CBS' The Amazing Race is the six time winner of the Emmy award for Best Reality Show. The 13th edition premiered Sunday, September 28th at 8 PM.

What Does It Take to Win?

To win CBS' THE AMAZING RACE, the clues, detours, and roadblocks require at least one team member to be strong in one or more skills in order to dominate. Some of the athletic skills, such as running or swimming, may be required of both team members. As time has gone on, the races have become more competitive--and demanding! The Amazing Race 12 featured several photo finishes. Teams in the later episodes admitted to high levels of fatigue, considerable lack of sleep, and some even suffered from dehydration.

Skills

Driving:

• Left side of road, if need be
• Making sense of signs
• Manual shift
• Steering, braking, and maneuvering
• Alternate vehicles
• Riding or otherwise handling animals

Brains and Teamwork

• Research using the Internet, airport signage and flight lists, agents, guidebooks, and locals
• Negotiate with airport/hotel/travel agents, cab drivers, and bus operators
• Reading maps, asking locals for directions
• Team strategy in choosing who is to drive, and who will do which Roadblocks
• Adapting to culture and language barriers. Knowing just a few fragments of a language seems to go a long way!
• Leadership and cooperation
• Listening
• Navigation to destinations
• Puzzle solving
• Spotting and finding things
• Handling adverse situations
• Managing sleep, including on planes, trains, and at Pit Stops
• Managing hydration while racing
• Not overpacking, and even shedding weight of packs toward the end

Brawn

• Climbing/rappelling
• Swimming/diving/underwater searching
• Running
• Biking
• Rowing
• Throwing
• Lifting/pushing/pulling
• Carrying that requires strength, balance, and coordination

In addition, tasks could include riding zip lines, bungee jumping, sky diving, or riding other strange conveyances. Up to Amazing Race 7, a common task was to eat spicy, fatty, or weird food. Since Boston Rob balked at such a task, extreme food challenges have been out of plain sight. The only food task in Edition 9 was a Fast Forward that only two of the teams tried, and only one finished--a lot more limited event and not subject to the Boston Rob counterstrategy of taking a penalty. In any case, the producers have plenty of other obstacles up their sleeves to keep the teams on their toes. Just for a million bucks!

To be truly competitive for the million dollars, it helps if team members are able to do almost any task put before them, in effect, to have all their options open. Besides the usual getting lost, another way to fall behind is to choose a less difficult Detour that ends up taking longer.

See my take on AMAZING RACE 9.

See my thoughts on the 10th edition of the AMAZING RACE.

See my thoughts on the AMAZING RACE 11 All Stars.

See my thoughts on the AMAZING RACE 12.

See my thoughts on the AMAZING RACE 13.

See my thoughts on the AMAZING RACE 14.

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