Topic: Why the Amazing Race has lost its magic

[georgiapeach]

That is production, they are keeping the teams apart as much as possible and feeding that inter-team rivalry.


They seem to think we like artificial drama.

I agree, focus on the REAL little mini-dramas with in and among the teams...not the ones fueled by production.

[kadilahopper]

Doc, you are probably right, but I hope you got the gist of my soapbox.  TAR is Nothing like it used to be.  And it is a doggone shame!!!!

[Caelestor]

I really think it's because the show's priorities changed. The show has become more focused on strategy and interteam drama. Personally, I prefer travel and intrateam relationships.

[Kiwi Jay]

I miss Pre-Family-Edition. As many have stated it focused so much more on the teams of ordinary people, the comraderie, the little inter-couple tiffs (ILY Teri and Ian!), the drama, each country being showcased with it's best locales, best tasks and vibrant feel. I miss hearing the teams say "Travel to Egypt, to the Sphynx (totally spelt wrong, LOL)" and things like that where you get excited to see what each country has got to offer. I miss each team's relationship being explored. More driving, more game-talk, more strategy and wonder if 90-mins for each episode would be better (IDK). I really feel casting has changed as well...Idk, getting certain teams from TAR10-16 well they all seem wannabe's basically...Not many teams excited me much...I've being trying to tell myself I'm wrong but I'm not...

Who remembers teams from TAR3 travelling in the middle of the night (love night starts) to the Jet D'Eau, then getting a flag telling them to travel to Singapore. What about those exciting Alpine episodes in that season with the long drives, hell even the Flo/Drew romance! The whole idea of roadtrekking through Europe excited me, and the teams were great..Kenny and Gerard, the fierce Twins, Whiner and Zach, Teri and Eyen (LOL) the team you loved and hated and yet really hoped they stayed in and JV and Jill as well!

You don't get that anymore. Every leg seems like its overgone plastic surgery and all you see is quick snappy shots of 3 day time tasks (which usually are all boring), not really any suspense, too much cruelty amongst the teams ala TAR16...And sometimes I wonder if it isn't the teams at all its the way their portrayed. I sometimes wonder if TAR3 would be just as good if you put the latter casts in that season...and I think it is the race itself thats died a little. What about TAR4 Episode1 in the Alps and how exciting that was (though it was obvious Debra and Steve weren't going to make it bless them). And then Episode 2 starting with a night time taboggon down the mountain!

New seasons really feel plastic and polar to me. All you get is quick check out. Airport. All teams booked on same flight (damn production, and as people said about TAR1-7 when teams really got to chose what they wanted to do ala TAR1 with all the teams scheming to get off at Bologne and taking a taxi to the next pitstop!!). Arriving, mad dash which seems boring as well not at all exciting, Detour (kinda irrelevant to the country) Roadblock (10 mins away) All taxi's, not alot of driving! 1 stupid task and then pitstop. Its all about the stupid tasks as well. None of the airing time for stuff in between tasks like in TAR3, remember all the great moments we got when teams weren't racing? like the Europe legs with the full on self driving? When teams were booking flights, driving, on a 24 hour train, Flo whining, Teri yelling "Eeyen"! It's gone, all we get is that listed above, every leg with no real "polish". No development of characters, just full on race to this and that and not be last...

I'm starting to face the music...As so many programs...Early seasons>Late Seasons pale in comparison

TAR has lost its magic...I feel like I want to go into CBS Studios and get a really great season outta them! It has become plastic (Lynne Spillman, lol) just like Survivor as well although with the firing of Erika Shay its better...but back to TAR lol!

Sorry for my big speech but it just started and wouldn't stop lol! I hope some agree, where's all the polish gone, all the comraderie, the "real" drama not the production concocted crap and the great tasks, location-showing, team development and making the race full on like TAR1,3,5,7 and even 2,4,6 at times! 8,12,13,14,15,16 and 9,10,11 close behind them are all (watching again) paling in comparison...and I know costs are low, but damn costs, just go for it!

[mswood]

Well we all have to understand part of it is simply the fact that we have had 16 seasons of what is basically the same thing.  Some erosion of freshness and novelty is going to natural diminish.

