Lingo

You know, that stuff in the show, in which other teams talk about how impressed they are with her, doesn't bother me at all. But if you think that's bad, you should see the bonus clip of Phil on the Mat with the Dentists, chatting them up about Bethany and awkwardly congratulating himself on how they're not talking about how she's disabled or whatever.

This is the Previews thread, so we can mention what's visible in the Previews, right? I disagree with you because in the clip for next episode, you can see that Adam and Bethany are So it's probably that risk that A&B are talking about, and not the U-Turn.

OK, I think that's a good point. But the producers could at least make it illegal for the 2nd U-Turning team to "waste" the U-Turn on the first U-Turning team. After all, the first team's faces are on the U-turn board, so the second team can't claim they didn't know the first team got there first. ETA: As poorly planned as this upcoming U-Turn seems to be, at least the producers placed it after the last leg in which the Express Pass could be used. It would have been especially unfair if a team could just use the Pass to bypass the Detour altogether and go straight to the U-Turn board to u-turn an unpopular team like the cyclists (although Adam and Bethany don't seem like the kind of people who would do that). That would have been a good reason last time, but next leg is the last leg the Save can be used, so the Dentists are already going to lose it one way or another. I've only seen the relevant clips once, but for the record, I do think Kym was serious about canceling that taxi, and I don't like that kind of thing in the race (saying you're gonna call a cab for a team, and then not doing so), it feels unsportsmanlike to me. And yet I still want the Cyclists in the Final 3, and not the Wrestlers.

The "Blind Detour" seems like a dumb twist to me (and may have been created just to trick some teams to attempt that impossible flag challenge). I like watching the teams use their brains to determine which detour choice is best for them (and likewise who does the roadblock). Making the detour "blind" removes (or delays) that decision process. Feels like a cheap trick. Today I came up with a new twist I haven't seen proposed before (although it likely has). How about putting a U-Turn after a Roadblock? Instead of a team being forced to do both Detours, both members of a team are forced to do the Roadblock. Why not? (Except that I dislike the U-Turn...and also there's the rules about minimum/maximum numbers of RBs per person, so maybe an RB forced by a U-Turn shouldn't be counted toward those tallies.)

Well part of the problem of course is the damn Save. Is there any point to u-turning the Dentists if you know they aren't gonna be eliminated and you're just gonna piss them off, and maybe temporarily put them behind? Granted, this is likely the last U-Turn so the Dentists can't get revenge, but still there's little point.

I think there's a very big possibility of one of the "Race-Nots" teams (the Wrestlers probably) reaching the Final 3 due to the U-Turning of another team (the Cyclists probably). That's how the Cowboys were eliminated in their last 2 races, after all.

Well dang it, even though they were my two least favorite teams remaining, I did want Brooke and Robbie eliminated instead of T&T, not because of Brooke really but just because of their stupid antipathy toward the Cyclists. Groan...I've had this feeling for a while that the Cyclists would become the target of a U-Turn, and I really hope they're not the next eliminated because of it. Damn U-Turn, I wish they'd get rid of it. I'll especially hate it if the Anti-Cyclist alliance does the same nasty trick as some previous group did in an earlier race, where Team #1 U-Turns the Cyclists, and Team #2 deliberately U-Turns another team (like Team #1) who they know has already passed the U-Turn point, just so the Cyclists won't be able to U-Turn anyone. That's a real dirty trick and I hope the producers made it illegal since the first time someone did it. Plus, putting it on the next leg seems like poor race design. First off you have the Dentists who have the Save and can't be eliminated, so they seem like an unlikely target for U-Turning. Then it appears that another team is going for the Fast Forward. So the mostly likely U-turn targets would probably be 2 of the 3 remaining teams. That really stacks the deck against those 3 teams. I'm beginning to wonder if Maya is Manic. If you thought her little lap at the Pit Stop was crazy, you should see her in the extra footage at the Pit Stop, where she's talking and moving non-stop with almost a wild look in her eyes. It's a little frightening! He's definitely snapped at her a few times, but I think mostly just in the bonus videos. I remember a particularly nasty fight in an airport, and they actually had a big blowout at the end of this leg. That was Brooke and funny you should mention it, she DID complain to Phil about losing her eyelashes at the pitstop in a bonus video! (I'm sure it sometimes appears that all I ever talk about here is the bonus videos, but I come straight here from watching them so they're fresh on my mind!) Next week: I just went there 2 months ago, so I have a real big smile on my face! I even went to the top of that building -- though I certainly did not cross under it on a cable like that racer is doing!

Apparently Josh did let out some sort of audible shout or gasp, because you can see Jeremy and Josh laughing about it in the Ponderosa video this week. I suppose they edited the sound out.

Oh, but I was thinking: were the alliance of 6 really planning on splitting the votes between Reed and Keith? Because they didn't have enough votes to make that happen. If they split it 3-3 then Reed's group of 4 could have voted out any of the 6 without even having to play an idol. They would have had to put at least 4 votes on Keith to get the idol out, but even then if Keith played the idol then Reed's group could have voted out one of the 6. There was no safe move at that TC. I wonder what Jeremy and Natalie's plan was -- they both voted for Keith.

