Archive > The Amazing Race 16 Spoilers/Speculation
TAR 16 - EP 10 "I Feel Like I’m in, Like, Sicily" (Shanghai 1)
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--- Quote from: Caelestor on April 13, 2010, 03:01:24 AM ---
--- Quote from: jerseydude on April 13, 2010, 01:47:07 AM ---I want them to stop going to Beijing and Shanghai. China is such a big country but only 4 cities have been visited (Gulin, Shanghai, Beijing, Xian)
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Hong Kong and Macau don't count?
What irks me is that while China feels overused, it really isn't. Lots of big cities and cultures to visit. In my opinion, it's okay to revisit a city after about 10 installments has elapsed. That's why Beijing in TAR 10 felt refreshing, but TAR 14's visit just dragged. In addition, part of the reason why some countries/cities feel overused is that TAR now spends the second and third to last legs in one place. For instance, revisiting Shanghai in Leg 10 would have been nice to see. But why spend Leg 11 there? Just been there, seen there, done that. It's also egregious that TAR didn't decide to visit Hanzhou, Huzhou, or Nanjing, interesting cities which are only an hour away.
OTOH, TAR has been good at revisiting some countries, while managing to create distinct legs that focus on different aspects of the nation's culture. The best example is definitely France, which has hosted 7 legs to date.
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As Pete Seeger sings it, "The answer, my friends, is blown in the wind." in the form of plane flights. China is almost always either the west-to-east first leg (AR10) or the west-to-east penultimate leg into the U.S. (AR1, AR6, AR14, AR16 and almost AR11 which had Guam in between). It is not good logistics to have very tired teams coming off long Trans-Pacific flights and have to travel any reasonable distance. Similarly, it is not good logistics to have teams not jumping off for non-stop flights from Asia to the U.S. I haven't counted but there are a huge number of those from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong/Macau and to a lesser extent Xian or Guilin. Here are come statistics on major cities (1 million population or more in the city, not the entire Metropolitan Area) in China:
6 above 6 MM (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Chongqing, Wuhan, Tianjin)
3 between 3 and 6 MM (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shonyang)
32 others between 1 MM and 3MM
For comparison purposes, the U.S. has only 1 over 8 MM (New York City), 1 between 3 and 6 MM (Los Angeles) and 7 between 1 MM and 3 MM (Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Dallas, San Diego).
I think that Amazing Races should be visiting Tianjin, Wuhan, Chongqing, Guangzhou (CAN for prior name Canton) and Shenzhen. I have done a check on direct flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle to each of those 7 cities at any time on a specific weekday and out of that I found only one hit (LAX to CAN and return). So, it is logistical barriers which have motivated World Race Productions to take the easier route of using Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong/Macau as the primary international connecting points for all the other cities in the top 41 (including Xian and Guilin).
David:
Isn't there an episode this weekend?? Why??
Plaidmoon:
--- Quote from: DavidMV on April 13, 2010, 05:36:31 PM ---Isn't there an episode this weekend?? Why??
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Spite. Pure spite by CBS. :meow:
Well, perhaps not. :snicker:
Umm... a good season like this one shouldn't be used up quickly, but rather it should be savored? :umn:
No, I'm kidding. TAR is being preempted by the Country Music Awards, which had the bad taste to schedule it's awards show during the run of TAR. TAR will be back a week from Sunday.
Plaidmoon
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--- Quote from: Caelestor on April 13, 2010, 03:01:24 AM ---OTOH, TAR has been good at revisiting some countries, while managing to create distinct legs that focus on different aspects of the nation's culture. The best example is definitely France, which has hosted 7 legs to date. However, Paris has only been visited twice, while the other legs took place in other areas and were unique in their own ways. Other good examples are Italy, Australia, and Brazil.
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I would agree with Caelestor that a good country to use as an example of better variety by World Race Productions in Amazing Races is France. My statistics, however, indicate that France has only been visited in 5 Amazing Race seasons and a total of 9 major places (not 7 as Caelestor indicated). "I'm from Missouri." Where are the visits beyond these:
AR1 - Paris, Marseilles
AR4 - Paris, Marseilles
AR6 - Ajaccio (Corsica)
AR10 - Paris (plus Caen if you are counting small cities)
AR16 - Verdun, Reims/Epernay
However, here are 3 better choices for diversity of the major places visited (meaning not Paris 3 out of 5 visits to France):
India - AR1 (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur), AR4 (Cochin, Mumbai, Alleppey), AR5 (Lucknow, Jodhpur), AR 10 (Chennai), AR12 (Mumbai), AR13 (Delhi), AR14 (Jaipur)
Germany - AR3 (Munich, Fussen), AR6 (Berlin), AR9 (Stuttgart, Bavaria/Munich), AR14 Bavaria, AR16 (Hamburg)
Italy - AR1 (Rome, Modena), AR4 (Venice, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Milan), AR9 (Palermo, Segesta, Catania, Syracuse), AR12 (Ancona, Empoli, Florence)
Note - not counting transportation mode transfers in Frankfurt or Munich or Milan or flight connections in Delhi or Chennai or Mumbai.
Hooky:
--- Quote from: racer on April 13, 2010, 09:08:48 AM ---The first Double-Roadblock :wohoo: requires Double the wait! :res: :groan:
Anyone else going to miss TAR this weekend? I can't wait for 2 whole weeks! (:;) (:;)
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Actually for me this is the perfect week for it not to air. This way I can better concentrate on doing well on final exams.
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