Topic: TAR 35 (formerly called 36): Bitch, Moan & Squeal Here! *POSSIBLE SPOILERS!*

[Zack.]

Also not for nothing but I think the tasks are less of a factor this season than most. Aside from Alexandra & Sheridan who made the reasonable choice to go to the sword dance only to fail at it repeatedly, the other teams had some sort of issue compounded by the leg they ran, be it issues with communicating, losing a war of attrition, being too impulsive in acting, being too passive in acting, or driving endlessly for hours.

The teams that remain are pretty evenly matched, and I think it's largely because they're able to work effectively as a team to handle the various challenges of the race, either by being supportive of each other constantly, by being able to resolve disagreements they may have, and/or by channeling their disagreements into action. Though Greg & John are starting to pull away from the rest of the group, it feels more like a season where anyone could win than others we've had in recent memory.

[RaceUntilWeDie]

Seems like the first 5 legs were designed with quality over quantity in mind, and the remaining legs were quantity over quality.

[elthemagnifico]

Damn if only Steve and Anna Leigh strategized their rb performance counts better, Steve wouldn't need to do 2 RBs on a very decisive leg

[Amazing01]

Without Steve & Anna Leigh, this season would be so boring. I'm glad they made it to Final 4.

Definitely Joel & Garret are the winners.

[Amazing01]

I really don't get the hyped on Rob & Corey tbh.

[ianthebalance]

I'm glad that Joel/Garrett and Rob/Corey were able to each get a win before the final leg, especially after Greg/John won 4 in a row (glad to mix it up)

[angelbaby09]

Steve/Anna Leigh and Morgan/Lena i think are locked in for allstars

[smiley]

I am actually kind of surprised it took so long for Rob/Corey to get a leg win.

[Maanca]

The final leg is a Scramble?! Ooh, this is going to be interesting.

At least it will be easier to keep track of where 3 teams are as opposed to 12. The 34 premiere was just confusing.

[elthemagnifico]

I thought the same with the scramble, its really interesting to have scramble on the most important leg of the race.

Not only it is much easier to track between teams, but also it adds another new layer of strategy, because the order you want to approach for the scramble challenge will be very important, it gives you more thinking, whether you want to approach task that's closer from the start of the scramble, or do you want to do the easier one first from your judgment. It looks really good on paper, but again it all comes down to the execution.

But also im very glad that the scramble isnt the only thing they need to do in the finale because there are still more tasks await them, including the memory challenge

[Amazing01]

I've just watched the promo of cbs for 2024 premiere and Greg & John are there.
Are they the real winner?

[jacfield]

I've just watched the promo of cbs for 2024 premiere and Greg & John are there.
Are they the real winner?

Link?

[ianthebalance]

I love that after all the moaning of an all male final 3 and people bracing for the reactions of when it aired and yet the general public seems to love this final 3 

I’m glad a lot of the public is able to look past gender

[Amazing01]

I love that after all the moaning of an all male final 3 and people bracing for the reactions of when it aired and yet the general public seems to love this final 3 

I’m glad a lot of the public is able to look past gender

The power of editing.
Anna Leigh was their scapegoat. Poor lady.
I'm glad that a lot of fans are really defending her.

[Brannockdevice]

I love that after all the moaning of an all male final 3 and people bracing for the reactions of when it aired and yet the general public seems to love this final 3 

I’m glad a lot of the public is able to look past gender

I’m just hoping production doesn’t and use any sort of “public approval” as an excuse to cast even MORE men in Season 37. A nightmare scenario would be 6 MM, 2 FF & 3 MF

[kyleisalive]

I love that after all the moaning of an all male final 3 and people bracing for the reactions of when it aired and yet the general public seems to love this final 3 

I’m glad a lot of the public is able to look past gender

I’m just hoping production doesn’t and use any sort of “public approval” as an excuse to cast even MORE men in Season 37. A nightmare scenario would be 6 MM, 2 FF & 3 MF

I'm not sure why this would ever be a thing considering the show has never had a track record for creating such a disparity unless it's seen from the other direction.  Based on past precedent we'd be more likely to see more MF teams, and generally FF teams win when there's more of them than MM teams (TAR17, for example, and TAR25).

I really think this is fear with no basis unless, again, the aim is to stack the deck in an effort to force a FF win.

Then again, as you've said, you haven't been watching this season so it's hard to tell if FF teams in general are something you're willing to support regardless, or only when the show is catering to your need for one to take the million.  I feel like you would have had a lot to say about the FF teams of TAR35 (which has been a solid season), but it seems like you're not in support considering the boycott.  So I'm not really sure what you're looking for besides pointing a finger at CBS for something you're not engaging with in the first place.

Also, if they use the past couple seasons as a template, there'll be thirteen teams, not eleven.

[Jro]

Not to pile on but this season had 5 MM, 4 FF, 4 MF where do we randomly jump to a disparity. I dont understand what makes one think that they'll have a disparity just based on the public liking these teams.  They made it as even as you can with an odd number of teams and it'll probably stay that way. i mean theoretically, rob and Corey and joel and garrett arent even your stereotypical strong M/M teams. We got two middle aged guys and a father/son. Both teams rocked it but my point is that we didnt get an all M/M final 3 because of an overstacking of stereotypical strong male teams, and I doubt that the public likes them simply because they're M/M teams (I mean I'm a Rob/Corey fan but it has nothing to do with their gender and everything to do with how wholesome they are).

