The Amazing Race is actually a pretty good watch for Survivor fans

The Amazing Race and Survivor might not be the exact same show, but there’s more appeal than just seeing the same people on each.

Over the past week, yours truly has been looking at the shared history of Survivor and The Amazing Race in terms of the four people who have played on both shows: Rob and Amber Mariano, and Natalie and Nadiya Anderson. In those articles, I recommended that you watch those two teams’ first appearances on TAR, because their second appearances were both during all-star seasons.

You see, Survivor is not unique among the CBS reality shows for bringing people back for a repeat appearance. It might not even be the most obnoxious about it, since that’s an argument that Big Brother can also make. How many seasons has Jessie Godderz made a cameo on in a row?

But enough of Big Brother. That’s going to be Daniel George’s purview, not mine. This is about The Amazing Race, and where it might appeal to a Survivor fan.

Like Survivor, TAR often ends up showing people at their worst. Granted, they’re traveling around the world, stuck with the same person, have to do tasks like bungee jump or milk animals or other things, and also in a competition for a million dollars. The pressure’s high! It’s not the exact same as living on a beach for 39 days with periodic bursts of strategy, but the idea of “putting normal people under stress by virtue of being in an unfamiliar situation” is right there in TAR, too.

More from Surviving Tribal

Of course, there are also opportunities for strategy, as I’ve mentioned in my discussions of both Natalie and Nadiya as well as Rob and Amber’s time on the Race. They’re not the only ones, either; if you look, you can find strategy in almost every season, even if it just boils down to helping one team you like versus not helping another team at all. There’s less room for alliances in The Amazing Race, but they certainly exist. A good social game can keep a team not good at tasks around. A good social game is also a boost for a strong team, though, in that they’re less likely to be the targets of things like the U-Turn, which forces them to complete two tasks to everyone else’s one.

However, physicality plays a bigger role in TAR than it usually does in Survivor. In TAR, having the ability to outrun another team or quickly get through a physical task means that you can help build up a lead. It’s not the most consistent need, probably coming second to quick thinking (and some familiarity with countries also doesn’t hurt), but it does matter.

In Survivor, it’s possible to engineer it so that you don’t have to win individual challenges or be particularly good at them to make it to the end. It helps immensely, but it doesn’t need to be done. Sandra Diaz-Twine didn’t win an individual challenge in either of her winning seasons, and yet she’s the only two-time winner.

Finally, though, the two shows share some excellent cinematography. Whether it’s the gorgeous beaches of Fiji on recent Survivor seasons or Seoul, South Korea at night in The Amazing Race‘s most recently completed season, these shows are just pretty to look at.

Next: Big Brother 19: Pre-show notes from a Survivor fan's perspective

Much like Survivor, your best bets for watching TAR include Amazon Prime and Hulu. It appears CBS All Access only has the most recent season.

But if you ever grow tired of the beach (but not people competing for money), The Amazing Race is a great watch.