The Amazing Race Canada has been airing every week since July 15, a total of four episodes so far. Ratings have been fantastic, near and sometimes over 3 million viewers. Which is incredible for Canadian standards. If you factor in the repeats of the episodes on TSN, that amounts to about 35 percent of English Canadian viewers watching the show. Big numbers which bodes well for future seasons (Pick me, pick me!)
In the last episode, which originally aired on Aug. 5, 2013, the Hippies were eliminated. And after I watched the show and wrote my recap, I got to thinking: how long have the folks been on the road so far? Sometimes it's hard to judge, especially when we watch an episode a week and then read recaps and keep on top of any other developments. Let's figure it out.
In the first leg, the teams had to fly from Toronto to Kelowna via Vancouver. At the moment, the flight between YYC and YVR is the longest flight on the show so far, averaging about 5 to 5.5 hours, depending on the aircraft flying and the jet stream. When teams arrived in Kelowna, they had to spend a night in a houseboat because the jet-ski place was closed. So they were on their second day when they had to find Ogopogo, jump off the beam and head to the pitstop in the winery. So far: 2 days.
Next leg, the teams had to fly to Vancouver, which is a pretty short flight. All the tasks in this leg took just one day, even though some teams got lost or had trouble with the Detour. So after the hit the mat for Leg 2, they were on Day 3.
They overnighted in Vancouver (sort of) and headed out to Calgary where they found the bull, danced the line dance and then drove to Drumheller. It's only about 90 minutes to Drumheller so not a long trip, but probably longer than the flight from Vancouver, especially since they had to find the coal place or the Tyrell Museum. Tasks done, hit the mat and we're done Day 4.
It was obvious that the teams did not stay near Drumheller after that pitstop, so a short drive into Calgary where they spend the night. Sort of, because Hal and Joanne began this leg just after 2 am. All teams got on the flight to Yellowknife via Edmonton. I've done that flight and it's about 90 minutes. They didn't spend a lot of time in Yellowknife and it was off to Carcross via some twin engine planes. Not sure how long that flight was but I bet it was fantastic and bumpy. On the Inside the Race recap of this episode, the hosts and the Sisters said these were "bush planes". Ha!. The nice flight they were was nothing near being on bush plane. I once took a flight on an old, single-engine float plane over Lake Winnipeg with a pilot who was half drunk. That was a bush plane. Nevertheless, the flight to Carcross and the rest of the tasks happened all on the same day.
So that's a total of 5 days so far these teams have been on the road. This number is based on the assumption that teams are only getting 12 hours at each Pit Stop. In the US version, they've increased some Pit Stops to 24 hours for various production reasons. If the producers have done that for Amazing Race Canada, then my estimation is off.
Five days may not seem like a long time, but it probably feels much longer. I was on a reality show in 2006 (it ran for 8 weeks on BookTV in 2007) in which 12 writers were trapped in a bookstore and had to write a novel in 3 days. I was only there for a long weekend, but it felt like I was away forever. And with the cameras all around you, regular interviews to do and the expectation to be eloquent all the time while trying to accomplish something, it's also very draining. So while I poke fun at these teams from time to time, I know how hard this can be.
See ya after the next episode.