooled into helping them for a while but daughter Kayte's constant screaming, whining, and overdramatic antics eventually led the other teams to coin the phrase, "We just got Fogaled" to mean that they had been tricked, duped, or just had a really bad bout of bad luck.

5. Dominant teams: Last season's Amazing Race had the same two teams battling for first and second place in almost every leg. No matter how many artificial equalizers the producers inserted, BJ & Tyler and Eric & Jeremy dominated nearly every challenge and every leg and ended up being the top 2 teams at the end. On Treasure Hunters, Team Air Force has led nearly every leg and looks like they can't be beaten. Coincidentally (or not), they are the one team who has consistently avoided these silly alliances and sharing answers to the puzzles. I would count on them to win the grand prize next week.

Well, it's been a nice summer diversion and even though it is a mere shadow of The Amazing Race, I've really enjoyed Treasure Hunters. It has had so many moments of unintentional humour. I'll take it for what it was and look forward to the crown jewels of reality TV, TAR and Survivor, starting up in about a month or so.

Now back to your regularly scheduled cute kid stories.