If one read either of the interviews posted this week about the behind the scenes planning for TAR each season, you;ll realize that they don't shift the NELs, those legs are pre-determined, and for a very good reason -- they have to know how many teams are racing on each leg, so they can properly prep the tasks and clues for the succeeding leg(s). Because the Save can be used in any elimination leg up to the ninth leg, it complicates planning to have to be prepared for an additional team on any one leg until the Save is out of play. It's much simpler from a production viewpoint to just have it work so that the Save causes the next-to-last team to be eliminated on the leg on which it is used so that this production complication does not take place. Teams will know which team has the Save, and where that team ordinal placement is in relation to the other teams, so late checking-in teams should be aware of the chance of the Save being used.
