Topic: Best Amazing Race Season to Date

[Coutzy]

Uchenna and Joyce won fair and square. They beat Romber twice, in case all of you forgot about Allstars?

I wish this was facebook so I could like that post.

[Jobby]

Uchenna and Joyce won fair and square. They beat Romber twice, in case all of you forgot about Allstars?

I wish this was facebook so I could like that post.

Season 7, even with some really intense rivalry and not such an appealing race route.. has one of the best finales ever on the race. Thanks to great edit and the great cab fare begging at the end, it kept us on our toes for like... 10 entire minutes.

OT: RFF should do a like function. LOL

[amazing race fan]

Uchenna and Joyce won fair and square. They beat Romber twice, in case all of you forgot about Allstars?

They beat Rob and Amber once. It was definitely not fair and square. Unless you consider holding up the final plane fair. Everything that happened on the first all star season means nothing. That season was a complete joke. Eric and Danielle won, which was pathetic. The most pathetic thing is probably that Charla and Mirna made it to the final three. If there was ever a lucky team, they are the team. They were not smart, not athletic, not calm. They had nothing going for them, but somehow made it to the finale. Dustin and Kandice deserved to win.

[slayton]

Go and watch the TAR7 DVD set and you'll hear Phil say that it was the pilot who decided to let Uchenna & Joyce on.

Didn't Rob & Amber also get in a cab first out of the airport in Miami?

[AmazingRace]

In a way, Uchenna & Joyce making it on the same flight as Rob & Amber out of Puerto Rico did not give them an advantage over Rob & Amber, but equalled the playing field between them. Rob & Amber could have still won if things went right for them once they set foot out of the Miami airport, but of course, what had happened, happened. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In reference, to All-Stars,

IMO,

Eric & Danielle deserved to win. They survived being yielded twice, being yanked off a flight and at one point were a full day (or two) behind the leading teams and still managed to pull it off, which was great.

I too, would have loved  Dustin & Kandice to win. But all 3 deserved it.

They were not smart, not athletic, not calm.

Charla & Mirna deserved to be in the Final 3 as much as any other team. They may not be very athletic, nor calm [in certain situations] (cue *$20 to eat food..I give you* scene  ) but I would'nt say they are not smart. They are very good with their airport maneuvers and know how to work it to their advantage.

United Airlines to Honolulu

[amazing race fan]

Go and watch the TAR7 DVD set and you'll hear Phil say that it was the pilot who decided to let Uchenna & Joyce on.

Didn't Rob & Amber also get in a cab first out of the airport in Miami?

Do you really think Phil will admit that they altered the game that much? Regardless who made the decision to let them on, it was very lucky.

It does not matter who got into a cab in Miami first. Rob and Amber had a driver who didn't speak spanish, and Uchenna and Joyce had a driver who spoke spanish and knew the location. They got lucky with that also.

[amazing race fan]

In a way, Uchenna & Joyce making it on the same flight as Rob & Amber out of Puerto Rico did not give them an advantage over Rob & Amber, but equalled the playing field between them. Rob & Amber could have still won if things went right for them once they set foot out of the Miami airport, but of course, what had happened, happened. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In reference, to All-Stars,

IMO,

Eric & Danielle deserved to win. They survived being yielded twice, being yanked off a flight and at one point were a full day (or two) behind the leading teams and still managed to pull it off, which was great.

I too, would have loved  Dustin & Kandice to win. But all 3 deserved it.

They were not smart, not athletic, not calm.

Charla & Mirna deserved to be in the Final 3 as much as any other team. They may not be very athletic, nor calm [in certain situations] (cue *$20 to eat food..I give you* scene  ) but I would'nt say they are not smart. They are very good with their airport maneuvers and know how to work it to their advantage.

