Amazing Race #3 (Show Thread)

I would like to introduce a thread for fans and fans-to-be of the Amazing Race (TAR) on CBS Wednesday nights 9PM EST (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race3/) . For quite some time, Survivor had a thread running on FR and I thought that TAR should have a thread of its own.

TAR is essentially a race around the world for twelve two-person teams who are competing for a grand prize of $1,000,000. Each week, the last team to complete that leg around the world is eliminated. There’s no tribal council, no alliances, and no weakest link unless your team comes in dead last.

This race is all about raw, naked endurance while keeping your wits, working with your partner, and staying focused on the final goal as you travel 40-60k miles around the world by every imaginable mode of transportation in foreign cultures.

The previous two Amazing Races started and ended in the continental US but went through completely different countries along the way. TAR #1 raced through Africa, European countries, Tunisia, India, Thailand, China and Alaska. TAR #2 headed to Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Alaska.

At the very beginning of the Amazing Race, all the teams are given identical clues at the same time to the their first checkpoint. How well the teams travel from point to point starts spreading out the field and eventually decides what team will be eliminated at the end of that leg. In addition, the points themselves have activities that are either “Detours” or “Roadblocks”. The teams cannot receive directions to the next checkpoint without successfully completing the Detour or Roadblock..

A Detour is an activity that both team members must complete together at a checkpoint. They usually involve the choice of engaging in “fast and risky” activity like bungee jumping or “slow and safe” endeavor like carrying a Chinese Dragon. Sometimes, the “risky” activity is too difficult the teams that pick the “slow” activity finish their task first. This is a great place to for lead changes to take place.

A Roadblock is a single-person activity at a checkpoint. These are usually designed to physically or emotionally challenge the individual beyond their comfort zone. Some examples of these types of challenges in are: finding the checkpoint directions in a cave filled with bats, stacking sea-going container with a crane or diving under water to release the direction from a sealed container.

The last remaining rule in TAR is the Fast Forward. The Fast Forward enables the team to bypass all of the checkpoints and go directly to the final destination for that leg – provided the team conquers the Fast Forward challenge. Each team has the ability to use their Fast Forward once during the race and only one exists on each leg. Once one team on a leg has taken a Fast Forward, the other teams are often surprised to learn that their Fast Forward option is no longer available and they have to re-think their strategy on the fly. For teams at the back of the pack, this knowledge often comes too late and they are soon eliminated.

At the end of the leg, the last team is eliminated from the race and all teams are given twelve hours from the time of their arrival to base camp to rest. In my opinion, this is a particularly “evil” rule because if a team arrives at 2PM – they have to start the next leg at 2AM the next morning. After a while, this begins to grate on everyone and makes for some rather snippy dialog.

This is a snapshot of the rules of the Amazing Race and I will leave it up to you to tune into the show and root for your favorite team.

Amazing Racing Freepers,

Here is your Amazing Race #3 – Leg 1 Box Score I will post the play-by-play as soon as I can.

Racers: 12

Start Location: Outside Miami, Florida in a swamp

“Fast” Detour description: Skydiving

“Slow” Detour description: Donkey Cart Ride

Roadblock: None

Fast Forward Used (Yes) & FF Challenge: Find clue to Final Destination amidst hundreds of typists who write letters for Mexico City workers. Won by Ken / Gerard

Final Leg Destination: Outside Mexico City, Mexico

Winning team (prize, if any): Ken / Gerard (7 Day Cruise)

Eliminated team: Gina / Sylvia (Team “Soccer Moms”)

Injuries: Two injuries each to pride and self-respect.

Pride injury – Team Soccer Moms fell down right at the starting line in the swamp. It was a bad omen.

Pride injury – Derek / Drew (Team “Zoolander”) left their luggage in a Mexico City cab while they walked a way working on a waypoint. The cab drove off. In a miracle of TV, the cab came back! In real life, they would be SOL.

Self-respect injury - Heather / Eve (Team “Heave”) begs for money in the Miami Airport despite the fact they had just received $x for travel expenses not including airfare at the beginning of the leg.

