S26.E05: Get in That Lederhosen, Baby (Bavaria)

[raven]

 

Not everyone can have the patience Blair seems to have and even he revealed that a part of him wanted to run away.

Yes and at least Hayley, as annoying as she is, shares the same goal with Blair - wants to win and be on the race.  Bergen wasn't getting that from Kurt at all.

[selkie]

Odd as it may seem, I think it would be possible to run the race without pants.  ;)  But driving a stick is a necessity!

 

How have I not 'noticed' Tyler up until this episode?  He is really freaking cute!

 

Because they've been getting the Team Who? edit until this point. I only realized that Laura existed last episode.

 

But I'm wondering if they screen out people who do have some language skills. For instance, that wooing song was really basic German that anyone who has had a year of high school German could translate. I imagine that someone with even a little German experience would have had an advantage over the others.

 

 

It's rather random but there have been cases. Ron and Christina, IIRC, who both spoke Chinese, ended up spending extended time in China during their time on the show.

 

About dumping the water on the singers ... not a good idea.  Although it didn't look like temps were super cold there, being wet in a cooler climate (after coming from hot/humid climate) could be a recipe for coughs, colds, etc.  Then, they had to continue racing in the same clothes.   

 

Per RFF, the episode was filmed on November 20-21, 2014. As others have said, it's not so much about cold viruses  Looks like air temperature around Munch was about 40F that day, so some risk of hypothermia if they didn't towel off right away.

 

And while German driving is actually pretty easy once you're clear of city centers, downtown Munich is a bit of a mess- many streets closed to car traffic altogether, and a number of other one way streets where they were picking up the car.

[AZChristian]

I can't believe they dumped water on someone on a ladder who wasn't expecting it.  Really stupid idea.  Someone could have gotten hurt.  I'm glad no one did.

 

I've decided to rescind my membership in the "Blair is rude and we should cut Hayley some slack" club.  #FreeBlair

 

And don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya, Kurt and Bergen.  Gee, sorry that your all-expenses paid trip around the world for a chance to win $1,000,000 didn't meet your expectations.

[peachmangosteen]

I can't believe they dumped water on someone on a ladder who wasn't expecting it.  Really stupid idea.  Someone could have gotten hurt.  I'm glad no one did.

Seriously. That seemed like such a terrible idea. They're lucky it didn't end badly.

 

I've decided to rescind my membership in the "Blair is rude and we should cut Hayley some slack" club.  #FreeBlair

Same.

Edited April 4, 2015 by peachmangosteen

[SoCal4Us]

Well, sometimes they get hit with it during the start of the next leg. At any rate, the clue they received after the backward driving task definitely said "You may now use your navigation system."

 

Maybe the gps automatically turns on when the car is started, but they weren't allowed to actually enter a destination address until the clue allowed them to?  So they had a map but not a route at first.  Would that make sense?

[autumnh]

Sorry, but I think the show intentionally paired up couples who they knew would not mesh well and make for good tv....ala Kurt/Bergen , Hayley/Blair and that couple (names escape me) who argued in the car and who told who to shut up blah blah. True love does not bring in the ratings....fighting, bitching, pissing and moaning does.

 

I really do believe one of the established couples will win.

[iMonrey]

I feel bad for Bergen but this is what happens when the show pulls stupid stunts like this Blind Date gimmick. In all likelihood Kurt didn't even know what kind of show he was going to be on. He was probably told it was some reality show where he might find love, and he wasn't the least bit interested in racing around the world especially once he realized the person he was paired up with wasn't someone he was interested in.

 

If any of these people are the least bit familiar with this show, the ones on blind dates would be well advised to at least pretend they have fallen in love. Because that would be the sure-fire guarantee of getting back on the show in some All Stars iteration. The couple that fell in love on The Amazing Race? You think the show wouldn't jump at the chance to promote them for all they're worth? We'd never see the end of them.

 

Some of these people just aren't Showbiz savvy.

[scrb]

Nothing preventing established couples from bickering too.

Though the couples on this show seem pretty placid.

[Sarahendipity]

Did I hear right that the record for crate-stacking was 49? That is seriously impressive. And a fairly wacky thing to have a record for.

[Hpmec]

I hope that in a future season Blair is invited back with a partner of his choosing. Hailey should never be allowed near a tv camera again.

On the Amazing Race, you power past obstacles and keep going even if it means reaching the mat hours after the others. Giving up and sitting in a train station waiting for Phil is for wimps who have no business being there. Hope the casting people take note and concentrate on finding contestants who love the show and are ready to give it their all. If the producers feel compelled to go with a theme, how about a superfan season of people excited to be on the race, well prepared, and determined to win the big bucks? How refreshing would that be?

[green]

Someone remind me why Kurt "doesn't need the money". Who doesn't even try for a half-mil?

