S36.E10: The Longest Minute of Your Life

[anniebird]

1 hour ago, rr2911 said:

Just my opinion here, but there weren't really any good strong teams.  Sure you had Danny and Angie but they were mostly concerned in making alliances than winning.  Leticia and Rod, Vinny and Amber all benefited from Angie and Danny's help.  The firefighters didn't know north from south.  The pilots also didn't navigate well.  The rest were weak. I'd like to see this season's winners go up against really strong teams.  Now let's see what happens!

You don't think Ricky and Cesar were a strong team? They aced almost every challenge and even the one that took the longest (windsurfing) didn't damage them too much.

[Netfoot]

2 minutes ago, anniebird said:

You don't think Ricky and Cesar were a strong team?

No, I don't.

I think they may have been the strongest team of this season. But I don't think they would fare well against the likes of say Rob & Amber, Uchenna & Joyce, Colin & Christie, Chip & Kim, Charla & Snarla, Dustin & Kandice, Ken & Gerard, Dave & Rachael... Hell, Zach would crush them even with the millstone of Flo hanging around his neck!

I would just love to see one of them take a watermelon to the face! Or handle the Haybales from Hell.

[sinycalone]

55 minutes ago, PaperTree said:

It's the other way around.  You can come into NJ for free, but you have to pay to leave😎

Oops...that's what I meant to say.  Also, driving in Philly (especially center city) is a challenge with all the one way streets...so once back over the bridge, it wasn't simple to head back to South Philly.

[TheRabbi]

2 hours ago, eel2178 said:

One of the questions I was asked on my viewer survey was if 90 minute episodes were "just right" "a little too long" or "way too long."

They're definitely rethinking that choice. I think that with the writers strike, they just didn't have anything filmed to fill out the out the last hour of primetime. That shouldn't be the case in future seasons, so hopefully they'll listen to the viewers and not try to make it something permanent.

I've been watching TAR since the beginning and overall I agree. I do, however, prefer when they have 90 minute premieres. 1 hour is not enough time for a premiere episode, especially if they are going to keep 13 teams as the new norm. I felt that 90 minutes was too much even for some of last fall's episodes that were filmed with 90 minutes in mind. 

[rr2911]

5 hours ago, anniebird said:

You don't think Ricky and Cesar were a strong team? They aced almost every challenge and even the one that took the longest (windsurfing) didn't damage them too much.

Since I wasn't rooting for Ricky and Cesar to win, I had them in mind when I wrote my post.   What I meant was that there weren't any "other strong" teams like in past seasons for R&C to go up against.
  In past seasons there were 2 or 3 strong teams that were capable of winning a leg.  Just goes to show how weak the other teams were that even with Ricky falling down a number of times on the Surf challenge, the others couldn't take advantage of that.  Yes, credit goes to R&C but in my opinion, a strong team would've taken advantage.  In any competition, when you're feeling pressure 
from another team, mistakes can happen.  Did Ricky and Cesar really get challenged?  I don't think so.  But hey, this is just my 
  opinion.  Looking forward to next season! 

[Browncoat]

I think there were strong teams in terms of the actual challenges.  There were incredibly weak teams in terms of navigation. 

[Notabug]

22 hours ago, eel2178 said:

It was really because they were in their hometown that they lost. Frank thought he was telling the cab driver to take them by the route that would have the least early morning traffic even though it wasn't the most direct route. That cost them too much time.

Absolutely correct.  As I recall, they were coming into NYC in the very early morning hours on a Sunday and Frank chose the longer route because he was thinking of typical NYC traffic patterns which would've made it faster.  In a way, they lost BECAUSE they knew more about NYC than the other racers.

Edited May 18 by Notabug

[North of Eden]

The cherry on top all right...a moldy rotten cherry for a craptacular season. From the same boring winners every week to the ability to reduce an entire continent to feel like cabin fever this was just a big thumbs down.

Of course Ricky lived in Philly....of course!

I was actively rooting against Ricky and Cesar to lose and would have preferred the pro-bowler and his wife but would have been okay with the airmen.

Words on a keyboard cannot describe the joy I was feeling when Ricky kept falling into the surf....I was hoping it would but them hopelessly behind and we would be spared them on the final leg. It was crushing to see those ridiculous looking baby blue shorts trotting into Ford house grounds as the end.

Classic Vinnie-still being controlling in the MIDST of his proposal.