United Airlines to Honolulu

Eric and Danielle deserved it most after Dustin and Kandice. It was definitely a very weak all star season. Eric might have competed very well, but Danielle was definitely not a great competitor. I can't agree with you about Charla and Mirna though. They were not smart, they were just sneaky. The only thing that they were good at was finding their way onto better flights. They were also terrible navigators. They payed everyone to get them to locations.

[apskip]

In a way, Uchenna & Joyce making it on the same flight as Rob & Amber out of Puerto Rico did not give them an advantage over Rob & Amber, but equalled the playing field between them. Rob & Amber could have still won if things went right for them once they set foot out of the Miami airport, but of course, what had happened, happened.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In reference, to All-Stars,

IMO,

Eric & Danielle deserved to win. They survived being yielded twice, being yanked off a flight and at one point were a full day (or two) behind the leading teams and still managed to pull it off, which was great.

I too, would have loved   Dustin & Kandice to win. But all 3 deserved it.

They were not smart, not athletic, not calm.

Charla & Mirna deserved to be in the Final 3 as much as any other team. They may not be very athletic, nor calm [in certain situations] (cue *$20 to eat food..I give you* scene  ) but I would'nt say they are not smart. They are very good with their airport maneuvers and know how to work it to their advantage.

United Airlines to Honolulu

Eric and Danielle deserved it most after Dustin and Kandice. It was definitely a very weak all star season. Eric might have competed very well, but Danielle was definitely not a great competitor. I can't agree with you about Charla and Mirna though. They were not smart, they were just sneaky. The only thing that they were good at was finding their way onto better flights. They were also terrible navigators. They payed everyone to get them to locations.

Amazing Race Fan,
I finally have found something I can wholeheartedly agree with you on. I believe that Dustin/Kandice did deserve the win, but their taxi karma from Oakland airport to the Grateful Dead House was their downfall.

In spite of agreeing with you on that, I totally disagree on your characterization of AR11 as "a weak season."  WRP and CBS adopted the basic policy of no season winners (except for Uchenna/Joyce), so that eliminated some strong teams form consideration, including certainly Rob/Brennan, Chris/Alex, Chip/Reichen and BJ/Tyler. However, AR11 did feature some dynamite #2 teams from their seasons:
Rob/Amber
Eric/Danielle (substituting for the stronger Jeremy)
Ian/Teri

Other very strong teams were:
Joe/Bill #3
Dustin/Kandice #4
Oswald/Danny #4
Kevin/Drew #4 (or so we thought until we saw them perform in AR11)
Charla/Mirna #6 (eliminated earlier than expected due to aggressive flight selection)

The only weak but highly popular teams were:
John Vito/Jill #5
David/Mary #6

the average ordinal placement was #3.55, halfway between 3rd and 4th.

So let's look at the same statistics for AR18:

Season Winners - none
#2 teams - Jaime/Cara, Ron/Christina, Jet/Cord
#3 team - Margie/Luke
#4 teams - LaKeisha/Jennifer, Herb/Nate
#5 teams - Gary/Mallory, Kent/Vyxsin
#6 team - Mel/Mike
#8 team - Amanda/Kris
#9 team - Zev/Justin

The average ordinal placement is 4.55, exactly one place on average worse than for AR11. My conclusion is that AR11 had much stronger teams than AR18. The desire to allow retribution for the bad things that happened to Amanda/Kris and Zev/Justin pulled the ordinal placement higher by quite a bit. Besides the statistics, I personally believe that AR11 was a strong season.

[Belle Book]

In a way, Uchenna & Joyce making it on the same flight as Rob & Amber out of Puerto Rico did not give them an advantage over Rob & Amber, but equalled the playing field between them. Rob & Amber could have still won if things went right for them once they set foot out of the Miami airport, but of course, what had happened, happened. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In reference, to All-Stars,

IMO,

Eric & Danielle deserved to win. They survived being yielded twice, being yanked off a flight and at one point were a full day (or two) behind the leading teams and still managed to pull it off, which was great.

I too, would have loved  Dustin & Kandice to win. But all 3 deserved it.

They were not smart, not athletic, not calm.