 

His partner, from a small town and not so well off, had mentioned it several times in several episodes.  That this Kurt guy was from a very VERY wealthy background.  Now we learn that Kurt was only there to find love on a reality show (really??? who does that?) and when he didn't he has been an albatross since leg 1 having to be dragged and coaxed along endlessly.  Has been threatening to quit since leg 1. 

 

Other guy didn't want to quit at first this leg.  He wanted to keep trying to drive the stick.  As to why Kurt didn't try?  He didn't want to.  Cause he is the Quitter of Quitters.   So I can see why the other dude was frustrated and finally gave up.  Not everyone can be Saint Zach.

 

Also it was the weirdest exit interview ever.  I've seen every season of TAR and I have never ever seen such a negative exit ever.  Even the more "TV villainous" teams are given a decent farewell.  I think production shares the other dude's pov about Kurt and how he didn't do his part to even try and race and gave him a good kick to the curb in the exit.  "A pox be upon ye for trying to screw up our Emmy winning show!"

 

I was kind of hoping Phil would tell them it was a non-elimination leg but since they gave up they were out anyway.

 

I don't think they were too concerned with key. I think they just had to get the words and the melody right.

 

I'm pretty new to this show (first full season), is one of the requirements that you have no foreign language skills at all?

 

You can speak no other language or a dozen languages.  Doesn't matter.  Same with travel experience.  None to world class travelers.  Sorry this is the first season you are viewing.  It's about the worst one I've ever seen.  You might want to check out some early seasons via some streaming service maybe to get the true feel of the show and why it actually won lots of Emmys in the past.  Cause this season is totally not Emmy-worthy.

 

And Phil couldn't change a non-elimintion leg even if he wanted since they are locked in before the Race begins.  Production can't tamper with a real Race for major prize money.

 

In other news they chose to show us the set-up for one of the most boring tasks ever in Race history?  Wonder why?  Oh yeah, Ford Focus, it's in all the countries we race to now.  Here is a in-show commercial for you.  Sit back and choose which Focus you will buy.  I miss those crazy old East German cars they drove in Hungary and the one truck you had to get out and push by hand to make it go backwards in Mexico.  These recent Races are just too easy and paint by numbers.

 

And three week gap to then try and remember a herd of white-white 20-something dating couples when I couldn't remember them from one week to the next?  Terrible terrible gimmick in what has been a terrible terrible season so far.  Things just keep getting worse adding in the biggest quitter of all time plus an in-show boring commercial featuring Ford Focus and fake snow.  The whole point of the AMAZING part of The Amazing Race is to see real stuff in these countries.  Not a rundown warehouse turned into a cheap sound studio.

Edited April 4, 2015 by green

[green]

But I'm wondering if they screen out people who do have some language skills. For instance, that wooing song was really basic German that anyone who has had a year of high school German could translate. I imagine that someone with even a little German experience would have had an advantage over the others.

 

Also, usually when you travel you take a dictionary and learn a few key phrases in case you get lost or need to order food or whatever. But from what I have seen so far, no one ever tries to ask people questions in their own languages. Is that forbidden?

 

No they do not screen out anyone because of knowing a foreign language.  We have had Chinese speakers in China, tons of Spanish speakers of varying skill levels in Spanish language countries, French speakers in France or former French colonies where the language is still understood by many.  Italian speakers, Arabic speakers, German speakers etc etc.  And they ofter do try and speak in that language.  Again, you just are watching the worst edition of TAR ever.  Also many Germans understand English.  So do many people in around the world.  That's why you see them running along a street in Hong Kong or Delhi or Moscow yelling out does anyone speak English all the time.

 

(And having made a snide Flo reference in the post above this one I got to give her props for speaking very good French and Italian).

 

Also you are not allowed to bring a dictionary or guide books with you.  No cell phones either though you can ask to borrow one from someone like a cab driver.  This is the first season they have allowed cell phones but they are shut off except for those stupid selfies.  Anyway you can use the money you receive leg by leg to buy a guide book (lots of times you see teams using one) or phrase book (guide books usually have a section on phrases).  But then you might not be able to eat on that leg or pay a cab to go where you need to go so you have to weight your options.

 

If you saw the early seasons they explained all this much better and showed the consequences of what to use their money for and save for down the road in other legs etc.  The TAR Classics Seasons of 1, 2, 3 and 5 are must viewing for me.  (#4 had a lot of shouting and mactors in it so, though better than this train wreck, I can't recommend it as being near the same level as the other four).

[ML89]

(Quote) think even if I applied to be on the Amazing Race just to find a love connection, and even if I got paired up with Abby Lee Miller, I'd still at least try to win the Million Dollar Prize rather than quitting half- (/quote)

Is it wrong that I'd like to see Kurt paired with Abby Lee Miller? She'd have thrown him over the finish line. Actually, Bergen should have traded with Blair - I would have enjoyed Hayley screaming at Kurt.

