Amazing Race 6/19/03 (aka Where Is Everyone??)

Hmm, all the TAR fans must be on summer vacation or something. Anyways…

What the f*ck happened with Steve & Josh at the end?? They were shown near the lead, or at least mid-pack, when they started down the ropes. All of a sudden, with no explanation given as to WHY, they finish last. AT NIGHT. What made them fall so far behind, so quickly? I was (mostly) sober during the show…a rare event :D…so I don’t think I missed anything critical. Even my brother was shaking his head.

At least the ATC’s barely dodged the axe, for the second episode in a row. They won’t survive the third, I predict. Sad to see 'em go, but with that trick knee and those flabby love handles, their fate is sealed at this point.

When the blonde chicks took the FF so late in the run, I thought they had just screwed themselves a la the Guidos from season one. Probably a mistake, but at least I can count on my “multi-colored eye candy” to stick around for quite some time to come. :wink:

Help! I forgot to set the VCR last night. I’ve read the CBS recap of the episode, but it’s pretty bare-bones. Did I miss anything important?

I think Steve and Josh just got lost driving to the cliffs. I was pretty surprised at the lack of coverage about them - the last thing I remember seeing is the father suggesting they pull a U-Turn, and the son snapping that there’s a barrier between the lanes, so he can’t. Then Bam, they’re last. The confusing thing was that the editing was done as if there was a big race to the finish between the bickering couple and the ATCs, when really, neither one was going to be eliminated.

And did I miss it, or was there no detour in this episode? The Roadblock was there, but unless there was an option besides the rappell, and no one really even mentioned it, there was no Detour.

mcms_cricket, you didn’t miss too much. The biggest thing (besides the strange elimination I mentioned above) happened when waiting for a part of one French town to open (can’t remember the name - Marseilles maybe?), but it looked like one whole section was closed for the night. The blondes and the married guys showed up at the gate first, but a security guard told them they couldn’t part in front of it. So both teams left to stay in a hotel. The rest of the teams showed up, and parked along a street all night, since they couldn’t stay in front of the gate either.

In the morning, the blondes and married guys show up, and now the guard says they can park up close to the gate. This pisses the other teams off, and they leave their cars (still parked farther back, in a line) to bitch at those two teams. Chip and Richen move their car to the end of the line to avoid totally alienating the other teams, but the blondes stay where they are, and argue amongst themselves about whether they should go in 1st, or wait. In the end, they let the other teams go ahead of them.

Oh, and Chip and Richen had two potentially disastrous screw-ups. First, when flying to France, they get on a flight on stand-by. But the tickets are first class, so they have to get back off again, and catch another flight. Second, when trying to find a route marker, they find the wrong parking lot, and follow a completely wrong trail for quite a while before they figure out they messed up. They still finished quite well though (5th place I think).

Well, not a whole lot happened, but it was a good episode.

I’m amazed at how many contestants fail to see this as a race. It doesn’t mean you have to be rude, but you aren’t required to help people out.

From what I understood, they got lost while driving to the last town.

For some reason, I can’t get into this season as much as the other ones. I don’t have a team that I either love (the Frat guys from season 2) or hate (Team Guido from season 1 or Flo from season 3).

I’m still enjoying it, though.

Yep, that was the Detour; there was another option besides rappelling. There was also a path that teams could walk down; the standard “slow but safe” option. I don’t think anyone took it.

Chip and Richen finished 4th I think.

How the hell did that happen? They were so out to lunch when they parked in the wrong lot.

I thought for sure they would be eliminated after that faux pas.

MtM

According to the CBS site, it looks like Josh and Steve also ran out of gas while getting lost on their way to the chateau. It beats me why the editors chose not to put this in the episode.

I love AR. That said, there is no team in this version that I, as of yet, feel compelled to root for or against. I have some vague likes and dislikes, but no one that I can really invest emotionally in.

This also seems to be a group of people that stick with the mantra “I don’t know where I am going, but I’ll get there fast.” It’s almost as if teams are having a contest to see who can screw up the most and still finish first on a leg.