Charla & Mirna deserved to be in the Final 3 as much as any other team. They may not be very athletic, nor calm [in certain situations] (cue *$20 to eat food..I give you* scene  ) but I would'nt say they are not smart. They are very good with their airport maneuvers and know how to work it to their advantage.

United Airlines to Honolulu

Eric and Danielle deserved it most after Dustin and Kandice. It was definitely a very weak all star season. Eric might have competed very well, but Danielle was definitely not a great competitor. I can't agree with you about Charla and Mirna though. They were not smart, they were just sneaky. The only thing that they were good at was finding their way onto better flights. They were also terrible navigators. They payed everyone to get them to locations.

Amazing Race Fan,
I finally have found something I can wholeheartedly agree with you on. I believe that Dustin/Kandice did deserve the win, but their taxi karma from Oakland airport to the Grateful Dead House was their downfall.

In spite of agreeing with you on that, I totally disagree on your characterization of AR11 as "a weak season."  WRP and CBS adopted the basic policy of no season winners (except for Uchenna/Joyce), so that eliminated some strong teams form consideration, including certainly Rob/Brennan, Chris/Alex, Chip/Reichen and BJ/Tyler. However, AR11 did feature some dynamite #2 teams from their seasons:
Rob/Amber
Eric/Danielle (substituting for the stronger Jeremy
Ian/Teri

Other very strong teams were:
Joe/Bill #3
Dustin/Kandice #4
Oswald/Danny #4
Kevin/Drew #4 (or so we thought until we saw them perform in AR11)
Charla/Mirna #6 (eliminated earlier than expected

the only weak but highly popular teams were:
John Vito/Jill #5
David/Mary #6

Actually, I'd put John Vito & Jill in the strong team category -- they had bad navigation in Singapore in their season.  And they got bad directions in All-Stars.  But David & Mary were weak, I agree on that!

Belle Book

[Jobby]

Go and watch the TAR7 DVD set and you'll hear Phil say that it was the pilot who decided to let Uchenna & Joyce on.

Didn't Rob & Amber also get in a cab first out of the airport in Miami?

Do you really think Phil will admit that they altered the game that much? Regardless who made the decision to let them on, it was very lucky.

It does not matter who got into a cab in Miami first. Rob and Amber had a driver who didn't speak spanish, and Uchenna and Joyce had a driver who spoke spanish and knew the location. They got lucky with that also.

My question for you is why watch TAR if you don't even trust your own host and producers? I guess none of the seasons will be good enough for you since if the producers rigged TAR7, they most likely rigged every other race IYO?

I just find it unacceptable that people till this day, still believe that the producers rigged the show so that Uchenna and Joyce win the race? Hello, then i think they would have rigged the race many times for more popular teams to win?? (Dustin and Kandice, Kris and Jon??)

And of course, Dustin and Kandice did deserve to win Allstars, but the fact remains that they didn't and Danielle's gossipy attitude allowed her to share almost all her feelings/thoughts/emotions with allowed him to read her accurately.

[apskip]

Actually, I'd put John Vito & Jill in the strong team category -- they had bad navigation in Singapore in their season.  And they got bad directions in All-Stars.  But David & Mary were weak, I agree on that!

Belle Book

Belle Book:
Navigation skills are the #1 determinant of amazing Race winners. JohnVito/Jill were abysmal at it. They proved it first in Singapore and then again in AR11 ep. 1 not finding the correct road to the Hacienda Yanahurco in Ecuador.

[georgiapeach]

It has clearly been discussed thru the years about that flight, I believe that there were airline (NOT production) issues as to why the pilot chose to let them on....

[Jobby]

It has clearly been discussed thru the years about that flight, I believe that there were airline (NOT production) issues as to why the pilot chose to let them on....

Can you bold this a million times in red?

[georgiapeach]

I am not saying that there have never been questions about production's impact on teams, there have been.

But in this case, it was more due to concerns that the airline rep made a mistake than production, IIRC.