[stanleyk]

Also, usually when you travel you take a dictionary and learn a few key phrases in case you get lost or need to order food or whatever. But from what I have seen so far, no one ever tries to ask people questions in their own languages. Is that forbidden?

 

And to be fair, prior to this leg they were in, I think, just Japan and Thailand - those are two languages Americans are less likely to know and languages that are very different from English. I do recall a few teams saying, for example, "thank you" in Thai, so I think they make SOME effort, but it's a big ask to get someone to learn enough of a foreign language to get directions in a country you might just be in a few days.

 

This is not to excuse the generally poor language skills of the racers - I don't recall it happening for a while, but I do know there seemed to be several seasons where random racers would just scream "Andale!" at cab drivers in, like, Morocco.

 

Anyway, Kurt and Bergen made me enraged. I don't blame Bergen as much for eventually giving up - I mean, Kurt had been giving up for hours if not days. There comes a point where you just can't drag the person around by yourself anymore. We only saw little snippets, but I would have eventually quit too if I had a partner who refused to help and was actively being a total lame-ass.

 

Still can't tell most of the other pairs apart. The "blind date" aspect of this season hasn't been quite the trainwreck I expected, but the real problem in my opinion is that we've quickly ended up with a bunch of, to me, indistinguishable young-ish, attractive-ish, white, hetero couples. I can only pick Jelani and Jenny and Mike and Rochelle. And Hayley when she's screeching. I also defended her at the beginning, but I can't in good conscience continue to do so. What an over-excited pill.

[Sandiscot]

 

There comes a point where you just can't drag the person around by yourself anymore. 

 

Unless you're Zach!

[Netfoot]

To be fair, most Brits don't speak a second language either.

 

The sun never set on the British Empire.  They didn't need to learn other languages -- the rest of the world just had to learn English!

 

Now we learn that Kurt was only there to find love on a reality show (really??? who does that?) and when he didn't he has been an albatross since leg 1 having to be dragged and coaxed along endlessly.  Has been threatening to quit since leg 1.

 

Good pair: Kurt & Colton.  That way, they wouldn't ruin two relationships.

[Donny Ketchum]

Actually, it might be worse than that.  Unless things have changed, at some point in the race the eliminated couples don't go to sequester, but still have to continue racing with no hope of winning.  The idea was to keep enough people racing so outsiders who saw the racers couldn't determine who was still in the race, in an attempt to keep spoilers down.  It usually didn't work very well as people who were familiar with the show would see racers rushing through airports, followed by other racers who were walking along like they were on a Sunday stroll.

Well, no need to worry about that with Bergen & Kurt.  They were eliminated while they were still sending teams to Elimination Station.  The next team eliminated will be the last team sent there.  The three teams after that will run decoy legs ahead of the other teams.

[aradia22]

 

About dumping the water on the singers ... not a good idea.  Although it didn't look like temps were super cold there, being wet in a cooler climate (after coming from hot/humid climate) could be a recipe for coughs, colds, etc.  Then, they had to continue racing in the same clothes.

I think it wasn't a great move unless the temperature was really hot. If they're just throwing water to do something unpleasant it'd be fine if they were in Africa or India but even if the temperature's just mild, it's not fun hanging out in wet clothes like that. It was hard to tell how many times the girls did the challenge. The way they edited it, it seemed like they did it once, failed, and then succeeded on the second turn. Regardless, unless they were hanging out forever it seems like they let them dry off since they all seemed more put together on their final turns.

[aradia22]

 

If any of these people are the least bit familiar with this show, the ones on blind dates would be well advised to at least pretend they have fallen in love. Because that would be the sure-fire guarantee of getting back on the show in some All Stars iteration. The couple that fell in love on The Amazing Race? You think the show wouldn't jump at the chance to promote them for all they're worth? We'd never see the end of them.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Hayley and Blair hate each other too much to even be considering that. Jackie and the other J seem to be considering it the most out of all of the couples.

[Eolivet]

A couple potentially unpopular opinions: I'm not on the #FreeBlair train, because while Hayley is annoying, I don't think Blair is any prize either. The contempt he has for Hayley is palpable, deserved or not. I don't find him particularly scintillating television or a even a nice person. I don't feel like without Hayley, Blair would suddenly turn into a witty, gregarious person and be able to live up to his full potential. She's loud and obnoxious, but he's supercilious and dull. I'm team #BreakThemUpBecauseTheyHateEachOther.

 

I also want to like Mike and Rochelle, but every time she brings up her kid and how much she wants to have "his education paid for," I'm like "This is not The Amazing Charity Case." Couples without kids need the money just as much, thank you. Having a kid doesn't mean you deserve it any more than anyone else.

