What is with the sudden obsession with these shows?
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So much format “poaching” going on. Rarely works.
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It’s so much like The Amazing Race that people will compare it and say it’s a rip-off of that show.
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That was my initial thought last night when I saw the promo… Channel 9s version of The Amazing Race. I was quite surprised to see someone that I know in the promo as a contestant so found a bit more about the format. It is a bit different to Amazing Race… but has other elements that still sound like a mesh of a few different shows.
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Sunday 2 July
Dropped into the world’s biggest cultural events on a big global adventure! 🌎#Rush | Starts Sunday July 2 on @Channel9 and @9Now pic.twitter.com/WaP5WHOBYE
— Channel9 (@Channel9) June 21, 2023
Can Fiona fight her way from country to country? 🥊 #Rush | Starts Sunday July 2 to @Channel9 and @9Now pic.twitter.com/dAx4kSHF7I
— Travel Guides (@TravelGuides) June 21, 2023
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RUSH IS THE ALL NEW BIG GLOBAL ADVENTURE
PREMIERING SUNDAY, JULY 2, AT 7.00PM
ON CHANNEL 9 AND 9NOW
It’s nearly time to immerse yourself in RUSH, the big new global adventure program coming to Channel 9 and 9Now on Sunday, July 2, at 7.00pm.
Three teams of Aussies are put to the test in this thrilling race around the world. In nine different countries, Brazil, Turkey, Jordan, India, Thailand, Ireland, France, Kenya and South Africa, the teams have one mission: be the first to get out and move on to the next destination.
Each team will be dropped into the middle of some of the most pulsating cultural festivals, huge events and exotic locations on Earth, including Carnival in Rio, St Patrick’s Day in Dublin, the colourful Holi festival in India and the throbbing techno moshpit of Tomorrowland in France.
The intrepid travellers arrive at each new drop point deprived of sight and sound. Once their noise-cancelling headphones and blackout goggles are removed their first task is to find host, David Genat, waiting for them with mission instructions.
In each location, Genat will give them a series of tasks which they must complete, immersing themselves in the chaos of the local culture before locating an extraction point amid the mayhem and rushing to the Escape Zone. They might have to organise and win a soccer match with the locals in Rio, find and photograph the Stone of Sacrifice in Petra in Jordan, or bungee jump from the world’s highest bridge, Bloukrans Gorge in South Africa.
However, the last team to arrive at each Escape Zone in every country will need to eliminate one traveller from their team.
As the numbers reduce and the teams dwindle to become individuals, one winner will emerge and win a life-changing prize of $100,000 and two first-class, around-the-world airline tickets.
Meet the three teams up for this fish-out-of-water global challenge:
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Some really odd scheduling for Rush. The premiere tonight is scheduled at 7pm and is up against the final day of The Ashes that start at 7.30pm. Then next Sunday it’s not in the schedule at all. Surely it would have been better to run next Sunday’s schedule tonight and start Rush tomorrow.
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Perhaps Nine is already getting cold feet about Rush before it even premiered?
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I was just about to comment that showing tonight’s Ashes is almost counter-intuitive for Rush’s launch (presuming the latter is the big-budget program they want everybody watching rather than the cricket which is a one-off event for eyeballs on network promos and ad revenue plus ratings/shares). Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a good enough reason for FTA to not have Ashes rights, the benefits of not having it outweigh having it, if you get what I mean and leave it for Foxtel/Kayo/Optus/SVOD etc but current legislation I guess forbids that.
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https://twitter.com/SteveMolk/status/1675436381441785856?s=19
This show feels like Race Across the World (RATW) but in different locations each episode and with eliminations.
It’s ok… started off alright but dragging a bit as the episode goes on.
I was hoping they’d go with that show instead of this. It feels kind of confusing to follow.
Though perhaps they’re not too keen on pursuing RATW because of the fact that The Amazing Race is still on 10 (and faltering badly).
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Just seemed like a massive Amazing Race rip off but with so much less action. How does TAR fit multiple challenges from multiple teams into an episode whereas Rush had one thing about scoring a goal against a local group of kids and the rest seemed like just a navigation challenge. There was a restriction in spending but that was just like TAR. It was different to Race Around the World where they need to manage accommodation as well.
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Yes after seeing the whole thing it felt like cheap Amazing Race but without the intensity and the choosing who to eliminate just felt plain wrong as a concept.
I would’ve preferred Race Across the World if Nine wanted to commission something in travel adventure. At least that show is unique.
RATW has various points where they have to navigate too particular hotels and check-in to see where they rank to the other teams. The way that they were checking into hotels like that and navigating long distances over 3 days is what gave me the RATW vibes. TAR legs are usually one city/location with multiple tasks (often completed in a day or 24 hour period).
I was watching DWTS but was crossing over during breaks etc. It seemed to be a bit of a cross between TAR and RATW but it was still interesting. These days on TAR you don’t often see teams running out of money, whereas on RATW it’s all about making sure you have enough money. Also their watches letting them know what place they’re in is very similar to the book at each checkpoint in RATW. I’ll definitely watch it again.
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Nine will have to be hoping for a massive turn around with episode one managing just 301k metro viewers.
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Executives will be thankful for Ashes and Wimbledon too plus another SOO as fallbacks though. Maybe lots of encores to come, Saturday prime time?
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They should have just launched it tonight. That would have made a lot more sense.
Yeah that was my feel too. The part of the format that I liked were the similarities to RATW - being more about travel and navigating to certain points on a limited budget. I didn’t mind them having a more real world task as TAR can get quite gimmicky these days. Although I get that for that reason, it might not grab viewers as much.
The problem for me was that the episode started strong when they were bang right in the middle of Rio Carnival but then they immediately left that location. It seemed a lost opportunity not to make them do something there (instead of maybe that soccer match). The show seems to be going to a lot of locations during big events like that (e.g. I believe they go to Tomorrowland Winter) but if that’s just a starting point to the leg then it’s a bit disappointing. Hopefully they can leverage those moments a bit more.
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Back to the drawing board for Nine. Apart from MAFS and Travel Guides they haven’t really landed a hit this year especially with their new formats The Summit and Rush.
If they really wanted to do something in the adventure genre then Race Across the World or something out of the blue like Race to the Centre of the Earth would work much better.