[Jobby]

I am not saying that there have never been questions about production's impact on teams, there have been.

But in this case, it was more due to concerns that the airline rep made a mistake than production, IIRC.

There definitely have been some instances and such, but there's no question that the pilot's decision was the deciding factor and hell damn that was one great decision made and saved the show from a horrible TAR7 ending.

[DrRox]

It has clearly been discussed thru the years about that flight, I believe that there were airline (NOT production) issues as to why the pilot chose to let them on....

There are lots of myths and legends around The Amazing Race!!!! People would rather believe a myth or legend than the truth.

Long before I found RFF, I did my own research into this matter. I had a friend that flew Tripple 7s out of Miami for American to Rio and Sao Paulo. I got him to track down that pilot. Both pilots were Miami based, so it was fairly easy for him to indentify and meet the TAR7 pilot. The delay in the push back for that San Juan-Miami flight was due to the GMC/SMC controller at the San Juan Airport. There was some sort of runway/taxiway incursion and they had to wait. Uchenna and Joyce were extremely lucky in that regard.

The pilot did make the decision to roll the jetway back to the plane. I am just guessing that the tickets were about $500 for that flight. So while he was waiting for instructions to push back, he just added $2000 revenue to his flight. The TAR7 pilot told my friend pilot, that at the time, he didn't know it was racers for the Amazing Race. He said he had time and space to board 4 full coach paying passengers, so he did. A command decision.

In the TAR 7 DVD, there is absolutely nothing in the video to prove that the roll back of the jetway was at San Juan Airport, that I could ever see. It could have been at any airport with a jetway and American Airlines jet, ie stock footage.

The Amazing Race is NOT a documentary. It is a produced, directed and edited entertainment program. We know from the very recent past that they use many techniques to hype the drama, excitement and closeness of the finishes. We also know that many of those finishes were not nearly as close as they want us to believe.

So amazing race fan, I think you hit the nail on the head in post #193 back upthread......

Regardless, you don't ever see planes held up for people.

[georgiapeach]

Love that insight!! Thanks!

[Snooky]

JV & Jill were a tough team in my opinion, but they really did completely suck at navigation.

[Belle Book]

Actually, I'd put John Vito & Jill in the strong team category -- they had bad navigation in Singapore in their season.  And they got bad directions in All-Stars.  But David & Mary were weak, I agree on that!

Belle Book

Belle Book:
Navigation skills are the #1 determinant of amazing Race winners. JohnVito/Jill were abysmal at it. They proved it first in Singapore and then again in AR11 ep. 1 not finding the correct road to the Hacienda Yanahurco in Ecuador.

Well, moderately strong then but lacking a crucial element for real strength since they were so bad at navigation.

Belle Book

[Jobby]

Love that insight!! Thanks!

That was some deep research. Thanks DrRox!!

[amazing race fan]

In a way, Uchenna & Joyce making it on the same flight as Rob & Amber out of Puerto Rico did not give them an advantage over Rob & Amber, but equalled the playing field between them. Rob & Amber could have still won if things went right for them once they set foot out of the Miami airport, but of course, what had happened, happened.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In reference, to All-Stars,

IMO,

Eric & Danielle deserved to win. They survived being yielded twice, being yanked off a flight and at one point were a full day (or two) behind the leading teams and still managed to pull it off, which was great.

I too, would have loved   Dustin & Kandice to win. But all 3 deserved it.

They were not smart, not athletic, not calm.

Charla & Mirna deserved to be in the Final 3 as much as any other team. They may not be very athletic, nor calm [in certain situations] (cue *$20 to eat food..I give you* scene  ) but I would'nt say they are not smart. They are very good with their airport maneuvers and know how to work it to their advantage.