[backformore]

If I were standing on a adder and someone dumped water on me, I'd fall off the damn ladder.  

 

Blair was a decent racer this episode, he handled the tasks well.  I like him, I can see the wheels turning in his head when Hayley  is going on about what a terrible partner he is.  I see him thinking "I wonder how many times she will say the same thing if I stop responding?"   Hayley keeps trying to argue with him, and the more he refuses to argue, the more frustrated she becomes, making her go on and on.  

[backformore]

I swear I hit enter only once, the board is being weird today

Edited April 4, 2015 by backformore

[millennium]

What's up with that older woman at the beer hall shaking her jello boobs between these two men?  I was busting up.

 

 

 

Punny.  :)

[Black Knight]

I also want to like Mike and Rochelle, but every time she brings up her kid and how much she wants to have "his education paid for," I'm like "This is not The Amazing Charity Case." Couples without kids need the money just as much, thank you. Having a kid doesn't mean you deserve it any more than anyone else.

I don't recall her saying that she deserves to win more than anyone else. She's just saying what her own motivation is. I have no children by choice, could use a million dollars, and this doesn't bother me at all. I'm sure all the contestants (except the one super-wealthy gay guy) have a use in mind for the money should they win.

 

Someone commented that Blair should be invited back to the race with a partner of his choice. But didn't Phil explain (maybe it was in an interview) that this race was for people who were interested in competing but did not have anyone in their lives to partner with? So that wouldn't be an option for Blair, really. I'm not sorry because the guy is pretty dull.

[Hpmec]

Blair doesn't necessarily need a romantic partner to run the race with. Maybe brother, sister, mom, dad, cousin, friend.....someone he feels comfortable with who wouldn't necessarily be ragging on him the entire time. He's getting a raw deal having to race with harps nonstop Hailey.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Hpmec

[Donny Ketchum]

A couple potentially unpopular opinions: I'm not on the #FreeBlair train, because while Hayley is annoying, I don't think Blair is any prize either. The contempt he has for Hayley is palpable, deserved or not. I don't find him particularly scintillating television or a even a nice person. I don't feel like without Hayley, Blair would suddenly turn into a witty, gregarious person and be able to live up to his full potential. She's loud and obnoxious, but he's supercilious and dull. I'm team #BreakThemUpBecauseTheyHateEachOther.

I'm with you on that.  Plus, I think Hayley's shrillness now stemmed from Blair's early treatment of her.  If he'd treated her more like an equal early on, then I have no doubt that she wouldn't be acting the way she currently is.

 

So yes, Hayley has gotten annoying, and I am over her.  Like, greatly so.  But Blair started this whole thing, so I can't give him much sympathy.  It's amazing so many people are.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Donny Ketchum

[Waldo13]

Having been to Octoberfest I can tell you the two best things in Braveria (Munich) is the beer and the beautiful woman. The blond, at the winterwonderland detour, is absolutly beautiful. Also, the best beer is from local breweries.

Not very fond of Jeff and Jackie trying to hide the fact from Laura and Tyler that the fannie pack was in the car. At least they left it in the car and not on the side of the road. I'm not sure though, if they left it at the side of the road, that they would get a penalty.

If you can't drive a stick shift, swim, or have a deathly fear of heights, you need not apply to TAR. Let someone else have your spot.

I'm quite sure the producers knew how Hayley would act on TAR and teamed her with Blair who is her polar opposite. Every year the get a couple who continuously argues. Can anyone say Tweenies?

Edited April 4, 2015 by Waldo13

[FlyingEgret]

About dumping the water on the singers ... not a good idea.  Although it didn't look like temps were super cold there, being wet in a cooler climate (after coming from hot/humid climate) could be a recipe for coughs, colds, etc.  Then, they had to continue racing in the same clothes.   

 

 

I can't believe they dumped water on someone on a ladder who wasn't expecting it.  Really stupid idea.  Someone could have gotten hurt.  I'm glad no one did.

 

I've decided to rescind my membership in the "Blair is rude and we should cut Hayley some slack" club.  #FreeBlair

 

And don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya, Kurt and Bergen.  Gee, sorry that your all-expenses paid trip around the world for a chance to win $1,000,000 didn't meet your expectations.

 

Count me in with being distracted by waiting for one the singers to fall off the ladder after being doused with a bucket of water.  But then I noticed that one woman (forget which one) was dancing on the ladder and another had turned completely around -- so I think these ladders were somehow secured to the balcony (or at least weren't as rickety as the wooden ladders I have seen...)

[LizBug]

Don't the lawyers still have the Express Pass?  When is the last leg it can be used?  

[peachmangosteen]

But Blair started this whole thing, so I can't give him much sympathy.  It's amazing so many people are.

