The non elimination legs irk me a little, as there seems no logic to them other than to allow production to give a favoured team another chance, at their discretion.
The new kids couldn't even catch up, even after making the other teams wait for them overnight, next thing you know it's a non elimination leg when they come in last !.
The non elimination legs irk me a little, as there seems no logic to them other than to allow production to give a favoured team another chance, at their discretion.
The non-elimination legs are usually pre-determined, and although in this case they didn't say that it was pre-determined, I suspect it is so. If not, I think the difficulty in getting flight so early in the race could be a factor in deciding to make this a non-elimination leg, rather than because someone is favoured.
I think the production crew would know whether tickets for a particular route might be hard to get, so they would pre-arrange tickets to make sure that they can get the racers from one place to the next within reasonable time. I was somewhat bemused when they chose planes that fly to Japan via Taiwan in the first episode (no direct flights?), but I would assume it was done for the timing of the flights. This episode perhaps they didn't quite foresee the issues with the flights, who knows.
I think the production crew would know whether tickets for a particular route might be hard to get, so they would pre-arrange tickets to make sure that they can get the racers from one place to the next within reasonable time. I was somewhat bemused when they chose planes that fly to Japan via Taiwan in the first episode (no direct flights?), but I would assume it was done for the timing of the flights. This episode perhaps they didn't quite foresee the issues with the flights, who knows.
It's good tv regardless, I much prefer this cast vs last season, although I liked The Cyclists !. It's a great time of year when this & Survivor is on.
Some think they just messed up in booking a bad plane. Non-elimination legs are great when someone likeable has fought to get to the end of a leg, but when it's someone more blah and they just limp home it can feel wasted.
They normally seem to use them on tougher legs, but I think it makes more sense to use them on shorter easier ones. That way the tougher legs will eliminate who should be eliminated and if someone has a bit of bad luck on a shorter leg they aren't eliminated.
Some think they just messed up in booking a bad plane. Non-elimination legs are great when someone likeable has fought to get to the end of a leg, but when it's someone more blah and they just limp home it can feel wasted.
Personally I dislike non-elimination legs, and think that it should be kept to a minimum - i.e. one per season. Really annoyed me when weak teams that should have been eliminated a long time ago stayed on because they got lucky with non-elimination legs, only to see stronger teams get eliminated through bad luck. But I guess the producers needed to pad it out a bit or they'd have to have more racers which would cost more.
But I guess the producers needed to pad it out a bit or they'd have to have more racers which would cost more.
No, as I've said here in the past they would just have continuing legs.
I have nothing against non-eliminations as such, my main point was that they should be on easier legs and not ones were the weak are weeded out. At least they should be more surprising and Phil could actually bother milking a bit more suspense on the mat like he used to, recently he just can't be bothered.
No, as I've said here in the past they would just have continuing legs.
It's basically the same thing, the effect is to pad out the season with episodes where none will get eliminated. They need to do a certain number of episodes per season, they only have a set number of teams, so either they increase the number of teams (cost more), or they do episodes where none get eliminated (either non-elimination or continuing leg). They need at least 3 such episodes most seasons - so usually 2 non-elimination legs and 1 continuing leg, but often 3 or even 4 non-elimination legs. There are a lot fewer continuing legs than non-elimination legs - it is rare to have even 2 continuing legs a season, more often you'd find none at all.
It looked to me like the edit was sympathetic to Blair in this episode. I actually found the Asian woman more interesting now, she may have been the breakout start in this latest leg.
The leg itself was weak though. The toughest challenge may even have been the speed bump. One good thing about this season is that at least they are having to do lots of self navigation, or maybe the edit is making a bigger deal of that. The guy's comment in the garage 'it's all metal there must be a castle of metal somewhere' .
However potting one red in snooker, eating one rotten egg, feeding cats some milk, and watching what everyone else is doing to get a screwdriver quickly from an engine isn't vintage Amazing Race to me. The elimination never looked in doubt.
Oh and as if teams wouldn't want to take the boat over Bangkok traffic lol.
And now a 3 week break, CBS knows how they can mess with the audience for some awards show, now they are taking it even further. Expect this now every year for however long this program continues.
I disagree with you all on the 'losing the ability to plan legs'. Look… at the end of the day, they have a set time that they start them off after the previous leg (it used to be 12 hours, I think it's a little longer now). So as not to look like they are favouring certain teams, they can't change that up from leg to leg. The route is planned out weeks in advance! They cannot predict a team getting as far behind as Harley and Jonathan did - all the other teams caught up to each other.
Unfortunately, it has kind of destroyed this season so far because CJ and whatever her name was, were so far behind in Leg 2 and Jonathan and Harley were so far behind in Legs 3 and 4 that there has been absolutely no tension. But there are some things that it's just impossible to plan for.
If you took Harley and Jonathan out of the equation the race for both 1st place AND last place this episode would have been incredibly dramatic. Unfortunately, they were there and it ruined any tension… I would have been really excited to see who arrived last out of Matt and his girlfriend (name escapes me) and Jelani and Jenny.
An obvious thing after a non-elimination leg would be to stop the race over night like they often do because of some opening hours restriction at a challenge. That would immediately get us a race again in nearly all circumstances.
