'The Amazing Race' on CBS HD - Page 30

Really enjoyed the final roadblock. There have been many seasons recently with a final roadblock that wasn't much of a challenge. This was excellent.

Yeah, it was good that they showed the elapsed time. Like the farmer said, it was a math/puzzle challenge. Once the two easy ones were out of the way it was a matter of trying combinations and carefully keeping track of tried combinations.

Agreed. Plus, the fact that the racers almost never even notice the greeter adds in more difficulty. Well played, TAR. Well, played.

And what did you guys think of the speedbump? That poor woman! Looked like she passed them just so she wouldn't have to get another knee to the back.

My wife and I could not believe they won. After their pizza delivery error I had all but given it to Trey and Lexi. After the "twinies" were eliminated in France, I would have been happy with any of the 3 remaining teams winning.

Is this the first time that the winners only won the final leg?

One of the best last road blocks yet! I thought the one from last year or two years ago where they had to make something with an object from all cities was good too, but this one was better. I am ok with Beekman's winning.. was kind of rooting for the chips, but as long as it wasnt twinnies.. its all good

man, what a great show!

IMHO the last leg needs to be in a neutral location. None of this hometown crap anymore. They have done it way too many times, it may not be a given that someone will will cause of that, but it can be an advantage.

Well, my least favorite team managed to pull quite an upset, so kudos to the Beekmans .. they don't need the money but, hey, they won fair and square ..

Trey should have done the final challenge .. when you lose focus on a thing like that, you're toast .. I was hoping the Chips would pull it off .. they seemed like a couple of truly nice guys and a good portion of the money would have gone to help a Dad ..

See you next season .. this was a good one all around ..

And how do they go about doing this neutral location? The locations for the Race are probably determined before they select the teams. So they can't pick a team from the final location? And then there is the whole not even knowing who will be in the final leg. Having the locations predetermined makes it hard to even predict who will be in the final, so they don't do the home location advantage on purpose. And yesterday it had no effect on the outcome.

He couldn't do the final challenge. The clue clearly stated that the person that didn't do the straight jacket road block had to do the flag challenge.

So, select a location, then make sure they don't choose a team from that area for that season. Shouldn't be that hard. They get people applying from all over the country.

Although I can't speak for anyone but myself, I have lived in several different parts of the Country and have extensively visited others over the years, especially where I have relatives .. I don't think there is much of a way to insure any sort of truly neutral location ..

Well people that do travel quite a bit can have an advantage so nothing wrong with that. I know if I was on the show and it was going to end up in So Cal, and I was in the finals I would have an advantage. I still think they could do something that could eliminate that kind of thing happening. Outside of my state, other than Las Vegas, I would not have an advantage, I do not travel much at all. Other than Mexico, I haven't even been out of the U.S.

Overall, it was a very good season. I don't think I ever remember a team so consistently lagging that far behind throughout and then coming back to win. They weren't my pick, but they certainly deserved it with that great finish.
Edited by BoilerJim - 12/10/12 at 2:40pm

The way to make it as neutral as possible is to have challenges that aren't location dependent for the final leg. So, they should not have challenges like recognizing Coney Island and delivering pizzas and knowing the names of local landmarks (like Lombardi's Pizza) and they should make the navigating as simple as possible to minimize any home turf advantage. And they should have more challenges like the straight jacket and the greetings challenge.

Ironically, the Beekman's NY home turf advantage didn't help them at all.

BTW, I'm wondering if they banned the use of travel guides and phrase books that the teams tend to purchase along the way on the final challenge. I was expecting the teams to pull out a couple of phrase books and knock out a few of the countries. But no one seemed to use any phrase books or notes of any kind.

I think what you're saying is a good idea .. and it seems like with each season, the use of smart phones increases as well .. but, by the very nature of the game, I think locations are fairly important even to the final leg .. I don't know how they could get rid of hunting down a location other than set up one area for the last leg that is nothing but challenges and have all teams be there at the same time .. which kinda defeats the idea of the game ..