Okay folks we have a year off. Hoping for a spectacular comeback after  The Amazing South America Road Show starring Ricky and Cesar...and oh those other people.

[PurpleTentacle]

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Family Edition was worse. But this was pretty bad.

Maybe it's because I'm not from the USA and thus thought the places shown were actually kinda interesting and pretty, or maybe it's because I binged that season, but I really don't remember it as being as bad as this one.

At least I never had the urge to flip a table because production screwed a team so hard a porn star would blush, only to then also blame the team for the screwing.

12 hours ago, chaifan said:

Something that stood out to me this season was the number of times teams got to a clue box, just to be told to go somewhere else.  I just don't remember that happening before - the norm is you get to a clue box, and there's a challenge in that location.  Not just instructions to go to a different location.  Am I remembering correctly?

Route markers were always a thing, but they are usually pretty rare and not all over the place.

There are rumours that it was originally planed to not stay in South America the entire time, but go to South Africa and even Australia, but that there was a problem with the bigger charter plane and so they had to throw together this South America route last minute, since they didn't have a plane that could go across the atlantic. That would certainly explain why this season was horrible, even for a covid season, when we've seen them do it better in the two previous covid seasons.

Source:

 

[Netfoot]

2 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Maybe it's because I'm not from the USA and thus thought the places shown were actually kinda interesting and pretty, or maybe it's because I binged that season, but I really don't remember it as being as bad as this one.

I actually agree. I will say that the differences (four-person teams) weren't to my liking, but as a non-American viewer, the locations were no less exotic to me than those of the other seasons.

[meep.meep]

Finally got to watch.  Congratulations to Ricky and Cesar!  They came from behind, handled some tough challenges, and pulled off a decisive victory.  And are finally getting paid!

I hope those of you filling out the CBS surveys are saying 90 minutes is a terrible idea.

My personal suspicious belief is that they wanted to hide the season after tanking the blue team for something they had no control over.  If the chase car gets lost, that's on them not the competitors.  Otherwise, make them take the bus.

The only times I have been to Philly were flying to and from Madrid.  Returning from Madrid we had a 3 hour delay in the airport.  Everyone on the flight missed their connecting flights and the airlines had to put us up.  We finally got on a bus to the hotel, I started looking out the window and asked the bus driver "Are we in New Jersey?"  He said yes. 

[Lovecat]

23 hours ago, sinycalone said:

Oops...that's what I meant to say.  Also, driving in Philly (especially center city) is a challenge with all the one way streets...so once back over the bridge, it wasn't simple to head back to South Philly.

It could have been the editing, but I swear they re-entered PA over the Ben Franklin, which would indeed have been a trek for them to get back to Pat's and Geno's in South Philly.  I'm a little unclear as to whether they even made it to "Geno's Pizza" in New Jersey or whether the picture we saw was B-roll, and the pilots actually realized their mistake as they were crossing the river and turned right around.

I think the only thing worse than finding yourself on a bridge heading out of Philadelphia to New Jersey is accidentally getting on the Brooklyn Bridge when you're lost in Manhattan.

[Skooma]

On 5/16/2024 at 6:09 PM, IvySpice said:

My thoughts, watching Cesar crush the flag challenge and memorize the Declaration of Independence in his second language:

Immigrants. We get the job done!

Immigrants WANT to be in America.  They work hard to get here and will work hard to earn their citizenship learning American history with a passion. 

The rest of us just get citizenship because we pop out of the womb here and I swear half of the people at my school would sleep through American history classes.

On 5/16/2024 at 7:47 PM, Artsda said:

This was a pretty bad season.  No U-turn ...

No stupid cheap reality show trick U-Turn bad this a really good season.  We went back to old school TAR getting rid of that crap.

On 5/16/2024 at 8:12 PM, Browncoat said:

Frank and Margarita lost in their hometown.  ...

 

On 5/16/2024 at 10:59 PM, eel2178 said:

It was really because they were in their hometown that they lost. Frank thought he was telling the cab driver to take them by the route that would have the least early morning traffic even though it wasn't the most direct route. That cost them too much time.

Yeah, Frank forgot it was a weekend so there was little traffic the more direct route.

Wil (Season 2) bragged about SF being his hometown too and we know what happened there.  It became a "hometown curse" after that.

On 5/16/2024 at 11:15 PM, eel2178 said:

I gave them my usual passionate plea to stop collusion between teams, so we'll see if I make a dent in TPTB this time. I told them that in the spirit of the race, contestants who can't do the tasks need to be eliminated not carried across the mat by other teams.

