THE AMAZING RACE VII --TAR7-- Official Show Thread & photo preview

I knew he had that psych degree and was not surprised at all. He's one smart cookie who plays people beautifully. I'm rooting for Romber to win....and then Rob should move on to Apprentice. LOL

I actually think they made a mistake not yielding U/J. If they had yielded them instead, M/G might still be in the race, and it would be an easier final 3.

Good point. But it looked like Metch came in more than an hour after Uchenna. Yielding Relly seemed good to me, as they had no way of knowing how far back they were. It certainly guaranteed Romber the win this time, which is at least a psychological advantage. .

Hoping they will soon do a "Celeb Amazing Race" or all previous 2nd place couples to determine the best of the almost best.

Great idea! Now that the season is ending, I'm looking forward to many more editions of TAR and would love to see an All-Star race featuring 2nd and 3rd place winners. Would that be cutthroat or what?

Some of that stuff is interesting. I wonder why they don't let the viewers in on things like a Kurdish bartenders generosity towards an American.

Good race but I was amazed at Rob and Amber's really stupid move. I predict that Rob and Amber will lose because of that one move. When they had the opportunity to yield a team they chose Ron and Kelly. Romber must have had some sort of idea that the two couples that took the later flight were at least an hour behind. There was no threat of Ron and Kelly being eliminated. Why pick them for a time penalty when the penalty would not effect the outcome of the race?

I was yelling at the tv for them to pick team Juchenna. They were obviously in a footrace with the older couple. If Romber could knock off a strong team and make sure a weak team was in the finals with them it greatly improves their chances of winning the race.

I predict team Juchenna will win with Romber coming in second and Relly third.

I've wondered what I would have done in that yield situation. All Romber knew was that Relly was on their flight, and could be coming up behind them at any minute, and that the other two teams were 90 minutes later. Yielding Juchenna may put Metch in the final 3, but also may give Relly a chance to beat Romber in this leg (they didn't know how long the roadblock would take, or what was left after that). Do you want to go into the final leg in 2nd (or with a small lead in first) and have Metch as team 3, or go with a bigger head start but stronger competition?

I know the show likes bunching, but with a large international airport, and multiple flights to most desitinations on multiple airlines, I think I'd like the extra hour jump-start on the last leg.

I completely expect Ron and Kelly to self destruct or fall prey to Romber's designs.

They may self-destruct. However, several media commentators have pointed out that Ron and Kelly have benefited from their alliance with Rob and Amber and have learned a lot from them.

link at http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race7/

Calling all racing fans! We're down to the wire!

Don't forget to set your recorders for the two-hour finale Tuesday night. Because it's two hours, local times may differ, so please check your local listings.

The following is from the CBS-Amazing Race site as I do not have time to write a tailored-for-FR summary. Sorry! Did manage to change their names to our names, however, thanks to the miracle of global find and replace.

Short Summary of last week's race:
After missing a crucial flight in the previous leg, engaged couple Romber and former POW and pageant queen Relly turned the tables, landing in London, England well ahead of married couple Juchenna and retired married couple Metch By yielding Relly, Romber maintained their lead en route to another first-place finish. Meanwhile, a grueling Detour finally took its toll on Metch and they became the eighth Team eliminated from THE AMAZING RACE.

Detailed Summary:
Find dancing dervishes at Istanbul's murky Sirikeci Train Station.

Fly over 2000 miles to London.

Find the “zebra crossing” made famous by the Beatles.

Travel to the London Eye, a very large Ferris wheel. Ride the Eye, searching for race marker at a hotel in the City..

DETOUR. Brains or Brawn. Brains: Follow clues to Sherlock Holmes house. Brawn: Drag heavy boats 500 yards.

Travel to the Millennium Dome and find the next clue. Warning, Yield ahead.

ROADBLOCK. The team member selected will need to navigate a double-decker bus through a course marked by cones.

Travel eight miles to the pit stop at Potter’s Field Park.

ROUND AND ROUND
Departing the Istanbul Pit Stop at 10:53 pm, Juchenna discovered they must travel 10 miles to the Sirkeci Train Station and pass through a group of whirling dervishes, a religious sect famed for a ritual in which devotees spin to express their faith, to find their next clue. (Actually, they’re getting high on spinning.)