Add to that a cut back (of typically) either two legs or 2 hours of filmed material and you are going to lose precious time spent getting to know the teams (and that aspect isn't any fault of the show, but of CBS).

But I think seasons like 10 and 14 have been excellent seasons for the most part (really the main negative aspect of season 14 was the whole Luke & Margie and Kisha and Jen that soared the ending of that season.

But heck earlier seasons 5, 6 and 7 got very nasty at times between racers. 

I do agree though that while the show has always had conflict, I think the producers are really trying to bring it out that is an aspect I don't like at all).

I also think that while some tasks have been absolutely great (and there have always been crappy tasks) what I miss is the really interacting with locals on a task.  But with needing to save money, means keeping tasks a little more controlled, less driving, and a little more isolation from the general population.

Again part of that is strictly due to budget cuts from CBS, but part is also design and what type of teams the producers cast.  If I had a say I would certainly work with that.

[Kiwi Jay]

Keep in mind I didn't watch TAR from the start...and I can SPOT the difference! 10-11-12 were fine but since then it has become a bit worse every season imo.

[Valkyrian]

Kiwijay. I agree with absolutely everything you've said, and I've been watching from the start, but to add my opinions.

Why I believe The Amazing Race has lost it's magic.


1. Models and Beauty Queens

Firstly they're not exciting to watch, they may add the *Beauty* factor but a lot come accross as being fake and playing to the camera at times.
This bugs the heck outta me, CBS, heck even World Race Production needs to cast regular members of society, they need to get this beautiful people mindset out of their minds. Normal everyday people even the unattractive can be just as exciting and add more to the race. More people like say Linda & Karen for example, these people may not win awards for beauty but they come accross as good people, good racers and show a lot of heart.


2. Stop casting Celebs/Semi famous people

They need to like stop overloading the race with Celebs/Semi Famous people. You lose the magic of a race with *Ordinary* people in a race around the world. 11 teams of average members of society who aren't famous are more likely to be tactical and passionate about winning. Less Maria And Tiffanys, more Dan and Jordans, Louie and Michaels, Margie and Lukes etc
(Nothing against M&T, just listed them as an example)

3. Removal of teams setting their own flights
Producers need to bring back the ability for teams to gain a massive lead on the others, if a team gets to the airport first, let them board a plane and leave the country, less bunching more ACTUAL RACING. It's not a proper race if production is holding your hands.

4 Loss of Friendships and developments in that area

Seems the producers forgot that people love seeing the banter and communication between teams during and after tasks, like in Airports. Removing this you lose a lot of the *Reality* feel, and it becomes a *Teams go to task* *Teams complete task* *Teams occasionally talk* *Pitstop* They need to seriously consider the way they edit this show, seems from TAR 13 onwards the banter and excitement is gone at times. Teams cant be THAT Boring can they?

Give me a TAR season with at least 10 non beauty queens and celebs and to me that'l be a race to watch. Bring the Ordinary people into TAR, the non famous, the everyday average Joe who works from 9 till 5, has an average life and you'l have a damn good race.

[redskevin88]

deleted by author

[apskip]

I think KiwiJay is right. He didn't say it precisely this way, but the changes from the first 9 seasons to the past 7 amount to dumbing the Amazing Race down. However, I do not attribute any of this to the inclusion of beauty queens in every season since then, as AR5 had two of them.

[mswood]

Kiwijay. I agree with absolutely everything you've said, and I've been watching from the start, but to add my opinions.

Why I believe The Amazing Race has lost it's magic.


1. Models and Beauty Queens

Firstly they're not exciting to watch, they may add the *Beauty* factor but a lot come accross as being fake and playing to the camera at times.
This bugs the heck outta me, CBS, heck even World Race Production needs to cast regular members of society, they need to get this beautiful people mindset out of their minds. Normal everyday people even the unattractive can be just as exciting and add more to the race. More people like say Linda & Karen for example, these people may not win awards for beauty but they come accross as good people, good racers and show a lot of heart.


