The Amazing Race - Season 20

I thought I heard a "will be eliminated" in there once, but I could be mistaken.

 

This is the first season that I've had an HD TV to watch on, but you're right. The HD (especially in Tanzania, WOW) has been amazing.

The only leg where someone is for-sure eliminated is the first one. It's the only one where Phil says, "they WILL be eliminated." Occasionally this happens as well when they're getting ready to finalize the final 3. And yeah, bumpy, I had the feeling as well when they kept pushing Mark to do the dancing task and then they kept going through the rest of the tasks. That's when you know it's non-elim.

If you guys aren't following Phil on Twitter, you really should.

 

This is one of the first seasons (I've watched all but one or two) where I just don't care about any of the teams. I love the show, but maybe I'm getting burnt out on it.

 

Parents are in town. I'll score both weeks later this week. Sorry.

 

OK, so in other words, you don't know for sure. There's no legal requirement that says there can only be pre-determined non-elimination legs that I am aware of. And we only have the word of the producers involved. And the producers involved aren't dummies -- they don't have to wait until fans chime in on the Internet to figure out who will be popular on a series (having been there, done that, I know first hand the eye-grabbing characters jump off the set as soon as the cameras roll).

You don't win Emmy after Emmy for best competition reality show without being able to keep viewers happy by pulling as many strings as you can as you film the show. As one well-known couple who appeared on the show told me, the producers game-played the issuing of airline tickets for the season they appeared in, so there's no reason to think they don't also hand out eliminations at their discretion, especially since the "contestants" sign waivers before appearing on the show.

 

From production standpoint it seems to me they would rather have them go last night than stay. Odds are they will be last by a mile next leg which will make for a very boring show. I had the sense last night they Phil wished he could have eliminated them.

 

Bertram Van Munster and Phil Keoghan are both on record that the Race is planned out to the letter and doesn't fudge the NELs. If you aren't going to believe the creator of the show and its host, dunno what to tell you. As for the airline tickets, the show has controlled access to flights regularly since at least the second cycle of the Race, for numerous reasons - financial considerations and logistics being primary among them. They aren't letting the Racers book whatever flights willy-nilly because it would be next to impossible to keep track of them. That's the way the show works.

 

My day job is in reality TV, so I'll choose to believe what I know first-hand: What you see on TV is not always what happened in real life, regardless of what stakeholders tell you.

The contestants I spent a considerable amount of time with told me that they knew for sure that contestants would find tickets available on flights that 20 minutes earlier had not been available to them or others, which is consistent with your point that contestants are not able to book whatever flights they want.

I've also had two sets of contestants tell me that they competed in challenges that were never aired...in other words, legs were longer than were shown on the telecast.

 

Unless they end up traveling to a different country or end up on a train ride across India that ends up being an equalizer for all teams.

The moment that I wondered exactly how much the producers do have a say in this show was season 7, when Rob and Amber were flying off on the last leg and Uchenna and Joyce were trying to get on the flight and the plane came back to get them. If they hadn't, Rob and Amber would have won that season easily. Without two teams racing to the finish line neck and neck, that season would have been very boring. There were a lot of people who called shenanigans that season because the plane had pulled away from the gate and then it came back.

I also figured that the producers have to have a hand in buying plane tickets and making sure that there are two extra per team for camera and sound crews.

 

There's well-documented evidence of that; if anyone watching believes we're seeing every task that occurs during the Race, they're nuts. As with other game shows, "portions of the show not affecting the outcome may have been edited".

According to everyone involved not named Rob and Amber, the decision to bring the plane back for Uchenna and Joyce was the pilot's. Make of that what you will. Van Munster, Elise Doganieri (his wife, co-exec producer and co-creator) and Keoghan simply don't have the collective time, money or influence to effect all of the various shenanigans the show has been accused of in the last ten years. This ain't Survivor, and for that I am profoundly glad.

As to your last point, Wenders, the Racers are filmed asking for two tickets at airports, train stations, etc. but that's just for show. They're required to officially request four tickets off-camera, and if the train/plane/whatever can't accommodate both the team and their camera crew, they're SOL. Transportation between countries is paid for via a credit card issued expressly and solely for that use.

 

Bottom line, it's a show, not a sporting contest. The producers make the rules. It's in their interest to maintain a patina of fairness and equity, but it's also in their interest to make it interesting. I'm fine with that.

 

I can't even tell you guys how much I hate Art & JJ. What total douchebags.