But a good idea. You’ve gotten all these teams out of their lives for a month - may as well let them run at least two legs.
A few thoughts on all these firsts: There was a double elimination leg in Amazing Race 10 and last season (Unfinished Business) featured a non-elim on the first leg. And isn’t a Hazard just a different name for a Speed Bump?
With that out of the way, I really like all of these teams. I think this is going to be a great race. But the old folks, the showgirls and the twins are not long for this world. I realize they all finished 9, 10 and 11 on this leg and things could change, but I’m calling it now, they’ll be the first three teams out.
We went around and around on this ourselves. Eventually, the Globetrotters non-millionaire status was proven. But it took a while.
Actually, CBS executives have already stood up and said the schedule is what it is. They have decided they will not compromise with a truncated airing of 60 Minutes. So we get this delay bullshit. Football/pissed off viewers/etc/etc/etc have nothing to do with it. It’s all because CBS will not touch 60 Minutes.
I laughed when Marcus prevaricated about his occupation because when he first appeared on screen my husband asked “Is that Marcus Pollard?”
I laughed out loud when the two girl teams (sisters and showgirls) ran past the big billboard, dismissing it as the clue, because of course, the clue would be something obvious. I don’t know which one said that, but it was a high point of the show.
Ok–comments, without reading the rest the thread.
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Showgirls have the stench of “doomed” all over them, as does the couple who said that this will be a “test-drive for their relationship”. Also, the domestic partners/male stewardesses are screwed as no-one who ever has had any “airport” experience has done well, IIRC.
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I really like the father and son, the Olympics guys, and the Asian/white couple.
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The showgirl lost her passport? In the first hour? Really? 15-ish seasons where no-one ever lost a passport. Not once. Ever. Why are they picking contestants who ate lead paint chips as children?
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No celebrities ever, ever, EVER stay incognito and all the attempt does is piss people off. I’m talking to YOU, Survivor team and football guy.
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If it was up to me, the black brother/sister team would be out. Less than 48 hours into the race, she’s “Done with it?” Sheesh bitch, even Flo lasted about 5 episodes.
And the passport save seems like bullshit to me.
Clothahump, Justin Bailey, apparently you missed this post:
Please start a new thread on the NFL/CBS issue if that is of interest to you.
Thanks,
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
First time watcher last night – it always seemed like an interesting premise*****, but my ex had no interest in the show so we never watched it.
I imagine it’ll take me a bit to figure out some of the finer points of the rules and such – I had no idea how they were supposed to know what they were looking for in the “look up” bit until my girlfriend explained the “race color scheme” to me – but so far, I like.
And because I always try and pick a winner for everything from the get-go, I’m throwing my money on the football player and his wife. Because, ya know, Marcus Pollard and all.
Oh, and twin sister who didn’t do the “memorize the saying” challenge? Kindly STFU for the rest of the race. Being a raging bitch was definitely not helping your sister (although I suppose it did help ratings).
*****About 20 years ago, we used to participate in events very much like this, although obviously on a much smaller scale. Clues lead from point to point all throughout the county, took about 8-12 hours for a race…awesome times indeed.
NY Times article on the passport fiasco. It appears that the showgirls got lucky. Although the shot of the passport on the ground as they drove away was an obvious pick-up shot done later. Even if the producers were the anonymous tweeter who told the guy to take the passport to the airport, there is no guarantee that it gets found in the first place or that the guy takes it to the airport.
My theory on the first task is that they need some way to space out the racers leaving the starting point, but that there has been negative reaction to the task being something that actually or practically eliminates a team at the very beginning. So, they put in a task, make it seem as though they have to do something difficult, and then gloss over the fact they don’t have to do much and hope nobody notices.
Apologies. But the subject of delays is directly related to the show and always has been (check back to almost every TAR thread ever). Splitting it off into a separate discussion (when it was the main point of the OP and the first dozen posts or so) seems like needless housekeeping.
If you have time for reading, I’d highly recommend My Ox Is Broken!, which has a play-by-play of the first 9seasons of TAR. Castro goes into a lot of “Race culture”…the little incidents and moments from those 9 seasons that have more or less lived in TAR fans’ hearts and on their lips since they happened. He also explains a lot of the rules, and the changes that have been made to them up through the 9th season.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there are any books that cover the 10th through the last season, and there have been some changes since the 9th. Of course, you have right here the most excellent info dump known as “Dopers”. If you need to have something you see clarified, feel free to ask us. Most of us have been watching since the first season, and we tend to be pretty avid fans. We usually do a thread for each episode, so watch for it Sunday night after the show airs.
At that point, I referred to the 4 of them as “The Brain Trust”.
I agree with **Hal **about the yammering yelling twin, too, during the memorization task. Sure, add more words that your sister has to listen to. That’ll help. I wondered if that monk was considering going against his beliefs and just punching someone by the end of that task.
He has a point, Twicks. Complaining about “stupid football” is pretty much a sideline hobby for TAR threads ever since the Race moved to Sunday nights.
What about Zev and Justin? They lost their fanny pack with the passports in it.
I am aware of that, since, as y’all know, I’m a fan.
Incidental bitching about CBS is fine in this thread – I am asking that a protracted discussion about the relationship between the NFL and CBS be moved to a new thread as off-topic for a discussion of The Amazing Race.
If anyone wants to discuss this issue further, take it to ATMB.
Thanks,
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
Not true… Zev & Justin lost their passport a couple of seasons ago and Toni & Dallasleft their passports in a Russian taxia season or two before that.
I think Fenris’s point was that until very recently no one had done that. I don’t think he’s saying that until now no one has done it, just that it’s a recent thing.
ETA: Ok, Toni and dallas were season 13, so there were still 13 seasons with no lost passports.
I didn’t think she meant she was done with the race - I thought she meant she was done with talking to her brother. It doesn’t bode well for intra-team dynamics, and I’m expecting a spectacular flameout about 5 episodes in (if they make it that far), but it’s not a reason to throw them out.
Sorry for the multiple posts, but I also remembered that last night’s TAR gave me the opportunity to explain gay marriage and domestic partnership to my daughter (and kind of to my son, but it was the girl who asked). My daughter was very proud to be a citizen of forward-thinking Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal.
Educational in so many ways!
Someone in the Twitterverse told the guy that the contestants didn’t have cell phones or any way to communicate and find out that the passport had been found, so they advised him (begged, actually) to go to LAX and drop it off. I think the respondant was a family member or friend of one of the girls. The guy who found it was all “Awesome! If I take this passport to LAX, I get to be on TAR? I’m IN!!”
Somebody forgot a corollary to Amazing Rule #1, “TIAFR!”, to wit: This is not couples therapy. This is not a test of your relationship. TIAFR!
A few Races back, somebody lost their passport in a Moscow taxi. It was the fault of the camera crew changing batteries on the mikes and task-overloading the Racers. Since then, the Amazing Rulelist has included: Never let go of the fucking Amazing Fannypack, save at a designated bag drop. ALWAYS have one Racer holding it, no matter what the tech crew wants to do.
Ouch. That’s going to be an epic meltdown too soon.