2. Stop casting Celebs/Semi famous people

They need to like stop overloading the race with Celebs/Semi Famous people. You lose the magic of a race with *Ordinary* people in a race around the world. 11 teams of average members of society who aren't famous are more likely to be tactical and passionate about winning. Less Maria And Tiffanys, more Dan and Jordans, Louie and Michaels, Margie and Lukes etc
(Nothing against M&T, just listed them as an example)

3. Removal of teams setting their own flights
Producers need to bring back the ability for teams to gain a massive lead on the others, if a team gets to the airport first, let them board a plane and leave the country, less bunching more ACTUAL RACING. It's not a proper race if production is holding your hands.

4 Loss of Friendships and developments in that area

Seems the producers forgot that people love seeing the banter and communication between teams during and after tasks, like in Airports. Removing this you lose a lot of the *Reality* feel, and it becomes a *Teams go to task* *Teams complete task* *Teams occasionally talk* *Pitstop* They need to seriously consider the way they edit this show, seems from TAR 13 onwards the banter and excitement is gone at times. Teams cant be THAT Boring can they?

Give me a TAR season with at least 10 non beauty queens and celebs and to me that'l be a race to watch. Bring the Ordinary people into TAR, the non famous, the everyday average Joe who works from 9 till 5, has an average life and you'l have a damn good race.

You understand that the criteria you listed above pretty much removes all seasons (save perhaps season 1).

1.  We have had Beauty Queens and models going back to the third season, and nearly every season has had someone who has either modeled or who has performed in pageants. DO I think they work as racers, yes and no.  I liked the following racers and they were either models or pageant persons.  Derek & Drew, Tian & Jaree, Christie, Brandon, Lena & Kristy, ect, ect all these are all from seasons 6 and earlier.  And there are several others.

2.  They have also had actors, people have done tv work, film work, and worked in jobs that receive larger then normal media exposure going back to season two (perhaps season one, but I don't know if Paul started acting after TAR or if he did it before).  From people like Allison, Rob & Amber, Brian (or was it Greg) who had all done some reality show work before TAR, to actors like Chip and Joyce (from Uchenna & Joyce), to actor/writers like Gary.  There are more of course, but TAR has alway had some of that as well.  I do agree that if you are going to do that please limit it.  Season 15 for example had Mika & Canaan, The Trotters and Maria & Tiffany.  Thats 3 out of 11 teams.  Thats really unbalanced casting to a degree I haven't seen since season 6 (a season with a huge number of actors/ people waiting into media and pageant persons).  I am not against stunt casting, because some I have really liked, but keep it to a dull roar.

3.  This is something that even happened in season 1, but no a much, much lesser degree.  They would let you set up many of your own flights, but they would design other aspects of the race to allow others to catch up.  But even still a few situations have arisen to really stretch out teams (the producers hate that has it destroys any real drama of an episode.  I don't mind bunching in general but I hate really arbitrary bunching.  The show has also excluded many flight options going back extremely early into the shows life (letting them only use certain carriers for example).  And we do know that teams can still take their own flights has this still happened last season, but there are fewer and fewer legs they are either able to (due to availability, or just to keep teams from getting really spread out).  A good part of the reason the producers due this is to one keep the drama of the show up (which is part of their job) and the other is to better manage the amount of time it takes to film.  Less time to film cheaper the show.  I will be curious to see how much still happens in this coming season.

4.  Yes and no.  We still get a lot of team interaction.  But we see a bit more of the negative side of that (and their has been several seasons were we have seen the real negative side of racers, seasons 5, 6 and 7 could be really bad).  But as others have noted the producers have removed a lot of the pit stop time that racers can get to know each other.  We still see teams that interact and form bonds.  Jaime & Cara, Margie & Luke and Victor and Tammy.  We have had Sam & Dan and Maria & Tiffany.  We have had Dallas & Starr, ect, ect.  But a part of this again is that we get fewer episodes thus less time to mix the teams in the first place.  I do wish they still had the teams interact during the Pit Stop even if we don't see it just so teams get a better chance of getting to know each other.

[Thames Pirate]

Long time lurker/new poster chiming in here!

