Meh, I’ve never put much stock in the “TAR Producers Like This Team So They Use a NEL to Save Them” theory. If only because a lot of popular teams (including the Survivors this year) get knocked out fairly early all the time.
I don’t think that’s what Ellis is talking about. He’s saying it was so obviously a NEL because there was absolutely no competition in the end and it was 100% certain the twins were last. If it was elimination, it would have been edited to make it seem like the twins were right behind the old couple.
Maybe, but Ellis has made that accusation against the TAR producers before.
It was actually two separate thoughts. This one describes the “editing 101” I referenced.
But I suspected that when it became clear the straight-male-draw team was going to be last, NEL time started looking more attractive to the producers. Not that they’re a popular team in general, but rather a draw for a specific demographic that might get pulled in from football.
Speaking of the lead-in, I read recently that the football delays actually help the CBS lineup as opposed to hurt it, since there’s a huge football audience that can get pulled in. They said it starts to hurt if the delay is more than a half hour. With 60 Minutes in the way of the football lineup and the primetime lineup I didn’t really follow the logic too well.
And again, I say meh. The producers really have no idea who will be popular as they’re filming and I don’t think “the hot girl factor” is as big a draw on TAR as it is on a show like Survivor.
When the second bunch of teams got to the airport and booked the second leg to Phuket, I said to my wife “those first two teams are not going to be able to get tickets now; they’ll end up behind.”
When the first group landed and it was dark, I said “It’s not going to matter now; the Marina won’t be open until the morning anyway.”
Then when all the teams got lined up at the gate ready to wait out the night, one of the women said “This race is so unpredictable.” I just rolled my eyes.
I also suspected an NEL when the lifeguards were talking about being eliminated, but I was a little surprised that they really did it so soon after the week one NEL.
I’ve never tried to stick a giant umbrella into the sand, but, it seems to me that it would be easier to do with the umbrella closed, especially in a strong wind.
I was particularly amused by Marcus & Amani’s interview section where they talked about using TAR to impart life lessons to their kids.
You know, like “if you have a task ahead of you, and halfway through it you decide it’s too hard, just give up and find something else to do”. Two weeks in a row now you two have managed to impart that particular pearl of parental wisdom.
You’d think that former Survivor contestants would be quite popular and the producers would arrange for them to stay with the race. Nope. Philiminated just like all the other losers!
I don’t know about the other Survivor alums who’ve been on TAR, but off the top of my head I’m not surprised, especially if they’re previous winners like Ethan and Jenna. They’ve already had their 10 minutes of fame and have already won their million bucks, so why should the producers play around that? I think it’s entirely fair for them to be Philimated just like everyone else.
To clarify, I wasn’t talking about and never mentioned popular teams. That was Justin’s strawman. I was talking about hot chick teams that CBS can run promos for during football games.
And leave all of them closed until you’re certain everything else is right, then open them and get the examiner over there ASAP.
Actually, I think the lesson is “If you have two different ways to achieve a goal, and the one you’ve chosen turns out to be much more problematic than you thought at first, don’t be afraid to try the other path instead of bullheadedly devoting all your energy to the first one.” That’s not a bad lesson.
Further, they claimed they were going to do the umbrellas because “they’d been beach lifeguards.” Then when they were having trouble they said that there were (other) people who set up the umbrellas and chairs. This means they weren’t the ones who did that particular labor. No, they were the ones who, at least in every possible theory I can come up with, had to prove they could swim. I would be willing to bet the producers were sure there would be some bikini action and were surprised not to have achieved it.
If that were their agenda, they would have done it last week. The Vegas dancers are much better looking. I knew it was a Non Elimination because they didn’t even make a token effort for drama as to who was last.
Popular, hot, interesting, it’s all the same. And my point stands, for every example that people point to and say “The producers pulled out a NEL to save this popular/hot/interesting team” someone else can pull out a counterexample where a popular/hot/interesting team was eliminated early.
Because it wasn’t just last week that a team of showgirls was eliminated. And we all know that the non-elim legs have never been used for older/married/all-male/gay/unpopular teams before.
Oh wait…
I just checked. The twins are the first all-girl team to finish last during a NEL since the poker players in Amazing Race 15, four seasons ago.
Yup, happens all the time it does.
Considering how the twins were going on and on in the first episode about how mentally in sync they are and how they always know what the other is thinking… they sure do argue a lot.
Classic self-loathing.
I’m not getting the toe-the-mat thing. Yes, they always used to sort of jump onto the mat, but in this episode, they were just off the mat. When did that start?