Arriving at the train station, Juchenna walked through the doors and were mesmerized by the whirling white-robed dervishes. Juchenna opened their clue to discover they must fly 2,000 miles to London and find the crosswalk on the road made famous on an album cover by the Beatles. Teams had to figure out for themselves that this was Abbey Road. Leaving the dervishes, Uchenna exclaimed, “Wow, that was magical.”

As Metch made their way to the train station, Juchenna arrived at the airport in search of the fastest flight to London. The couple settled for a direct flight on Turkish Air leaving at 8:30am and arriving at 10:30am. They initially considered looking around for any connecting flights that would land sooner, but decided not to “because anything can happen to connecting flights.” After their encounter with the dervishes, Metch also booked tickets on the Turkish Air flight landing at 10:30 am

TAKING A CHANCE
Arriving at the airport third, Romber decided to investigate options beyond the 10:30 am direct flight that the other Teams booked. Searching the Internet, the couple discovered a Lufthansa flight connecting through Frankfurt, Germany that would land in London at 9 am. However, the connecting flight from Frankfurt to London was completely booked. The engaged couple decided to take the risk of flying to Frankfurt in hopes of getting a spot on the flight to London to secure a huge lead.

After begging for enough money to cover cab fare to the train station and the airport, last place Relly caught up to the other Teams at the airport, where Metch helped out by giving the couple some additional money. Once they booked tickets on the Turkish Air flight arriving at 10:30 am, complete with Kelly asking to borrow one agent’s lipstick, the pair stumbled upon the Lufthansa flight by noticing the Frankfurt boarding gate sign. Like Romber, Relly placed their name on the standby list for the sold-out flight from Frankfurt to London, hoping the risk would pay off. (NOTE: Metch gave Relly money, but Relly did not give Metch info about the earlier flight.)

Landing in Frankfurt, Relly and Romber raced off the plane and through the terminal, knowing that every second was crucial in securing the tickets to London. Arriving at the desk first by mere seconds, Romber booked tickets to London, now with an hour and a half lead. After a few tense moments, Relly also secured tickets on the flight, leaving both Juchenna and Metch in last place

ON THE LOOKOUT
Landing in London at 9 am, Romber took the early lead by catching the first train headed to Paddington Station and Abbey Road, while Relly took the next one, begging locals for money while they waited. On their train, Romber met a local named Stuart who promised to help them find their way around town. Arriving at Abbey Road, the couple opened their clue to learn that they must make their way to the London Eye, a 40-story Ferris wheel located on the banks of the River Thames. From inside the Ferris wheel, Teams must scan the skyline to locate a flag where their next clue was located.

With Relly in hot pursuit, Romber arrived at the London Eye and boarded the Ferris wheel with Stuart. As their carriage began its ascent, the Team of three scanned the horizon, but couldn’t see the signature yellow-and-red flag. As Relly entered their carriage below, Rob finally spotted the flag on a nearby hotel

DETOUR: BRAINS OR BRAWN
Arriving at the hotel, Romber opened their clue to find a Detour. This Detour offered Teams the choice between “Brains” and “Brawn.” Brains required Teams to make their way to the nearby London subway, known as the Underground or tube, and solve a series of three riddles. The mystery would eventually lead them to 221B Baker Street, home of legendary fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, where they would find their next clue. For Brawn, Teams must make their way one and a half miles to Battersea Park, where they had to transport five 160-pound boats from the lake to a storage area 500 yards away to earn their next clue.

With Stuart’s help, Romber opted for Brains, having to pick up their first clue at the train station’s Left Luggage counter: a satchel, a magnifying glass and instructions to find the Three Naked Men of Hammersmith. Realizing that Hammersmith was a stop on the Underground, Rob, Amber and Stuart boarded the train for that destination, while Relly began their own hunt for Sherlock Holmes.

Landing in London at 10:30 am, Juchenna and Metch, aware of their last place standing, hurried toward Abbey Road in hopes of making up time along the way. On the situation, Gretchen remarked, “We’ve just got to play the game really smart now.”

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR STUART
As Juchenna and Metch got their clue at Abbey Road, Romber and Stuart arrived at the Hammersmith station in search of the three naked men. The team of three quickly understood the clue when they spotted a statue of three naked men with the second clue attached. Opening the bag, they discovered a pipe, tobacco and a clue instructing them to go to the station with the same name as the street on which Victorian London’s most famous detective lived and find him standing outside. Stuart quickly deduced that their next riddle would be located at the statue of Sherlock Holmes directly outside the Baker Street station.

