Topic: Why the Amazing Race has lost its magic

[Moo]

Season 6 was one of the worst in my eyes. The problem was, in one word: Levelers.

There was a certain leg (I can't remember it off the top of my head) Where teams flew to one country, got an hours of operation, did a task, flew to another country to pick up a single route info directing them to another country.

I understand the ratings nightmare that is a Guido finish, but three levelers in one leg, and only one task being meaningful? Give us a break.

I think it's not cross country but it may be Sri Lanka...

Ethiopia's baseball thingy, then off to Colombo, only to find out an hours of operation, eliminating Lori and Bolo the next day, even with Adam and Rebecca's 2 hour delay the previous day.

[apskip]

Well said mswood. I understand that TAR is clearly on a budget, and buying wrong plane tickets does waste quite a bit of time and money (a la Brad and Victoria from TAR 14)! And of course, the racers do damage their cars on occasion. (They need to penalize them, shame on the racers!   )

However, there are some obvious ways to save money:

Taxis from Narita to Tokyo? SERIOUSLY? (Another reason why the Japan leg was useless.) Taxis drain the most money on the show after plane tickets.
Removal of Fast Forwards completely (there needs to be at least 3 per race or none at all).
Replace the NEL penalty from Speedbump to mandatory U-turn. (Although speedbumps look pretty cheap, half of the time they're lame.). U-turns look cheap too since the tasks are already set up, and enough of them allows for strategic racing -> interesting TV.
Fewer detours (a bit drastic though, let's not go there)
Force teams to take public transport where it's possible (Europe, Japan, etc.). Navigation is paramount!
Make two legs in same country into one to lessen the cost of pit stops. (You could've easily done that with this season's Dubai legs!)

This brings me to another issue this season: bring back the 12-hour pitstops! In Vietnam, you left half the teams waiting at the airport for half a day. That hardly makes for great television. (And cut it out with the "will this team get on the flight" unless a team does epically screw up or the teams go on different flights; go back to TAR 14).

And from that, there is an evidence issue about the planning of the races. A spotting task a la New Zealand TAR 13 would have been great at Burj Dubai (and force Mika to confront her issue of heights ). As Josh Wolk over at EW says, the Burj was too anticlimactic.

TAR should take a few pointers from HaMerotz LaMillion. (They don't need that many destinations/tasks, but at least the teams do something!)

Caelestor, I like most of your thinking. Specifically, I agree with these cost-cutting measures:

1.Use of public tranportation in high-cost situations (like the 77 mile trip from Narita to downtown Tokyo; it was a case of hurry up and wait using the taxis and probably would have been quicker with the train). However, when you are in HoChiMinh City or Kolkata, taxis are cheap enough that it does not make much difference.

2. Force teams to use public tranportation. Self-navigation is always the hallmark of a great Amazing Racer and seeing more of this on both public tranportation and in U-drive cars is desirable.

3. Eliminate FAST FORWARDs - I would like a return to the way it was in the first 4 seasons of the Amazing Race, but FAST FORWARDs have been lame and uninteresting, so I agree with you to get rid of them.


SPEEDBUMPs have been totally lame (particularly making pho in Cai Be). However, logistically I think your proposed solution of using a U-Turn make no sense. all the setup for a DETOUR is removed once teams have gone through them. Doing a U-Turn on the following leg, the way it is currently done, is clearly impossible and even doing it as an extra task at check-in is very problematical. You need to invent something more appropriate because U-Turn in this situation is not the answer.

Pit Stop length is determined mostly by the logistics coming out of the pit stop. Let me give you the base case against mandatory 12 hour pit stops: AR11 Episode 2 returning from Hacienda Yanahurco to Quito Airport. With less than a 18 hour pitstop teams would have had to navigate that terrible road in the dark, which would have been extremely hazardous. The Racers obviously need one or two breaks in the middle of these very physically demanding races, so the extended 36 hour pit stop is the best way to accomplish that. Demanding 12 hour pit stops from WRP is not a viable solution.

On the problems of the apparent 8 to 10 hour pit stop in HoChiMinh City, this looks like it was deliberately designed to hold teams back, as no nonstop flights were available until the next afternoon and even if a team had done the Bangkok connection they would have arrived only slightly earlier. The 12 hour pit stop would have made no difference. When a leg begins and ends in the morning, the normal release will be that evening and you have exactly the same conceptual problem of waiting aroudn for a very long time. The solution would have been a much longer leg in the HoChiMinh City area.