It is called "strategy," NOT collusion.  And it is good to see human beings caring about each other instead of backstabbing all the time on a reality show.

I just hope those of us that don't get to fill out fancy network surveys get our voices heard when we say we LOVE this comradery and strategy on The Amazing Race.  It is a major part of what puts that AMAZING part into the Race and makes it so special.

[vousviou]

I'm late to the party, but my reaction to this episode was similar to the rest of the season - not great, but not terrible.

I think the fact that the 10th leg was the second in the Dominican Republic underlined one of the struggles for the season - a lack of geographic diversity. The Covid issues other people have referred to were obviously a barrier, but I wonder if there were ways to deal with the Western Hemisphere-only angle. Maybe by having the first leg in Alaska or Canada and only one leg in Mexico, for example.

The design of the challenges was pretty middling for these two episodes, which I also think reflected the rest of the season. The flag roadblock was excellent, and the mascot and Declaration of Independence challenges were fine, but the Liberty Bell was weak and I would have preferred one of the frequent season wrapups that require recalling things from the previous legs.

The Dominican Republican ones were pretty dull. The one thing the windsurfing roadblock brought to mind though is that I'd like to see one or two more physically demanding detours per season that expose teams which have someone who can't swim, or bike long distances, or climb well. The good thing about the Declaration challenge was that it exposed both team members, and I think TAR would benefit from a bit more of that on the physical side too.

I think these later episodes were a lot better than the first third of the season, which seemed to spin its wheels eliminating teams which were over their heads. The personalities (except for Vinny and Amber) were pretty good, but considering how long the episodes were, I wish the producers had added a bit more footage from downtime in hotels or at meals to give a better sense of their characters.

It was another episode where Ricky and Cesar gained a lot by being good at navigation, and a lot of the lack of drama this season comes down to team selection by the producers. Although to be fair I'm not sure how much producers can do to select for teams which know how to get around places. You can weed out obvious dolts, but I'm not sure you can know which teams are 6/10 vs. 10/10, short of actually getting in a car with them during auditions.

I'm hopeful that the way the next race they filmed (35) was significantly better shows that they've worked out issues from 36. I admit I'm cutting this season some slack due to the circumstances, but even by regular standards I'd argue this season wasn't too bad.

[anniebird]

53 minutes ago, Skooma said:

 

It is called "strategy," NOT collusion.  And it is good to see human beings caring about each other instead of backstabbing all the time on a reality show.

I just hope those of us that don't get to fill out fancy network surveys get our voices heard when we say we LOVE this comradery and strategy on The Amazing Race.  It is a major part of what puts that AMAZING part into the Race and makes it so special.

This is not a reality show where it's who gets a rose or who can bake the best brownies. It's a RACE and unlike most other competitive reality shows, the order of finish matters - first wins, last gets eliminated. I have no problem with teams having camaraderie with one another but when one team is actually doing the challenge for another team, it ruins the race for me.

Edited May 18 by anniebird

[vousviou]

43 minutes ago, Skooma said:

 

On 5/16/2024 at 11:15 PM, eel2178 said:

I gave them my usual passionate plea to stop collusion between teams, so we'll see if I make a dent in TPTB this time. I told them that in the spirit of the race, contestants who can't do the tasks need to be eliminated not carried across the mat by other teams.

It is called "strategy," NOT collusion.  And it is good to see human beings caring about each other instead of backstabbing all the time on a reality show.

The way I split the difference is that I think cooperation between challenges is OK but during them it should be banned.

During Roadblocks it's against the rules for someone to help their other teammate in even the slightest way. Yelling out even something as vague as "count all the puzzle pieces" is banned. I think it ought to be against the rules to help another team as well.

However, two teams joining up to navigate to the next challenge, or a team leaving a challenge giving advice to another team about to start is OK in my mind.

It's like the difference between telling one team that the dance they're about to learn has a specific tricky step at the end, versus actually putting on a costume and doing the dance for them.

[Skooma]

36 minutes ago, anniebird said:

This is not a reality show where it's who gets a rose or who can bake the best brownies. It's a RACE and unlike most other competitive reality shows, the order of finish matters - first wins, last gets eliminated. I have no problem with teams having camaraderie with one another but when one team is actually doing the challenge for another team, it ruins the race for me.

Well will agree to disagree then.  Because the goal is really not to finish last in a leg until the very end.  That's when it is important to finish first.

