Monday, March 2, 2020

CBS HALTS “AMAZING RACE” Season 33 Production Because of COVID19


For over thirty seasons across nearly two decades, the global travel racing reality competition “The Amazing Race” on CBS has brought plenty of fun, thrills, sights and sounds of the many countries of the world that its teams of two have crossed in their rush to win a million-dollar prize. Such has been the interest in the show that its seasons, airing annually, are actually shot much earlier. Season 31 in 2019 was filmed from June-July 2018, while Season 32, premiering this year, was raced from November to December that same year. A Season 33 was supposed to have started shooting this month, but stopped.

USA Today tells us that CBS has halted production of what should be the 33rd season of long-running reality program “The Amazing Race.” The announcement was given after three episodes’ worth of travel have been made, from the starting point in the US to the United Kingdom, namely England and then Scotland. It does not take much guesswork to determine the reason why the network has put the in-production season on ice: concerns over the ongoing novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, outbreak. The UK itself has 40 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with eight patients recovered and no deaths recorded thus far.

CBS does offer clarifications on the statuses of the 2-person racing teams involved in the season, along with the camera crews assigned for each team and race locations. So far, according to the network, none of the racers or production teams has exhibited symptoms of the coronavirus that sprung forth from Wuhan, China last year. Their health and well-being however is the reason CBS has decided to call off the season, at least temporarily. While the teams and crews are now en route back to the US, they will still be put under observation upon arrival, to ensure no last-minute infections have sprung up since.

And it is not like CBS will be lacking in “The Amazing Race” this 2020. Season 32 will soon be announced for airing this year without problems. What is not known however is when production for Season 33 will be resumed. The program is one of the most-watched and positively-received on CBS, with 77 award nominations total and 15 wins.

Image from TV Series Finale

0 comments:

Post a Comment