Self-respect injury – Team Heave is unable to successfully complete the Burro Cart Detour so they elect to Skydive and one of the team members dissolves into tears, convulsions about “parachutes not opening”. High drama indeed.

Team Time Bonuses / Penalties: None

10/3/02

Amazing Race Freepers,

Here is the TAR #3 play-by-play from the first leg.

All twelve teams are air boated into a Florida swamp to the starting point. The Narrator and each team give a brief background so that you can start a cheering or booing section. For more details of the teams go to the website TAR #3 website http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race3/). I will attempt to hide any biased in my play-by-play but any contemptible behavior by a team I like will be reported.

After the signal, all teams run around a mud pit towards their luggage, cars and the clue to the next destination. Amazingly, when Team Soccer Mom falls down in the scramble to the cars - they miss the mud pit. Somewhere, there’s a TV director still smacking his head for their bad luck. The teams have to find the “Angel of Independence” in Mexico City and there’s two flights departing within the next two hours.

During the mad dash for the airport, somehow vehicular homicide is avoided despite aggressive driving and Andre / Damon (LA Cop / Fireman) running a red light. At the airport, we learn that first plane has only space for seven teams on the first flight and the rest must wait an hour for the second. At the airport, Team Heave starts begging for money and suckers at least one person into handing over some cash. They brag they pick-up more than $50 in the process. By the way, Team Heave is studying Law at Harvard.

Once in Mexico, the teams grab taxis and during the ride to the “Angel of Independence,” Zach says on camera that his partner, Flo, is very “high maintenance” and this character trait could be a “liability” on a round the world trip. Hello! Didn’t you think about this when you both signed up for the show? I bet she really will have a spring in her step for the rest of the race…

The teams find the Angel and then must find “Pablo” who hangs out in front of a Cathedral at the Place de Constitution. There, Team Zoolander has the “duh, did you get the luggage out of the cab” incident. Eventually, everyone finds Pablo and receives the next clue that directs them to a hotel in Mexico City. There they will sign up for tour buses to their next destination and spend the night. What they don’t know is that each bus is limited to four teams each.

Note: The overnight hotel stay is a ploy that TAR uses to “bunch” the teams together so that one team does not have a overwhelming lead over the real loser teams but the buses serves to “spread” out the field again.

The next day, Ken / Gerard agree that the Fast Forward is their best option to avoid elimination because they are on the last bus. They find out that Team Zoolander, apparently, is planning the same thing and tells them straight away what their plans are. Team Zoolander pretends like they are going out for a run, fooling no one. Ken / Gerard find the clue and Team Zoolander that they indeed won the Fast Forward and the “sweatless gods” would have to complete the leg the old fashioned way.

At the Detour, the teams had a choice between Skydiving and riding a Donkey Cart. A surprisingly large number of teams chose to ride the Cart. The bad news is that Team Heave (remember they’re studying to be Harvard Lawyers) couldn’t even ride the cart correctly and elected to jump late in the game. Unfortunately for Team Heave, the thought of throwing one’s self out a perfectly fine aircraft was too much for these perfect minds and one team member cracked under the strain. After much tears and really good TV, they were able to pull together and complete the task.

The other teams completed the Detour and found that driving stick mini vans in Mexico is more challenging than jumping out of an airplane. John / Jill’s van was literally smoking from the floorboards as they drove down the country roads. Others had serious navigational issues.

In the end, Team Soccer Moms were eliminated and they felt “validated” by just being able to race. I believe one said that the Amazing Race was “easier than raising children”. ACK. True, but still ACK!

Next week – See how Mexican transportation makes the teams Poco Loco. They’re getting lost. They’re getting mad. They’re getting naked! They’re getting Wet?

Tune in next Wednesday at 9PM EST

Race ON!

jriemer

10/7/02

Amazing Race Freepers,

Here are my predictions for TAR #3 second leg. One of the following teams will be eliminated Wednesday at 9PM EST:

Heather / Eve (Team Heave)

Derek / Drew (Team Zoolander)

Teri / Ian

One of the following teams will win the leg:

Michael / Kathy

John / Jill

Flo / Zach

I am basing my predictions by using Madame Babushka's magic crystal and the fact that Team Zoolander is about as "sharp as a bag of wet mice" (thanks Foghorn Leghorn for the quote). Sure some might think they are pretty to look at but they're just plain TOO STUPID TO LIVE! Also, you expect me to believe that the members of Team Heave got into Harvard Law on brains? The rest is just jriemer speculation.