To me when teams help each other it inspires me.  Because, again, this is not just another boring "race."  The is The AMAZING Race.

Help during Roadblocks has gone on since the days of Kevin & Drew and Nancy & Emily on Season 1.  I loved it then and I love it now.

And Kevin & Drew admitted it was for two reasons.  They (1) really really liked Nancy & Emily and (2) they saw them as a weaker team so keeping them in the Race and thus possibly putting a stronger team in danger of elimination was a good strategy for them.

So you can have BOTH heart and strategy.  Part of the "amazing" thing again.

Edited May 18 by Skooma

[tvfanatic13]

I too miss the eat, sleep, mingle portion. I also miss when the money that they received was actually important and figured into the story somehow. But still, TAR is one of the best out there. See you in the spring peeps. 

[Roccos Brother]

I'm so happy for Ricky and Cesar! They are the only team I wanted to win this entire season. They seem very genuine, supportive, appreciative, wholesome, and with little exception, mostly ran their own race without any assistance or meanness towards other teams. Plus, I love that they will be able to use the money to start a family.

Sure being in Spanish-speaking countries gave them an advantage but with the exception of the windsurfing, they didn't seem to struggle with any of the tasks. 

Yay!

[Notabug]

3 hours ago, tvfanatic13 said:

I too miss the eat, sleep, mingle portion. I also miss when the money that they received was actually important and figured into the story somehow. But still, TAR is one of the best out there. See you in the spring peeps. 

I, too, liked it when their budget for the leg played a role in what they could and couldn't do.  However, it was a bad look for the show when teams resorted to begging in impoverished nations to get cab fare to try to win a million bucks.   Which is, I suppose, why they did away with it as well as instituting the rule that the cabbie had to be paid before the racers left the cab.  I believe one winning team even stiffed their cabbie at the finish line and returned after winning to pay up.  I don't miss that sort of stuff.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, Notabug said:

However, it was a bad look for the show when teams resorted to begging in impoverished nations to get cab fare to try to win a million bucks.

I agree, but I think the "mugging" of racers to induce drama brought this about. I'm not sure it was caused by reduced budget.

[Notabug]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

I agree, but I think the "mugging" of racers to induce drama brought this about. I'm not sure it was caused by reduced budget.

I agree, but they didn't institute mugging of the second to last team in the early seasons and they did away with it fairly quickly when it proved to be unpopular and encouraged begging.  It was not nearly as dramatic as TPTB probably hoped it would be.  I don't think elimination of the announcement of the money each team got per leg had anything to do with any budget cuts, either.  At most, it was no more than a few thousand per leg.  And, even without giving money to the racers these days, the show is still paying for all sorts of transportation or they'd never hop in a cab or bus or tuk-tuk.  They're still spending the money, but they're not using careful money management as one of the necessary skills on the race.

Edited May 19 by Notabug

[choclatechip45]

Happy Ricky and Cesar won. I hope I never see Amber and Vinny on my tv again. Medicore season due to staying in South America almost the whole time. 

[millennium]

Most lackluster, predictable season yet.   No suspense, no twists of fate, no challenges that pushed teams to their breaking points.   Very little shuffling of the finishing order in the last half of the race.   Too much time spent in countries where Spanish is the predominant language, giving one team an edge (not to mention "I grew up in Philadelphia," "I was a mascot," etc.).

I enjoyed Rod and Leticia (though I was offended to hear Rod dismiss the Declaration of Independence as "silly little words").  Shane and Juan were amusing too.   Amber should have run away from that proposal with every bit of strength she had left.

[Skooma]

5 hours ago, Notabug said:

I, too, liked it when their budget for the leg played a role in what they could and couldn't do.  However, it was a bad look for the show when teams resorted to begging in impoverished nations to get cab fare to try to win a million bucks.   Which is, I suppose, why they did away with it as well as instituting the rule that the cabbie had to be paid before the racers left the cab.  I believe one winning team even stiffed their cabbie at the finish line and returned after winning to pay up.  I don't miss that sort of stuff.

The taking away of money from the last place team in non-eliminations only lasted a few seasons.  And that was when they did the begging.  That's why they did away with it quickly.

What the original poster was talking about was we were told how much money you got for each leg and teams deciding whether to use it to buy food or rent a hotel room.  To take the bus and save money or splurge for a taxi for fear they were running last.

