Amazing Race Season Debut - Delays?

Cafe Society
61

I think the twitter reply was “She’s going to need that? Any way you can get it to LAX?”. The “random person in the Twitterverse” pretty much had to be someone with the show unless they somehow knew they were all heading to LAX. Though now that I think about it, it may be possible the guy said something like “I just got on camera for TAR because some guys asked me how to get to LAX.”
Given that one of the camera operators caught the passport on the ground, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had someone stick around to make sure no one actually stole it. Which makes me wonder about the legal situation if something like that happens.

It seems to me that this crop is generally more physically fit than most others. Even the older couple are farmers, and their opening comment was something about being able to work hard. I get the sense that they’ve shifted away from contestants that are mostly brain power since the poker players cashed out.

62

No–from seasons 1-14 or so, not one racer, in much, MUCH tougher races*, not one team ever lost their passports or fanny packs. It never happened once. Then the last 6 or so seasons, I think someone’s lost one every season (or close to it).

ETA: Ok, Season 13, not 14. :slight_smile:

*There were no spoon-fed flights, for one. One team had to make their way from South America to southern Africa via New York->London or something because there were no reserved flights. They also had to camp out in the streets, etc.

63

nm

64

Done.

Twickster: Your moderation is more disruptive than the posts in question

65

Very convoluted first task, I thought – I just watched it again online, and although it makes sense, I think the way Phil phrased it got lost in translation. So putting that with his video-in-the-Explorer plus somebody reading “Taipei Taiwan” from the Amazing Clue…yeah, something definitely got convoluted along the way.

ANYWAY…off the bat I’m not a fan of neither the showgirls nor the twins. I kind of look at teams like those for the amusement factor. I’m not crazy about the snowboarders either, although I can’t put a finger on it as to why.

The other thing? It always, always astounds me that one couple is certain to lose their way either right off the bat or a couple of episodes in, and it almost always involves someone older. Just by appearance alone I’d peg Bill and Cathi as being young for their chronological age, they seem physically fit, they’re evidently intelligent…what happened? I don’t understand it!

Hazard = speed bump in my book. Then why call it a hazard?

I don’t think losing the passport itself was as curious as suddenly having it appear at the airport with the help of Twitter. Maybe it really did happen that way, but the coincidence, to me, seems a bit iffy.

I want to row on a dragon boat!

66

I don’t feel compelled to maintain a distinction in what I see as the separate issue of the NFL/CBS relationship, so I am withdrawing my instruction to stop posting in this thread about it.

67

Straight off, there are teams who clearly work well together. Marcus and Amani, the two flight attendants, and the snowboarders are supportive teammates with a minimum of drama.

On the opposite side, we have the twins, showgirls, and sibling pair, who were pretty hateful to one another when things went south.

Everyone else is either somewhere in the middle or has yet to be tested enough. I put the couple who came in first in the latter category–and not because of the girl, who showed no “control freak” tendencies whatsoever–but her boyfriend seemed quick to put her down, even when they were doing well. There’s a weird dynamic there.

68

I realize that most people don’t seem to feel this way, but I really, REALLY hope that the winners end up being one of the “regular” teams.

I liked the show SO MUCH better when it only featured average people, and not the constant stream of ex-NFL players, former Survivor contestants, retired Olympians, has-been Beauty Contestants, C-List actors, etc., etc., etc; Those people all already had their moment in the spotlight, and the Amazing Race once seemed like something for all the rest of us anonymous shlubs to aspire to…

69

Do you mean most people in general, or most people who participate in this thread? I think that, in the past, there’s been a healthy amount of :rolleyes: towards ‘celebrity’ teams.

At the very least, I tend to root for regular teams, too.

70

I remember sharing my feelings on this subject before (possibly about the Globetrotter Team or the other “Survivor” couple a while back) and several other people here on SDMB seemed to feel that the inclusion of pseudo-celebrity teams were good for ratings and that they added to the enjoyment of the show; Everyone is welcome to their personal opinion, but I certainly enjoyed the “Everyman” aspect of the original premise.

(I have traveled a bit in my time, sometimes on a somewhat limited budget, and though I am certainly no hardcore athlete, I always thought I might do pretty well on AR, just due to learning some of the ins and outs of international travel and the art of communicating with random locals who are not necessarily fluent in English)

71

Nope, just a fan who has a permasearch on #TAR and #AmazingRace and “The Amazing Race” as terms, and saw @RyanStorm’s series of tweets, the first saying that he’d just been on camera for TAR giving a team directions to LAX, the second saying that he found the passport and figured he’d have to look the owner up on Facebook, somehow not putting two & two together and thinking that the passport belonged to another TAR contestant until it was mentioned to him.

The kicker is, the fact that he had to had to sign the release to be shown giving directions to the first team is why he was still there at the gas station when the last team came through and lost the passport. Otherwise, he probably would’ve been gone. (Though it seems that editing made it appear that much more time elapsed between the first team getting en route to the airport and the last.)

My WAG: because it wasn’t just an extra task, it was a task with risk, a bungee. Also a task that could really take them out of the game, because bungees have, historically, caused some teams major delays while players have had to get their wits together, get over the fear and do the jump.

72

FWIW, Phil Keoghan has said multiple times in the past that the producers do not directly influence the progress of the race. As support for that notion (or a really clever ruse to bolster the idea) in one of his tweets during the season premiere, he said that they were scrambling to figure out how to stage an elimination at the airport, under the assumption that the showgirls would not be able to continue without the passport.