This is now on a 3 week hiatus because CBS moved it to Fridays to create the conflict with basketball at this time of the year. They clearly think the show's audience is loyal enough to stick with it whatever breaks they throw in.
Caught up with the first 3 episodes and so far its not as bad as I was dreading it to me. Some good teams. I would like some more tension, I assume the blind date theme was brought in to have the teams argue all the time; so far Hayley has the potential to be the bitch of the season the way she moans at Blair. Episode 4 seems to be more Hayley shouting at her partner again based on previews and the asian lawyer seems to be getting pissy as well. Hopefully more tension to come in future episodes.
The last two episodes lack tension because we know which team would be the last one (the tasks in Bangkok was unchallenging). Rather underwhelming episodes.
Anyone know if there is any other Amazing Race on? Twiddling my thumbs waiting for the next episode and I need my fix.
Haley is really a piece of work, I can see why she is single. How Blair is putting up with her I will never though. You didnt even see the worse of it in the main show, here its show how awful she really is; - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qn__Eo4h58
I forgot the three week break was finally up this week.
Anyway another leg without much tension. There was some drama with the missing 'fanny pack' (liked them hiding it) and the singing challenge was funny with the water and the ridiculous singing. It was a reminder though how leniantly judged these things can be. The lawyer woman was terrible and a couple of guys sounded like they were singing in Italian and not German the way they sang. It was pretty obvious with the car being featured so heavily that that would be the prize at the end. Funny that a couple of the teams at least couldn't drive the advertised car very well, and one even abandoned it. I can't remember if 2 hours has been the normal penalty for the wrong mode of transportation or not. They were pretty useless though, so happy it was an elimination leg.
edit: apparently the penalty was for missing the task as they didn't have the car. They would have had a further penalty for transportation.
Comments
The new kids couldn't even catch up, even after making the other teams wait for them overnight, next thing you know it's a non elimination leg when they come in last !.
I think the production crew would know whether tickets for a particular route might be hard to get, so they would pre-arrange tickets to make sure that they can get the racers from one place to the next within reasonable time. I was somewhat bemused when they chose planes that fly to Japan via Taiwan in the first episode (no direct flights?), but I would assume it was done for the timing of the flights. This episode perhaps they didn't quite foresee the issues with the flights, who knows.
It's good tv regardless, I much prefer this cast vs last season, although I liked The Cyclists !. It's a great time of year when this & Survivor is on.
They normally seem to use them on tougher legs, but I think it makes more sense to use them on shorter easier ones. That way the tougher legs will eliminate who should be eliminated and if someone has a bit of bad luck on a shorter leg they aren't eliminated.
No, as I've said here in the past they would just have continuing legs.
I have nothing against non-eliminations as such, my main point was that they should be on easier legs and not ones were the weak are weeded out. At least they should be more surprising and Phil could actually bother milking a bit more suspense on the mat like he used to, recently he just can't be bothered.
The leg itself was weak though. The toughest challenge may even have been the speed bump. One good thing about this season is that at least they are having to do lots of self navigation, or maybe the edit is making a bigger deal of that. The guy's comment in the garage 'it's all metal there must be a castle of metal somewhere' .
However potting one red in snooker, eating one rotten egg, feeding cats some milk, and watching what everyone else is doing to get a screwdriver quickly from an engine isn't vintage Amazing Race to me. The elimination never looked in doubt.
And now a 3 week break, CBS knows how they can mess with the audience for some awards show, now they are taking it even further. Expect this now every year for however long this program continues.
That really annoys me that does, its why I would get rid of NEL's and just have double legs instead
Good point.
Unfortunately, it has kind of destroyed this season so far because CJ and whatever her name was, were so far behind in Leg 2 and Jonathan and Harley were so far behind in Legs 3 and 4 that there has been absolutely no tension. But there are some things that it's just impossible to plan for.
If you took Harley and Jonathan out of the equation the race for both 1st place AND last place this episode would have been incredibly dramatic. Unfortunately, they were there and it ruined any tension… I would have been really excited to see who arrived last out of Matt and his girlfriend (name escapes me) and Jelani and Jenny.
The tasks this week were mehhhhhh. Eating an egg, participating a religious ceremony, getting a screwdriver out of a motor?
That's it?
This is now on a 3 week hiatus because CBS moved it to Fridays to create the conflict with basketball at this time of the year. They clearly think the show's audience is loyal enough to stick with it whatever breaks they throw in.
Anyone know if there is any other Amazing Race on? Twiddling my thumbs waiting for the next episode and I need my fix.
Anyway another leg without much tension. There was some drama with the missing 'fanny pack' (liked them hiding it) and the singing challenge was funny with the water and the ridiculous singing. It was a reminder though how leniantly judged these things can be. The lawyer woman was terrible and a couple of guys sounded like they were singing in Italian and not German the way they sang. It was pretty obvious with the car being featured so heavily that that would be the prize at the end. Funny that a couple of the teams at least couldn't drive the advertised car very well, and one even abandoned it. I can't remember if 2 hours has been the normal penalty for the wrong mode of transportation or not. They were pretty useless though, so happy it was an elimination leg.
edit: apparently the penalty was for missing the task as they didn't have the car. They would have had a further penalty for transportation.
Hayley was OBNOXIOUS - I was hoping the crates fell and hit her