[Moo]

To be frankly honest... TAR planners need to

1. Read the forums sites... Get their frickin ideas here! Isn't our voice enough?
2. take a look at the many many many fantasy games that produce better, realistic and crazier tasks and racecourses... (see: Vicdemort, Mooyou, Sam's, Uycocoa's (But it's insane) ) 

[Caelestor]

One of the biggest letdowns to me were the tasks TAR14 Romania, fake gypsy village, drag the coffins and break the plaques filled with blood to find a clue
 . .Tammy and Victor looking for the detour for what seemed like 30 minutes screen time. The Roadblock/Gymnastics was cute though.

LOL, it turned out to be one of the best episodes though (followed by Leg 4)...  (Even though I love T/V so much <333)

I'm going to have to call you out on that. There are faster ways to go from Austria to Bucharest than by plane via Munich. (Ditto for Interlaken to Munich.) Surely if they went by plane, they wouldn't have that mid-leg bunching (though I am a fan of the train, I don't want teams waiting for one). The Point: When in Europe, drive or take the extensive train system there!

apskip, glad to see I'm not making a total fool out of myself. It seems as if TPTB can never find an appropriate penalty for NELs. The only other way I could see is to make every pit stop an elimination, but extend some same-country legs into TBCs (for this season, they could've gotten rid of Japan easily and made a long leg in Vietnam/Dubai/Prague). The pit stops can be longer to accommodate Phil.)

[michael]

HELL....ALL I KNOW IS THAT I'M LOST WITHOUT YOU... *memories*

[Hooky]

I disagree with removing the Fast Forwards and starting in a foreign country. The race should definitely start and end in the US (it is the US edition of TAR!), just not constantly LA. And the Fast-Forwards haven't always been uninteresting. I liked the TAR 9 crickets, the TAR 11 stunt sequence, and the charity one in TAR 14 also sounds interesting; too bad we couldn't at least find out about it on the show! Plus it is always fun to wonder when it will come up. Remove that and there is less of interest to look forward too. Fast Forwards are classic and important  to the weaker teams (as long as there are 3 or more of them).

But the tasks have been lame. And I thought the All-Stars tasks was bad with that Bishop or whatever his name was. And the route maps certainly don't make the race look more amazing.

[Caelestor]

1. CBS needs to hire Neobie as the mapmaker. 
2. They need better race design and planners. 
3. It's about time, imo, for TPTB to introduce a new type of task/twist into the race (not the Switchback).

It would be nice if we are really back to 13 episodes (according to Futon Critic). Still, quality is more important than quantity.

[Jobby]

10 teams, 7 eliminations, Fast Forwards on every leg if they have to. If not, the FF has to be something "bad" or sacrificial that involves making a decision for the team taking it, or luck based. And not just first come first serve. Getting a tatoo, shaving head, shoving down gross food... beats racing an F1 car in Dubai... which is basically first come first serve.

10 teams, 10 legs, with 7 eliminations and 2 NEL if they really have to cut down on cost. Go to less expensive country like Japan, Dubai... and visit places with greater local culture. I missed those African legs already.. the last time we seen that was in Season 12.

[Snooky]

Season 6 was one of the worst in my eyes. The problem was, in one word: Levelers.

There was a certain leg (I can't remember it off the top of my head) Where teams flew to one country, got an hours of operation, did a task, flew to another country to pick up a single route info directing them to another country.

I understand the ratings nightmare that is a Guido finish, but three levelers in one leg, and only one task being meaningful? Give us a break.

I think it's not cross country but it may be Sri Lanka...

Ethiopia's baseball thingy, then off to Colombo, only to find out an hours of operation, eliminating Lori and Bolo the next day, even with Adam and Rebecca's 2 hour delay the previous day.

Moo get our facts right baseball ishardly played in Sri Lanka.

In Sri lanka they arived in Colombo travlled to galle did detour thentravlled to Kandy overight thengave rice to a monk then travleld to Dambulla were they did the road block where they had to find the pit stop through binoculars then swim across a pool and finih. One of the best legs ever!

He was talking about Ethiopia not Sri Lanka, they did the task and then flew to Sri Lanka...It was at a multipurpose stadium where they ran, and I can hardly understand what you wrote about Colombo...
But anyway, for TAR to be more magical again, they need to let teams get hopelessly lost again.

[ImANewUser]

Season 6 was one of the worst in my eyes. The problem was, in one word: Levelers.

There was a certain leg (I can't remember it off the top of my head) Where teams flew to one country, got an hours of operation, did a task, flew to another country to pick up a single route info directing them to another country.

