The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race Discussion

Mactors/Recruited Teams

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georgiapeach:
wow...the good old days!  Fun to see that!  I think I remember Bil and Joe saying they read something too...I'll have to ask them.

DrRox:
Thanks slowhatch. I really figured it must have been an obscure post like that. I, personally, have never had any real complaints about who has ever been cast. I see the term "cannon fodder" used by a lot of people on a lot of boards and never really understand it. The older people team has only gone out in last place once that I can remember, Anita and Arthur. As far as season one, who would have thought that Matt and Anna would have been out first. They were young and pretty physically fit after  coming from the military. You just never know.

And editing makes so much of a difference. I remember hearing Eric Sanchez say that you could have taken all the footage filmed of him and Jeremy or of him and Danelle and come up with 10 different portrayals...

I have always thought that WRP has about 20 "team profiles" that they keep a list of. When it comes time to cast a show, they try to get the best 11 out of those 20 categories.

One thing that I never see mentioned by people when they talk about casting is that Casting does have a budget. They only have so much time and money to spend on casting. It seems most of the critics seem to think that casting is some kind of open ended budget. I would think that a really good casting agent, whether an in house WRP agent or an outside agent would keep an eye open for people they come across in life that might make a great team for the race. Why would a casting agent only limit themselves to just people that sent in a application to WRP?

I would think the vetting process would whittle away the applicants that they would not use. I am sure that under the pressure of the race, there are teams that they wish they had not cast. Thats a crap shoot.......As Phils says.....you just never know till they start racing.

mswood:
Yeah budget is a serious issue with for the show.  That limits the casting to usually just a few open calls in large cities.

And yes several teams from New York in first season saw the same casting ad. 

And as for recruited teams, some times its just some one from casting seeing some one on the street that they think would be interesting other times they are done to the racers already having some visability.

I mean I don't really think of the Linz's as a recruited team, yet they are.

Generally I am fine with it unless its gets out of hand.

For example having the Globe Trotters and Maria & Tiffany seemed over kill to me.  Last season Brent & Caite and Jet & Cord and Jordan & Jeff seemed like way to many people who have already had media exposure.

Adding to the model/actor you also have the Pageant person and some seasons are just filled with them.  Again people who do train to present themselves well.  And are photogenic.

georgiapeach:
Some casting calls in the past have been sponsored by TV stations or radio stations and not had casting crew on site...so very low budget.

Lynne Spillman has said in the past that she is never 100% present when out with friends...she is always on the lookout for interesting people for TAR and Survivor.

DrRox:
I would think that any professional casting agent that works for a reality show, would always be on the lookout.......just makes sense.

They have had 3 TAR casting calls in my area in the short time past. I went to all 3 to observe and they were all the same. The local CBS affiliate was there with a film crew that filmed the team video. They were all at local car dealerships. There were no people from WRP or CBS California. They all seemed more like a free advertizing gig for the car dealership. The dealership provided a large venue for the crowds and got free advertizing in return from the local CBS affiliate. I didnt really stick around to much, but I suspect the CBS film crew gave the team the video tape and it was up to the team to mail them to WRP.

When I was posting about the casting budet, I really was just talking about the budget for that Dept of WRP. If you think about it, it would cost more to get an east coast team than a west coast team. LA area teams could just drive up for the process. They would have to pay to fly in an east coast team. I would suspect that this make them look a lot harder at applicants from the East and result in a lot more teams on the race from SoCal. It is just cheaper to "hire" them for the show.

I didnt really notice the "people with previous media exposure" till TAR5 with Christi and Nicole. It was stated that the Twins in TAR3 were models, but didnt really get pushed that much, to me anyway. I am sure there were more in the early seasons TAR1-4, but I never really noticed it. TAR1-4 just seemed like more average people from pretty normal walks of life. I still like Steve and Dave from TAR4 and their "Amazing Walk". I guess maybe because they are close to my age and watching Eric and Jeremy run all the time just wears me out.

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