Welcome to Pure Amazing Race

I know how people love The Amazing Race 14 spoilers. Luckily, I don’t think this post will ruin the entertainment of who actually wins. It’s just neat to learn about the process of filming and running the Amazing Race.

So, here’s a really good writeup from someone spotting The Amazing Race 14 in Bucharest:

Yes, ROMANIA! Was at the arrivals area at the airport in Bucharest last night, at about 12:45am, waiting for a friend to come through baggage claim. Suddenly a man with a large videocamera appeared out of nowhere and stood waiting in front of the crowd at the automatic doors. I wondered if it would be someone important, but figured just a local soccer celebrity or something. A few seconds later an Asian couple with backpacks came running through the doors. They seemed to be looking for something and very rushed, and the cameraman followed them as they ran behind me and out the doors to the outside world. My very first thought was AMAZING RACE?!?! And then when I heard them talking to each other in English as they passed, with American accents, I thought it was an even greater chance it had been AR . . . but sadly, I’d never know the truth.

Or would I?!? Few minutes later two girls, looked to be in their 20s, came running out shouting at the crowd asking where the taxis were. Then suddenly they both stopped, looked around very confused-like like they were looking for someone, then stood off to the side a bit, literally about two feet from me. I noticed right away that they both had little yellow and red-striped markers on them, so I was getting even more convinced this was AR. Then while they were waiting, one of them took out an envelope and pulled out of it a blue pamphlet-sized type thing that had the AR symbol on the front, consulted it really quickly, then tucked it away. Now I’m 100% convinced it’s AR!! All of a sudden there was a huge flurry of activity as their camerman came running up (apparently that’s what the two girls had been waiting for), and then I saw at least two other teams and their camera crews come running through the doors - one was two slightly older African American ladies, and another was two rather short men. All four of them also had the yellow and red markers on their person (some were on fanny packs), and were being chased by cameras as they frantically ran for the taxis. I *think* there was another team arriving a little further down, but I couldn’t get a good look in all the excitement. Then last but not least, a very frantic-looking cameraman and sound man ran out in the clearing outside the automatic doors, apparently having lost their team for the moment, and paused scanning the crowd for a good minute or two. Then they took off, so presumably spotted them. Phew.

It gets better. About a half hour later my friend finally came through the double-doors from baggage claim. I was giddy with excitment to tell her about my AR spotting, and her response? “So THAT’S who they were!!” Apparently they were on her flight from Munich! At least some of them were. She was sitting right next to one of the contestants, my friend said she was a Kelly Ripa lookalike. This contestant had another friend sitting up a few rows, who she kept referring to as Chrissy. My friend said they made small talk throughout the flight, and the lady had said she and her friend were making a travel documentary, going to places off the beaten path like Romania to try and generate interest for tourists to go to those countries. So THAT’S their cover! The lady also told the flight attendant that she and her friend Chrissy are Southwest Airlines flight attendants back home. She was also asking a Romanian passenger on the other side of her for advice, my friend didn’t catch all of it but did hear them talking about the train station (how to get there, safety, etc). My friend said after the fact, knowing it was an AR team, a lot of the lady’s mysterious behavior now made sense: Spending half an hour putting on makeup before they landed (after midnight?!?), asking the flight attendant for an extra sandwich (Chrissy had told her they might need it tomorrow!), etc. My friend said that by the time the plane was ready to deboard, the Kelly Ripa lookalike and her friend Chrissy (and their telltale backpacks) had already worked themselves up to the front of the plane to deboard. She said she also had noticed one other team of two girls with backpacks and camera crews, which I suspect *may* have been the pair I saw stalled outside baggage claim, but not sure.

Soooo, long and short of it: At least two teams were for sure spotted by my friend on the flight from Munich to Bucharest; I spotted at least four teams coming thru baggage claim at about that time, one of which might have overlapped with the ones my friend spotted. They were heading for taxis, so not sure if that means a task in Bucharest, or if they were taxing to the train station to venture elsewhere in the country. Making it at least five or six teams here in Romania today! How exciting!! I live not far from Dracula’s Castle, which I’d suspect will be one of their stops, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for any more sightings!

Sorry for the ramble, but I’ve been a huge AR fan since Season 1, Episode 1, and all this time I’ve been really pulling for them to come to Romania - what are the odds I’d see them arriving at the airport here, especially at 12:45am on a Wednesday?!? Can’t wait for this season to air!!

I loved how they talked about how the racers tried to cover up that they were on The Amazing Race. Pretty cool stuff.

Also, one last TAR 14 spoiler: tar 14 started in los alamitos, california at the military base 100% correct my friends dad works at the military base

Source

There won’t be any real recap this week - I’m just going to post my thoughts on the happenings of the episode. I wasn’t able to watch the show on Sunday night this week, so I just watched it online on CBS.com. However, I already read a recap on Too Much Free Time, so I knew who was eliminated as I watched.

