The Amazing Race Season 16 (1 Viewer)

[Walter C]

The new season is a week away, starting on Valentine's Day. And the list of teams have already been put up.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/#in

I hope this season will be better than the last one, which I thought kind of got dull towards the end. But I did love most of the places they visited!

 

[Mike Frezon]

And another season goes by where CBS & Bertram van Munster don't upgrade TAR to high-definition.

When Mark Burnett & CBS finally bumped Survivor up to HD it made all the difference in the world. TAR, with its exotic locales just screams for HD coverage. Just a shame.

But I'll still be there Sunday night...looking forward to another season.

Here's what Phil Keoghan said in an interview last year on the subject:

"I think it should be in hi-def," Keoghan agrees. "The complication, or one of the challenges that we have is that we do utilize a lot of foreign crews when we're traveling. It's very difficult to just turn up in Siberia and say, 'Oh, let's call the local guy with the HD camera and he can come down and supplement our shooting.' It's a little bit more complicated than, say, facilitating an HD shoot on 'Survivor,' where you can fly all of the equipment into one spot and you've got all your technical support there, you've got a guy who can sit down every night and look after the equipment. We're moving at breakneck speed, 28 days, flying hundreds-of-thousands of miles, or at least anywhere from 75,000 miles in a given race, so we just don't have the same luxury of being an 'Idol' or 'Survivor,' where everything is brought to one place, it's 69 degrees, where the air-conditioning is perfect. We're out sweating in Botswana or anywhere else and that's been a huge part of the challenge. But, I absolutely agree with you. I'd love to see the show in HD. I don't think there's a show on TV that lends itself more to HD."

 

[Greg.K]

This show would be, well, amazing in HD.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I totally LOL twice at Allie painting the inside wall of the house, and the worker guys not knowing why some crazy white chick was painting the walls.

How is Ellen Degeneres doing TAR and American Idol?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Definitely a fun episode. Would have loved a two-hour premiere.

Always nice to see people praying for a mechanical malfunction of another team's airplane. I thought the different exterior surfaces were going to benefit some teams over another. The cowboys (Team Brokeback?) going from last place to third place in half a leg was pretty amazing.

 

[Greg.K]

Lots of funny stuff in this episode.

Allie painting the interior of the wrong house and the confused look on the worker's faces,

Jordon constantly saying they were going to China and asking for a ticket there. I don't watch Big Brother anymore - was she as much of a ditz there? Hard to believe she won. And Jeff: "Didn't you ever watch "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"

The cowboys getting Brazilian money.

Team Miss Teen SC with "details" on their hand missing that they needed to take the furnicular down the mountain. ≈

"Danke"

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Yes, Jordan was just as ditzy on BB and I wouldn't have her any other way. I still think that Jeff acted like a jerk to Jordan on BB, though.

The ditzy Miss USA or whatever she is is HAWT!

 

[Jeremiah]

The father/daughter team painting the inside of the house had me laughing my ass off.

The pageant girl is hot.

The gay guy reciting part of her speech was perfect.

 

[mattCR]

Them painting the inside of the house is, in 16 seasons of this show, one of the funniest moments ever. The fact that the paint matched made it even better. Someone got some free house painting. That was a great, great moment.

 

[Walter C]

The mention of the Whistler slide as the prize for the team #1 is just sounds scary!

A fun premiere, to a nice location like "the San Francisco of South America". A nice change to have teams take public transportation to LAX, rather than driving to LAX, which is a such a bore these days.

Also, I find it interesting that a male and a female racer have the same name in the same season.

 

[Stan]

Good start overall. Liked Jeff/Jordan all summer on BB so they're one of my top favorites. She's comes off as a ditsy blond, but I think she'll be able to handle herself with these competitions, especially knowing she's got Jeff's support.

The team with the older woman who has done half marathons, decathlons or whatever may have plenty of endurance, but speed counts for a lot on this show, don't see them going to far.

The two cops look strong, but carrying a lot of extra weight from the donut shop, so think they'll be gone soon.

The gay/straight brother team could make it, no major bickering yet like the Sam/Dan matches last season.

Cowboys are hopeless. Once they exchanged their money I figured they were over. Even though they're still in it, must be down quite a bit of cash for exchange fees compared to the other teams. May come back to haunt them later.

But it's early, still a long ways to go. I'm glad they didn't pull an immediate elimination like last season with the license plate fiasco. That just seemed cruel.

 

[Paul D G]

We actually found the entire episode frustrating. Everyone seemed to have idiot moments or just annoyed us. (the gay brother mocking the pageant queen in both the interview and to other contestants reminded me of my kid who makes a joke, then repeats it immediately five more times because someone laughed).

I was surprised a team got eliminated by not being able to complete a task so early in the season. It made me wonder if there is any sort of penalty for switching players. It seems the rules state someone needs to decide to do a task before opening the instructions. We've seen lots of penalties given for either mistakes or purposely giving up on a task, but we've never seen anyone swap player. What would've happened if the girlfriend did the rope walk after he had to be hauled back? Or if Flight Time took over for Big Easy last season? They gave up and took a four hour penalty. I can't imagine changing players would be worse. Automatic ejection from the game seems too harsh but it's the only thing I can think of that would prevent a team from trying it.

Kudos to the cowboys, however, for going from last to 3rd.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Paul D G
We've seen lots of penalties given for either mistakes or purposely giving up on a task, but we've never seen anyone swap player.

Teams have swapped who's doing a task before. In fact, one team swapped, and then swapped back to the original once. There wasn't a penalty.

In this case, they were already eliminated, so Phil went out to meet them/give them the bad news--something we've also seen a few times before. In past seasons, teams that were far behind were allowed to catch up to the mat even if they were eliminate, but it seems that's no longer the case (or at least they pick and choose when it makes for good TV).

 

[Walter C]

I'm guessing switching racers on the roadblock, is the same penalty as quitting. And I don't ever remember seeing any team switch players on the roadblock.

Too early to tell with all the teams, but so far, liking it better than last season.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Josh Dial




Teams have swapped who's doing a task before.

I guess I'm remembering incorrectly.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I always kinda wondered...since that decision is so crucial (selecting which team member performs the challenge) if they get the full details of what the challenge entails before they decide.

Or, do they only have the "Who has the balance of a dancer and the stamina of cheetah?"-type of vague clue on which to base their decision?

 

[Ken Chan]

You can't switch on the Roadblock. If the one racer can't finish, you take the four-hour penalty. They only have the vague clues to decide who should do it. Either person should be able to do any task. Of course, occasionally it turns out they can't. Also, they have to split the tasks evenly (if they make it all the way to the end) so that factors in.

Teams have certainly switched Detours (and even switched back) but I don't recall any switching of Roadblocks. If that was the case, Flight Time would have subbed for Big Easy.

Originally Posted by Stan

Cowboys are hopeless. Once they exchanged their money I figured they were over. Even though they're still in it, must be down quite a bit of cash for exchange fees compared to the other teams. May come back to haunt them later.

They get more cash at the start of most legs, so it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Steve_Tk]

That was pretty funny with Allie painting the wall and the worker says "I don't know why she's here". And then they asked for the clue thing, ha.

But, the hardest I've ever laughed in TAR is when that guy couldn't march in Russia (or wherever it was). I watched that about 5 times.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Steve_Tk


But, the hardest I've ever laughed in TAR is when that guy couldn't march in Russia (or wherever it was). I watched that about 5 times.

Definitely. Easily the funniest moment on TAR ever.

 

[Dheiner]

"We shouldn't reproduce" sure earned Jeff a look from Jordan.