[Maanca]

2 of the 3 FF teams who were eliminated 8th-6th showed up hours after all the other teams, so their losses came down to bad navigation.

Steve & Anna Leigh didn't make the final because they didn't balance their Roadblocks well (also, according to exit interviews, the episode cut where they got stuck in a parking garage for 45 minutes).

This result can't really be blamed on the race course being physically unfair against the women. It's just how things happened by their own merit.

[kyleisalive]

Not to mention, the biggest finale disparities are as follows (listed 1st, 2nd, 3rd):
TAR1 (2001) - MM, MF, MM
TAR4 (2003) - MM, MF, MM
TAR9 (2006) - MM, MM, MF
TAR11 (2007) - MF, FF, FF
TAR16 (2010) - MM, MM, MF
TAR17 (2010) - FF, FF, MF
TAR21 (2012) - MM, MM, MF
TAR31 (2019) - MF, MM, MM
TAR32 (2020) - MM, MF, MM

Keeping in mind that the winners in three of those were gay male couples (TAR4, TAR21, TAR32) if we're looking for diversity's sake.
This of course, with the first-ever U.S. MM, MM, MM happening right now.

It means that 3 out of 4 seasons of the show have a strongly healthy balance of genders in the finale which, again, leads me to believe that the concern here is based on pretty much nothing except an eagerness to point the finger.  A reminder that pressing the finger on the scale to overweigh and facilitate FF victories is not a feminist stance; it's insists on the idea that women need intervention to succeed.  It delegitimizes the show and diminishes their actual successes.

[ghmorello]

I love that after all the moaning of an all male final 3 and people bracing for the reactions of when it aired and yet the general public seems to love this final 3 

I’m glad a lot of the public is able to look past gender

The power of editing.
Anna Leigh was their scapegoat. Poor lady.
I'm glad that a lot of fans are really defending her.

I don't get why people are defending Anna Leigh so much.

[kyleisalive]

I love that after all the moaning of an all male final 3 and people bracing for the reactions of when it aired and yet the general public seems to love this final 3 

I’m glad a lot of the public is able to look past gender

The power of editing.
Anna Leigh was their scapegoat. Poor lady.
I'm glad that a lot of fans are really defending her.

I don't get why people are defending Anna Leigh so much.

Probably to balance out the negativity; there's a lot of it coming from social media, similar to how Robbin and Chelsea were getting negative reception for their actions during certain legs of the race.  It's mostly just people reading deeper into her relationship with her father than what the show conveys, as though high-stress situations don't lead to tension already.

[Zack.]

It also feels like the lack of any obvious villains makes Anna-Leigh look worse in comparison. This isn't the worst set of interactions between a parent/child team, to say nothing of the numerous other romantic or friendship based teams who bickered often.

That said I think this season amongst fandom in general (not necessarily here) there's this weird tendency to purity test or gatekeep how exactly the teams should be acting in TAR - maybe this is a response to TAR 34 where therewas hardly any conflict but a) those legs were super short and b) apparently they also had conflict edited out. Perhaps it's a reaction to the edit, where we aren't seeing the teams *so* exhausted towards the end of a leg or the race to where one could make the mental connection between "they're tired and hungry and stressed" and "they're acting like that".

[kyleisalive]

It also feels like the lack of any obvious villains makes Anna-Leigh look worse in comparison. This isn't the worst set of interactions between a parent/child team, to say nothing of the numerous other romantic or friendship based teams who bickered often.

That said I think this season amongst fandom in general (not necessarily here) there's this weird tendency to purity test or gatekeep how exactly the teams should be acting in TAR - maybe this is a response to TAR 34 where therewas hardly any conflict but a) those legs were super short and b) apparently they also had conflict edited out. Perhaps it's a reaction to the edit, where we aren't seeing the teams *so* exhausted towards the end of a leg or the race to where one could make the mental connection between "they're tired and hungry and stressed" and "they're acting like that".

It's not just last season.  This past week, people were talking trash about the winners of TAR32 on Reddit for ruining their season.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheAmazingRace/comments/18deot6/definitely_agree/

Will and James are still getting flac five years after they filmed.  A few days ago James(?) brought up the fact that despite the alliance, everyone on the outside of Mine Five were eliminated despite their actions (Michelle and Victoria getting lost in Paris, Leo and Alana flopping a Detour in Kazakhstan, Kaylynn and Haley getting stuck at at the app Detour in India) as other racers fell so far behind of their own accord that interference was negligible.  Didn't matter though; people don't care when what they see onscreen isn't giving them the narrative they want.  They want reality TV, but with guardrails.

What I think is prevalent is that people these days are more inclined to be vocal about smaller things, expecting that all change comes from "I don't like this so change it".  There was negativity back in the show's early days (Flo, anyone?), but the internet these days fosters a sense of group camaraderie where people on social media can feel like part of the group for railing, hard, against common negativity, no matter how slight.  People are used to negative feedback loops; it's harder for people to say what they like or spin something constructively, so they don't.  After all-- they get upvotes and responses, good or bad, just by saying the negative stuff.

[Amazing01]

So the promo of CBS for 2024 that i've watched spoiled the winner! Congrats Greg & John!

[ghmorello]

So the promo of CBS for 2024 that i've watched spoiled the winner! Congrats Greg & John!

Where did you see the promo?