I do still blame Blair for why their team never really had a chance, but after seeing this ep and, particularly, the extra clip of them from it, I have to have some sympathy for him. Hayley was treating him absolutely terribly and certainly much worse than we ever saw him treat her.

[Donny Ketchum]

Don't the lawyers still have the Express Pass?  When is the last leg it can be used?  

Leg eight, so they have, at most, three more legs in which it is valid.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Donny Ketchum

[NurseGiGi]

I do still blame Blair for why their team never really had a chance, but after seeing this ep and, particularly, the extra clip of them from it, I have to have some sympathy for him. Hayley was treating him absolutely terribly and certainly much worse than we ever saw him treat her.

I assumed it had to be even worse than we saw since Phil pointed it out to them at the mat.  I hope this is a learning experience for both of them.

[lilabennet]

I'm with you on that.  Plus, I think Hayley's shrillness now stemmed from Blair's early treatment of her.  If he'd treated her more like an equal early on, then I have no doubt that she wouldn't be acting the way she currently is.

 

So yes, Hayley has gotten annoying, and I am over her.  Like, greatly so.  But Blair started this whole thing, so I can't give him much sympathy.  It's amazing so many people are.

I hold to my opinion that she has probably been picking at him since the very first flight to Japan, and that is why he was already checked out by the time they had that disagreement over directions during the first episode.  All my sympathy is with him.

[Netfoot]

I'm not on the #FreeBlair train, because while Hayley is annoying, I don't think Blair is any prize either. The contempt he has for Hayley is palpable, deserved or not. I don't find him particularly scintillating television or a even a nice person. I don't feel like without Hayley, Blair would suddenly turn into a witty, gregarious person and be able to live up to his full potential. She's loud and obnoxious, but he's supercilious and dull.

 

Totally with you.  They both have faults, and if I were on the race I'd have murdered Hayley by now, but Blair would be 2nd on my list!

 

The blond, at the winterwonderland detour, is absolutly beautiful.

 

I did actually think ReindeerGirl was sorta hot...

[Gregg247]

Those teams really got spread out this week, especially since they basically started out at the same time.  Has there ever been a team that failed at every task during an episode?  Those guys managed to climb the tower to find their Ford Focus, but they didn't complete ANY tasks after that.  Horrendous leg for them, and they really deserved to go home after that one.

[anhydrite]

Dave and Rachel from season 20: they skipped the Detour with the Express Pass and Dave couldn't complete the bottle dance Roadblock because he ran out of bottles and had to take a penalty, but they still finished in 8th or something.

[kingshearte]

While I'm not exactly on Team Blair (I still pretty much think he's an ass), I'm pretty much out of sympathy for Hayley at this point. She really just never seems satisfied with anything, complaining ALL THE DAMN TIME. Ugh.

I really liked that Laura & Tyler were able to deal with their screw up without turning on each other. I know many, many real people with actual relationships who aren't that functional.

I have no idea how the singing was judged. Phil made reference to being in tune, but given that none of the singers seemed to even be singing the same tune, pitch was clearly not a major factor.

Kurt & Bergen. Ugh. When one suggested going back to the train station, I thought they meant to regroup or something. When Phil showed up there and I realized that they'd just been sitting there waiting for him? Ugh. That's really all I can say about that.

[selkie]

Did I hear right that the record for crate-stacking was 49? That is seriously impressive. And a fairly wacky thing to have a record for.

 

If you go be the stereotypes of Germans liking their beer quite a bit and enjoying solving engineering problems, it rather makes sense.

 

 

 

And Phil couldn't change a non-elimintion leg even if he wanted since they are locked in before the Race begins.  Production can't tamper with a real Race for major prize money.

 

Because the show is filmed in The Real World, and not a nice controlled sound studio, Ford Focus promotion, notwithstanding, the producers do have a certain amount of leeway in changing things on the fly if need be, provided it's in the name of fairness to teams or dealing with unexpected problems. There have been secondhand reports that entire legs have been last minute substitutions because of a hurricane or other major weather event, political unrest, etc. has made it a bad idea to follow the planned route and original city/region's scheduled tasks.

 

The origin of the' to be continued...' leg was in the days when a team that finished last in a non-elimination leg had all their money taken away and they had to beg for cab fare to get to the airport for the next leg (plane tickets go on the Race-provided credit card and are apart from the money teams get at the start of each leg for other expenses). But production realized too late that the country they were in (Hungary? Czech Republic?) banned beggars, so teams checking in were told that the leg was not over, and they needed to 'keep racing' instead, letting the team that finished last keep their money they would have lost under other circumstances as a NEL penalty.

