This isn't just a tough race. It's life-affirming. [17 - 30 Aug 2020, p.11]

World's Toughest Race looks consistently stunning and plunks viewers down in the middle of tasks most of us would rather avoid, offering eye candy that doesn't quit even when the structure of the race stymies production in other ways.

Fans of this genre of reality show will likely really get into the storylines presented here. We wish that Burnett and his producers concentrated on more non-American teams.

From the modern Lili Riefenstahl, that made Trump who he is now. Therefore the naïveté of the original Eco-challenges that I avidly watched back 20 years ago as a young adventure racer has been replaced by the nostalgia of an age of true heroes: I vividly remember the heroic agony of the Japanese team carrying their injured female members for tens and tens of kilometers in incredible terrain or the intense mano-a-mano between Americans and Kiwis or the feel-good caramaderie of the French. It made everyone want to experience this kind of adventure. The very same heroes are here, 20 years later, (even though, sadly, the Japanese are given short shrift), especially the older American teams, whose abnegation, all-around selflessness and simply goodness brought tears to my eyes when they had to give up. Once these teams are out however, it is replaced by far less compeling stories. However the real problem is that onctuous, self-serving, arrogant host, Bear Grylls, that look like a lost 90's game show-host pandering to an audience, and worse, condescendingly approaching teams going through hell to showcase his non-existent charisma and platitudes. He really ruins the show for me.