Of course that was when one leg could last several days and involve all sorts of locations in a country.  These days the majority of legs seem to only last several hours in the city they flew into or some "countryside setting" just a few miles outside of it.

[PaperTree]

17 hours ago, Lovecat said:

 

I think the only thing worse than finding yourself on a bridge heading out of Philadelphia to New Jersey is accidentally getting on the Brooklyn Bridge when you're lost in Manhattan.

Too funny!  And I think the Brooklyn Bridge is free. Both ways.😎 (I've been wrong before)

[b4pjoe]

Cesar and Ricky were definitely the best team on this season and deserved to win. I just don't think they were that great of a team had they been on a real season of the Amazing Race. This season was definitely not a season that should have had 90 minute episodes. I found myself in every episode picking up my tablet to read other things while the Amazing Race was just background noise. I will always remember this season as The Amazing Race Lite.

[ljenkins782]

On 5/15/2024 at 10:54 PM, Lamb18 said:

I've been to the Washington Crossing but don't remember if it was at the Glen Foerd estate.

The Glen Foerd estate is in Philly, the crossing of the Delaware location is in the aptly named town of Washington Crossing, PA, about 40 minutes outside of Philly. 

I live in that area and I don't remember hearing anything about The Amazing Race filming here, but it was fun to see them running around the city (and NJ, lol). I was very surprised that Pat's and Geno's tripped the pilots up so much, one question to a local would have cleared that up immediately.

The finish order was about what I expected. Ricky and Cesar ran a good race, so good for them. Just not a great season.

[sara416]

On 5/15/2024 at 8:47 PM, Lantern7 said:

Parrot with the straw. I laughed.

I've been to the DR often, it's one of my favorite vacation places. Those birds will take ANYTHING. They really like shiny things, I saw them steal a button off a guy's polo shirt and my husband got into a battle with one to steal back a keychain he had hanging off his hat. They are gorgeous thieves! I loved seeing the DR in the race, it's so beautiful and the culture there is so wonderful.

Also, that "mud" that they drove through in the dune buggies is not just mud. It's probably best to think of it as just mud when you are driving through it, but those roads are backroads near farms and there's other substances in that mud that you don't want to think about being covered in. 

 

Edited May 19 by sara416

[eel2178]

23 hours ago, Skooma said:

It is called "strategy," NOT collusion.

You say potato. I say patoto.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, sara416 said:

It's probably best to think of it as just mud when you are driving through it, but those roads are backroads near farms and there's other substances in that mud....

That's what mud is! Even the purest mud is just worm-shit.

[Brown44]

On 5/17/2024 at 8:14 PM, Browncoat said:

I think there were strong teams in terms of the actual challenges.  There were incredibly weak teams in terms of navigation. 

That's the advantage R/C had,  they can get the navigational help and dip out and read and understand the street signs better. You don't know the language you gonna stay a little longer to make sure you get instructions right on where to go and take your time to read the street sign. Those little things adds up in giving R/C time to either catch up or extend there time.

Edited May 19 by Brown44

[Brown44]

I'm in the camp that say R/C had an advantage 90% of the race. I can name at least 2 that speaking the language was waaaaay to there advantage, the singing challenge was in Spanish, they had do it over bc they had to put pizazz on the performance the language was easy. And the meat challenge, there was at least a few more challenges where knowing Spanish gave them the edge.

Put this team in other countries where Spanish or English is not spoken than do they get so many 1st place victories?

Edited May 19 by Brown44

[MartyQui]

Didn’t Juan, Vinnie and one of the female couple speak Spanish?Ricky and Cesar were good at the physical challenges (baseball, anyone?), good at the puzzles, good At the “entertainment” challenges, and good at navigating.  I was happy for their win.

[Ancaster]

 

17 hours ago, Notabug said:

I agree, but they didn't institute mugging of the second to last team in the early seasons and they did away with it fairly quickly when it proved to be unpopular and encouraged begging.  It was not nearly as dramatic as TPTB probably hoped it would be.  

Can you explain "mugging"? 

 

On 5/17/2024 at 9:58 AM, rr2911 said:

Just my opinion here, but there weren't really any good strong teams.  Sure you had Danny and Angie but they were mostly concerned in making alliances than winning.  

Angie was the antithesis of "strong".

On 5/18/2024 at 1:06 PM, vousviou said:

The way I split the difference is that I think cooperation between challenges is OK but during them it should be banned.

