Amazing Race Season 9 - Page 5

Joseph S · 05-18-2006, 01:09 PM

Quote:

They clearly wanted the hippies to be loveable underdogs who were just out to have a great time.

Once the race is over, they can also edit it to make whatever story fits best.

Aaron Reynolds · 05-18-2006, 01:11 PM

Exactly! Or even more to the point, whatever story is the most compelling. If the hippies did something really mean or showed evidence of serious physical strength, why would they show us that? It would make the show less compelling.

Lew Crippen · 05-18-2006, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Atkins

It has to be frustrating to build up a lead in a race--only to see it evaporate as you wait on a flight.

The ‘bunch-ups’ are intended to keep any one team from getting an almost insurmountable lead early—something that would ruin the ratings. And a key component of the ‘bunch-ups’ are airline schedules.

A second (and perhaps more important) are that teams frequently have to wait for an attraction to open before proceeding—so much so that even when a team misses a prime flight, they can often recover because opening time at the next clue site is 9 am (or something similar).

AjayM · 05-18-2006, 01:39 PM

Quote:

The ‘bunch-ups’ are intended to keep any one team from getting an almost insurmountable lead early—something that would ruin the ratings. And a key component of the ‘bunch-ups’ are airline schedules.

Sometimes you get quite a few "bunch-ups" right in a row, so a strong team(s) really don't get much of an advantage. Kind of like - open clue go to airport - bunch up - find car drive to next clue get lucky on a short cut - read clue - bunch up - do task quickly go to next clue - bunch up.

Of course that's part of the race as well, you never know when you may have that over having no/one bunch ups for a leg.

And it certainly beats the times when the final challenge of the day is a "single" team only event (teams go in order vs all doing it together) and then the checkpoint is close enough that a team can't make up time.

Either way, we would have prefered to see the frat boys win, we thought they basically dominated the whole way through. But we also liked the hippies as they were the next strongest team out there, both were enjoyable to watch, minimal bickering, always having a good time (could be editing, who knows).

Steve_Tk · 05-18-2006, 01:40 PM

I'm not a big fan of NE rounds. To think the hippies lost TWICE, yet still win. I'm a pretty competitive person, in sports you don't lose a playoff series, or lose game 7, only for them to say "here is another shot". Then again, the frat boys had a shot to win on the flags. Just kinda annoying when they were on top the entire race and lost.

Greg Kettell · 05-18-2006, 01:50 PM

I'm not a fan of the way non-eliminations are implemented, the whole begging for money in a third world country aspect stinks.

But I guess they need the non-elimination legs, or at least the extended legs, to pad out the season without having to add more teams.

Walter C · 05-18-2006, 02:45 PM

The frat boys did win all those prizes, and in the first leg, won $10,000. So they didn't exactly come away empty-handed.

Karma was clearly on the side of the hippies.

Chris Atkins · 05-18-2006, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lew Crippen

The ‘bunch-ups’ are intended to keep any one team from getting an almost insurmountable lead early—something that would ruin the ratings. And a key component of the ‘bunch-ups’ are airline schedules.

A second (and perhaps more important) are that teams frequently have to wait for an attraction to open before proceeding—so much so that even when a team misses a prime flight, they can often recover because opening time at the next clue site is 9 am (or something similar).

Then it would be better not to make the flights part of the race, then. Stretch out the tasks at each stop, but don't make flying part of the race if it's not going to be a competitive part of the race.

Jason Seaver · 05-18-2006, 04:10 PM

You don't fly, and you get the Family Edition, and no-one wants that. Or, alternately, you could limit the race to places where there are frequent flights, but then you're not getting people out in the middle of nowhere. Probably the ideal case would be making sure that there are several alternative routes between two locations, with the obvious ones not necessarily being ideal.

They need some equalizers to make it good TV (and to keep the logistics less than insane!); one team getting a first-leg lead and then just extending it every week would get dull. It was better when there was a Fast Forward on every leg; that introduced a lot more churn and strategy, but was expensive for production.

Lew Crippen · 05-19-2006, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Atkins

Then it would be better not to make the flights part of the race, then. Stretch out the tasks at each stop, but don't make flying part of the race if it's not going to be a competitive part of the race.

They all do compete to try to find the best flights and best connections—but usually any time gained is more than made up for by the time equalizer waiting for flights and connections.

But I think that you are missing the point Chris—the producers like the bunch-ups. They guarantee that the race remains competitive.

Don’t lose sight of the essential fact that the producer’s don’t necessarily want a competition that rewards success (at least to the extent of that success); but rather they want a competition that remains close until the final moments. After all, who would tune in, if one team got a 24 hour advantage on the others?

Lew Crippen · 05-19-2006, 08:45 AM

Also don’t forget, that while the airport waits and flights tend to reset everyone to the same point, ineptness with arranging flight schedules or late arrivals has often caused teams to lose.

That is if there are five teams remaining and four manage to make the same flight (perhaps by booking via the internet or a mobile phone) and one team was on a different, later flight, that team might well be (and has been) eliminated. Of course any time advantage held by the leaders before the flight is wiped out.

Personally if I were in the race, I’d make sure that I had a copy of the OAG in my backpack.