New Trend: Reality, Uh, Reality in Your Town

Last month I wrote about Navigate the Streets, which looked like The Amazing Race on a local level. Now, via Alan, I read about The City Chase, brought to you by Bell Canada:

The City Chase is part urban obstacle course, part scavenger hunt. It’s a one-day, real-life version of televisions Survivor, Fear Factor and The Amazing Race rolled into one. The 2004 City Chase series will be limited to the first 250 registered teams in each market.

The use of ‘market’ instead of ‘city’ or ‘region’ in that last sentence is no doubt illustrative of this game’s true motives. At least Navigate the Streets was associated with Right to Play. The best this race can offer is, ick, the Toronto Sun. It costs $75 per person to enter, which is pretty steep, given that it’s a brand-new idea.

I should have seen this trend coming–reality TV games on a local level. Everyone likes the shows so much, they want to play in the games. How long before we get a local version of, say, The Bachelor?