When the racers pick up a “Fern” (a local guide who travels with them to point them in the right direction to a location), do the producers drive the person back to where they were picked up or are they on the hook for their own transportation back?
Interesting question. I never really thought about it. Seems to me it would be up to the racers to negotiate that with the local when they first ask them to go with them.
And where did the term ‘fern’ come from?
In the second season, one of the teams picked up a local helper in Hong Kong named Fern. Since then, any locals who help teams are called Ferns.
The woman Rob and Amber picked up in South Africa seemed happy just to get to the platform with them, and to get the air time.
I suspect the Ferns are on their own, but have never actually asked anybody about that.
I’ll see if one of the racers who posts on Tarflies can answer the question for you.
Nitpick: it was in Singapore. (These are important details for TAR fans to remember! 
)
Most of the “Ferns” never leave their city or local area, so getting home isn’t much of an issue anyway. In Season Six the Mormon Sisters (Lena & Kristi) picked up a young teenage Fern at the airport, and dumped him at some desolate Viking Camp in the dead of night. I wish I could find the interview where Lena & Kristi explained how he got home…I forget if the producers paid for his cab ride, or if his dad gave him money to get home.
I’ve often wondered about the Fern concept in general. I know that I generally don’t have the ability to drop whatever I’m doing to help a total stranger navigate the city—am I the exception or the norm? Different in different cultures and cities, I know, but I wonder if they just don’t show the racers asking people who turn them dowm?
I think alot of Ferns do it just to get on television, especially this ‘big American show’ that has come into town. Deep down, everybody has a little attention whore just wanting to come out and being a Fern is often their 15 minutes of fame. Even if TAR never airs in their country.
I nearly did that very thing a few years ago – started talking with some tourists riding the Metro in to downtown DC to go to work, and they turned out to be four teachers from locations from South Carolina to Alaska. They were such fun folks that it was a real struggle not to call in sick and play hookey to be their tour guide for the day. And they didn’t even have any cameras with them.
So I can see how it’s entirely possible to do it just for fun, since I nearly did!
I figure they’re high school or college students usually.