This season just got AMAZING! I was thinking just before I watched, "Man it would be good to see Jeremy get voted out, just to see the two "power" players voted out 1-2. Ain't gonna happen though." And it DID! And now I want to see power player #3 John out next, then Reed, and in the end I want to see Keith win because he is hilarious and that would be a hilarious ending. Except that I do hate that Natalie is screwed now (Twinnies for life man, twinnies for life!). Anyway, this show always gets good at the merge. I'm loving it, and I still like all the players except that dumbass Alec (Alex? whatever).

I'll admit I'm not a fan of the voice, but there's not really anything she can do about it so I hate mentioning it. Also, they are so mellow it is a little boring.

innominate listed some times when heat and wind have affected challenges, but I have been wondering recently why I can recall hardly any instances of hard rain on the race in all 25 seasons. The only significant rain I can remember is when Zev gave a stranger his raincoat while they were in transit in some Asian country I think. It makes me wonder whether the production checks the forecasts in advance of each leg and actually stops the show and waits for a good forecast before moving on. I'm sure that happens sometimes but I wonder how often. Oh I just remembered another one: Wil and Tara driving through rain in Australia in S2. That was the basis for a funny edit. Wil was like, "As long as I've got you Tara, I've got sunshine!" Cut to them driving through the pouring rain!

Yeah, there were multiple clips about how they were kinda jealous of the top teams and how they REALLLLLY just wanted a win a leg for once!

I think I've seen all the clips they use from the bonus videos, except that one at the very beginning of them failing to find their own bags at the starting line (lol), which must be a phone video from a fan. And I did read a comment that said that they have to send their videos to CBS for approval before putting them online. I mentioned their YouTube channel in the Media thread. It's true, they aren't getting many hits. I came upon it purely by chance (and YouTube knowing what I like I assume).

Another great clip is of the 6 teams enjoying that party at night before the challenges. Highlights include the Sicilians dancing in a big circle around the racers while holding hands, Brooke and Robbie separately dancing with the Sicilians, and Maya yelling about how much she loves the Amazing Race.

Nice article but what's the point of doing a "Where Are They Now?" on racers we just saw last season?! *eyeroll* And too much focus on Big Brother contestants and bland winners like Megan and Cheyne. I did like hearing about Uchenna and Joyce (nooo!), Ron and Christina, and Brooke and Claire though. (Still hope to see B&C on a future all-stars!)

I don't think they called Misti nasty. I think I would have remembered that, because she seems like a real sweetheart.

innominate, we may have very different opinions on various seasons (Unfinished Business is one of my favorites) but if you wrote that almost all from memory than I'm seriously impressed!

Well, I think the scientists are adorable, and pretty funny in themselves. They're my favorite team, but maybe that's because I'm a scientist (and ex-chemist) too! But the cyclists are my 2nd favorites.

For a moment I was worried they'd be eliminated with the Express Pass in their pocket.

That's funny, I didn't notice any defeatism this week, besides the justified panic about the taxi. She seemed to be in a pretty good mood this week, enjoying Robbie's silly jokes for once.

Oh, they're in episode order, but within episodes they're totally random. That's what I meant. I guess I have adblock on because I didn't see any ads on YouTube. You can't have AdBlock on for the CBS site though.

Despite Kym and Alli calling them the no-fun team at first, even they seemed to have a pretty good time with them and respect Jim's friendly competitive spirit. Meanwhile there's another two bonus clips of teams mentioning how much they like the dentists. Maya says she was uncomfortable around Jim at first, but after he got humbled in Copenhagen, they started to bond about nerd stuff, and Maya says that she appreciates Jim's character. In other clip, Brooke mentions in passing that they love them.

Well, it's really hard to rank them, but I'd put season 5 first, then 1 or 3, 2 or 4, 7, 6. I love them all, but I wonder how much of our fondness for those first few seasons is due to nostalgia. I think people have a natural tendency toward nostalgia and will reflexively prefer, and have an easier time remembering, the earlier editions of any long series of work. (It's so much harder to keep track of which season is which because the seasons don't have themes like Survivor's do). I do wonder what order a person who's only watched since Season 12 or so would put the seasons they've watched.

Oh yeah, I just figured out today how much easier it is to watch the clips on Youtube rather than the CBS player. No commercials, and you can just start at the first one and let them all play automatically, one by one. On the CBS site you gotta scroll down, pick one, sit through commercials, watch it, and then hurry up and pick something else before it starts playing the episode again or something else you don't want to watch. (Or you can do what I do and just pause it right before the end of the clip.) And that's not counting the hiccups in the buggy player. The only thing that really bugs me with both the Youtube playlist and CBS's website is that the clips are all in random order. It would be great if there were some logic to it. When I watch on the CBS site I try to watch the bonus clips in chronological order, but it's hard to tell sometimes from the title and screencap because they're usually sitting in a cab. And on the Youtube site, the clips from the episode are mixed in with the bonus clips. The most interesting things from the clips this week were of the teams talking about other teams. You know what, a lot of teams seem to really like the dentists. The scientists were unsure of them at first but eventually bonded over nerd stuff ("you've got lipstick on your No. 9"). The wrestlers say the dentists are awesome, but they're not sure what to think of the cyclists. They say a lot of teams think the same thing, that the cyclists are standoffish and sneaky or something. Tonight it kinda felt like the dentists were getting the winner edit and the cyclists the villain edit, which bums me out because I like the cyclists. The other funny clip was the wrestlers talking crap about the way the scientists run around. Robbie is for some reason bugged by the way that they never walk or quite run, they just kinda jog around constantly in a bouncy sort of way, like a bunny hop.