United Airlines to Honolulu

Eric and Danielle deserved it most after Dustin and Kandice. It was definitely a very weak all star season. Eric might have competed very well, but Danielle was definitely not a great competitor. I can't agree with you about Charla and Mirna though. They were not smart, they were just sneaky. The only thing that they were good at was finding their way onto better flights. They were also terrible navigators. They payed everyone to get them to locations.

Amazing Race Fan,
I finally have found something I can wholeheartedly agree with you on. I believe that Dustin/Kandice did deserve the win, but their taxi karma from Oakland airport to the Grateful Dead House was their downfall.

In spite of agreeing with you on that, I totally disagree on your characterization of AR11 as "a weak season."  WRP and CBS adopted the basic policy of no season winners (except for Uchenna/Joyce), so that eliminated some strong teams form consideration, including certainly Rob/Brennan, Chris/Alex, Chip/Reichen and BJ/Tyler. However, AR11 did feature some dynamite #2 teams from their seasons:
Rob/Amber
Eric/Danielle (substituting for the stronger Jeremy)
Ian/Teri

Other very strong teams were:
Joe/Bill #3
Dustin/Kandice #4
Oswald/Danny #4
Kevin/Drew #4 (or so we thought until we saw them perform in AR11)
Charla/Mirna #6 (eliminated earlier than expected due to aggressive flight selection)

The only weak but highly popular teams were:
John Vito/Jill #5
David/Mary #6

the average ordinal placement was #3.55, halfway between 3rd and 4th.

So let's look at the same statistics for AR18:

Season Winners - none
#2 teams - Jaime/Cara, Ron/Christina, Jet/Cord
#3 team - Margie/Luke
#4 teams - LaKeisha/Jennifer, Herb/Nate
#5 teams - Gary/Mallory, Kent/Vyxsin
#6 team - Mel/Mike
#8 team - Amanda/Kris
#9 team - Zev/Justin

The average ordinal placement is 4.55, exactly one place on average worse than for AR11. My conclusion is that AR11 had much stronger teams than AR18. The desire to allow retribution for the bad things that happened to Amanda/Kris and Zev/Justin pulled the ordinal placement higher by quite a bit. Besides the statistics, I personally believe that AR11 was a strong season.

The placement of the teams is true, but in my opinion you just have much stronger teams in the second version of All-Stars. Placement in your season isn't everything. Obviously some teams definitely deserved to be on the All Stars based on their placement in their previous season, like Dustin and Kandice, Team Cha-Cha-Cha, Romber, Team Guido, and Uchenna and Joyce. Some teams were strictly put on to make ratings go up, like David and Mary and Charla and Mirna. Eric and Danielle I understand because Eric came in second place, and they met on the race. The rest just don't bring high ratings and are not ultra competitive. On the second version of All Stars, you don't see teams like John Vito and Jill, Kevin and Drew and Terri and Ian. Sure, all of those teams did well on their seasons, but there is nothing special about them, that would make them an All-Star caliber team. To Clarify, Terri and Ian did place well on their season, but their age definitely played a factor on All Stars.

[amazing race fan]

Go and watch the TAR7 DVD set and you'll hear Phil say that it was the pilot who decided to let Uchenna & Joyce on.

Didn't Rob & Amber also get in a cab first out of the airport in Miami?

Do you really think Phil will admit that they altered the game that much? Regardless who made the decision to let them on, it was very lucky.

It does not matter who got into a cab in Miami first. Rob and Amber had a driver who didn't speak spanish, and Uchenna and Joyce had a driver who spoke spanish and knew the location. They got lucky with that also.

My question for you is why watch TAR if you don't even trust your own host and producers? I guess none of the seasons will be good enough for you since if the producers rigged TAR7, they most likely rigged every other race IYO?

I just find it unacceptable that people till this day, still believe that the producers rigged the show so that Uchenna and Joyce win the race? Hello, then i think they would have rigged the race many times for more popular teams to win?? (Dustin and Kandice, Kris and Jon??)

And of course, Dustin and Kandice did deserve to win Allstars, but the fact remains that they didn't and Danielle's gossipy attitude allowed her to share almost all her feelings/thoughts/emotions with allowed him to read her accurately.