Actually there have been a number of races where one of the teams was local to the area and they totally choked. So I don't think thats a big deal.

I felt the teaming of the final teams reminded me of survivor where they calculated who they wanted in the final four and was a clear attempt to eliminate stronger competition. I would imagine they looked at the Beekmans and said there nice and not a threat so lets make sure they come along.
After all these years they have to continually tweak things or its going to get repetitive.

I remember when our college professors forbid calculators during exams. At a certain point they realized that is how the world is going and let them in and changed the nature of the exams. TAR will need to start doing that as well. Right now they say you can't have a phone or a Nav system but you can ask somebody else.

The other thing that is interesting is in first few years they could not tell anybody they were in a race. Now its the first things out of their mouths even in NYC where everybody has seen the show. I am amazed they can keep things secret.

So glad the twims got eliminated. After that, I didn't care who won. They were so racist I couldn't beleive some of their comments.

I think we found a challenge that topped the ice cream eating challenge as the hardest one in race history. Put your foot under a bumper to open the door. AMAZING!

I loved the Twins it is a shame they didn't make the final, but they had to have the best exit interview I have seen in awhile. The Beakmans hung in there when a lot of teams would have given up. They certainly weren't my favorite teams, but whether it was sheer luck or determination they pulled it out. I can see the twins or the Chips coming back in a few seasons. I still amazed at how much co-operation there was this season.

Oh yes, I called this LONG ago.

We both know it was product placement tweak in exchange for giving away TWO cars. In my opinion its not too bad as compared to seasons of survivor where they display soda or chips prominently.

It definitely was pretty bad. But, in the DVR era, I think we'll just have to live with that stuff. As long as I can fast forward the actual commercials, I can accept this kind of thing at it's current levels.

Shark Tank has a ridiculous T-Mobile "commercial" in every episode lately as well. They really force it in and it's pretty ugly.

If advertising keeps the show going, I'm fine with it. I just don't like the editing. "Dude, if we win this, I'm totally buying my mom a car like this one." Way to tell us who wins, and what the prize is.

The foot lift gate thing is quite a gimmick, but could come in handy for those 1% of times both hands are full and I don't want to drop whatever super heavy object I'm carrying. Then again, if that's the case, I'm lifting it with a buddy or using a truck.

Though if I'm looking to mug someone, all I have to do is drag them to their car and kick under the bumper. Added bonus!

At least they ended up with a use for the crates. I was expecting them to just forget about them and not even use them.

I'd say it was better integrated than the Ford Focus "ZOMG PARALLEL PARK!" task.

The best Ford product placement was the Mustang proving ground in Germany. Too bad the snowboarders didn't keep their customized mustangs!

Actually I just bought a Ford CMAX which also has this feature. I used the kick thing this last weekend with my hands full with two groceries bags. Had it been raining it would have been even better.
It was not a deciding factor but it is kind of fun. Ask me in 6 months.

I thought one of the Chips was going to give his Mom the car if he won it .. ??

Maybe that's what they said. Either way, talk about obvious

Maybe I'm missing something here, but the Chips DID win the next to last leg of the race and they EACH won a new Ford Escape. The one Chip (James or Jaymes) specifically said he was giving his car to his mom. Guess I don't understand the controversy.

Same here.

No controversy. I had stated how the editing made it obvious who was going to win that leg.

mkdragn corrected my quote from the show.

Tell us how much you like it when it breaks and you can't get the hatch open by any means and it ends up cost several thousand dollars to fix.

[Sorry, but I'm a Luddite when it comes to these types of frou-frou features on cars. They inevitable fail at the worse possible moment, cost ridiculous amounts of money to fix and your interior panels are never the same as new after they rip them out of the car in order to do the repair. OTOH, electronic fuel injection and O2 and mass-air sensors, which enable closed-loop control of the engine are well worth the extra expense and complications over carburated engines.]

I'm pretty sure the hatch still has a mechanical latch ..

Now, the ommision these days of all but the drivers door keyhole is a travesty ..