For the reviewers who said they don't care about who's dad, or son, or kids, etc, probably never watched the original shows. I did and it was interesting to see a number of original Ecochallenge racers still do adventure racing. I miss the original format that showed more of the actual arduous treks for competitors. This new version tends to only show clips of getting stuck in the mud, carrying bikes, sleeping in local school houses, etc. The original put watchers right in the middle of most of the action while this one is mostly narrated by the competitors. Yes most of the focus is on US teams, but that's probably because out of 66 teams, the US made up a third with 22 teams. Other countries only had between 1 to 6 teams. An initial intro episode would have been great to show the rules, the equipment, etc as that adds so much more of the struggles the competitors face that most watchers don't realize. In the beginning when the front American team wound up being almost last because one team member suffered heat stroke, they showed how when the team entered the hike into the jungle, they had to stop again for the ill teammate. Yet, they admitted they didn't bring water with them. If you have a team member suffering heat issues, why would you choose to not bring water? It's things like that which needed more of the backstory shared. I hope there will be more challenges, but I hope Mark Burnett takes the lead again and revert back to the original broadcast format used in years past.
