Throng

The Amazing Race stopped by the deep south over the weekend with competitors and camera crews seen filming in Invercargill.

Teams of two were spotted running through the airport after disembarking flights from Christchurch at 3.30pm and 4.20pm yesterday.

At least four Maui campervans were seen in the parking lot of Invercargill’s airport as well with the yellow and black striped Amazing Race envelopes in their windscreens.

Details are scarce but all people are saying they saw teams of two being filmed as they ran out of the airport and into the campervans before taking off up State Highway 6.

In spite of most shows now being filmed in widescreen, why are several of them being shown as 4:3 on Freeview? Is this some sort of cost-cutting measure?

This shows I've noted that are doing this include:

TV2 - Two and a Half Men (only when repeated?), The Amazing Race, Tyra

TV3 - Project Runway, America's Next Top Model, Models Of The Runway

C4 - South Park

Any other shows you know about where this is happening?

7:30pm Sunday, March 21 on TV2

The competition is heating up on TV2 tonight, as the teams leave icy Siberia for the humidity and bustle of India, in The Amazing Race.

The seven remaining duos depart the freezing Siberian streets and fly 2,000 miles into the heat of Jaipur, India. Once there, they take taxis to the sacred tree Peepli Ka Pedh to find instructions about their next destination - a task which proves harder for some teams than others.

For the brother and sister duo Tammy and Victor Jih, both of whom have Harvard Law degrees, success has always come naturally. However, for Victor, being on the show is about more than living up to his winning name.

7:30pm Sunday, February 28 on TV2

This week on The Amazing Race, the racers travel to Transylvania where they go in search of buried coffins and their next clue.

Nine teams remain as they travel from Salzburg, Austria via Munich, Germany to Romania, the fabled home of vampires. Once in the area formerly known as Transylvania, they must search out buried coffins and break through chains to access their next clue.

Meanwhile, one of the Race's frontrunners finds themselves staring down elimination after an unexpected detour.

Wow.  The 14th season of the Amazing Race started on TV2 tonight.  11 more teams racing around the world trying not to get themselves eliminated and ultimately walk away with the million dollar prize.

While New Zealand sat down to watch the fourteenth season of the eight Prime Time Emmy Award winning show, America is about to premiere the 16th season of the show.  Yes, this season that TV2 are just starting to show now began airing on the 15th of February 2009 and a second season, number 15, finished on the 6th of December 2009.

Two whole seasons behind?  Are you serious?  It's bad enough that we're made to wait nearly five months for shows like Flashforward, but two entire seasons?

Ok, so perhaps no one really cares.  Perhaps TV viewership is at it's highest level ever and therefore it doesn't matter how long you make people wait because you can still put it on on a Sunday night and it will rate.  Right?

7:30pm Sunday, February 14 on TV2

The world's toughest race is back on TV2, as the brand new season of The Amazing Race premieres tonight.

Hosted by New Zealand-born action man Phil Keoghan, this year promises to be one of the most gruelling courses ever assembled, spanning 40,000 miles and nine countries, which the contestants must navigate in just 22 days. The teams will be faced with a multitude of extremes, including the world's second tallest bungee jump, bone-chilling Siberian temperatures and suffocating heat in India, as well as an Olympic-sized challenge that leaves the teams gasping for air.

Sunday 5 July, 7.30pm

The final three teams are battling in out in the final leg for a once-in-a-lifetime shot at one million dollars, in tonight’s season finale of The Amazing Race.

Having travelled more than 30,000 miles, five continents, and countless hours racing around the globe, it's now down to the final leg for the three remaining teams, who will sprint to the finish line in Portland, Oregon, with the first team to reach the end winning one million dollars.

Sunday 14 June, 7.30pm

For the first time in the history of The Amazing Race, teams travel to Kazakhstan where a roadblock with over 30,000 chickens awaits, and one team makes a risky move that could prove to be either a game changer or the end of the road.

Setting out from their Pit Stop at Humayun's Tomb in Old Delhi, India, the remaining teams receive a clue instructing them to fly to Kazakhstan where they must find a chicken factory. The teams scramble madly for flights, with the potential to make up time on their competitors, but their efforts are in vain when all teams make the 7 A.M. opening time for the leg's first task.