As Relly found the three naked men of Hammersmith, Romber arrived at the statue of Sherlock Holmes to find his signature hat and the message that, having solved the mystery, they must return the items to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. After a quick walk, the engaged couple returned the items to earn their next clue, which instructed them to travel to the Millennium Dome, the largest public arena of its kind in the world. With a Yield at the dome, Romber knew they must make it there ahead of the other Teams or risk being Yielded themselves.

PART OF THE GAME
Arriving at the Millennium Dome in first place, Romber, relieved to not be Yielded themselves, now had decide whether to Yield another Team. After some discussion, the couple decided to Yield Relly, calling them “the toughest competition.” Walking away, Rob muttered, “They’re not going to be happy.”

Opening their next clue, Romber encountered a Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one Team member had to drive a double-decker bus through a marked course without hitting any cones. If they hit a cone, the bus would be reset to the beginning of the course and they would have to start again. At the end of the course, the driver had to back the bus into a designated parking space before receiving the next clue. After a few rocky attempts, Rob completed the marked course without hitting a cone and parked his bus to earn the next clue. Opening it, he and Amber discovered they needed to travel eight miles to Potter’s Field Park, the Pit Stop for this leg of the Race

HEAVY LIFTING
As a stunned Relly arrived at the Millennium Dome to find out they had been Yielded, Juchenna arrived at Battersea Park to haul boats. While the task proved very demanding physically, Juchenna encouraged each other and began powering through. However, Metch had difficulty finding the strength to pull through the task. Gretchen asked a very winded Meredith if he was feeling okay. Uchenna tried to help them, but Gretchen, while thankful, shrugged him off because they couldn’t accept help to finish the Detour. Uchenna remarked, “Metch are good people. I hate to see them break their backs like this.” After Juchenna completed stacking five boats, they shouted support to Metch, who kept stacking to finally finish as well.

Arriving at Potter’s Field Park, Romber stepped onto the mat in first place. Phil informed the couple that they had won a home entertainment system compliments of JVC

BACK SEAT DRIVER
After waiting out their allotted time on the Yield mat, Kelly chose to perform the Roadblock because Ron had already done five of them. Ron’s frustration with Kelly’s ability to navigate the course intensified with the arrival of Juchenna. When Metch arrived on the scene, everyone knew that the last Team out would most likely be eliminated. On her seventh attempt, which included Ron’s quip that this was like “teaching women to drive,” Kelly backed the gigantic bus into its spot to earn the clue.

While happy to finish the task, Kelly was unhappy with Ron’s behavior during the Roadblock, believing he’d been “rude.” During the cab ride to the Pit Stop and a second-place finish, she confronted him about it, saying she didn’t appreciate Ron’s attitude that he could do the task better. Fully believing that he could drive the bus better than she had, Ron went as far as wanting to turn the taxi around and prove it to her. Kelly responded, “Maybe we can lose the Race to let you go back and be a man.”

FAREWELL TO METCH
With only two Teams left in the field, the race for last place heated up. Although Joyce finished the driving course ahead of Meredith, Juchenna initially had difficulties finding a taxi. This moment of hesitation allowed Meredith an opportunity to finish the Roadblock and a chance to stay in the Race. In the end, though, Juchenna narrowly edged out the retired couple to claim third place. When they stepped onto the mat in last place, Metch became the eighth and final Team eliminated from THE AMAZING RACE.

(Note: Luck only took them so far. The superior teams who are thinking harder and running faster will always beat out sheer luck.)

The finale should be super. May the best team win!

I said the same thing to my daughter-in-law.

"Keep it, I'll buy another"

But what does it say about Kelly to even ask in the first place?

Is it me but every time Romber comes in first, they win something? I believe only one non-Romber team that arrived first received a prize (the hate-filled dating couple won two cars) - please correct me if I'm wrong. All the other teams win "the satisfaction" rather than something tangible.

