Closest I can think of to a contestant doing that was Team Bald Snark back in S3. They had to sell (let’s say) $50.00 of melons to Vietnamese people. So…they undercut their competition.
They were given these huge bundles of melons (and the clue said "if you run out of melons, you can get more) and they started selling these enormous bundles for (say) $10.00 each (when an individual melon was supposed to go for $2 or $3). They burned through the task. Very clever gameplay
There have been tasks where the money you made was the money you got for that leg, and there was one where any money you make above the task’s threshhold was what you got to keep (so you had to decide how long to stay–you could make a bundle, but you’d get further behind).
The way the clues were phrases, those were the clear exceptions though.
I imagine all the tasks are planned out well in advance of knowing which teams would make it that far, even if they’re not completely set in place before the race begins.
I wondered how public that final trailer park task was. They showed residents sitting on porches, implying they were watching. If they were, that means some people knew who the final three teams were. I wonder if they had them sign non-disclosure agreements?
They had to get consent forms signed for all of them, so I imagine they also had them sign NDAs.
ETA: You can tell when they can’t get a bystander to sign a consent form…they blur their faces out.
Oh, I know that. I was thinking more along the lines of the producers thinking while setting up this edition:
As physically strong players, the Globetrotters and the Cowboys will go far. and the audience really loved them last time. If one or both of them make it to the finals, wouldn’t it be a shame to eliminate them because they don’t remember what color shirt Phil was wearing at each pit stop mat? So let’s not have a memory challenge this time.
Or maybe not. Maybe they just couldn’t think of another memory challenge to do. They done, what, symbols of the challenges, national flags, the greeters… What else could they reasonably expect the racers to know about each location?
Along with the NDAs, I heard somewhere that they have some of the other teams run the last leg as well, just to throw off anyone who sees them.
I think the Cowboys did decent enough with the memory challenge their season. They were just too far behind to catch up.
They must have isolated the set of that trailer park challenge. If not, anyone who lived near there could have wandered up or looked out their windows and seen who the final three teams were. Much like the tight security they must have at the finish line location.
That does make sense and would be one negative. The thought had occurred to me though when Justin & Zev were trying to sell swimsuits, since they likely wouldn’t need much money afterwards as they were near the end of the race…but maybe they didn’t have that much to begin with.
Why are CBS such prudes, fuzzing out every woman’s tuchus on the beach? Does Nehemiah Scudder run the network?
Re taxis, in civilized countries cabdrivers have to be fluent in the local language and pass a comprehensive test on local geography and traffic laws before being allowed to carry passengers. In the US, I guess, any bozo who speaks three words of English and is just off the boat from a random third-world country can set up as a taxi driver.
There was at least one selling task that defended against that by setting a minimum price. I want to say the sunglasses one, but I’m not sure.
The last 5 teams run the entire race, meaning if you make it into the top half you never get to go chill at the “jury house.”
Curious, but then how are all the teams waiting at the finish line for the final 3?
What incentive do the already defeated teams have to actually do the challenges?
The non-winning teams do get paid, so I imagine their contract says they have to do them or they don’t. Of course, they don’t necessarily have to do them well.
They don’t necessarily have to do them simultaneously with the real Final 3. They could have them do them earlier in the day, or the day before, or whenever. What they’re trying to do is, if someone spies them, to have alternative rumors flying so nobody knows which are true. Since nobody necessarily knows WHEN the actual final episode is filmed other than the people involved in the show, a few days one way or another isn’t going to kill that plan.
But I would think it would be trivially easy to figure out who was in the lead, simply by comparing dates.
Though maybe not enough people care about the Amazing Race to make that a problem.
The contract they signed.
This would be trivially easy to figure out as a producer. For example, have them run it with an hour head start, and if they fall behind put them in a car and drive them to the finish line.
It’s not like they couldn’t stage the “cross the finish line” shots the next day if they needed to get more footage. Hell, they probably already do that anyway.
I don’t know about “trivially easy.” Phil’s mentioned that he’s almost been beaten by the contestants to the Pit Stop on several occasions, including once running to it just as the contestant was. I’m not saying that’s not how they do it, perhaps it is. I would love to see a citation for this though.
Indeed. But not if they want to maintain some level of integrity (perhaps they don’t?) Survivor ran into criticism in its second season when it restaged birds-eye shots of challenges, I can’t imagine the Amazing producers would fudge the most important moment of the game, when you want to capture the raw emotional intensity of crossing the finish line.
Some of the “finish line” shots are obviously staged. For example, when the first racers start to run towards the line, it usually cuts to close ups of all the racers cheering them on. But then when it changes to the full view, there’s no cameras there that would be getting the close-up shots.