Please no betting,

Jriemer

10/10/02

Amazing Racing Freepers,

Here is your Amazing Race #3 – Leg 2 Box Score. I will post the play-by-play as soon as I can.

Racers: 11

Start Location: Outside Mexico City, Mexico

“Fast” Detour description: Wave-runner

“Slow” Detour description: Kayak

Roadblock: Dolphin swim

Fast Forward Used (Y/N) & FF Challenge: Yes – Become a Valadores (Mexican Human Yo-yo) and twirl around a 100’ tall pole. Won by Team Zoolander.

Final Leg Destination: Outside Cancun, Mexico

Winning team (prize, if any): Team Zoolander (None)

Eliminated team: Tramel / Talicia

Accidents / Injuries: Two vehicle accidents and one Critical Self-Respect injury.

Accident involving tour bus: Around midnight, the bus with Team Zoolander, Andre / Damon, Dennis / Andrew, Teri / Ian, and Tramel / Talicia is hit by a car. After several hours, a replacement bus arrives. This accident nearly wipes out any advantage that Team Zoolander could have enjoyed by winning the Fast Forward but alas, the did win this leg anyways.

Accidents involving wave-runner: Tramel / Talicia wipe out three times on their wave-runner. Teri / Ian wipe out only once but receive more style points in their “dismount”.

Critical Self-respect injury – While riding in a cab around Cancun, the tropical climate has a strange influence on Aaron / Arianne (now Team Playboy – continue reading). Before you can say “Hugh Heffner”, Arianne removed her once skimpy top and shouted “Girl gone wild!” I emphasize that I am not making this up and this not something clipped from a MTV Spring break video but real live top-three broadcast prime-time TV. Apparently, CBS – the former Tiffany Network – has much in common with the former singer now in many ways…

Team Time Bonuses / Penalties:

Andre / Damon were penalized 78 minutes for not following the correct Donkey cart course on leg #1. Since they also ran a red light earlier in the same leg, I am quite surprised that they did not receive a significant penalty for breaking the law considering that one of them is a COP. They are hereby christened Team Bad Boyz.

10/10/02

Amazing Race Freepers,

Here is the TAR #3 play-by-play from the second leg.

After Gina / Sylvia (Team Soccer Moms) were eliminated on the first leg from Miami, the racers prepare for their journey around the world. After a twelve hour rest, Ken / Gerald are first out of the gate at 10PM. They and all the teams that are hot on their heels will be headed for the Pyramids of the Sun back near Mexico City. All must drive the same rickety vans to this landmark and climb to the top for the next destination clue. The added “fun” will be navigating the Mexican countryside and downtown at night.

Flo / Zach and Aaron / Arianne drive out into the darkness at 1AM. Michael / Kathy and John / Jill quickly follow 30 minutes later and form a convoy on the highway. Unfortunately, for these teams this strategy has more in common with “four blind mice” than navigation.

Team Heave begins to show some “book knowledge” and can actually read a map! Considering that this is the third season the Amazing Race, you would be surprised how few teams can actually do this critical task. These bimbettes / lawyers in training actually arrived at the Pyramid well before the “lost convoy” and before it opens at 7AM.

Note: The 7AM opening time is yet another bunching technique used by the show producers to hinder the progress of teams with a time advantage. Ken / Gerald arrived at the Pyramid well before Team Heave. All teams that arrive “early” must wait until the gates open at 7AM to start on climbing the pyramid. In all, six teams wind up dead even after an overnight drive.

The teams get later starts corresponding to their later arrivals to the Pit Stop in leg #1. Andre / Damon were penalized 78 minutes for not following the correct Donkey cart course on leg #1. Since they also ran a red light earlier in the same leg, I am quite surprised that they did not receive a significant penalty for breaking the law considering that one of them is a COP. They are hereby christened Team Bad Boyz.