I think the things that have caused TAR to lose a bit of its magic are:

Handholding/shepherding teams:  Any time teams drive themselves there's at least one team that ends up bickering--sometimes the unexpected team, too (Kynt/Vyxsin TAR 12).  They have to make decisions about when to stop for directions (Erwin/Godwin TAR 10 were victims of this), when to follow other teams (Meredith/Maria TAR 6), and countless other things (Adam/Rebecca TAR 6 fighting about sunglasses, for example, or the many teams who can't handle a stick).  Then there's the added fun of driving hazards such as getting stuck (Mary/Dave TAR 10, numerous teams in various sandy conditions, notably in TAR 2), accidents (Dustin/Kandice TAR 10, Brian/Greg TAR 7), breaking down (too many to list), taking a wrong turn (many, notably Debbie/Bianca TAR 7), diesel issues (most notably TAR 3, but others as well) and the general drama of driving in an unfamiliar place.  In fact, self-driving (and to some extent navigating public transportation other than taxis) can help limit spoilers in European countries sometimes!

Additionally, as some have pointed out, finding better flights should be part of the game.  While I can understand wanting to avoid another TAR 11 scenario with the Tanzanian leg, it's equally fun to watch teams struggle to make flights (notably Rob/Amber TAR 7 after the meat task), make critical decisions regarding flights, be clever finding alternatives (how great was it when Lynn/Karlyn found a flight to Orly instead of CDG?), etc.  Some production control is great, but give the racers a chance to show their creativity and abilities!  In fact, I'd advocate rewording clues in some cases from "fly to" to "get to" because it might be interesting to see who compares train schedules to flight schedules!

Isolation of teams from locals:  I love watching teams try to find their way around confusing local markets (Rachel TAR 12, for example).  I loved watching teams drive across a river under the guidance of a local in the Middle East (season/country escaping me ATM).  I loved the interactions with cabbies in Senegal and the drunk locals in Iceland in TAR 6, and any time the language is an issue (typically in Asian countries) can get fun.  Forcing teams to get help from those around them is a wonderful way to showcase the world, and isn't that the essence of the show?  As Phil says, "the world is waiting for you."  It isn't if you don't interact with it!

Isolation from each other:  Teams no longer interact at pit stops, meaning they often don't even know who was eliminated until the next leg.  This is part of the reason their relationships don't develop (Tara/Alex TAR 2) or deepen.  Frequently in earlier seasons teams would be seen talking about how they get along with certain other teams.  That's not as common now.  There is no first night campout (hasn't been since TAR 14, and they didn't have one in 12) where teams get to know each other.   There isn't a ton of time spent on charter busses (where the Sixpack/Backpack alliance was formed in TAR 10 and where Eric/Danielle got to know one another on TAR 9, for example).  They're too busy doing a task, hopping in a taxi, and doing another task.

Shorter legs/seasons:  While I understand the need to shorten the whole process and cut the budget, having legs that are just a few hours of taxi, task, taxi, task, taxi, pit stop is not exciting when that's all there is.  Short legs are fine, but it seems lately there's an endless supply of them.  I also don't mind the occasional two legs in one place, but season 15 did it THREE times, each time with minimal drama or changing of position.  Legs with lengthy travel are great fun (overnight trains/ferries/whatever).  An easy way to save money is to have tasks that require fewer people/materials and to do more in lesser traveled places (also reduces spoiler risk if that's a goal).  Being more creative with locations/tasks is a better way to save time/money than a middle of the night leg in Prague.

Casting: I don't mind the beauty queen thing if they're actually competitive (D/K TAR 10), but I do mind stunt casting of gimmicks or based solely on looks.  Give me people who want to be there badly--very, very badly.  Linda/Karen or Teri/Ian were wonderful because they were competitive, while Jordan/Jeff or Maria/Tiffany, while somewhat competitive, didn't have the intensity that the more "ordinary" teams had.  In general there seems to be less intensity--maybe because of the intense handholding?  The less gimmicky and more ordinary, the better!  A gimmick is only fine if that's just an aspect of one's personality.

Tasks:  These aren't too bad other than being a bit too easy at times and not making a difference in standing.  Real challenges that truly frustrate competitors or scare them are awesome.  I loved watching BJ/Tyler, who had cruised through TAR 9, struggle on a roadblock and be humbled into last place. 