I think I need to do this every week; it was delicious watching how bitchy Christy & Kelly were being towards everyone knowing they were going to be eliminated at the end of the leg. Playing “Would You Rather” with Team Dandrew as the subject was pretty mean.

Nick & Starr were great sports on the Roadblock after getting pelted with paint. My respect for them has risen a great deal since the first few weeks. I also loved how Starr kept her cool as she looked for the clue. Dallas did the same, which wasn’t surprising.

Then there was Kelly. Let me just say this: “Ha!” Oh and, “Ha ha ha ha ha!” Man, those girls are dumb as rocks. I think they must have set some kind of Amazing Race record as the team who didn’t read the clue the most.

Terence got through the task without much drama and I thought maybe he had turned a new leaf. But, no. Turns out he was saving all his drama for his mama. The taxi ride to the next stop must have been torturous for Sarah.

Tina’s actions at the Roadblock kind of sucked - pushing the guys out of the way and yelling. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have reacted similarly, though.

Getting the clue for the Detour barefoot - why??? That was nasty.

No matter - CBS made up for the bare feet in the bird hospital by giving us ample shots of “The Package”. Atonement!

The Detour was a trip. Once again, Kelly & Christy and Team Dandrew put their idiocy on full display. Luckily for Dandrew, Ken & Tina told them how to complete the task just as Kelly & Christy figured it out on their own. Derrrr.

Next week - Team Dandrew have to be eliminated, right? These two gave Kelly & Christy a serious run for their money with the stupid.

I had a feeling this week of The Amazing Race wouldn’t have a lot of action in it when they spent so much time showing the teams leaving the Pit Stop and getting to the airport - and I was right.

The teams started out in Cambodia and had to travel to Delhi, India. At the airport we learned that Dallas aka The Heat Miser and Starr are crushing on each other. I wonder if the producers hoped for this when they cast the show; if they got together, they’d be team Dallas Starr. Something to look forward to in a future All-Star season, I guess. As if seeing them in their matching headbands this season wasn’t enough.

We also learned that Tina is one bossy woman. By the end of tonight’s episode I got a very clear sense of why Ken cheated on her. He probably was looking for someone who believed in him more and who didn’t constantly question his decisions. It has got to be frustrating going through life like that.

All teams took the same flight to Delhi, so they were all on equal footing heading to the Roadblock. A combination of bad luck, bad taxi drivers, and bad decisions prevented all teams from getting to the Roadblock at the same time, however. I wonder what the deal was with the taxi drivers in India. Do they suck as a rule? Or did they crack under the pressure of having a camera crew riding along with them? Or perhaps they don’t like Americans and got lost on purpose.

At the Roadblock, one “artistic” team member had to paint a tuk-tuk half green to indicate their green status. This task ended up being a lot harder than it seemed and it took teams a long time to complete. Here we saw Terence show his true colors as he did nothing but nag Sarah the entire time. “I need you to go fast here.” You do?? Really? I wonder if the other teams need to go fast here, too? The amount of control Sarah has is incredible; I would have lost it on him I think. And guess who was doing pretty much the same thing to her partner? Tina! She and Terence need to get together. That relationship would be a Deadmatch worth watching.

Team Dandrew pulled out a surprising first-place finish at the Roadblock. Could there be hope for them yet?

At the Detour, teams had to choose between “Launder Money” and “Launder Clothes”. The “Money” task seemed pretty complicated when Phil explained it, but that didn’t stop me from laughing out loud at Kelly & Christy when they declared they were choosing “Launder Clothes” because they “didn’t want to get confused by money”. Basically, the teams had to put certain denominations of Indian rupees around a necklace, ensuring the total was correct, and then wade through an Indian wedding to present the rupee-laden necklace to a groom. Terence & Sarah and Ken & Tina both chose this task.

The clothes laundering task was more straight-forward. Teams had to iron 20 articles of clothing with coal-powered irons provided to them. Nick & Starr continued to dominate the game and showed off their mad clothes-ironing skills. Kelly & Christy and Toni & Dallas also did well here. Team Dandrew, on the other hand, really faltered here. They were both such big babies and were incredibly rude to the Indian woman who was judging whether or not they ironed an article of clothing well enough. I’m ready for them to get off of my TV screen now.

Alas, I’ll have to see Team Dandrew at least one more week. Here’s the finish order for this leg of the race:

1. Nick & Starr - who won a pair of electric cars
2. Kelly & Christy
3. Toni & Dallas
4. Terence & Sarah
5. Andrew & Dan
6. Ken & Tina

Tonight was the first non-elimination leg of the race, so Ken & Tina did not get eliminated. Instead, they will have a Speed Bump on the next leg - a task only they will have to complete in addition to all the other tasks. I felt so bad for Ken during their team interview at the end. You can tell he loves Tina so much and is struggling with his decision about what to do regarding their marriage when this race is over. Unless Tina changes her nasty, domineering ways, I don’t have a lot of hope for them.