During Roadblocks it's against the rules for someone to help their other teammate in even the slightest way. Yelling out even something as vague as "count all the puzzle pieces" is banned. I think it ought to be against the rules to help another team as well.

However, two teams joining up to navigate to the next challenge, or a team leaving a challenge giving advice to another team about to start is OK in my mind.

It's like the difference between telling one team that the dance they're about to learn has a specific tricky step at the end, versus actually putting on a costume and doing the dance for them.

"Banned"?  "Against the rules"?  Do you have insider information?

[chaifan]

52 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

Can you explain "mugging"? 

For a few seasons, TAR would strip the last team of their money, making them start the next race with only what that leg gave them.  Hence, they were "mugged" by the race.  This put teams in the position of having to beg locals for cash, which occurred in a few countries at are "disadvantaged" to say the least, and it just looked really bad for rich Americans competing for $1 million to beg for the equivalent of a few hours or even a day's earning from a local to stay in the race. 

If I remember correctly, there were also a few seasons where the last team would be stripped of their belongings, having only what they were actually wearing for the rest of the race.  This didn't last long, either.

 

56 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

Angie was the antithesis of "strong".

Danny and Angie together were a strong team, relative to many others this season.  Angie didn't have physical strength, and the heat practically knocked her out twice.  But I don't think the original comment was referring to physical strength only. 

59 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

"Banned"?  "Against the rules"?  Do you have insider information?

The example Vousviou gave were rules that have been well publicized, and stated on air since Season 1.  The team member not doing the Roadblock is not allowed to help in any way.  They can observe, cheer, but that's it.  No visual or verbal clues are allowed.  Phil always says "only one team member can do" the roadblock, they make this very clear.  I don't think they could even shout out "read the clue!!!" without penalty.  I always thought it would be clever if a team had a code for Roadblocks...  If I shout out "You can do it snookums" it means "re-read the clue, you're doing something completely wrong".  If I use "honeybear" instead, it means go watch the demonstration again.  

For me, helping another team is a crap shoot.  Yes, it may provide good karma down the road when you need help.  But it could also give that team just the few minutes they need to beat you to the mat.  I'm all for keeping it in, because it can hurt as much as help, so it becomes a strategy decision.  The example cited this season - Amber telling Angie and Leticia how to do the puzzle, which pieces went where - is pretty extreme in the history of TAR.  I originally thought Amber helped Angie because they needed Angie & Danny to navigate them out of there, but nope, she was just a sap. 

 

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, MartyQui said:

Didn’t Juan, Vinnie and one of the female couple speak Spanish?Ricky and Cesar were good at the physical challenges (baseball, anyone?), good at the puzzles, good At the “entertainment” challenges, and good at navigating.  I was happy for their win.

Yes.  Juan is from Colombia, and, according to his interview, still has relatives there.

[Johannah]

Sad, but I think I'm going to delete the last two episodes without watching.  It's so frustrating because it seems the winners have been given an unfair advantage.  It seemed every location was Spanish -speaking and even many tasks were easier if you spoke Spanish.  Memorizing cuts of meat...in Spanish?  In my mind, there is an asterisk after their win.  That they didn't earn it as others in the past did.  Pity, because they probably are good racers and seem like nice guys, but I just... I don't know...it seems tainted.

 

Going back and reading some previous posts and, obviously, I'm not the first to say this.

Edited May 19 by Johannah

[Brown44]

4 hours ago, MartyQui said:

Didn’t Juan, Vinnie and one of the female couple speak Spanish?

I've said in last weeks thread that getting an A in high school Spanish/French is not the same as growing up with it Ceasar most likely grew up in a household where they spoke Spanish all the time. It seems Juan grew up in a house where the parents wanted them to assimilate so he probably spoke spanish less, even he had problems understanding a few time's. To me 5 teams was equal when it came to challenges but like someone else said many would get lost where R/C wouldn't. 

Edited May 20 by Brown44

[Brown44]

Just saw commercial for the Summit, so I see why Amazing Race is not coming back till Spring.

[chaifan]

3 hours ago, Johannah said:

It seemed every location was Spanish -speaking and even many tasks were easier if you spoke Spanish.  Memorizing cuts of meat...in Spanish? 

If that challenge were in English, I'd have a hard time simply because I eat very little meat.  I don't know a round from a chuck from a whatever, let alone what they look like from a butcher.  Cesar is a chef, chances are his culinary knowledge helped them more on that challenge than his knowledge of Spanish, just like the food challenge in Guatape.  Also, Ricky has a background in musical theater - that was probably more help in the singing/dancing challenge than Cesar's language skills.  