I didn't say that the producers rigged the show for them to win, but I think they rigged the show to make it more competitive at the end. If Rob and Amber were the only team to make that plane, and they were ahead by 30 minutes when they got to Miami, the winner would already be known. By letting Uchenna and Joyce on the plane, it made it more competitive at the end. I can 100% assure you that the pilot didn't say, Why don't we wait 10 minutes for any people that might be late? Planes don't work like that. If you are even 1 minute late, they don't let you on the plane. There were exceptions made for Uchenna and Joyce. There is no doubt about it. If anyone here does not think that BVM and CBS alter the show to make it more entertaining, than you are just naive about TAR.

[Coutzy]

Go and watch the TAR7 DVD set and you'll hear Phil say that it was the pilot who decided to let Uchenna & Joyce on.

Didn't Rob & Amber also get in a cab first out of the airport in Miami?

Do you really think Phil will admit that they altered the game that much? Regardless who made the decision to let them on, it was very lucky.

It does not matter who got into a cab in Miami first. Rob and Amber had a driver who didn't speak spanish, and Uchenna and Joyce had a driver who spoke spanish and knew the location. They got lucky with that also.

My question for you is why watch TAR if you don't even trust your own host and producers? I guess none of the seasons will be good enough for you since if the producers rigged TAR7, they most likely rigged every other race IYO?

I just find it unacceptable that people till this day, still believe that the producers rigged the show so that Uchenna and Joyce win the race? Hello, then i think they would have rigged the race many times for more popular teams to win?? (Dustin and Kandice, Kris and Jon??)

And of course, Dustin and Kandice did deserve to win Allstars, but the fact remains that they didn't and Danielle's gossipy attitude allowed her to share almost all her feelings/thoughts/emotions with allowed him to read her accurately.

I didn't say that the producers rigged the show for them to win, but I think they rigged the show to make it more competitive at the end. If Rob and Amber were the only team to make that plane, and they were ahead by 30 minutes when they got to Miami, the winner would already be known. By letting Uchenna and Joyce on the plane, it made it more competitive at the end. I can 100% assure you that the pilot didn't say, Why don't we wait 10 minutes for any people that might be late? Planes don't work like that. If you are even 1 minute late, they don't let you on the plane. There were exceptions made for Uchenna and Joyce. There is no doubt about it. If anyone here does not think that BVM and CBS alter the show to make it more entertaining, than you are just naive about TAR.

Yes, they do alter the show. By editing

Case in point- In TAR 6, during a run to the Pit Stop, Victoria seemed to catch sight of Hayden and Aaron behind them, however, departure times for the next leg showed a roughly half hour difference.

But it really doesn't matter. If words from the pilot himself aren't enough for you, I doubt you even believe that the entire race isn't scripted.

[georgiapeach]

And TAR 18 is NOT called an AllStars season.

[AmazingRace]

The placement of the teams is true, but in my opinion you just have much stronger teams in the second version of All-Stars. Placement in your season isn't everything. Obviously some teams definitely deserved to be on the All Stars based on their placement in their previous season, like Dustin and Kandice, Team Cha-Cha-Cha, Romber, Team Guido, and Uchenna and Joyce. Some teams were strictly put on to make ratings go up, like David and Mary and Charla and Mirna. Eric and Danielle I understand because Eric came in second place, and they met on the race. The rest just don't bring high ratings and are not ultra competitive. On the second version of All Stars, you don't see teams like John Vito and Jill, Kevin and Drew and Terri and Ian. Sure, all of those teams did well on their seasons, but there is nothing special about them, that would make them an All-Star caliber team. To Clarify, Terri and Ian did place well on their season, but their age definitely played a factor on All Stars.

Also, certain teams(perhaps originally intended to be alternates) were there in All-Stars because other teams were'nt available. (Colin & Christie, Flo & Drew?, Wil .etc)