My wife and I like to “play along” with the race. We discuss who would do what tasks, how we might handle certain situations…you know, all that stuff we need to have ironed out for when we get picked to race. :slight_smile: Anyway, I think we’d make a great team. She’s a bit OCD, a little more go-with-the-flow. She’s a little quick to anger, I’m very easy-going. Sunday night I looked at her and said, “Honey - if we are ever on the race, and you lose your passport before we even get to the first airport? Yeah, I’m gonna be PISSED!” Seriously, who can’t even keep track of their shit for just a few hours? That does not bode at all well for the showgirls.

73

I’d have to go back and watch again to be sure, but it looked to me like they actually made up time. They left the previous task (memorizing the phrase at the temple) a few minutes after another team, and got to the dragon boats almost even.

Any volunteers for the Taxi Assessment? I filled in for zut once before; if this episode is online I could watch it and take notes.

74

I’m working on it now!

75

The Rickshaw Assessment (upgraded to a taxicab when I’m not a newb) complete with links to CBS bios for reference…

Ox Status: Broken

  • Philiminated with an extreme eyebrowing

[ul]
[li]TBD[/li][/ul]
Unrolling Hay Bales in Sweden

  • they’re trying but they’re just not getting it

[ul]
[li]Bill & Cathi (The Grandparents) - They spent hours looking for the first clue in Taipei, taking the clue far too literally and yet, not literally enough. To their credit, they stayed positive and collected. To their detriment, they clearly aren’t hungry enough for it.[/li][li]Liz & Marie *(The Twins) - Not only could Liz not handle the memory task (surely just the first of 2 or 3) Marie was incapable of remaining supportive when the going got rough, and that was just the first task. They’re not suited for this.[/li][/ul]
**Duct Taping the Bumper
**- things don’t look good, but they may eke out some improvement
[ul]
[li]Ron & Bill (Flight Attendants) - Their industry insider status may work against them, historically speaking, but the bigger issue is their seeming lack of drive to achieve in this leg. They didn’t meander, per se, but they didn’t hustle, either. If they want to move up the pack, they need to find their hustle.[/li][li]Kaylani & Lisa* * (Showgirls)* - Being the last team out of the start point and then losing your passport before you get to the very first airport isn’t the way to start the Race. But they picked up some time during the Hazard and may be able to pull their bacon out of the fire if they start racing smart instead of racing* hard*.[/li][/ul]
Andale, s’il vous plait, xie xie!

  • some bumbling and fumbling, but not terribly at risk yet

[ul]
[li]*Laurence & Zac (Father/Son Adventurers) - For their bona fides, they didn’t seem to try very hard until their foot race to the mat with…[/li][li]Andy & Tommy *(Snowboarders) - Who also didn’t show huge drive or coordination, especially in solving the first clue.[/li][/ul]
Our Driver is Awesome!

  • ahead of the pack, for now

[ul]
[li]Ernie & Cindy (Dating) - They made fast work of the memory task and won the Express Pass. We’ll see if they can keep it up; Cindy’s got a language advantage in China, so they may run into trouble when they’re both out of their element.[/li][li]***Jeremy & Sandy (Dating) - Without much fuss, they did what needed to be done.[/li][li]Justin & Jennifer *(Siblings) - They had a minor kerfuffle early on in Taipei, but got it together and pulled out a top 3 finish.[/li][li]Ethan & Jenna (Dating Survivors) - They kept their heads down and raced. Will their effort to be hush hush (ha!) about their Survivor pasts trip them up later?[/li][li]Amani & Marcus (Married/ex-NFL player) - He’s still in good shape and she’s very down to earth, but when things get physical she may not be able to keep up. We’ll see.[/li][/ul]
Carried all the Heavy Stuff & Ate All the Cheese

  • nothing can stop them but themselves

[ul]
[li]TBD, it’s too early to tell![/li][/ul]

Props to zut, Mullinator, the Taxi Assessment, the Raj Rating and all recappers who came before, hats off!

76

Oooo, I love the new updated categories. Stale = bad; new = good.

77

As I recall, there have been a couple different, but related, objections to celebrity-type teams. One is “people who already are rich shouldn’t be racing for a million bucks” and the other is “I’d rather see real people instead of recycled celebrities on the Race.” Although I don’t necessarily disagree with either, I think the premise here is that celebrity teams attract viewers, and viewers mean ratings, and ratings mean renewal of the show for another season. In that case, I’d rather have a couple celebrity teams on TAR than no TAR at all.

Too, there’s the question of what exactly constitutes a celebrity team. Early seasons of TAR had a pretty healthy sprinkling of SoCal wanna-be actresses and models; though not celebrities per se, neither were these teams “everyman” teams. Globetrotters are sort of celebrities, but personally more anonymous than, say, Survivor winners.

78

Casting seems to have a thing for thin twenty something girls with long blond hair. Every recent season seems to have had one or more pairs.

I would like more “everyman” teams also.

79

LOL re the Philiminated with extreme eyebrowing!

80

This season seems to have more quasi-celebrities than others – “quasi” because, other than Ethan/Jenna, the others may be well-known in their own niches, but not well-known to the general public. Plus they’re athletic, and as much as I like watching an “everyperson” running the race, watching the athletics makes me want to root more for everyone.