I understand the ratings nightmare that is a Guido finish, but three levelers in one leg, and only one task being meaningful? Give us a break.

I think it's not cross country but it may be Sri Lanka...

Ethiopia's baseball thingy, then off to Colombo, only to find out an hours of operation, eliminating Lori and Bolo the next day, even with Adam and Rebecca's 2 hour delay the previous day.

Moo get our facts right baseball ishardly played in Sri Lanka.

In Sri lanka they arived in Colombo travlled to galle did detour thentravlled to Kandy overight thengave rice to a monk then travleld to Dambulla were they did the road block where they had to find the pit stop through binoculars then swim across a pool and finih. One of the best legs ever!

He was talking about Ethiopia not Sri Lanka, they did the task and then flew to Sri Lanka...It was at a multipurpose stadium where they ran, and I can hardly understand what you wrote about Colombo...
But anyway, for TAR to be more magical again, they need to let teams get hopelessly lost again.

YES. Hopelessly lost, but not hopelessly stranded.

[Moo]

In Sri lanka they arived in Colombo travlled to galle did detour thentravlled to Kandy overight thengave rice to a monk then travleld to Dambulla were they did the road block where they had to find the pit stop through binoculars then swim across a pool and finih. One of the best legs ever!

One of the WORST, DESPICABLE, WORTHLESS legs ever in that season of giving an hours of operation in a clue slot before the Pit Stop. The other tasks became SENSELESS.

We can't tell about JAPAN because TPTB CUT OUT THE LEG INTO HALF AND THE OTHER HALF NOT BEING SHOWN TO US. It was unappealing but at least there wasn't an hours of operation that blew away everyone's lead.

P.S. Read the posts before you reply and verify things first.

[Hooky]

Another factor to add to our discussion - noticeable set-ups which I HAVE noticed in the past but have remained silent on. Pinstrip brought up a good point in another thread:

What is it about this season that feels so wrong? Why are the challenges so lame and easy? I'm starting to believe that the producers of the show are slanting the show to benefit one team over the others and that team would be Maria and Tiffany, the poker players. We have an all female team and none of the challenges have been physically challenging so far, something that's been know to do in the women in past seasons. What city did the producers choose as the final destination, Las Vegas, the one city Maria and Tiffany will know like the back of their hand.

Last year felt much the same way with so much time spent in China which benefited the eventual winners.

I'm almost willing to bet this years race will not end in a foot race just to help push Maria and Tiffany across the finish line without the traditional last challenge.

This season certainly does seem to be geared toward physically weaker teams rather than strong ones. Look what happened to the strong teams in the last two seasons. I'm going to even propose that these set-ups may have been going on much earlier than now. Let's see:

Season 9:
This is the first season that looks like a potential (not very strong) set-up to me. Japan as the penultimate destination gave BJ & Tyler a huge advantage, assuming they could make it that far. I can't find evidence of any other favoritism in this season, though (thank goodness).

Season 10:
The finale seemed to be an obvious attempt in favor of Tyler & James. And I just barely got a new idea: with all the physically challenging tasks that season, could it be possible that the intended winners were in fact Tyler & James?

Season 11:
Honestly, this one shouldn't be here. The tasks were varied and didn't seem to favor any one team more than the others. Good thing, too, as it is the All-Stars race.

Season 12:
To me the "favored" team this season was Ronald & Christina, for much the same reason as Season 9. But again, other than that, no further evidence to me.

Season 13:
I can't see evidence in favor of any one team here, either. Feel free to argue if you have any.

Season 14:
I would have to say that this seasons team was (rather obviously) Tammy & Victor, with all the China this, China that, once again in the penultimate (and likely most critical) legs of the race. I can't think of more evidence at the moment, but I remember thinking that there was more than just this.

Season 15:
Pinstripe summed it up. There is only one female team, which to me seems rather odd. Likely because they don't want the "wrong" female team to win, so if a female team were to win, it would be the poker girls. There have been a lot of tasks and challenges that seem designed specifically for them. By far the most obvious promotion of any season.

Feel free to add to my list, 'cause I can't remember a lot right now.

[Zack.]

The only issue with that is that there's no guarantee of those favored teams making it far enough to benefit from the route. Tammy/Victor could've been eliminated in Romania, leaving a final four of teams with varying degrees of communication issues in Beijing. BJ/Tyler could've been eliminated in Greece (not to mention, even thought they made it to Tokyo all three teams were bunched on the final flight to Denver). Ron/Chris could've been eliminated in Amsterdam. Tiffany/Maria could've been eliminated in Phnom Penh (or Tokyo could've resulted in their elimination). The prevalence of (or lack of) physical tasks might be a better indicator of who they don't want to win; TAR 14 comes to mind immediately re: a female team victory.

