I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

49: The Amazing Race

The Amazing Race has an (amazing) distinction in my mind amongst traditional (barely a tradition, I know - but I mean Survivor-style general interest contests - not profession specific contests, or shows where there's no winner) reality shows - it's the only one I'd ever really want to consider being on (maybe the short-lived Mole would be the other exception, maybe) and the only one that I'd really consider watching (without someone else having turned it on).

The first part is because it's essentially an old-style Race Around the World (a la It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Cannonball Run meets reality TV type of genre). There are certainly tough parts that ultimately I might not want to do - especially the particuarly outdoorsy things like going down cliffs, or the freakout Fear Factor-y things like walking through a temple of rats with no shoes on to find a clue. That said, overall it's a pretty amazing deal - you travel across the world to all sorts of crazy locations you'd probably never go to - both cities and scenic locales for free, and more than that they give you money before each leg. You get all sorts of culture, and the events that are not ones I wouldn't like are ones I would love - mapping activities, figuring out where places are in a city and the fastest way to get there, random challenges tailored to unique cultures - eating beatle larvae (I guess that could be considered on the gross out side, but real people eat it, so), following a series of clues written in Australian slang, or playing viking sports, and just straight out crazy things like riding an elephant - making the Amazing Race feel like some sort of bizarre real life combination version of a logic puzzle and an RPG.

The second part is because what normally makes reality TV go is the cattiness of the contestants, and their social interaction, sometimes working together, but more often in the negative planning and conniving against one another, as well as just screaming and yelling. Not that social interaction is devoid of any entertainment value, but the Amazing Race is about the challenges, and the sights - the same things I'd enjoy doing are interesting to watch. Half of the Amazing Race is liking watching a travel show, but with random people competing and a few tedious counting games (ie where contestants have to count some large number of some item, which seems to happen every once in a while). The random signs are fun to - Detours choose teams to pick one of two tasks to complete, and often their choice can be the difference between where they finish, and there is no voting, so the amount for the most part one team can negatively influence another is limited to signs like U-turn, with which one team forces another to do the other Detour option after they had already finished their chosen one. There's solid drama to be had as well from waiting and seeing who finishes in what order on the mat at the check point at the end of each episode, and if the episode will be one of the couple non-elimination legs in which the last team is safe.

That said, I probably still won't watch it, but it's no coincidence it has won every single Outstanding Reality Competition Program Emmy (I know, it's a ridiculous category, but still). Amazing Race has become a veritable institution amongst reality shows with Amazing Race 15 airing this fall.