Attention all AMAZING RACErs: The new season of THE AMAZING RACE is finally on the CBS schedule. I saw a promo today for the 2-hour premiere episode Tuesday, November 16. (No time listed. Stay tuned.) I am so happy!
That is great news. One of my all time fav shows cuz I love to see others parts of the world, not to mention people self-destructing from jet lag, physical pain and emotional torture. Fun!
One drawback: this season, instead of going for the usual extremely varied crowd of diverse people, the AR folks have decided to go for eye candy this time around, Survivor style.
The participants range from things like a “go-go dancer” to models to personal trainers to more models to actors to wrestlers…there seems to be less diversity of professions (they’re either actors/models or gym types) and excluding the token black team (which also includes the token parent/child team), the token “wacky buddies” team, and token old couple, there seems to be less diversity of age and background as well. They also seem to have failed to fill the “gay couple” slot. Hopefully, this isn’t the start of a trend to Survivorize TAR.
Hey, as an aside, remeber Survivor had a “Best of” type deal where they picked some of the fan favs and put them on a show? What if they did that with the Amazing Race?
I’d choose (among others) Team Cha-cha-cha, Team “Oh Brother”, The Clowns, Jon-Vito and Jill, just off the top of my head. Anyone else?
Fenris
I’m not sure who you mean by Team Oh Brother – is that the team I was calling the Oppisibs? They were great. Also Drew and Kevin.
We haven’t had a decent “gotta love 'em” team in a couple of seasons. :mad:
One was a big bald hairy gay one, one was a short, balding straight one. Ken and Gerard (but I don’t remember which was which)–they were in the same season with Flo and Zach and Ian and Terry. Two great lines: as the bigger one was trying to rappel down a cliff, the smaller one who’d already gotten down yelled “JUST IMAGINE THAT THERE’S A DOZEN GLAZED DONUTS WAITING FOR YOU AT THE BOTTOM!” and, while in Austria when their team was behind, the shorter one was giving a “Never give up! We can do this!” speech. The bigger one responded with “Thank you Maria Von Trapp.”
Those two were great.
Yeah – the Oppisibs. I adored them!
You’ll need some villains to go along with those great teams, so how about Team Guido and (who else?) Flo & Zach?
I had the same thought as Fenris. The field seems to be filled with T & A and Abs & Pecs. Perhaps these beautiful people will actually be interesting, though (unlike the current Survivor). So, I’m giving it a go so far.
Looking at the bios, there are several people that are going to have problems at some point. At least one of the Jewish guys refuses to eat non-Kosher food, one of the women is afraid of flying :eek: , one of the men is afraid of heights, bugs and weird food.
I agree that there are way too many beautiful people in this bunch, but there are a few interesting ones, too. How about those professional wrestlers? I’ll take the old couple as my pre-show favorites.
I’d throw good old Colin and Christi into that mix because a) they’re great racers and b) they have a very low meltdown point. That makes them really fun to watch. . . and hate!
Yeah, a little disappointed that they seem to have gone more for the eye candy aspect, but that is just a first opinion, they might very well be as compelling as any team they’ve had. I must admit one of the raven haired women, Hayden really made me drool.
Hayden is the one that’s afraid of flying. I hope (for your sake, anyway) she’s a good swimmer.
The only reality show I’m addicted to. Maybe there’s a reason they want physically fit people.
The last rope climb up a cliff may have been the beginning of something.
An All-Star Amazing Race would be fun. It could be made more difficult considering the teams are made up of 2 people in a pre-existing relationship. Say that relationship is now on the outs (like Lenny and Karen from the first season or Chip and Reichen from the 4th) and you may not be able to get them back.
On a quick first pass, I came up with 20 teams I thought would be fun enough to make the cut. Amazing Race usually has 11 or 12 starting, but I’ll make it 14 because these shows tend to do a bigger is better feel for something like this.
- Rob and Brennan - season 1. They won and they were fairly dominant in doing so. Likable and interesting.
- Frank and Margarita - season 1. Second place. He could be a villain and they have an interesting dynamic. Solid racers.
- Joe and Bill - season 1, third place. Clear villains but also very good racers.
- Kevin and Drew - season 1, fourth place. Pretty good racers, but fan favorites and actually funny as opposed to trying hard to be funny but looking like a tool.
- Wil and Tara - Season 2, 2nd place. Hateful, evil, and mean. But, they raced well in spite of heavy dysfunction.
- Danny and Oswald - Season 2, 5th place(?). They enjoyed the ride. They would be eaten alive in an All-Star race, but they were relaxing and nice.
- Teri and Ian - Season 3, 2nd place. With 14 teams, you need a 3rd villain. Along with Team Guido they bring a competent aged racer vibe.
- Ken and Gerard - Season 3, 3rd place. Another likable, feel good team. They’d be marked for an early exit due to the level of solid racing teams, but they would be fun to watch.
- Jon Kelly - Season 4, 2nd place. More women needed, but they also race well and, while not the nicest people, do keep things interesting.
- Chip and Reichen - Season 4, 1st place. They get in mainly because they won. I could live without seeing them again.
- Chip and Kim - Season 5, 1st place. Fan faves. Underdogs. They skew older and minority which this group needs. They are darn fine racers.
- Colin and Christie - Season 5, 2nd place. Best team to not win, at least on racing ability. I think they become a clear team to watch hoping they mess up. I also think this level of competition would be an interesting test.
