The Amazing Race 11: All-Stars (1 Viewer)

The ad said February for All Stars, hopefully earlier in the month. I'm really looking forward to this one (even though past All Stars have proven to be somewhat disappointing)...

FWIW, there are five teams that have been photographed and proven to be racing on All Stars--some of the photos were taken later in the race and thus may give away how far they go, so I'm including a spoiler box:
Team Guido (TAR1)
Danny/Oswald (TAR2)
Charla/Mirna (TAR5)
Eric/Danielle (TAR9--they raced in two different teams but hooked up after the race)
Dustin/Kandice (TAR10)

Rob/Amber (TAR7), Uchenna/Joyce (TAR7), and David/Mary (TAR10) have been mentioned in several articles but there is no definite proof as of yet.

Colin/Christie (TAR5) are NOT racing unfortunately.

I missed the entire finale last night and the HTF was down til now so I read the recap at CBS...

Not terribly looking forward to the All Stars and strangely enough I stopped watching Survivor somewhere during their All Star show and didn't follow this season.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of TAR is the fact that the contestants were new and the social engineering is fascinating. Less of this with All-Stars which is why I still feel that, for me, a show of the All-Losers might be more interesting than the "All-Stars". Maybe have a race where every team that finished last would race, perhaps they could/would learn from their mistakes and it's not like we really got to know them through 1 episode.

Jay

I'm a bit undecided about an 'all-stars', I think it would work out a bit better than the Survivor version, just from the way the two games are played, with Survivor being much more of a social engineering game relying on the other contestants.

With the right cast of previous players it could be pretty good IMHO, of course they could fill it with some of the worst contestants (not in terms of where they finished, but the people you hated), it will likely be some combination of them all.

Regarding the All-Star edition: So Rob and Amber are in it. Gees enough is enough already. They have both been on Survivor twice; the Race once, had their wedding broadcast on CBS, and they have filmed a Newlyweds (ala Nick and Jessica) type show for Fox. Isn’t anyone else simple tired of his smart ass shtick yet?

Rumors are good for a great final 4 in All-Stars.

Yes.. I was sick of them during the Survivor when they first debutted. I certainly couldn't care less when they got married and CBS decided to air the wedding, and I didn't care for them during their first TAR showing. Enough' already, who's next Brad Pitt and Anjeline Jolie?

Jay

I see this as almost as much of a flop as Family Edition. Just another case of trying to fix something that isn't broken, which ends up breaking anyway.

I'll give it a chance.

I don't think they're trying to fix anything- after 10 seasons, an All Stars season makes sense.

I don't see how there's a Family Edition comparison at all--that was a complete change of the format; this simply gives past fan favorites and love-to-hate teams a second chance.

Only problem with that, is the Rob & Amber factor. I know a bunch of people who hate them so much, that they will not be watching this upcoming season at all. And these people are huge fans of the show, who have watched it since the first season on CBS.

In general, I find most All-Star editions of anything to be boring (especially the Pro Bowl).

I don't know, I didn't watch Rob & Amber wedding or any of that crap, but I loved them on the Amazing Race. I'll watch.

There always seems to be at least one person on each race who is a complete jackass, either to everyone in the race or at least to their partner. My girlfriend and I suggested maybe they should have an All Star type race with all the teams with these jackasses. Would make for some entertaining TV.

Now that is a different story. I would love to see a Jackass Edition.

Come to think of it, I wonder if Team Guido will be in it, from the 1st season.

I know there would be issues bringing this together, but instead of All Stars, why not bring back the winners of the past 10 races? If the winners didn't want to participate, then the second place team from that season gets the invite.

It would really be a "best of" season as opposed to the "best of the most well known according to the producers".

Balance. The ten winners consist of:
1 M/M/M/F team (Linz Family, Family Edition--obviously this would be changed if they raced again though)
4 M/F teams (Flo/Zach, TAR3; Chip/Kim, TAR5; Freddy/Kendra, TAR6; Uchenna/Joyce, TAR7)
5 M/M teams (Rob/Brennan, TAR1; Chris/Alex, TAR2; Reichen/Chip, TAR4; BJ/Tyler, TAR9; Tyler/James, TAR10)

Obviously, this proves that a team of two guys named Chip and Tyler would win the race with no contest. (Interesting that the two Chips won consecutively, as did the Tylers--and AFAIK, TAR5 Chip and TAR10 Tyler are the only people who shared a name with the winner of the previous season in TAR history. Food for thought...)

I imagine the winners were among the first people the producers contacted, but who knows how many were available or interested. Recruiting previous players is a different dynamic than sorting through tapes, and they might have wound up going for those who demanded the least relative to their popularity. Even the ones who have talked about wanting to do it again (I think Tammy Gaghan has said she'd like to do it with her husband just as a couple) are going to have to weigh the potential reward compared to the time commitment.

One thing I hope to see out of it is getting back to a more challenging race. #10 was the best in a long time, and it would be great to see more Fast Forwards (and even Yields) to increase the strategy.

The only real downside, I think, is that part of the fun is discovering the people, and how they might be different than we might expect; that's not going to be as much of a factor in an edition full of repeat teams.

I had read the news reports that quoted BJ & Tyler that they had not even been approached to do the All-Star AR. Then, I see the promos which feature them fairly prominently...before an announcer intones: "the teams are still a secret." Lame.

They were, for my family, the most fun team to watch in all the races we've seen...and they don't get asked?! And, the network knows to use them to promote the show because of their past popularity?! Lame, again.

Frankly, I would have also liked to see Kevin and Drew from Season 1 on the All-Star line-up. They were terrific. Very entertaining.

Yeah, a lot of teams that should be there aren't. BJ/Tyler (as well as first season winners Rob/Brennan among others) were rejected because the producers didn't want any alpha male teams. Which is ridiculous because hell, those teams are the ones that generally end up being "All Stars."

FWIW, here's what Survivor Sucks has as the cast list...no elim spoilers:
Kevin/Drew (TAR1)
Team Guido (TAR1)
Cha Cha Chas (TAR2)
John Vito/Jill (TAR3)
Teri/Ian (TAR3)
Tian/Jaree (TAR4)*
Charla/Mirna (TAR5)
Kris/Jon (TAR6)*
Rob/Amber (TAR7)
Uchenna/Joyce (TAR7)
Eric/Danielle (one member from two different TAR9 teams)
David/Mary (TAR10)
Dustin/Kandice (TAR10)

*These two are about the only teams less than essentially confirmed. There's evidence for them being on the race but nothing concrete.

Yay! Kris and Jon
. This should all be interesting come February.