Even in the summertime, it took only one week of ratings less than half of America's Got Talent on Tuesday night to get The Great American Road Trip relocated to Monday, starting immediately. I finally got around to watching it, and after one week, I think I've had enough. Maybe I've been spoiled by the beautiful panoramic views we get of the environs on shows like The Amazing Race and Survivor over on CBS. I thought for sure that this nostalgic trip down Historic Route 66 would offer up some beautiful shots of our own amazing country.
In the first episode, they were going to be coming through my neck of the woods, and we Midwesterners love seeing our cities on the television. Only when the families came into St. Louis, we didn't get a nice shot of the city skyline from the Illinois side, or anything. One shot of the top corner of it and they were on the Arch grounds rolling giant plastic balls through rickety mini-arches. With a budget of about a hundred bucks for the challenges, this show looks like something that NBC had a bunch of interns throw together.
It's pretty sad when your network replaces you with reruns intentionally to boost ratings. I guess since it's a reality show, they'll feel obligated to finish up its run, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't get banished to Saturdays pretty soon.
The network is probably crunching numbers as you read this and realizing that repeats of the various Law & Order shows could bring in better numbers than this disappointing mess.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-11-2009 @ 1:39PM
Nick said...
My mother will actually be featured in the second episode, as one of the judges for a talent show in Branson, Missouri. I'm anxious to see how they edit it together, as it wasn't overly impressive at the time (I'm in television production myself, so I know that makes all the difference).
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7-11-2009 @ 8:23PM
royce said...
It was just a bad reality show. Production wise, the casting was bad, the host is bad, the challenges were stupid.
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7-12-2009 @ 7:45AM
Brian said...
My first impression was, "What?!? Not in HD? C'mon... how cheap can you get?"
Help me understand, though: How does moving the show from Tuesday to Monday represent a downgrade?
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7-13-2009 @ 4:50PM
RobynS8971 said...
I knew this was a show with a $1.98 budget when they patched the leaking hamster ball with duct tape. really, 41 minutes to move a ball around, wimpy, wimpy, wimpy!
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7-20-2009 @ 9:30PM
Brian said...
This reality show is a travesty to Route 66. By episode 3, very little is on the route. Branson is not on the Route, nor most of the other stops they filmed at so far. The production qualities are terrible and the trumped up challenges are nothing short of stupid. What a waste of a good possible idea and alot of money.
I know for a fact that the budget was around 1.7 million per episode. Not even in HD. What did they waste the money on is my question. The pre-production team must have been asleep at the wheel. So many cool opportunities on Route 66 and most of them missed.
Take a look at any map. Branson, central Kansas, The Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas are not on the Route. They bypassed most of Oklahoma which has the most portion of the road than any of the other 7 states.
Where did quality television disappear to?
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7-21-2009 @ 9:38PM
Mary101368 said...
Amie Pollard already stated that she made it all the way to at least the next to the last stop on her radio station as a call-in way back on June 4th....Talked all about the St. Louis Arch, Branson and meeting Andy Williams, Buffalo burgers/Little House on the Prairie, stopping in Albuquerque, going to the Grand Canyon, and ending up in Las Vegas. She at least goes most of the way through if not all....oh great we get to watch queen "b" girl, which I guess is what NBC would absolutely want for the drama....great person to pick to represent the south....big time not representing fully who she or her family is.... maybe I will post it all as a spoiler on U-tube. Anyone interested?? Doubt it...LOL
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8-04-2009 @ 9:41AM
john said...
NBC did not learn from the mistake CBS made when CBS tried the Amazing race with familys and kept the race in the USA. It does not work. Viewers want to see locations that they may never have a chance to visit for them selves. The things that make the amazing work is watching contestants deal with people that have differant customs and that do not speak English. Sorry NBC, but you have struck out on this one.
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