The Amazing Race Asia

The Amazing Race Asia is a reality game show based on the American series, The Amazing Race.

On 17 October 2005, CBS gave other countries the chance to franchise The Amazing Race. The Asian cable TV network AXN was among the first to acquire the rights to produce a version for its territory. The show is produced by Australian television production company ActiveTV, for AXN, in association with Buena Vista International Television-Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP). The host for the show is Singapore based Chinese-American actor Allan Wu.

The ultimate prize is US$100,000, whilst the American show gives away US$ 1 million. The general manager of SPE Networks-Asia which runs AXN, Ricky Ow explained the smaller prize, saying, "It is not really about the money but the adventure and opportunity to be in one of the world's greatest reality shows"

The second season will be premiering world-wide in November, 2007.

Applications
Many of the same rules and regulations for eligibility for the American series apply to the Asian edition. The participants are all required to be able to communicate in English. The final selection of contestants are from various Asian countries and not limited to one country of origin. Participating countries include all citizens of the continent of Asia except the Middle East as well as non-Asian workers who are living in Asia for a long period of time. From Season 2 onwards, Japan residents are able to participate, having been ineligible for Season 1.

The Race

 * This section cite the differences between the American version and Asian version only

The Amazing Race Asia is quite similar to the American edition. The basic premise is the same, namely that teams must follow clues and complete tasks to check in to pit stops in a race around the world. However, some differences between the two versions exist.

Teams
Generally, the race required team members to have a preexisting relationship, as in the American version. However, Season 1 had only 10 teams participating, compared to the American edition, which normally uses eleven teams, but has had twelve in Seasons 3, 4, 10. So far, Season 8 of the American edition was the only season to have 10 teams. However, that season consisted of 10 family teams of 4, or 40 participants. Only 20 participants were in this edition, the fewest number of people to have started in the Amazing Race.

Travelling
In the American edition, the teams immediately depart from the starting city once the race starts. However, it is different story in the Asian version, In Season 1, teams remained in the starting city during the first leg, and left for a short time in the middle of the episode, but quickly returned to the starting city for the Pit Stop.

While on the second leg, it seemed that all teams were only allowed to take AirAsia flights to their first overseas destination, most likely due to AirAsia sponsoring the race. In the American editions, teams are in most cases able to travel on any airline they wish, as the producer intends to split the team into various groups, it usually provide two to three flight option but with different time departure, however, this is not occur in the race where all teams depart at the same time.

The first season of the race was limited, just traveling to Asia and Oceania. However, general manager Ricky Ow revealed that half of the second season will travel outside Asia.

Clues
All of the clue types used in the American version are retained for use in the Asian race. The only exception is Intersection, which was not available in the American edition at the time of filming (the filming time is before Season 9 of American version), while it only can be seen in Season 10 of American version.

Of the clue types available in the race, there are two that do differ in the Asian race from the American race. They are:

Generally the Roadblock rule is identical to the American version. However, in some legs, the Roadblock clue stated that the team members must finish the task in the time limit, or that team will lose the turn. This can be seen in Season 1's leg 2, where Roadblock required team members to finish the task in two minutes.
 * Roadblock

In the Season 1 of the Asian Edition, the Intersection was not implemented.
 * Intersection

The Fast Forward was available as early as leg 2 in Season 1, which is far earlier than the American edition. In that edition the Fast Forward is only available in or beyond leg 5, and the number of fast forwards was decreased to two per season starting in Season 5.
 * Fast Forward

Yield was an option on two consecutive legs (Leg 9 and 10) even though it was available only twice in Season 1. In the American version, it has yet to be seen that the Yield is available in two consecutive legs.
 * Yield

Pit Stops
As in American version, each leg has Pit Stops as the final destination, while double-length leg also can be seen in leg 9 in Season 1 while the team have to find Allan Wu to get the next clue.

In the Finish Line, the clue mentioned not as such but as a "Final Pit Stop". While the Finish Line only had a regular check-in-mat rather than an elevated red carpet with The Amazing Race logo enlarged on it as is used in the American edition.

Non-elimination legs
The only obvious different in Season 1 is Non-elimination legs. The clues directing teams to pit stops sometimes replace the 'may' in the traditional clue phrasing "the last team to arrive may be eliminated" with "the last team to arrive will be eliminated", pointing to a certain elimination point. In the American version, other than in the first leg, the phrasing is always "the last team to arrive may be eliminated".

Season 1's leg 1 was a non-elimination leg. The first leg of the American version has never been non-elimination; so far, the earliest non-elimination leg occurred during Season 6's leg 4.

In the non-elimination legs, the Race uses a rule from the American version's Season 5 to Season 9, in that the last team to arrive at these non-elimination pit stops is required to surrender all its cash. Unlike Season 7 to 9, teams are not required to give up their belongings. However, teams are not allowed to acquire any money prior to the start of the next leg.

Rules and penalties
Most of the rules and penalties are the same as the American edition; however, there are slight differences.

Penalties
Many penalties appear to be same as American version, however some exception can be seen in the race.

First, as is in the American edition, the teams who quit a Roadblock are served a four-hour penalty and is assessed starting from when the next team arrives. In the Race, this four-hour penalty applies at the pit stop prior to checking in and not at the roadblock itself.

In case that penalty is not affect the team placement, otherwise most of the penalty will be assessed at the Pit Stops in American version. However, speeding penalty is the exception in the Race, the penalty will only assessed in next leg of the Race, while the penalty can affect the placement for that team. (see Controversies)

Hitch-hiking (travelling in a privately owned vehicle) is prohibited in Race, if a team violates this rule, they incur an one hour penalty. It is the only penalty that not seen so far in American version.

Controversies
The Amazing Race Asia has seen a greater use of time penalties than the original American version. While time penalties are generally served prior to the team being allowed to check in to the pit stop (therefore possibly pushing them down the ranking lists and opening them to a possible last place finish and elimination, as was the case with Sahil & Prashant in leg 5), controversy has arisen over the fact that some time penalties are served at the beginning of the next leg. This was the case with Andy & Laura, who departed the Chard Farm Winery Pit Stop in Queenstown at the start of leg 7 with a 92-minute time penalty as a result of Andy's speeding in leg 6. Had this 92-minute penalty been applied prior to Andy & Laura being allowed to check into the pit stop at the end of leg 6, it would have pushed them into last place and certain elimination.

Criticisms
They are several criticisms in the show, this include:
 * Less self-driving in entire race.
 * Teams always clumped in same flight.

Countries and locales visited
Countries highlighted in Orange have not been visited in The Amazing Race (American Edition)