The last team to leave base camp was Tramel / Talicia at 4:30AM. They have a lot of time to make up however, they have quite a few teams having map and driving problems this early Mexican morning.

At the pyramid, Ken / Gerald makes a wonderful observation that John / Jill are climbing like Ramabo / Rambette. With some liberties, they should be hereby known as Team John Rambette. The next destination is Cancun, Mexico by a 24-hour bus ride.

By the time Teri / Ian and others arrive at the Pyramid of the Sun, the heat is beating down on the teams in the back of the pack. On the way down, the Bad Boyz taunt the old couple as they face the daunting task of climbing up the pyramid. Karma catches up with Team Bad Boyz as they miss the first bus. Later, the second bus is involved in an accident pushing them farther behind.

Not to forget, Team Zoolander has elected to save their glamorous selves from last place by taking the Fast Forward. For this leg, they must become a Valadores (a Mexican Human Yo-yo) and twirl around a 100’ tall pole. If you are observant, you may notice that not a hair was out of place during the entire harrowing experience. Since they ARE Team Zoolander, they make it to the bus station just in time to board bus #2 and are involved in all the bus accident festivities. I was surprised if they would actually arrive to the Pit Stop first because the first bus arrived in Cancun before they did. The thought of coming in second after using a Fast Forward could not happen to a better bunch of dimwitted pretty boys.

Once the teams were in Cancun, they needed to find a marina and face the following Detour: Wave-runner or Kayak.

While riding in a cab to the marina, the tropical climate has a strange influence on Aaron / Arianne (now Team Playboy – continue reading). Before you can say “Hugh Heffner”, Arianne removed her once skimpy top and shouted “Girl gone wild!” I emphasize that I am not making this up and this not something clipped from a MTV Spring break video but real live top-three broadcast prime-time TV. Apparently, CBS – the former Tiffany Network – has much in common with the former singer now in many ways…

Ken / Gerald and Michael / Kathy were they only teams to choose the kayaks. Ken / Gerald spent most of their time looking for the “really fat man” life preservers while the youngsters took off in the wave-runners. Later, Teri / Ian wiped out really nicely (good style points) on their wave-runner but the grand champions of wipeouts goes to Tramel / Talicia. They fell off at least three different times and spent a good deal of time trying to get back on the wave runner.

After finding the destination clue at the Detour, all of the teams headed over to a Roadblock task called as a “Dolphin swim” (I don’t what else to describe it) and find the final clue at the bottom of a shallow beach. One person per team has to complete the task and they cannot switch persons mid-task if they are not able to complete it. Everyone is able to find the clue but some are more able to swim and dive than others. Zach “forgets” he cannot swim. What a dork.

Everyone makes the last dash to the cabañas outside Cancun and in the end, Tramel / Talicia arrive last – still dripping wet from their wave-runner misadventures.

Next week: Think driving a Mexican van was difficult – try driving a Tank.

Tune in next Wednesday at 9PM EST

Race ON!

jriemer

10/14/02

Amazing Race Freepers,

Well so far, my predictions have not really panned out too well. I picked Team Soccer Moms to be first to be eliminated however since then, I’ve been a dry well. On the second leg, I thought that Team Zoolander was going to be eliminated but NO! they won the silly leg.

These recent set backs are not going to stop me from publishing my predictions for the TAR #3 third leg. One of the following teams will be eliminated Wednesday at 9PM EST:

Derek / Drew (Team Zoolander)

Andre / Damon (Team Bad Boyz)

Teri / Ian

One of the following teams will win the leg:

Michael / Kathy

Flo / Zach

John / Jill

I am basing my predictions on my own mad rantings and the fact that Team Zoolander's pretty-boy methods won’t work with only five minutes of sleep after an intercontinental flight and Team Bad Boyz cannot follow instructions to save their lives. If I were to pick the strongest “winner” pick it would be Michael / Kathy because they have to fly cross-country every time they want to see each other in person. They probably know how the airport / airline system works really well by now because they’re “motivated”.

Please no betting,

jriemer

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