[georgiapeach]

to RFF Thames Pirate!!

I agree whole heartedly.

And with the earlier posters who bemoaned the lack of ESM (Eating, sleeping, mingling)...that is what I miss most. This artificial keeping the teams apart to ramp up the drama is having the reverse effect for me...less team interaction means less drama for me, not more.

[cosmophobia]

Well we all have to understand part of it is simply the fact that we have had 16 seasons of what is basically the same thing.  Some erosion of freshness and novelty is going to natural diminish.

Add to that a cut back (of typically) either two legs or 2 hours of filmed material and you are going to lose precious time spent getting to know the teams (and that aspect isn't any fault of the show, but of CBS).

But I think seasons like 10 and 14 have been excellent seasons for the most part (really the main negative aspect of season 14 was the whole Luke & Margie and Kisha and Jen that soared the ending of that season.

But heck earlier seasons 5, 6 and 7 got very nasty at times between racers. 

I do agree though that while the show has always had conflict, I think the producers are really trying to bring it out that is an aspect I don't like at all).

I also think that while some tasks have been absolutely great (and there have always been crappy tasks) what I miss is the really interacting with locals on a task.  But with needing to save money, means keeping tasks a little more controlled, less driving, and a little more isolation from the general population.

Again part of that is strictly due to budget cuts from CBS, but part is also design and what type of teams the producers cast.  If I had a say I would certainly work with that.

I kinda don't agree. Cheaper challenges could bring better challenges, and saving money does not mean isolating the teams in any way, in fact, is the opposite. Guys, do you remind the Macchu Pichu leg in TARLA? Some task required simply finding some random dude all over the town. That required almost NO money at all and all teams ran francticly and spread everywhere, a lot where lost, frustrated, a team was proppelled to first place, there was a lot of drama, etc...

So, between the WW1 french task in TAR16 and the Macchu Pichu one, which one is more entertaining to watch, which one feels more real and which one was the cheapest? It's pretty clear to me at least.

I don't get the producers, why can't they realise this? Let the teams run everywhere like decapitated chickens, it's cheaper and cooler than a staged plastic task.

[WalterC]

I did not mind rivalries during the race, but having it at the final mat when the race was already finished, was going too far. And I did think what Phil did was wrong, instigating and baiting the teams to go at each other's throats.

[Jobby]

Okay with TAR 17 starting today.. i'm just glad i'm still a big TAR fan..

But i missed the times where teams could be as memorable as Flo and Colin...

[slayton]

Hi! First post here.

When I do my own fantasy Amazing Race seasons, I've suffered, often, a incredible lack of creativity planning fast forwards and stuff. So, to do the strategic role the FF used to do, I've inserted a twist called "Free Pass": Before a detour, once in a game, you may choose skip the task and go to the next clue. That's not so advantageous as a FF, but you don't need to accomplish any task either. It may be developed, though.

And I think since a leg had already a task to be done, there will never be a bunching point: It make that task senseless.

But after all, just the "Amazing Race - travel around the world, trivial people, and do stuff that you never was able to do" always shiver me a lot.
 
(sorry this brazilian messy english )

I found this after re-reading the entire thread.  Maybe production does follow the board.  Good work, Aualagi.

As an original fan, I still prefer the Fast Forward to the Express Pass.

Instead of spending money on additional tasks for the Fast Forward, they could try something like having both members of a team individually complete a Roadblock in order to get a Fast Forward for the team. 

The only problem with something like this is the complexity of it.  I realize that the show prefers to keep things simple, and, although it doesn't seem complex to me, production might think that the general audience would get confused with something like that.

[mswood]

Well we all have to understand part of it is simply the fact that we have had 16 seasons of what is basically the same thing.  Some erosion of freshness and novelty is going to natural diminish.

Add to that a cut back (of typically) either two legs or 2 hours of filmed material and you are going to lose precious time spent getting to know the teams (and that aspect isn't any fault of the show, but of CBS).