Comedy Central has been doing a really fun spoof on all reality tv shows by doing their own reality TV show where comedians do spoofs of the other reality tv shows. Lost yet?

Basically, Comedy Central is doing a parody of various reality tv shows and The Amazing Race is one of them. However, it’s not called The Amazing Race. Instead, it’s called The Amazing Disgrace. Check out the video:

Here’s the second part of the show which is even funnier:

Dear Amazing Race and CBS,
I can’t wait!!

Ok, I can, but this wait is just killing me. CBS and Amazing Race should never do this to us again. I love this show far too much to have to wait for it to come on TV. Did you hear me Amazing Race? Don’t keep your adoring fans waiting.

Yes, I understand that you’ve been on for 12 seasons and that this is the Amazing Race 13. That doesn’t mean you should deprive us any longer of our travels around the world.

I’m not sure you realize this, but let me let you in on a little secret my dear Amazing Race. Are you listening? Good. The secret is that for most of us watching the Amazing Race that’s as close as we’re going to come to racing around the world. Sure, we might travel to Italy once in our life or we might just happen to make it to Japan at some point, but most of us won’t be able to race around the world.

Plus, even if we did get to go to those places, we don’t get to do nearly as cool things as you get to do. Seriously, do you think that if I went to New Zealand that I’d be able to roll down a beautiful green hill in a mouse ball (or whatever that orb thing was called). What about sledging in New Zealand? Nope, my guess is I wouldn’t be doing that either as much as I’d like to in the very depths of my heart. By the way, New Zealand’s orb and sledging (I hope that’s the name) are still probably my 2 favorite activities on any adventure of the Amazing Race.

I know I’ve waited this long for Amazing Race 13 and it’s only one month and 10 days until the season premier of Amazing Race, but I’m tired of waiting. Since I know you can’t change that date. I’ll settle for this. Never make your adoring Amazing Race fans wait this long ever again.

Thanks Amazing Race. We love you!

With the season 13 debut of CBS’ The Amazing Race looming just around the corner (okay, Sept. 28), exec producer Bertram Van Munster slipped us a few clues about the upcoming globetrot.

• The race takes 23 days, covers nearly 40,000 miles, spans five continents, and features some far-flung locales never before seen on the show, including Angkor Wat, Cambodia and La Paz, Bolivia.

• The youngest team is a tandem of two guys in their early 20s. “They’re made for television,” Van Munster says. “They’re supersmart — and they make terrible mistakes.” A pair of recent divorcees in their late 20s also vie for the million-dollar prize. “They were left with some financial debt, so they really have a motive to run around the world,” he says. And once again, expect a serving of granola — this time with a husband-wife squad of 60-something Oregon hippies. “They’re the real thing,” says Van Munster. “They come right out of the ’60s. To a lot of people, it looks almost like they’re from a different planet.”

• As for the challenges, “We’ve really outdone ourselves in the department of outrageousness,” Van Munster declares. “We have a situation in Bolivia where we have the [contestants] go down a cobblestone hill on very, very primitive bikes, and it’s just the most hilarious thing you’ve ever seen in your life. It’s a truly bone-jarring experience.” (Another must-see detour: A by-train-or-by-bus scavenger hunt in Moscow. )

• One familiar thing actually did happen on this race: The producers didn’t predict the winner. Says Van Munster, “We’ve been wrong every time, across the board.”

by Dan Snierson

We’re just under 47 days until the premier of The Amazing Race 13. I know I can’t wait. It’s been much too long of a wait since season 12 of TAR. Here’s a few notes about TAR 13.

They started filming the 13th season of Amazing Race on April 22nd. And 6 different teams have been spotted. Filming was still going as of May 14, 2008. It is suspected that May 14, 2008 was the final day of filming, as the teams were seen back in the U.S.A.

CBS has also announced that The Amazing Race will be part of their new CBS HD Gallery at CBS.com where video from the new season will be presented in high definition online. Now they just need to offer the embedded video option so we can embed TAR episodes on Pure Amazing Race.

Here’s an Amazing Race (TAR) spoiler about the next season from the Toronto Star newspaper. It’s about one of the legs on the race (maybe the penultimate leg). There’s also a video showing one team running to the mat. I’m only going to post the link to the article because it is a bit long: The Amazing Race investigation
Note: The leg was not anywhere near Toronto, just in case anyone thinks that I’ve spoiled a location by mentioning the newspaper.

Welcome to the Pure Amazing Race Blog! This is the beginning of documenting the greatest reality tv show on television (at least the Emmy’s agree) Amazing Race.

Amazing Race travels to so many wonderful places that it only seemed fitting to document the Amazing Race travels in one place and be able to discuss the various locales that the Amazing Race visits. Plus, it’s always fun to banter about which Amazing Race contestants are your favorites.

We’ve already gotten some information about who’s going to be on the next season of Amazing Race and we’ll be posting it soon.

Pure Amazing Race is part of the Pure TV Network.