Last night’s episode - That Steve and Josh thing was odd. Something had to happen to get them so far behind, yet no clue is given as to what it is. Maybe they just got lost driving, but that is still something that should be shown. The models wasted the FF.
Yet another first to last in one episode. Normally, that would mean really bad racers, but most of these teams screw up on a regular basis. I think this then means that there is lots and lots of bunching. For that reason, I fear we will have another Flo win the game undeservedly. I am looking in your direction Tian and Jaree.

I think there was a hint of Steve and Josh running out of gas – there was a shot of their dashboard dials at one point, perhaps indicating the fuel gauge.

I’m hating the NFL wives less – they’re still princessy, but, dammit, they’re racing.

Anyone else getting tired of the redhead saying “I want to be half of this team”?

It was kind of unexciting episode. I really have issues with the editing. They paid so much attention to the screwup by Chip and Reichen (sp?) and completely glossed over what was happening to the father and son, it was a complete surprise to me that they were last (I guess that’s why they did it that way, but still).

I haven’t developed any real favorites but I have a severe dislike of the red-headed chick and her fiance, she’s just catty and whiney. I’m glad the people in the other car were not at all fooled by her “Is it around here? Have you found it yet?” thing by the lighthouse.

I enjoy AR.

Fiancé Jeremy and I particularly enjoy watching Reichen and Chip… Their cute little asses looked great in the khakis they were wearing on last night’s episode.

I also like the fact that they’re billed simply as “Married” and not as “GAY COUPLE WHO THINK THEY’RE MARRIED BUT HAVE YET TO TRAVEL UP TO CANADA.” :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t like the “wives of professional atheletes” - yes they used that phrase again this time :rolleyes:

And didn’t like the editing this time either - But during the father & son drive, you could hear the “ding ding ding” of low fuel. But if they went 2 miles down in the forest with the married guys, they could have given us a 2 second shot of F&S on the side of the road, out of gas.

AGAIN!!! Geez, I really want to like them. As Twickster said, they are playing the game well and racing. They could be my favorites if they’d just shut up about their husbands.

The CBS site made it sound as if Chip and Reichen chose not to go in first (to keep the peace and be fair), but still got in a fight about it with everyone else.
Cricket
(who WILL remember to set her VCR next week)

Could someone direct me to a copy of the Race rules? I’ve been trying to search and my computer keeps crashing or timing out, and the CBS site causes me endless grief in that it takes forever.

More clever nicknames in this season than I ever recall before:

Wheezer & Geezer – is that the ATC’s?
BFG’s (Big Fat Guys) – the ATC’s
The Supremes – aka the Professional Athletes’ Wives
Chippendales – Chip & Reichen
Millie the Mole

plus Josh’s “blondes with fake tits”, which isn’t really a nickname, just an apt description.

This is the first season I’ve been watching, and I missed the first half of the first episode, so I have some rules questions.

When driving, why is one team member in the back seat? To make room for the camara crew? Why can’t the camaras be in the back?

And, why the prohibition of seating first class? And couldn’t Reichen & Chip have exhanged their 1st class tix with someone in the back of the plane? I’m sure they would have had plenty of volunteers.

Finally, it looked to me like Steve & Josh got to the ropes long after everyone else – the sun was already getting low. And then it showed them stopped at a scenic overlook with the sun setting. I think at that point they were hopelessly in last place and were just taking their time to enjoy themselves. Which makes me think they got lost on the way to the detour (when Josh couldn’t do a u-turn).

Wheezer and Geezer are the father and son team.

There is no rule about where you have to sit in the car. However, it is probably smarter to have the other team member sit in the back, specifically so they will have plenty of room for unfolding maps, etc when trying to figure out a destination.

I think the front passenger seat is reserved for the cameraperson, so s/he can shoot the driver as well as the second team member, who’s sitting behind the driver. I don’t know that it’s a rule, per se, but that’s how it’s always done.

The problem with first-class is that the show won’t pay for first-class tickets – so racers can’t just buy first-class tickets then trade to sit in back, unless the person in coach wanted to pay for the first-class tickets, which, presumably, he or she would have done in the first place.

I’m still curious why they don’t give the clowns much face time. They seem like the coolest team, but they really never get featured. A quick montage of them completeing a task is all they usually get, which adds up to about 1.5 minutes per episode. I also loved the ATC threatening the line cutters tires. Not overly ethical or nice, but more effective than whining, and guessing by the look on the line cutters faces t the time I think it’s probably why they did eventually let everybody go first.