If Ricky & Cesar were just squeaking through for their first place wins, I could see an argument about how language was the determining factor.  But they had pretty healthy leads in most of the legs they won, much more than could be attributed to being able to read a street sign better than Juan, or get directions easier than Danny, or whatever.  

Ricky & Cesar's leads were obtained mostly because they completed most tasks efficiently, not because they read street signs quickly, etc.  They didn't waste time squabbling (or making up after squabbling).  I don't know why that gets overlooked.  

So an asterisk next to their win?  Sorry, no.  

 

[Skooma]

On 5/19/2024 at 9:13 AM, b4pjoe said:

Cesar and Ricky were definitely the best team on this season and deserved to win. I just don't think they were that great of a team had they been on a real season of the Amazing Race. ...

Why do you think that?  I saw no weakness that would make them a "not great team" in a "normal" season.

On 5/19/2024 at 4:09 PM, Brown44 said:

That's the advantage R/C had,  they can get the navigational help and dip out and read and understand the street signs better. You don't know the language you gonna stay a little longer to make sure you get instructions right on where to go and take your time to read the street sign. Those little things adds up in giving R/C time to either catch up or extend there time.

Juan was from Colombia.  Vinnie was from The Philippines.  Danny lived a year in Chile.  Other teams spoke Spanish fine enough to understand directions and such.  Sorry, I don't buy your argument.

On 5/19/2024 at 4:17 PM, Brown44 said:

Put this team (me: Ricky & Cesar) in other countries where Spanish or English is not spoken than do they get so many 1st place victories?

I think so.  Why wouldn't they?

On 5/19/2024 at 5:51 PM, chaifan said:

For a few seasons, TAR would strip the last team of their money, making them start the next race with only what that leg gave them.

They only stripped the last team in the non-elimination legs.  So 3 to 4 legs depending on the set-up and number of teams that season.  And it only lasted something like maybe 3 seasons at most they did it.  A mere blip of a mistake that was soon corrected by production.

On 5/19/2024 at 9:20 PM, Brown44 said:

I've said in last weeks thread that getting an A in high school Spanish/French is not the same as growing up with it Ceasar most likely grew up in a household where they spoke Spanish all the time. It seems Juan grew up in a house where the parents wanted them to assimilate so he probably spoke spanish less, even he had problems understanding a few time's. To me 5 teams was equal when it came to challenges but like someone else said many would get lost where R/C wouldn't. 

And you know all this how?  Kids I know with even one Spanish speaking parent let alone two learn from birth and speak Spanish just as well as English. 

And Vinnie grew up a lot in the Philippines where English was a second language much later in life.  Danny was immersed in Spanish living a full year in Chile.

And we have seen teams in the past in Latin American countries who don't speak Spanish at all that easily win legs.

Ricky & Cesar didn't get lost because one member spoke Spanish.  They didn't get lost because, like Danny, they could read a map.  They also cooperated and supported each other unlike say Vinnie and his teammate.  They stayed calm in situations when under pressure.  They flat out were great Racers this season and would be the same in any other season.

Also since you are so fixated on some sort of big deal about growing up in a family speaking a language all your life then how do you explain that Cesar, a non-native English speaker who did NOT grow up speaking English, did so well in the flag and memory challenges in the last leg?

Edited May 21 by Skooma

[chaifan]

@Skooma A million likes and a standing ovation to your post above.

I do not like automatically attributing people's opinions to "isms/phobias", but I have to wonder if some of the more intense disliking of Ricky & Cesar is because they're an openly gay couple.  I really hope that isn't it.  They both embodied and defied gay stereotypes throughout the race (Yeah! Makeup! and also Yeah! Welding!), which endeared them to me even a little more. 

Also, thanks for clarifying on the "mugging".  It was the NEL element that I forgot about in my earlier explanation.  Also, wasn't the mugging then replaced by the additional challenge (which sometimes wasn't much of a challenge, just a time suck)?  I can't remember when that ended, though.  (Sorry, getting off topic of this episode...)

[fishcakes]

I've seen several people mention that Vinnie speaks Spanish because he grew up in the Philippines, so this is not singling out anyone in particular, but the primary language in the Philippines is Tagalog, not Spanish. English is also an official language there, but Spanish is not widely spoken. Vinnie didn't seem that proficient in Spanish to me, but also I don't like him so was never inclined to give him any benefit of any doubt. (My super secret message to Amber: Run, girl, RUN.)