But I think seasons like 10 and 14 have been excellent seasons for the most part (really the main negative aspect of season 14 was the whole Luke & Margie and Kisha and Jen that soared the ending of that season.

But heck earlier seasons 5, 6 and 7 got very nasty at times between racers. 

I do agree though that while the show has always had conflict, I think the producers are really trying to bring it out that is an aspect I don't like at all).

I also think that while some tasks have been absolutely great (and there have always been crappy tasks) what I miss is the really interacting with locals on a task.  But with needing to save money, means keeping tasks a little more controlled, less driving, and a little more isolation from the general population.

Again part of that is strictly due to budget cuts from CBS, but part is also design and what type of teams the producers cast.  If I had a say I would certainly work with that.

I kinda don't agree. Cheaper challenges could bring better challenges, and saving money does not mean isolating the teams in any way, in fact, is the opposite. Guys, do you remind the Macchu Pichu leg in TARLA? Some task required simply finding some random dude all over the town. That required almost NO money at all and all teams ran francticly and spread everywhere, a lot where lost, frustrated, a team was proppelled to first place, there was a lot of drama, etc...

So, between the WW1 french task in TAR16 and the Macchu Pichu one, which one is more entertaining to watch, which one feels more real and which one was the cheapest? It's pretty clear to me at least.

I don't get the producers, why can't they realise this? Let the teams run everywhere like decapitated chickens, it's cheaper and cooler than a staged plastic task.

Clearly a large scale tasks is expensive, but my point is that task that require a lot of traveling aren't going to be used much, tasks that give the teams a chance to really get spread out time wise are going to be use less.  The whole point of getting rid of driving is to keep the show on a tighter time table, that can save the show a tremendous amount of money.  We don't see teams driving that much lately, or taking mass transit, like buses short or long distance much.  All of these allowed extended or even brief contact with locals.We still get some fairly simply tasks that keep racers among locals (and I do like this) the producers are in an industry that also pushes getting some visual bag for the money the spend.  The problem is how to balance those on a shorter season.

[tarflyonthewall]

I kinda don't agree. Cheaper challenges could bring better challenges, and saving money does not mean isolating the teams in any way, in fact, is the opposite. Guys, do you remind the Macchu Pichu leg in TARLA? Some task required simply finding some random dude all over the town. That required almost NO money at all and all teams ran francticly and spread everywhere, a lot where lost, frustrated, a team was proppelled to first place, there was a lot of drama, etc...

So, between the WW1 french task in TAR16 and the Macchu Pichu one, which one is more entertaining to watch, which one feels more real and which one was the cheapest? It's pretty clear to me at least.

I don't get the producers, why can't they realise this? Let the teams run everywhere like decapitated chickens, it's cheaper and cooler than a staged plastic task.

Agreed. Considering that one of the most popular tasks in Amazing Race history is the Swiss banking Detour from TAR3, the only costs of which were (1) hiring the vault and guard, (2) putting goldfish bowls of Swiss money out -- which would easily have been converted back into US dollars and reused to pay for something else, and (3) buying fifty yellow ribbons, it's ridiculous that these big expensive tasks that aren't great keep happening.

[georgiapeach]

I never thought of that as a particular favorite though...

[tarflyonthewall]

No, neither did I. Just using it as an example of how a brilliant task can be done on a tight budget. (It seems to be one of those tasks that gets brought up when discussing Best Tasks Ever, though.)

[Jobby]

I kinda don't agree. Cheaper challenges could bring better challenges, and saving money does not mean isolating the teams in any way, in fact, is the opposite. Guys, do you remind the Macchu Pichu leg in TARLA? Some task required simply finding some random dude all over the town. That required almost NO money at all and all teams ran francticly and spread everywhere, a lot where lost, frustrated, a team was proppelled to first place, there was a lot of drama, etc...

So, between the WW1 french task in TAR16 and the Macchu Pichu one, which one is more entertaining to watch, which one feels more real and which one was the cheapest? It's pretty clear to me at least.

I don't get the producers, why can't they realise this? Let the teams run everywhere like decapitated chickens, it's cheaper and cooler than a staged plastic task.