You are mostly correct. I think they have won 4 trips and 1 home entertainment system. Ray and Deana won the cars, but your forgot that Debbie and Bianca won $10,000 each on the first leg. I think Lynn/Alex (once), Ron/Kelly (once) and Uchenna/Joyce (twice) have all come in first and not won anything. (But R/K won a great prize for the gnome, of course.)

Hopefully U/J will and get the best prize of all. I have heard the top 3 teams get some money, but 2nd and 3rd get A LOT less. Not sure how much.

What is worse, borrowing someone's lipstick or borrowing someone's underwear! :-)

‘Amazing Race’ down to final three teams

A quote from the article:

“Uchenna (Agu) and Kelly (McCorkle) were the two people who came to our room in the middle of the night and gave us clothes,” said Meredith. “We had no clothes other than those on our back, as you saw. As an interesting side note, Gretchen was wearing Uchenna’s underwear.”

“Yes, ’cause I didn’t have any others,” said Gretchen.

In case you were wondering: they were boxers.

I have to say I would probably never borrow anyone's lipstick, but I don't think it is a horrible thing to do so. I definitely wouldn't borrow someone's underwear though!

I gotta say that this episode in London has to be one of my favorites. Romber played the game well and I am getting tired of Phil's apparent attitude towards Romber.

Definitely not a Romber fan here. They passed Gretchen when her car went off the ditch, managed to somehow get on a place that was closed (CBS plot?). I'm rooting for Joyce and Uchena now that team Gretch is out. BTW here's a link to a funny commentary from TVgasm.com:

http://www.tvgasm.com/archives/amazing_race/000766.php#more

This is a race. How many runners in a race have you ever seen stop and help one of their competitors? Neither the brothers nor team Gretch were injured. Plus all teams operate with the knowledge that a whole army of producers, medical people and etc. accompany the racers on all legs of the race.

Rob and Amber have played the game well and deserve to win. That being said if Uchena and Joyce win that will be fine with me.

What confuses me is why Kvetchin Gretchen chose the brawn task when they could have chosen brains, duh, the man has broken bones in his foot, why make him lug all that heavy stuff? They made really poor decisions and deserved to lose. I'm all for the Robfather.

The Amazing Race is a race. It's televized. Competent crews accompany the racers to take care of everything so the racers can just race.

The object of the race is to go faster, not to play nicer. The Congeniality Award NEVER goes to the winner, not in beauty pageants, not in life.

Romber has had an outstanding race so far and might (I'll NEVER say "deserves to") win. Some observers think they made a couple of mistakes that could cost them the race.

1. They yielded Relly last week instead of Juchenna. However, I don't think that yielding Juchenna would have knocked them out of the race as they apparently performed their tasks more than an hour faster than Metch and would have come in third anyway.

2. Rob has used all of his roadblock options. This could hurt. Whatever the roadblock is this week, Amber has to perform it, perhaps against Uchenna and Ron, who might be much faster at certain kinds of challenges.

Here is an interesting diatribe against Romber

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-05-09-amazing-race_x.htm

I wonder if there is a TAR thread over at DU, and if so is it overwhelmingly anti-Romber? It seems like there is almost a political divide when it comes to Rob, as if conservatives love his competitive fire and liberals hate his self-confidence. Is this a capitalist/bleeding heart microcosm of the US? Not that I'm calling all of you Rob-hating freepers democrats or anything.

seems like there is almost a political divide when it comes to Rob, as if conservatives love his competitive fire and liberals hate his self-confidence.

Good observation. Plus, Romber MUST be hated because after all they already won a million bucks and do not "deserve" another, the feelthy capitalists.

Personally, I'd like to see them win this and then take on The Apprentice. Seems to me that The Donald would have great respect for Rob's fire, a quality that Trump always talks about as necessary for winners.

Juchenna has that fire too, though perhaps not as bright a flame. Where are their detractors? They're obviously capitalist pigs too, who had the temerity to work for evil Enron and WorldCom. The only thing that saves them from public flagellation is the fact that they lost major bucks when their companies tanked. Losers good. Winners bad.

Where are the Relly detractors? Boo Hiss to Kelly, who already won the Miss N.C. (SC?) crown. She obviously does not deserve another win in life.

The absurdity can go on and on. I wonder who exactly these people are who decide who deserves what and when.

"Personally, I'd like to see them win this and then take on The Apprentice"

Absolutely, although I am afraid his team members would sabotage him to get him fired early on.