From what I hear, they are having a lot of problems with it and it may actually not be a rumor that it all gets canned. (I can’t tell you my sources so don’t even ask!haha) Personally, I think it would be a blessing in disguise because TAR is not meant for children!

Yes, that’s Hera McLeod of TAR6, commenting on the upcoming “family” season of The Amazing Race… the season that I think is going to suck big sedimentary rocks. As the OC register (subscription required, but try “slashdot/slashdot”) succinctly puts it, “One continent, four countries, 8,000 miles: John, Jennifer, Jack and Dakota, you are the official winners of ‘The Amazing Race Family Edition …”

Dude, you are so right, except I’m convinced the winners will actually be Brad, Breda, Brittni, and Brock.

All my previously disclosed misanthropy aside, coming out with a “family edition” of a popular show tends to hasten the “Xerox effect.” I mean, we watch 3 different versions of CSI in this house, and often discuss their differences and similarities in character, plot, editing, pacing, and even color palette. There’s no discernable loss of quality as far as my husband David is concerned, but he likes CSI: Miami, while I find David Caruso’s GIJoe-like repertoire of the same 3 stiff and unnatural poses distracting and annoying.

You know what I mean. There’s the one where he stands with his hands on his hips and turned slightly to one side of the camera, head lowered and eyes cut directly toward the lens or off into the dramatic horizon. Then quite often he’ll he’ll twist his head around or lower it and twist, then look up into the camera from below (often over his expensive sunglasses). And finally he varies his Mr. Bendy look with his head thrown back and turned to look down from what he apparently thinks is an imposing height.

So anyway, in spite of these minor tics, the three CSI shows are all fine, well crafted and even addictive examples of there genre. They may yet spin off a CSI: Hollywood, but what if they tried to come up with a CSI: Family Edition? We’ve already seen that – remember The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries? Or even Encyclopedia Brown? Meh.

And then, look what happened to Trading Spaces: Family. It took TLC months to get around to announcing the cancellation, but I’d assumed it was gone, and so had the people who actually watched it. I’d sure hate for that to happen to my favorite show. I hope Hera’s wrong about TAR8 “canning” the whole season, but then again maybe I hope she isn’t.

One more thing: it’s got to be stressful running a show like TAR with families, crew, and everyone else running around the world with major “extremist actions” blowing stuff up right and left. Plus you have rumors of a Space Camp-like task, followed quickly by a shuttle launch (yay!) and then worries about the future of the shuttle program again (yikes!). I’d hate to be a TAR producer about now.