Agreed. Considering that one of the most popular tasks in Amazing Race history is the Swiss banking Detour from TAR3, the only costs of which were (1) hiring the vault and guard, (2) putting goldfish bowls of Swiss money out -- which would easily have been converted back into US dollars and reused to pay for something else, and (3) buying fifty yellow ribbons, it's ridiculous that these big expensive tasks that aren't great keep happening.

I remember it! That tells something! Not a particular favourite but memorable! But i think racers make the tasks memorable too. Colin made the Ox task in The Philippines memorable, the bowling moms made the abseiling also in The Philippines extremely memorable too.

One memorable and cheap FF (doesn't involve bungee jumping or helicopter to scale the tower or something is the cheese FF JVJ took in TAR 3. LOL. Extremely creative.

[Mug Costanza]

The TAR3 Swiss Bank Detour IS one of my favorite tasks. I think it's because it was a task that reminded me of something I might see on "The Mole", which was another one of my favorite shows at the time. Tasks like those were what got me hooked on The Amazing Race in the first place. Compare that with the "Find a castle that is the opposite of Nor'Easter" clue from TAR17 Leg 1, and it goes to show how lame the puzzle tasks are getting!

[slayton]

I think they could bring back the Fast Forward for every leg, except the last one, without spending extra money on an extra task. 

All they would have to do is modify the early task in a leg, whether it's a Roadblock/Detour/general task, that they're already paying for.

Having a Fast Forward could have made Maria & Tiffany's and Joe & Heidi's elimination legs much more competitive and interesting.

In Maria & Tiffany's elimination leg, the early task was the Roadblock to count the church bells.  Since they were already using that location, the Fast Forward could have been something as simple as having a team go up and down the church steps a certain amount of times within a certain time frame in order to win the Fast Forward.

In Joe & Heidi's elimination leg, crawling the trenches was already part of one of the Detours, so the Fast Forward could have been something like crawling across the trenches a certain amount of times within a certain time frame in order to win the Fast Forward.

Slight modifications like those shouldn't cost the show any extra money; they can open up the race by allowing teams that might be struggling a momentum swing, and I think it's a great way to counteract the 100% elimination factor of the U-Turn.

Other than extreme sports tasks, like bungee jumping and sky-diving, that would probably be difficult to modify, I don't know why production hasn't just modified existing tasks for the Fast Forward, unless they think that the Fast Forward winning team would have too big of a lead or the task itself would not be extreme enough for a Fast Forward.  It's not like every Fast Forward used to be about head-shaving or tattooing.  In TAR2, Oswald & Danny had to find a hotel and grab the Fast Forward from a shallow pool; Gary & Dave got their Fast Forward by finding Amelia Chow and getting a face reading and palm reading.

[DrRox]

I thought of those same FFs slayton. The one I had orginally thought of was in TAR6 when Lori/Bolo had to drink the blood. How much extra could that have cost?

I think the water tower deal in TAR7 was pretty costly.....we dont really need FFs like that, do we? I remember thinking at the time, what a waste of money on a singular task.

[apskip]

You might expect that Fast Forward use is the results of a carefully planned team strategy, but my observation is that they are mostly opportunistic. The team leading at the point where the Fast Forward card emerges gets the first chance to go for it. They are infrequently challenged due to the risks of losing if the leading team completes it and the challenging team has to go back and do regular tasks (example - Sarah and Terence in AR13 in Kazakhstan). Dustin and Kandice backed off in AR10 in Kuwait City because David/Mary had started for it and Erwin/Godwin appeared to be also doing so.

The only really important uses of the Fast Forward for strategic results were:
1. Frank/ Margarita being positioned to make the breakaway in Thailand's The King due to FF use going form Italy to India two legs earlier.
2. David/Jeff reaching the final 3 in AR4 as a result of Australia Sunshine Coast  Water Rescue FF
3. David/Mary in AR10 in Kuwait City avoiding a Marked for Elimination penalty by getting the oil fire fighting Fast Forward

the most comprehensive listing of all Fast Forwards (in the first 14 seasons of the Amazing Race) can be found in "Circumnavigating the Globe: Amazing Race 10-14 and Amazing Race Asia 1-3."