Eco-Challenge
The 2 Steves: Boxing clever
Steve D / 17.10.2002
This year\'s Eco is less a matter of survival than it is a matter of Survivor...Now while I know it is unfair - and frankly unprofessional - to speculate as to exactly what is going on behind the scenes at Eco-Challenge 2002, it is also a lot of fun, so what the hell. (And besides, Rob told me and Welshy ahead of time to write it as we see it and not worry about potential legal ramifications...that is what you said, right Rob?)
For several years now, Eco, or at least the televisation of Eco (and that is an important distinction), has been a reality TV show. Go-Lite captain Ian Adamson famously opined that competitors are actually actors who have to pay to take part in Mark Burnett\'s movies, or words to that effect. Now Burnett is a very shrewd and media-savvy man, and since the massive success of Survivor in the USA - and it was massive - it\'s dawned on him that he doesn\'t need two reality gameshows. So what does he do?
Well, Survivor is the 1000lbs gorilla here, so obviously Eco is the one that has to change. Now whether we like it or not, expecition-length races, and indeed most sprint races, do not make for great TV. Too long, too slow and too complex for most viewers, the majority come off as part-sporting event, part-learning channel docudrama, part-nature show. So where\'s Eco\'s niche? Well, US television, in addition to embracing reality TV, has embraced \'real\' suffering on a huge scale recently. So the answer is clear - turn Eco-Challenge into a televised painfest. And by God it seems to be working...
So is this a bad thing? Undoubtedly...the way things are going we could have eight or so ranked finishers and that\'s way too low a figure. Teams have spent a phenomenal amount of time and money to get to Eco, and the way things are shaping up it is simply too hard for a large number of world-class athletes, let alone rank and file racers like you or I. Burnett\'s previous races were usually about right, with somewhere aroundabout 40% of the field finishing ranked, and while he has undoutedly responded to criticism that Eco was getting a bit tame, he\'s gone too far the other way.
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