Not to mention, teams don't always do well in legs placed in areas they've resided (Schroders, Tara/Wil, Frank/Margarita).

[River]

With me, The Amazing Race still hasn't lost its magic, the only thing I'm really not that happy about, is that they need more self driving...
 

[Caelestor]

TAR should take a note from Rick Steves and go off the beaten path and interact with the locals in cultural villages.

[Coutzy]

If they want to cut the fat out of The Amazing Race budget, maybe they should just look at the locations of the people on the forums. I'm sure lots of people here would gladly put up WRP and the contestants for free.

[DeafRacer]

With me, The Amazing Race still hasn't lost its magic, the only thing I'm really not that happy about, is that they need more self driving...
 

I agree. I was disappointed that there weren't a lot of self-driving on my season. Bring it back!!! I like how teams weren't checking in so close to each other when we all did self-driving on my season. My mom and I totally rocked at self-driving! The elimination order probably would have been a little different if there were more self-driving...

Only one season that required teams to self-driving on every leg was Season 10 right?

[Jobby]

With me, The Amazing Race still hasn't lost its magic, the only thing I'm really not that happy about, is that they need more self driving...
 

I agree. I was disappointed that there weren't a lot of self-driving on my season. Bring it back!!! I like how teams weren't checking in so close to each other when we all did self-driving on my season. My mom and I totally rocked at self-driving! The elimination order probably would have been a little different if there were more self-driving...

Only one season that required teams to self-driving on every leg was Season 10 right?

That was the season where there were loads of self-driving tasks and probably the reason why the Lyns made it that far into the race as well, Luke!

[Caelestor]

Actually, I thought it was Season 9.

[ImANewUser]

Actually, I thought the stretch of seasons from 8 to 11 had ample self-driving. 8 & 9 had one on every leg I believe (counting those legs where the only self-drive was to the airport), Season 10 had self-drive in Legs 2, 6, 7, 9 & 10, Season 11 had self-drive in Legs 1-3 & 11-13.

[TARAsia Fan]

With me, The Amazing Race still hasn't lost its magic, the only thing I'm really not that happy about, is that they need more self driving...
 

I agree. I was disappointed that there weren't a lot of self-driving on my season. Bring it back!!! I like how teams weren't checking in so close to each other when we all did self-driving on my season. My mom and I totally rocked at self-driving! The elimination order probably would have been a little different if there were more self-driving...

Only one season that required teams to self-driving on every leg was Season 10 right?

Hi Luke!

Yeah, I would love to see more self-driving instead of having to depend on the taxi. Although tuks tuks are the exception to the rule! I love the tuk tuk!

[redwings8831]

I'm going way back to Season 2, but the New Zealand leg (Leg 11) contained the most I've ever seen. According to maps.google, it was about 450 km from the pitstop (Canterbury Plains, South Island) to the Picton Ferry, the car Ferry to Wellington, and then another 450 km to the Maori Arts & Crafts Institute in Rotoura (North Island). About 6 to 6 and a half hours sandwiched around a three hour ferry, all which occurred within one clue.

[ImANewUser]

I'm going way back to Season 2, but the New Zealand leg (Leg 11) contained the most I've ever seen. According to maps.google, it was about 450 km from the pitstop (Canterbury Plains, South Island) to the Picton Ferry, the car Ferry to Wellington, and then another 450 km to the Maori Arts & Crafts Institute in Rotoura (North Island). About 6 to 6 and a half hours sandwiched around a three hour ferry, all which occurred within one clue.

I think the second longest drive occurred in Season 4 (though likely I'm wrong ), when they drove from Paris to Marseilles.

[Coutzy]

I'm going way back to Season 2, but the New Zealand leg (Leg 11) contained the most I've ever seen. According to maps.google, it was about 450 km from the pitstop (Canterbury Plains, South Island) to the Picton Ferry, the car Ferry to Wellington, and then another 450 km to the Maori Arts & Crafts Institute in Rotoura (North Island). About 6 to 6 and a half hours sandwiched around a three hour ferry, all which occurred within one clue.

I think the second longest drive occurred in Season 4 (though likely I'm wrong ), when they drove from Paris to Marseilles.

The drive in Season 7 where Debbie and Bianca got lost was a fair stretch as well from what I remember.

[DrRox]

Season 3...........Dieselgate...........Portugal to Spain......