- Nancy and Emily - Season 1, 5th place. A couple of reasons for them here. Season 1 was my favorite, mainly for the newness. We need an all woman team as a good storyline. There is also the “what might have been” factor if they hadn’t skipped a leg when they were eliminated. Plus, one more truly nice team is needed.
- Mary and Peach - Season 2, 6th place. Who? They were opposite sisters. But, you need another all woman team and Linda/Karen ain’t it. This team might vaguely surprise and I think the producers would likely pull a couple of “Who are they” teams into the fold for strategic reasons.
Just missing the cut:
15. Linda and Karen - Season 5, 4th place. Frankly, I think they were a fluke. Nice and persistent, but they succeeded mainly due to circumstance. They seem an obvious easy out and I am trying to mostly avoid that.
16. Derek and Drew - Season 3, 4th place. Twins and dominant male athleticism. But we have plenty of that with more personality.
17. Heather and Eve - Season 2, 9th place. Another Who Dat pick. If you’ll remember, they screwed up the last part of a leg and took a cab when it said “Walk to the pit stop”. They lose the redemption spot to Emily and Nancy because they are worse when it comes to racing and they are idiots.
18. Charly and Mirna - Season 5, 6th place. We have enough evil teams.
19. Chris and Alex - Season 2, 1st place. Yeah, they won, but they are utterly forgettable.
20. Flo and Zach. This team does not exist.
Mullinator, I like your All Star picks for the most part, but where the clowns? We’ve got to have clowns. Send in the clowns!
The clowns were a poor imitation of Kevin and Drew. We don’t need no stinkin’ clowns.
Yeah, see…that’s a trend that I don’t like too much. I have no problem with the tasks being such that a racer pair has to be at least physically fit, but it’s The Amazing Race, not The Amazing Boot Camp. I totally hated the fact that the only reason the mom’s were eliminated was because if the rope climb. In fact it seems like more and more as the show goes on, how well you do doesn’t have nearly as much to do with how good a racer you are, just how fast you can perform the tasks in. Which is usually a situation that will favore the young in-shape team. I’ll watch again this next season, but if it keeps going towards “Beautiful in shape people traveling around the world”, I won’t be watching much longer.
Absolutely–they never had a meltdown either. Even a llittle one.
He started out as Ian-lite, but reformed about half-way through the show. One of the few times I’ve ever seen a contestant get stronger, not more psychotic. Frankly, once he realized that except for the last leg, it didn’t matter if you came in first as long as you don’t come in last (for the first third he was psychotic about coming in first–second, even by a minute, wasn’t good enough), he became fine.
Team Guido?
I dunno–they were NEVER as good as they thought-they ended up in the final three because other teams made dumb choices, not because they made good ones. They consistantly were at the back of the pack except when another team did something dumb–we never saw them be clever. And apparently they were so annoying that TAR had to ADD rules to the show for season 2 onwards (“No shoving other contestants”, “No driving like manics.”) as a result. However, they’re (after Flo) the archtypical AR villains so you’re right, they have to be on the list!
Oh god YES. And imagine them with the clowns and team “Oh Brother!” Bwahaha!
Y’know, they were annoying and all, and HE was a fucking whiney loser but they weren’t that bad–good villains in that they’re annoying but not “Throw the remote through the TV annoying.”
I don’t know that they would. They’re the only team to correctly get the idea that it doesn’t matter what the other teams are doing/thinking. Plus they’re zen masters of making friends with the locals–remember the episode where they got some Asian lady that they’d just met to be their guide for a day? Or charmed that housewife into using her phone? That counts for a lot.
I strongly disagree on this…I’d almost rather have Flo and Zach–I’m rewatching season 3 and am up to the Grindelwald, Switzerland episode—Flo’s not that bad yet. She doesn’t really melt-down until later–whereas Ian is a complete prick (albiet a compenent one) in EVERY episode. Plus Terry is whiney and passive aggressive. PLUS he’s a psycho-paranoid (“All the other teams are scared of me. That’s it. They’re after us!”) PLUS he’s a truly ugly American, only rivaled by that one tall skinny geek (with the bald friend) on Season 2. We need villians, but not this evil. How ;bout Myrna and Charla instead? (And Myrna is evil.)
Strongly disagree with your assessment of their strengths–they have the three most important skills needed to complete the race: The non-gay one is a zen-master of map reading–they NEVER got lost as far as I can tell. The non-gay one is also a zen-master of airline reservations and flight-scheduling. And they cooperate-I’d put 'em in the final-five, easy.
Now these were good villians—and I wanna see Colin beat the crap out of Jon when he makes up one of his cutsie nicknames for Colin.
These guys would be fun 'cause apparently they had a very bitter break-up so they’d no longer be married (or dating) couple, they’d be divorced (or seperated) couple. And the dynamics (“will they get back together or melt-down?”) would be fun to watch…
That said, I might substitute the Clowns for them or for team Cha-cha-cha.
Once they learned the rules, I agree.
Agree and they add to the villain factor.
Yes.
Disagree–Peach has the whole whiney “I’m scared, it’s icky, I wanna go hoooomeee” thing going that we’ve got Myrna for. I really liked Mary though. I’d love to see a Mary/Charla team. but that’s another thread! 
Agree except for for Chris and Alex being forgettable–I kinda liked them and Charla and Myrna which I discuss above.
Although I don’t necessarily like them (her), I think Zach and FLo would have to be included. It just strikes me as being only fair that at least every winning team gets to go (and I still LOATH Flo more than any contestant ever on TAR).
I also think it would be interesting to include Charla/Mirna and Colin/Christie because I would be interested in seeing the dynamic of teams that competed the same years against teams from other years.