The Amazing Race -- All-Purpose Thread

I think there was more distance between the teams as they worked than it may have looked like on TV. Plus, the fact that Gary and DeAngelo could literally see, and had to watch, the other teams helping each other while freezing them out probably made them turn away and walk away in anger, so that they wouldn't have been paying good attention to what was going on, anyway. I think that aspect of the final alliance made it all the worse, and is what really fueled DeAngelo's final shutdown.

 

On Twitter, Gary defended DeAngelo's love for TAG. And I'm VERY interested to what he was hinting at.

 

DeAngelo is still salty if you read his tweets

 

IIRC, Hung and Chee were upset that they helped DeAngelo and Gary several times and they never reciprocated. The one that burns was where they gave D&G the answer then D&G jumped in from of them for the cab. I think I did see D&G take assistance more than give but I could be wrong. I too have hated the "alliances", it defeats the whole purpose of a "competition". I've never understood how if there is a competition, you team up. IMHO you win or lose (in anything) on your own merits.

 

But it's a game also. Not just a race. And the show itself evens out wins v losses when everyone is on a same flight, or waiting for a venue to open. This game, IMO, often depends on luck. Good cabbie or not. Traffic or not.

 

See, I don't think of it as a game -- at least not any more of one than the show itself tries to make it, with the yields, and speed bumps, etc. I believe the rest is intended to just be a race, completed pretty much on people's own merits and meant to be a positive, life-enhancing, personally broadening, good-will experience that, potentially, is like no other.

There are some factors of luck and timing and even personal relations involved, of course, but, otherwise, it should be a straight-up, stand-up competition.

 

I wonder how much it has changed since earlier seasons when teams had to book their own flights and they didn't start each leg even. Some of the strategy came in which flights they chose because some were different routes. Lead teams could be hours ahead of the back of the pack and start a new leg as others were finishing the previous one.

Now the idea is not necessarily to win each leg, although there are trips and cash attached, but to not finish last. The only leg they must win is the last one. There is no advantage to finishing way before the rest.

 

This is a great point, and very valid and true. The race has become more of "a game" since the early seasons, and it's television/the show itself that did that. The travel changes, the yields and speed bumps, etc. were all things that weren't things in the earlier years, and I thought the show was better then. Guess producers felt like they had to add in more "drama."

 

I rewatched Season 1 and there was definitely a lot more logistical issues back when teams booked their own flights. At one point, a team got stuck in London and hadn't even taken off and every other team had already checked in at the Pit Stop in South Africa.

I think it's a few factors:
-Not having a huge gap of several days between teams
-Ensuring that another controversy, like what happened on the final leg in Season 7, doesn't happen again (basically, Rob and Amber had gotten on a flight and the doors were shut and the plane had started pulling away when Uchenna and Joyce convinced them to come back, open the doors and let them on)
-Safety reasons (at one point, an all-female team was trying to purchase train tickets in India and the salesman literally would not sell her tickets because she was a girl. Another team came along and was nice enough to buy them their tickets.)

Someone on the subreddit also mentioned that there haven't been as many people booking with travel agents in recent seasons, the way they did in early seasons. I wonder if their sponsorship with Travelocity has something to do with it, or if travel agencies are becoming fewer because of the internet age.

There's also a lot of grumbling about the burning of the U-Turn board and how that mechanism needs to be reworked. I prefer the Yield to the U-Turn myself. The Yield just slows someone down, the U-Turn can be just devastating to one team, especially if you have to travel far to the task. (Yes, the subreddit has been beside itself since Wednesday.)

Phil has also said on Twitter that in recent seasons, it's sometimes all he can do to get his filming in and get to the Pit Stop before the teams.

I honestly don't know, once this season's over, when we are going to see another season. It had started filming, but was quickly shut down because of COVID, and who knows when we'll be back traveling like that again. If anything, I think the TAR team could potentially get in a season here in the US. They did a US version several years ago that was coupled with the Never-Again-Repeated Family Edition, but I think a US-only Amazing Race season would be super fun in TAR's normal format. It doesn't have some of the difficulty of an international edition (no foreign languages, no stick shift or driving on the wrong side of the road, you're probably going to see a lot of people who have visited these places or are familiar with these cities) but it could be a great showcase for the US.

 

I would love another U.S.-based Amazing Race. There are plenty of lesser known areas, cultures, events, and many different people, communities, sub-cultures and economic levels that could be featured and experienced. Coupled with some of the better known places and/or landmarks, a great show could be made. And I, for one, wouldn't mind another Family Edition, either. It somehow wasn't popular, apparently, but that was actually one of my favorite seasons of The Amazing Race.

 

A dominant alliance makes most of these shows close to unwatchable, whether it’s Amazing Race, Survivor or Big Brother. Maybe there’s enough other stuff going on on The Challenge to allow it to skate by...

Every twist in Survivor is designed to break up big, solid alliances. They’ve defined the worst seasons, like Redemption Island, One World... at least the worst that didn’t involve inappropriate touching and the resulting ramifications.

Knowing half the players/teams have no chance and knowing you will wait 5 weeks or whatever to get to the point where they’re all finally gone is awful television.

 

The Family Edition? Oh sure " The Black family is behind..." Cringiest movements n TV, yet The Amazing Race KEPT it gong. "The Blacks are behind now, the whole Black family isn't going to make it". Producers of course knew what that would sound like. And made Phil say it . Yet we continued watching. It's AN AMAZING MOMENT OF TV that we normalized.