 

I've also got my suspicions that there was an unplanned NEL leg in Russia in a later season when the judging of a music task got all screwed up and production figured out that there had been serious problems while the Racers were still out on the course and declared it a NEL because trying to do a time credits system for the judging errors would haven been a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

 

  Also many Germans understand English.  So do many people in around the world.  That's why you see them running along a street in Hong Kong or Delhi or Moscow yelling out does anyone speak English all the time.

 

With Munich and surrounds, about 70-75% of people you'll talk to remember enough English from school that you can do the usual polite tourist questions and answers. Around Dresden would be harder since the over 40s in the old East Germany generally had Russian as a second language instead.

 

One funny thing about TAR is that teams tend to default to tourist Spanish when they're trying for a language that is Not English and not quite getting to the local lingo. So many a Japanese or Russian cabbie has been told to get somewhere 'Rapido!' and you'll also see someone telling a Buddhist monk in Southeast Asia 'muchos gracias!'.

Edited April 5, 2015 by selkie

[Rancide]

I was a Blair hater early on, but after the last couple of episodes I can't say for sure that the couple of carefully selected instances of her trying to tell him something important and correct that he wasn't listening to weren't a product of what now appears to be his general and well-justified sanity-maintaining strategy of doing his best to tune Hayley out completely. She's a nightmare.

Blair and Jelani ought to consider making out repeatedly to see if the producers could be persuaded to do a couple reshuffling. No matter how straight they are, that'd still have to be more enjoyable than what they're currently stuck with.

[kaygeeret]

I posted in the Blair/Haley thread as well, but I truly want to know the examples of Blair being mean/condescending or rotten to Haley in the first epi.

 

He looked dumbstruck in the first epi when she just kept talking and criticizing - already!

 

I would have employed (and have) the same strategy of just shutting up, picking a time and trying to talk/discuss and then backing off and tuning out.

 

I don't remember one single example of him being rude or dismissive without a non stop verbal stream from her.

 

Help me with examples please.

[hincandenza]

The water thing was no big deal to me.  Getting splashed with water, even while on a ladder, is hardly the most dangerous thing they will do in a given race- people get hurt worse when they trip over their own feet while running for a cluebox- and when they dumped the water it wasn't a surprise motion or attack from behind that might startle someone.  They clearly saw the person appear above coming out of a doorway, then they deliberately dumped the water bucket on them while everyone laughed uproariously, which also made it fun when they'd actually earn the clue and initially recoil in horror from the reappearance of the dreaded water bucket.  If a healthy, reasonably fit adult can't maintain their stance on a ladder and handhold on the rung when a little water hits their face then they were too physically uncoordinated to ever come on this race.

 

I'm on #TeamStopTryingToNerfTheWorld.  Shit happens, just rub some dirt on it and then keep racing. :)

[TheOriginalDonald]

I gotta know-Did Jerry Bruckheimer call in a chit from Disney to borrow Elsa on this leg? #Frozen

[John Seavey]

I posted in the Blair/Haley thread as well, but I truly want to know the examples of Blair being mean/condescending or rotten to Haley in the first epi.

 

He looked dumbstruck in the first epi when she just kept talking and criticizing - already!

 

I would have employed (and have) the same strategy of just shutting up, picking a time and trying to talk/discuss and then backing off and tuning out.

 

I don't remember one single example of him being rude or dismissive without a non stop verbal stream from her.

 

Help me with examples please.

I was particularly impressed with his "helpful advice" on the puzzle box task, like "Try to make progress," and "Do you have a strategy?" Then there was his utterly and condescendingly blowing off her totally valid complaint about reading the clue instead of just doing what the team before them did in the zip line task. Even in this episode, he was a smug and condescending jerk to her about proper stein-holding technique.

I'm not Team Hayley--she's not being considerate of him as a human being, no matter how he's treated her--but it's pretty clear that she is just sick of his constant patronizing smugness. And given that he started off by saying that he couldn't understand why he could never find a woman intelligent enough for him, I suspect this is a common thing for him. The only difference here is that instead of just not returning his calls, the woman in question is stuck with him and is giving back some of what she gets. I'm done with both of them.

[etagloh]

Finally caught up. I suppose it was entertaining, but it was also a trainwreck of a leg, and if TPTB had set it up with half an eye on sending it for Emmy consideration, they'll have tossed it in the bin. A fifteen-ish hour westbound flight can do that: call it induced KF. Most teams were snappy and snippy and some blind date teams were plain nasty to each other, but the established couples who held it together did really well. Once again, though, the winners weren't really in doubt early on, and nor were the last-placers.

 

It's hard even to pass judgement on the leg as a leg: the tasks seemed decent, the Ford promo task wasn't terrible, I'm very much not a fan of GPS for self-drive but Ford marketing money helps keep TAR going, and this didn't feel like a leg that needed to make navigation between tasks a massive factor, especially after such a long flight.

