#EcoChallenge has been revived by Amazon Prime Video!
⤴️ Eco-Challenge revived by Amazon.#EcoChallenge
— Renewed or Cancelled (@RenewedCanceled) October 2, 2018
Encyclopedic Data:
Eco-Challenge: The Expedition Race is a multi-day expedition length adventure race in which teams of four compete. It aired on TV from April 1995 to April 2002.
Eco-Challenge is generally regarded as the genesis for modern day reality television, launching the success of Mark Burnett and his subsequent television shows Survivor, The Contender, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, The Apprentice and many more.
Eco-Challenge was created in 1992 by Mark Burnett. Inspired by a Los Angeles Times article about Gerald Fusil’s Raid Gauloises adventure race in Costa Rica, Burnett formed a team and competed in two Raid Gauloises events. Although his teams did poorly, Burnett decided to create a similar race in North America. When the race went international, Burnett purchased the rights from Fusil and set out to make the Eco-Challenge the world’s premier adventure race.
Each team comprised a mandatory mix of both men and women, racing non-stop, 24 hours a day, over a rugged 300-mile (500 km) course, participating in such disciplines as trekking, whitewater canoeing, horseback riding, sea kayaking, scuba diving, mountaineering, camel-back riding, and mountain biking. Teams originally consisted of five members, but the team size was reduced to four members early in the event’s history.
The first Eco-Challenge was held on April 25, 1995, in the Utah desert and was held each year in a new locale until 2002. Burnett recently noted that he did not intend to hold another Eco-Challenge, but had considered selling the rights to it. In contrast, other expedition-length races, including Primal Quest and the Patagonian Expedition Race continue to be held.
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