Juan was clearly fluent in Spanish as was either Yvonne or Melissa. I don't know which one because they got a fairly invisible edit for a team that made it that far into the race.

Ricky and Cesar probably did benefit a little from being able to converse with the locals when getting directions, but I don't think that was the deciding factor in their win. They were also good navigators, athletic, and didn't let setbacks (not that they had many) psych them out. I don't think you can consistently place in the number one or two spot based on language ability alone. They weren't an interesting team (to me, anyway), but they were deserving of the win.

Edited May 20 by fishcakes

[Netfoot]

14 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I have to wonder if some of the more intense disliking of Ricky & Cesar is because they're an openly gay couple.

I just found them uninteresting & boring. Perhaps if a different team had been leading the pack in every episode, I'd have found them boring instead. Because in fact I didn't think much of any of the teams this season.

Speaking fluent Spanish may not have helped them in a season where most of the locations were in the Spanish speaking world, but I don't think it hurt!

I found it a little wearing that what ever challenge they were asked to perform, the chances were that they had once worked in that field or had a doctorate... I know that this can happen (wasn't there a grandfather/grandson team a while back where granddad had done it all?). But this did nothing to make Team BAF any more entertaining. When I get the urge to FF every time a team appears on my screen (I didn't) I know things are bad.

Sorry, this was not a very good season, with a very mediocre field of racers, and Ricky & Cesar may have been the stand-out team of the season but that is thin praise. Ricky & Cesar sucked because they all sucked, as did the season itself.

As far as past "mugging" went, it was a deliberate effort on the part of TPTB to produce drama. Presumably to drive up viewership. I don't think they thought it through. Viewers quickly began condemning the optics. A series of different punishments for being last in a NEL were trotted out and tried with greater or lesser success. Now, with no recent NELs, who knows what the policy is?

I've always thought that if the race design decrees that this leg is a NEL, then no punishment should be brought to bear. If I recall, the earliest seasons did not impose any penalty for the last team in a NEL. I remember Momily riding an elephant to a last place finish and being saved by a NEL. I'm pretty sure no penalty was brought to bear. Did the lack thereof spoil the race? No.

[b4pjoe]

1 hour ago, Skooma said:

Why do you thin that?  I saw no weakness that would make them a "not great team" in a "normal" season.

Well they were a great team in this edition. They had no real competition.

25 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I have to wonder if some of the more intense disliking of Ricky & Cesar is because they're an openly gay couple.

There it is. I knew that was coming at some point.

[Brown44]

3 hours ago, Netfoot said:

have to wonder if some of the more intense disliking of Ricky & Cesar is because they're an openly gay couple

Many Gay couples have won

 

3 hours ago, b4pjoe said:

 

the Amazing Race. They deserved to win but don't look me in the eye and tell me they didn't have an advantage. 

The Asian couple that owned a grocery store from a few year's ago when many task in the 1st half delt with food or involving grocery store products. And they was doing great, then when those types of task ended they started to comeback down to earth. You know how to drive stick and other teams don't that's your advantage, but don't say you didn't have an advantage. 

[b4pjoe]

1 hour ago, Brown44 said:

Many Gay couples have won

 

the Amazing Race. They deserved to win but don't look me in the eye and tell me they didn't have an advantage. 

The Asian couple that owned a grocery store from a few year's ago when many task in the 1st half delt with food or involving grocery store products. And they was doing great, then when those types of task ended they started to comeback down to earth. You know how to drive stick and other teams don't that's your advantage, but don't say you didn't have an advantage. 

The biggest advantage I see that they got was the competition put up against them.

[Brown44]

1 hour ago, b4pjoe said:

The biggest advantage I see that they got was the competition put up against them.

Every team sucked at Navigation except them. The fire fighters and the lesbian team would finish many of there task pretty fast, but they would get lost going to the task and get lost after leaving the task. Finishing fast kept them in the game but continually getting lost kept them in the bottom of the pack. 

Edited May 20 by Brown44

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Brown44 said:

5 hours ago, Netfoot said:

have to wonder if some of the more intense disliking of Ricky & Cesar is because they're an openly gay couple

Many Gay couples have won

I just want to point out that the quotation attributed to me above is not something I said or wrote. I'm not sure how that happened and it is no biggie, but those are not my words.