 

We've seen teams get past Rule #1 Of Race Preparation before, in the way Netfoot described: they may take half an hour to get out of first gear and put 50,000 miles of wear on the transmission, but once that's done, they can manage. Kurt and Bergen didn't have half an hour's patience with each other. (I feel bad for Harley and Jonathan watching this.) I suppose we did find out that Germany's public transportation network is good enough to get you out to places you'd normally expect only to be accessible by car.

 

The exchange between Tyler/Laura and Blair/Hayley seemed fairly telling to me: this hasn't simply been a selective #FreeBlair edit. The other teams have been exposed to enough of Hayley at bunches to have an opinion of her that's not dissimilar to Blair's.

[henripootel]

And Phil couldn't change a non-elimintion leg even if he wanted since they are locked in before the Race begins.  Production can't tamper with a real Race for major prize money.

Do we actually know if this is true?  I know Phil has said on occasion that NELs are 'predetermined' but I'm not sure this means much of anything.  I mean I'm sure some legs really are planned to be NEL but that doesn't mean they can't change on the fly if need be.  I'm not the only one who's been suspicious in the past that the did exactly that.

 

In general, the issue of prize money being involved means nothing.  My understanding is that 'reality' shows can have a pre-determined winner if they want without fear of incurring legal trouble, and some do.  I don't think AR does that but that doesn't mean that won't fudge things a bit if they need to.

[ChuChu]

I read an interview with Hayley somewhere that said she tried out as a team, but the producers called her and asked if she'd mind doing the blind date thing instead.  It makes me wonder about the other blind daters.  Did Kurt originally try out as a typical racer, then when the blind date thing came up he decided that he'd race for love?  I'm looking forward to the Kurt / Bergen interviews on Monday.

 

ITA with etagloh -- I usually suspect editing on reality shows making someone look better or worse than they are, but hearing Tyler / Laura's comments about Hayley confirmed to me that there's a fair amount of truth there.

[Rick Kitchen]

Most Americans don't and those that do are most likely to have Spanish, and there hasn't been a Spanish speaking country on this race yet.

 

That hasn't stopped many, many teams from throwing "Rapido!" at taxi drivers in non-Spanish speaking countries.

[green]

Because the show is filmed in The Real World, and not a nice controlled sound studio, Ford Focus promotion, notwithstanding, the producers do have a certain amount of leeway in changing things on the fly if need be, provided it's in the name of fairness to teams or dealing with unexpected problems. There have been secondhand reports that entire legs have been last minute substitutions because of a hurricane or other major weather event, political unrest, etc. has made it a bad idea to follow the planned route and original city/region's scheduled tasks.

 

The origin of the' to be continued...' leg was in the days when a team that finished last in a non-elimination leg had all their money taken away and they had to beg for cab fare to get to the airport for the next leg (plane tickets go on the Race-provided credit card and are apart from the money teams get at the start of each leg for other expenses). But production realized too late that the country they were in (Hungary? Czech Republic?) banned beggars, so teams checking in were told that the leg was not over, and they needed to 'keep racing' instead, letting the team that finished last keep their money they would have lost under other circumstances as a NEL penalty.

 

I've also got my suspicions that there was an unplanned NEL leg in Russia in a later season when the judging of a music task got all screwed up and production figured out that there had been serious problems while the Racers were still out on the course and declared it a NEL because trying to do a time credits system for the judging errors would haven been a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

 

 

Do we actually know if this is true?  I know Phil has said on occasion that NELs are 'predetermined' but I'm not sure this means much of anything.  I mean I'm sure some legs really are planned to be NEL but that doesn't mean they can't change on the fly if need be.  I'm not the only one who's been suspicious in the past that the did exactly that.

 

In general, the issue of prize money being involved means nothing.  My understanding is that 'reality' shows can have a pre-determined winner if they want without fear of incurring legal trouble, and some do.  I don't think AR does that but that doesn't mean that won't fudge things a bit if they need to.

 

Yes 100% non-eliminations are per-determined and have never ever been changed in the history of The Amazing Race. 

 

The one example of Hungary going from a non-elimination leg to a "to be continued leg" still made that leg a non-elim.  It was changed at the last minute because production was unaware of a national law in Hungary against begging and that was back when a non-eliminated team had all it's money taken away.  So they switched to the old school non elim which was you just come in last.  Adding the to be continued actually gave the last place team as much or more of a penalty time wise then if their money had been taken away.  Anyway, that leg remained non elimination and all teams moved on.

 

No non-elimination leg has ever been switched to eliminate someone and no elimination leg has ever been switched to non-elimination.  Ever.  Period.

 

Switching to a different location for a leg due to an extreme emergency event like the hurricane in Belize (TAR8: The Family Edition) or away from Istanbul to Dubai (TAR5) because of a bombing that had just happened in Istanbul is well within the rules the teams go over ahead of time.  So much so that if a visa is needed for an alternate leg it is also stamped in the Racers' passports pre-Race as well as a few red herrings.  An alternate leg or two are always pre-planned in case of an emergency that could seriously threaten the Racers and production.  No manipulation.  Basic common sense.

 

And if the original leg was non elim, the alternate would be too and vice versa.  They cannot and never have changed a non elim to an elimination or an elimination to a non elim.  This isn't some tacky third rate trailer trash reality show.  So no, The Amazing Race most definitely can NOT have a per-determined winner.  It is a legit contest.

 

And if it weren't do you think KKKendra would ever have won TAR6 and Eric and Temp Girlfriend would have been allowed to destroy TAR All Stars?  Obviously not.

Edited April 5, 2015 by green

[John Seavey]

Except that Tyler is no prize either. Between his friendzone comment, his "lady man" and castration jokes, and now his "that chick is nuts" line, it wouldn't surprise me if he was one of those guys who always took a "dude's" side, and always wrote off complaints from a woman with "da wimmen be crazy". All that convinced me of was that Blair was really good at pushing Hayley's buttons and getting her to lose it.

[hincandenza]

Do we actually know if this is true?  I know Phil has said on occasion that NELs are 'predetermined' but I'm not sure this means much of anything.  I mean I'm sure some legs really are planned to be NEL but that doesn't mean they can't change on the fly if need be.  I'm not the only one who's been suspicious in the past that the did exactly that.

 

In general, the issue of prize money being involved means nothing.  My understanding is that 'reality' shows can have a pre-determined winner if they want without fear of incurring legal trouble, and some do.  I don't think AR does that but that doesn't mean that won't fudge things a bit if they need to.

 

I am not an entertainment lawyer, so I'd like to hear an actual confirmed ruling/legal opinion on this.  However, the hive-mind consensus regarding TAR in particular and competitive reality shows in general seems to include the following:

 

• The famous "Quiz Show" scandals of the 1950's led to laws that enforced standards and practices on televised contests.  It would be a felony, and possible result in losing their broadcast license, for a TV producer or network to engage in "rigged" competitions.
• Recent example: in 2010, Mark Burnett had FOX pull the game show "Our Little Genius" because of a suspicion that one of the staff had given the quiz topics ahead of time to a single contestant.  The FCC investigated and the show never ran.
• Those of us who trust that shows like TAR and Survivor et al are "fair" are basing it on the belief that they would also fall under the same classification as a more traditional in-studio game show such as "Jeopardy" or "The Price is Right" or even "American Ninja Warrior".  I can't cite chapter and subsection of the relevant laws, but it's a (fairly) safe assumption.
• A show must adapt to unforeseen circumstances that could threaten the safety or integrity of the contest.  But if a competitive show such as TAR intentionally altered the rules or format mid-season to either favor or punish a specific contestant, this would be seen as rigging the contest- and could result in severe legal consequences, both criminal and civil, for the producers and the network. 
• TAR appears to take great pains to ensure the race is well planned, and that if things go wrong with leg design or unexpected problems, they attempt to rectify it in as fair and impartial a manner as possible.  One way to do this would be a two-room approach: the race designers are never aware of the contestants or their progress during filming, so if anything arises they can be asked "The ____ challenge in ____ can't be done due to weather, what's our backup plan?" or "A team has done _____ which may be against the rules, what is the penalty?" without any fear they were influenced by personal biases.
• Even if cancelled, the show still has to award a winning prize as the contestants are expecting someone to win; this has happened more than once in the recent past.

 

TV producers can and do have a fully scripted "reality" show like Keeping up with the Kardashians or Duck Dynasty, and there's no problem.  But when you're involving contestants who believe, along with the audience, that they are honestly competing for a real prize, they have to be careful to not be shown as having their thumb on the scales in any fashion, as that could invite an FCC investigation and/or a civil suit by a contestant who has reason to believe the contest was rigged.

 

So changing a leg structure or even skipping a city due to problems outside of their control- weather, political situations, safety, broken challenge/judging/location, etc- or even last season's mobile Save/NEL structure are fine because they are preplanned and/or do not attempt to change the outcome in any direction. However, if Phil ever decided to call it a NEL simply because he liked a team- even if it seems deserved such as the Lena & Kristy haybale disaster- then that would probably be the last season of "The Amazing Race" since Phil, Worldwide Race Productions, and CBS would be in some real legal trouble.

 

We of course might never know, since it's not like Phil would actually admit it on camera.  But... given how easily replaceable the famewhores on these shows are, why on earth would any long-running show like this risk their franchise just to help a contestant that most fans wouldn't even remember a couple of years later?

 

 

Edit: Well, I see green made similar points while I was replying.  But I slaved over a hot keyboard typing this, so it stays! :)

Edited April 5, 2015 by hincandenza